Mazdeuce - Seth does One Lap 2019

It's early to start a One Lap thread. The event is half a year away, no route mentioned, no dates two teams entered on the web site. That's ok, we know we're going and this year we're going to be ready much earlier. Really. 
We left off last year finishing second in Economy by way of me tapping a tire wall at Gateway Race Park. Without that little incident we would have had enough points to finish first, and the car wouldn't be all wrinkly. Step one is to make the car a bit more presentable in a way that preserves money for fast car bits. 

We pulled apart the trunk and were able to push out the dents in the rear 1/4 fairly well. From there we went to the front pulled the car apart to get at the front fender. 

We're no PDR guys, but between the stickers and the paint damage the remaining dents aren't too bad. 

We also stitched up the crack in the bumper. A new bumper and hood will be coming before the event, but we're going to keep these around while be build splitters and stuff. Better to practice drilling holes in this one. 

While we had the front off we replaced a couple of 0-rings in the AC that we didn't get a chance to in our haste when changing out the condenser last year after the bump. The AC wasn't working right last year from the beginning, even before the new parts and it was time to diagnose it. We vacuumed it, let it sit to see that it was holding pressure, then gave it a charge. 

With gauges on it we could see that the high side was too high and was tripping the high pressure switch. The most likely suspect for that is a bad evaporator core (unless any of you think differently) but we couldn't find one in stock anywhere and decide to leave it for the next time. Since my co-driver lives four miles from COTA we dropped by there to watch the end of the NASA weekend and get asked to please not climb the tower any more because the rope at the bottom actually means something. 

The races were fun, we saw a Honda Challenge race for the first time, they don't usually have enough cars to run them in the Texas region. 

From here I've got some track time in the Accord and generally getting that read to be a backup if required. We need more front brakes on the Civic, a splitter and the car owner keeps mumbling about more power, so we'll see where that goes. This thread is just to sort of document the prep that goes into a single event that is a week long. Some teams do less, some more, but we all end up in South Bend come spring. 

Very cool. Hope to see you in South Bend next year. That's the back of the napkin plan right now. I was hoping to enter my Audi S4, The Barbed Wire Special, in the $2018 Challenge, then do another build and run it in One Lap. The Spousal Unit's vacation schedule has scrubbed the Challenge so I'm planning for next year...

Do you have a roll cage installed? Do you have any idea how many cars are running them?

Ok I'll bite ....my mouth is jacked up from the ongoing bridge debacle  why not a OLOA ???? he asked. 

In reply to rdcyclist :

We have a bolt in Autopower bar. Our informal survey last year had about half of the competitors with some sort of half or full roll protection. I think a big part of that is the acknowledgment that HNRs are important and a harness and roll protection are needed for them to work properly. 

I've personally set a limit of about 120mph top speed on the tracks I run without a roll bar and harness. It's admittedly arbitrary, but that's where my comfort is. We added the roll bar last year knowing that we had to have it before I was comfortable increasing speed. I'm paying for bigger brakes for the same reason. Co-driver makes us faster, I make us safer. 

I figured this post would pop up at the end of last years' adventure thread.  I guess, though, that it make sense for it to pop up at the beginning of this years'.  Continue on.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

You can buy the Simpson Hybrid S that works with the factory 3 point belts.  My amateur opinion is that its much better than no head and neck restraint but obviously you're still more safe with a rollbar/cage in case of a big off.

I plan on selling my HANS to get one of the Simpson units as I don't have a rollbar in my 911 and have no plans to add one.  The Simpson also works with 6 point belts and rollbars/cages so it'll be fine going forward if I do end up in another car with all that safety equipment. 

In reply to docwyte :

I have the older Simpson R3 that has the carbon blade the goes down your back and buckles in front. I spend a LOT of time encouraging people to get one of the newer Simpson HNR's if they go on track for any reason and they don't have harnesses and I won't go out in a track car at all without wearing mine. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to rdcyclist :

I've personally set a limit of about 120mph top speed on the tracks I run without a roll bar and harness. It's admittedly arbitrary, but that's where my comfort is. We added the roll bar last year knowing that we had to have it before I was comfortable increasing speed. I'm paying for bigger brakes for the same reason. Co-driver makes us faster, I make us safer. 

Exactly. My S4 should be capable of better than 160 on a long straight and a 4 second zero to sixty. While the top speed is impressive, the thing that's going to cause the most heartburn on the track is the ability to get to higher speed in corners. Having a moment in a high speed corner is where the cage comes into play. Thanks for reply.

In reply to rdcyclist :

You need to worry far more about slowing down from 160mph than anything else.  I ran One Lap in 2007 in my Stage 3 B5 S4 Avant.  I had to bleed the brakes after every single day and the fluid came out looking like Coca Cola.  This was with Stoptech 332mm front brakes too...

In reply to docwyte :

Wow, I'm building a B5S4 for next year. Got pitchers? How'd you do? Still have the car? Did you run a cage? E36 M3, I've got a ton of questions...

