Tough Day at the Office in NZ 6 Hour Race

[NZGTRA17]

Well we started our campaign in this years 6 hour endurance race on a positive note by qualifying 5th in a faster field than last year. To put that in perspective we outqualified one of the 2 Porsche GT3's in the field and were only .1 of a second off the Ford GT's (700+hp) qualifying time.

The race started under the safety car due to torrential rain so we started on wets. Unfortunately our start driver inadvertantly drove the first lap with the fuel pump switched off so stopped on the track and couldnt work out the problem and had to be towed in. This put us a lap down from the get go.

The blows just kept raining down on us with 2 driver stop go penalties, some wheel changing issues, a fuel rig issue and finally at around 200 laps in, a clutch hydraulic problem.

We were pretty happy just to finish the race in the end and were somewhat surprised (given dropping around 21 laps through our misadventures) to finish 10th overall.

The good news is that the car is in one piece, had great pace and shows promise of being capable of winning the event at some stage in the future.

Will post a couple of pics when I get some time.

Added some photo's;

Whole field

Sharp end of the grid - 7 liter sedan, GT3's, Ford GT, Twin Turbo 964 and lots of asst'd turbo cars...........

Torrential rain leading up to the start so wet for first 50 laps............

Driver change

Shot of Canards - used to balance out front & rear downforce



Kel.

[Blue Streak 21]

Nice job Kel! As the old addage states, "To win you must first finish." And to be able to be running after 6 hours is quite a feat by itself. Nice to hear that you had the pace of the leaders, and I'm sure you'll improve the relability for next year. Thanks for sharing.

[boothkc]

Nice work. Endurance racing is so much fun, but so much more work and prep. We've run two 4hr races in our GTSs and it is much harder than a 20-30' SCCA race. So many things to go wrong and for such a long time, but great fun when you finish and beat out the faster (more high strung) cars.

[Panoz26]

Nice work Kel!!

[eric1h]

I always say... in order to finish first, first you have to finish... Nice run for the troubles you started with!

[PanozDuke]

Kel,
100% agree with earlier posts, great achievement to get it that fast and finish. The small stuff can be worked out now that you're in the ball park. What is your list of to do's based on the car's performance (not the misadventures)? What was the hydraulic clutch issue and what set up are you using?

Mike

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by PanozDuke

Kel,
What is your list of to do's based on the car's performance (not the misadventures)? What was the hydraulic clutch issue and what set up are you using? Mike

Mike, the to do list is something along the lines of;

- Improve frontal aeros with better nose cone/splitter,
- Add an undertray and diffuser,
- Fit 10" front and 11" rear rims for 275 / 315 DOT's,
- Find another 50 - 75hp & 30 - 50ftlbs of tq (363 or 375 cube with bigger heads?).

With the above we will have equal performance to the fastest cars (600 - 700hp sedans) and likes of the well driven GT3's.

The hydraulic clutch (Tilton master and slave set up) issue related to the pedal dropping away over an approx 25 lap period. Seemed to be due to fluid overheating or perhaps a leaky seal. Not losing fluid but full of air. This problem happened at around the 4.5 hour mark after an extended stop (fuel rig would not dump fuel), followed by a drive through, followed by a fuel stop. Could have overheated due to lack of airflow perhaps. To fix this we tried bleeding and in the end I pulled out the pedal stop. This gave us enough clutch to finish the race. One thing the Tremec does not like (well mine anyway), is down shifting with no clutch even if you rev match. Even with the clutch you need to rev match as with the light flywheel/tripple plate clutch, engine revs drop off very quickly making life tough on the synchro's.

Kel.

[PanozDuke]

Kel,
Good to know stuff. Tom (CobraFang) has gone to or is getting ready to go to a hydraulic set up and might need to think about that heat issue since he now has the Kelasaurus (or as he calls them the Kelzilla) header system. I am also really interested in your aero work. Keep us posted.

Mike

[PanozDuke]

Kel,
Good to know stuff. I think Tom (CobraFang) has either gone to or is getting ready to go to a hydraulic clutch and since he now has the Kelasaurus (or as he calls them the Kelzilla) headers might need to consider the heat problem. I'm very interested in your aero work. Keep us posted. Sorry for the double post, original took 15 minutes to process and show up.

Mike

[panozracing]

PanozDuke...PanozDuke....What up...what up.....

Great job Kel!

I used to run 10" FR and if you get wheels from CCW I will give you a great deal on the inner half of the 3pc rim. I have 16 inner halves on the shelf.

I have a Mcloed Hyd. throwout and have never had any issues....although my headers are further away then yours.

I also want to hear about front end aero mods....

Sounds like you are running a triple disc clutch with the TKO600 tranny (did you change bellhousing). I am sure my Mcloed will destroy itself again (cracking pressure plate housing on the pins) and I am not going to use it anymore. I want to switch to something lighter and smaller that is proven for road racing since the road racing mcloed is a POS (they tell me its not installed correctly but after 3 coming apart either its so hard to install or its a POS).

Can you fill me in on the conversion to a triple disc unit? Flywheel, Bellhousing etc....

Also, does nayone have a guess what RWHP I will gain going from a fidanza aluminum flywheel with a 10.5 Mcloed dual friction clutch to a triple tilton or something similar? I think the ST-1 rules (2010 lowered the weight penalties) will allow me another 15-20 RWHP....

[PanozDuke]

Brian,
Chinese cyber attack or I was drinking antifreeze

Mike

[Paul Buxe]

Brian
I wouldn't think you would not see any more HP with a lighter flywheel, just a faster engine responce, HP would still be the same. As we remember, HP is torque times RPM, so no change to torque or RPM so no change to HP. Maybe your rules will add some fake HP because of the light flywheel will make your car accelerate faster, but your steady state HP vs RPM curve should look the same.

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Paul Buxe

Brian
I wouldn't think you would not see any more HP with a lighter flywheel, just a faster engine responce, HP would still be the same. As we remember, HP is torque times RPM, so no change to torque or RPM so no change to HP. Maybe your rules will add some fake HP because of the light flywheel will make your car accelerate faster, but your steady state HP vs RPM curve should look the same.

Agreed.

If you measure on an inertia type dyno it will show more hp as this type of dyno measures time to accelerate a known mass. The lighter mass on the back of the engine will improve acceleration and show as a hp gain. If you measured on a load cell type dyno at a steady state rpm there would not be a change. On the track though, the car will be faster.

I took 30lbs of the rotating mass in my car and this is a change that really gets your attention when you get on the throttle......!!

[panozracing]

Well considering the NASA rules require a mustang dyno I think its an inertia type so I would see higher HP results. anyone know what most Mustang Dynos are? the website says they make both types.

can you fill me in on the conversion to a triple disc unit? Flywheel, Bellhousing etc....

[Gatorac]

While you may not gain any BHP, you will most definitely gain RWHP. The entire drive train takes power to accelerate. If you lower the mass of the rotating parts in the drive train, you decrease the power needed to accelerate them. That will increase the usable and measurable RWHP.