6 Hour Car Prep

[PanozDuke]

Kel,
Not to answer for Kevin. I drove mine testing & DE in the wet. It was not pouring, but varied from full wet to a dry line with wet patches. By far the biggest issue was the windshield. The inside fogged up solid as soon as I hit the wet track. I have the dual wiper system, but the inside wiper motor was inop. I ended up loosening my shoulder belts and wiping the inside with my gloved hands. This had some effect on my enthusiastic driving! I believe the big issue was the steam off the shorty headers and side exhausts. There is quite a bit of air coming into the cabin from the front wheel wells past the door hinge areas, right where the wheel spray is vaporized on the exhaust. I was so busy with the front view and trying to survive long enough to find the pits that I didn't pay much attention to the second big issue: seeing overtaking traffic. There isn't very good vision out the rear window and the fogging and spray did much to make it even worse. The side mirrors seemed to be useable, but marginal. Your huge blower looks like a good bet, but I would move the outlet to focus more directly in front of the driver. The GTS cars have a splash shield that extends from the engine fire wall outward to the front fenders. This definately helps with the direct wheel spray past the door hinge areas. Might help keep out some of the stream. I think those and an additional shield behind those and sealed to the side panel extension that serves as the front door jamb would be much more effective.

As far as the handling, I had the shocks full hard on the back and one click from full hard on the front. No rear bar and front bar on hard. I have the 550/350 springs. I was running about half used up school full treaded 17 inch Perilli's. I thought it was reasonablly predicable on a drying track with little rubber. I don't think it was fast (and neither am I). It seemed to me to be oversteering, especially corner off. I had to catch it several times and once it caught me instead. I would think a wet set up would include softening the rear shocks as a minimum. It tracked well through the wet and braked well. I was having fun and didn't consider it evil. I'm easily entertained, even at slow speeds with the Miatas passing me. With your horse power (mine is stock), the corner off is a much bigger issue in the wet than it was for me. I don't plan on any more wet tracking as the visibilty was just horrible.

Mike

[panozracing]

the blower will work! you might need two. We mounted them vertically blowing directly into the windshield without any ducting. Works fine. We drove for 2 days in the rain about 2+ hrs. of track time each day and the fog was cured. Rain-x in layers on the outside and the anti fog on the inside.

Personally I thought the cars with the right setup are amazing in the rain. It all comes down to setup. We brought a ALMS lead setup engineer with us and he did the setup and it was an eye opener. As long as the michelin rain tires stayed wet they are WAY better than any other tire. They are super sticky.

[Cobrafang]

I was thinking of using some ducting/piping like pvc or something with slots cut into it to function kinda like the defoggers on street carts and then pushing air into it with a blower and some ducting. Just a thought. Or maybe using a bigger pipe like a extension tube from a shop vac...cutting slots in it as well. I will let you know if I play with any of my crazy ideas.

Originally Posted by panozracing

the blower will work! you might need two. We mounted them vertically blowing directly into the windshield without any ducting. Works fine. We drove for 2 days in the rain about 2+ hrs. of track time each day and the fog was cured. Rain-x in layers on the outside and the anti fog on the inside.

Personally I thought the cars with the right setup are amazing in the rain. It all comes down to setup. We brought a ALMS lead setup engineer with us and he did the setup and it was an eye opener. As long as the michelin rain tires stayed wet they are WAY better than any other tire. They are super sticky.

[Cobra4B]

Ugh... yeah the fogging sucks. I almost missed my first session at Synergy last year because the entire inside was fogged up w/ condensation. Luckily the temps came up enought to clear it out in time. Good call on the rain-x and anti-fog. Might need to fab up a blower setup.

All of these "little" things make me appreciate tracking my Corvette... didn't have to worry about trailering in the rain or driving in the rain etc. Oh well... the Panoz is a blast and it's cheap fun.

[eric1h]

I solved the rain problem..... i just don't drive in the rain! :-D

[panozracing]

dont do the tube or hose with slits....tried that. you need a strong high pressure fan to get enough pressure out the slits....

Do exactly what kel did but mount it vertically shooting directly at the middle of the windshield. one in front of the driver (I mounted right to the sheetmetal dash cover in front of the wheel) and another on the passenger side if you care. I only did the drivers side. IT WORKS, its simple it easy...

[Gatorac]

How about removing the roof and winshield all together

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by Gatorac

How about removing the roof and winshield all together

and racing with one of those really cool leather flying helmets on by any chance...............!1??

[boothkc]

All the fun stuff in the dry (rear wheel vs AWD, high torque) make them a bit of a beast in the wet. Maybe to be expected but HP can be a big adversary in the wet. Always tempting to get too fast (maybe in the dry too) and not much room for error....smooth and consistant, like Jenson right??

So could you explain the cross over header in the picture (looks like a wrapped exhaust pipe behind the engine block in the picture). Common here on Nascar type (GTA etc) cars, but never seen one on a Pz what is the rational???

Kevin

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by boothkc

So could you explain the cross over header in the picture (looks like a wrapped exhaust pipe behind the engine block in the picture). Common here on Nascar type (GTA etc) cars, but never seen one on a Pz what is the rational???

Kevin

Kevin, thanks for the rain feedback.

Regards the headers, I have pulled the drivers bank across to the passenger side via a 3" collector across over the bellhousing as you have spotted.

Rationale for this is to pull the 2 x 3" collectors together in a tuned fashion and merge them into a single 4" pipe prior to entry into a 4" muffler. This set up provides far better tuning possibilities and boosted the torque of my car dramatically. In the lower RPM range the boost was as much as 20% over the std dual 2.5" pipe set up.

I have always merged my twin pipe V8 race cars in some way, normally prior to the mufflers. This was a little hard on the Panoz so we had to get more creative to get the result we were after.

Kel.

[Wess-RA]

Just don't do this http://vimeo.com/3454006

I was recently told by the west coast Panoz rep. that the tires I was using were the ones Panoz uses to transport the cars on. He said they never on race them; ever. I used them in a pinch as they were the spares that came with the car. Expensive mistake!
Couldn't be bad driving skills could it?

Same as Kevin I have the interior wiper. It works really well. I have the sheet-metal barrier inside before the doors, but the steam really blasts in when the headers get sprayed.

Kel, awesome work, as always.

Good luck!

[Cobra4B]

I removed my interior wiper setup... it was a joke... did't even wipe an area in my line of sight being 6'4".

[eric1h]

I removed ALL my wipers! i just don't drive in the rain! lol

a little rain-x on the outside of the window and who needs wipers? Rain sheds quite nicely at above 40mph

[Cobra4B]

Haha... I agree. I have kept the outside one, but FYI Rejex is even better than Rainex.