I was planning on 18z Brembos at the very least. The Stoptechs are supposed to be pretty good brakes and I'm not sure the Brembos are any better. There was someone on Audizine selling a really high end set of brakes but the entire system is going to run 6k and if I'm going to spend 30k building this car, I might as well run a C5 Z06...

rdcyclist said:

In reply to docwyte :

Wow, I'm building a B5S4 for next year. Got pitchers? How'd you do? Still have the car? Did you run a cage? E36 M3, I've got a ton of questions...

I was planning on 18z Brembos at the very least. The Stoptechs are supposed to be pretty good brakes and I'm not sure the Brembos are any better. There was someone on Audizine selling a really high end set of brakes but the entire system is going to run 6k and if I'm going to spend 30k building this car, I might as well run a C5 Z06...

I can answer that question with this link (search for "S4 Avant")... and you can peruse around all the possible answers to that question (other than the direct "how did 'doc' feel like they did")

Brakes are always an issue. Docwyte knows much more about this car than I do, but I've done the brake failure thing and I'm done with it. Stopping from 160 is a big deal. 

The best way to figure out if you have any issue is sign up for a track day on a proper big track. You'll find weaknesses and you can fix them. 

Everything in the posts above, ignore that. Focus on the Accord. The Accord is going on One Lap. 

Before I did One Lap in 2017 I talked with my co-driver. His dad does track days and is friends with Howard who is one of the legendary Lap Dogs. I told him that I wouldn't do One Lap with him until he asked his dad first. In 2017 his dad though we were mentally ill. In 2018 he thought we both spent too much time huffing exhaust fumes. This year he decided he wanted in. Instead of the Civic, Brian and his dad are going to do One Lap in his dad's Corvette. How cool is that? 

I have the Accord. I have some good friends. As of today is looks like Sleepyhead and spacecadet are going to hop in the Accord with me. That could change slightly depending on some other scheduling, but I have firm commitments that both of them are going to be in South Bend come the first day of One Lap. 

I've always said that the hardest part of One Lap is making sure you have a co-driver that will be there, that you can count on. I'm happy to have the friends that I do. 

I'm so jelly its not even funny. 

In reply to rdcyclist :

Don't have that many pictures anymore.  Had a few #20ish results but was fighting a brake issue.  Car did stop but the pedal gave me no confidence that it actually was going to stop if you know what I mean. 

Car got totalled in 2008, so sadly its been gone a long time.  I didn't run a cage, or a rollbar or anything.  I had 2 co drivers plus me, so we ran the full interior. 

You need MEGA brakes for a stage 3 S4 on track.  MEGA.  I wouldn't use anything smaller than a 355mm Stoptech kit ALL the way round and would run larger if possible...

C5 Z06 is a much better track car to be honest, obviously not as much room for stuff tho...

For whatever reason trying to email me/message me thru this site doesn't work, so I'll send you my email, that way you can ask me more questions...

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Brake cooling on the list for the big tracks?  Those fog light blanks look like prime real estate.

In reply to Ram50Ron :

That's the likely path. Ideally I'd build a splitter and pull air from the center right on top of the splitter, but I don't want to mess with the aero balance or engage in theoretical aero discussions with sleepyhead. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

You've got mail.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Ram50Ron :

That's the likely path. Ideally I'd build a splitter and pull air from the center right on top of the splitter, but I don't want to mess with the aero balance or engage in theoretical aero discussions with sleepyhead. 

splitter in the front, and 8 or 10deg diffuser in the back, and rear wheel spats... should provide pretty good balance, and help us get up over 90mph

although, the first thing, imho... is to load up the trunk with planned "gear" (250-300#s) then weight the rear seat and front pax seat with 200#s each, have you get in and have deucewife give us a side-on photo so we get an idea of how much the suspension's going to compress during transits.  We may end up using un-cut front springs in the rear, after all 

I have some ideas for the suspension of needed. Mostly it involves packing lighter.  Ordering stiffer springs is just a call to speedway away. Last weekend I carried all four steel wheels in the trunk along with a chair, scooter, and a non-pared down tool kit and things were good. If I can add two full size humans to that we'll be golden. I do predict that you'll want back into the luxury class after this year. 

The car NEEDS shocks and brake cooling. High on the optional list is a functional radio and some sort of seat heater (even if just a plug in one) for those of us on the team who are old. 

So when are you swapping in a TSX K24 for that extra 40hp? 

In reply to bobzilla :

I think it's cheaper to buy a whole J motored car and just swap the good bits over. Mine is an early K-motored car and doesn't have DBW or any of that stuff that happened on the later cars. A bunch of reading is leading me toward a V6 at some point though I am still happy that I started with a 4cyl car and it's no sunroof and general lightness. That's all in the future though. I don't really want to go that fast without a half cage and harnesses and that's not happening until I jettison a couple of kids. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

The car NEEDS shocks and brake cooling. High on the optional list is a functional radio and some sort of seat heater (even if just a plug in one) for those of us on the team who are old. un

boombox time (youtube)

Oh crap, and fuel starving. What to people know about installing Holley Hydramat in Honda fuel tanks?

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Oh crap, and fuel starving. What to people know about installing Holley Hydramat in Honda fuel tanks?

I never had that with the TL, and I've come off track with the light on multiple times... though, I suspect my corner speeds are below yours. 

edit:  I wonder if there's ant tank similarity/overlap?