Building a track car

[Cobra1956]

Loading up for the track shakedown on friday. Plan is to see what rubs as there will certainly be some. I am sure I will want to stiffen the front springs but since these coils are new and the rates are softer I will just see where I want to go with this. I think the oil issue is fine. WHen I pulled the car out of the trailer this morning prior to shutting it off I charged the sump and got just north of 65 pounds so there must be a heat element involved with the dme as well as the cold oil. This ready is in line with what I used to see cold so I am good with what I have.
I decided to plan ahead a bit and equipped each fender with a blue "notepad" thinking that the area below the tape is all subject to possible weight reduction. When I get to info the cuts will be made after we get a nice arc with a flexible batten or the like. I reached out to my buddy who had the tab for his fender to bumper cover and it would be fastened to the metal fender with nutserts and then attached to the bumper with fastener of choice. The nutsert/fastener on the fender prevents the tabs from falling in the event you need to take things apart and put them back in a bit of a rush.
Final touch before it want back in the trailer was to make sure everything is out of the car and I wanted to be able to adjust the mirrors so I took the switch panel and fit it into a pocket on the door and secured it with a tie. The front of the switch is being held by the oem clip. Car will stay at the track until I run next month but will post an epilog from the track as I am heading home to see the folks next week.

[Cobra1956]

Got home last night from a trip that started right from the track last friday. The track allows us to store car and trailer right there so it saved me a bunch of extra miles.

The track day was a few successes and few fails but nothing crazy.
I only ran as fast as 100 mph. Nothing rubbed but more importantly, nothing fell off. My sunroof delete panel was rock solid at 100 so my clips worked well. Rotors all cleaned up well and the rears will stay but the fronts have slight waves in them so they will be gone soon. Will switch over to a two piece up front. Belts are very nice but I think the seat need to be moved upright one more notch. I think this is due to the difference between the e36 and e82 floor pans but no big deal.

Had a few idiot moments. First was the additional gears. Usually in the wrong gear but since performance or speed were not the goals it was no big deal other than I sucked! I also forgot the sump! No, I remembered to turn it on but forgot to close it upon leaving the track. Since I already thought I might be overfilled dropping an additional quart and a half was surely needed. I restarted the car and filled the sump and it appears no issues......but I received the yellow warning light on the next run so I thought that this was the reason but it was evident later that it was not.

I checked for codes and there were a few ranging from no fan to boost and dct issues. Cleared them and went back out for two more stints and noticed that the light went on at higher rpms. Must be vanos. Did some reading on my trip and will pull the vanos solenoids and train back valves and clean them as that is simple to do. I also remember when I changed the oil thinking it was pretty black and that this might indicate that certain assurances were inaccurate. No worries as there's a new sheriff in town and I normally change oil multiple times per year on the track car. WIll check for boost leaks and I did see a few vids on the vacuum hose onto the boost cracking so that will be checked. Next run will be on the 14th and the same plan with just a few simple changes and then off to the garage for the rear end to be done.

Side note. When I started this I chose the inexpensive AST coils and their spring rate. I know my speed was lower than normal but I was impressed on how the springs worked as I expected to have rubbing somewhere but did not.
Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!

[Cobra1956]

Two days at the track next week and then a short break until mid January.The plan is to do a bit of work at the track and then off to a shop for stuff I don't want to play with when it's cold. (wimp). Need to address the check engine light I got last time out. I am going to replace the vanos solenoids and the drain back valves as that can be done when I get to the track. Aslo will swap out the front rotors for the new Brembo two piece ones I pick up from Rock Auto. Will also be switching to actual track pads since I am assuming what is in there is some cheap street pad. There does not seem to be a lot of choices for this car as I wanted to go to Hawk HT10's front and back. I like these pads and they are super gentle on the rotors. I got over 13,000 track miles on a set of Wilwood rotors with the Hawks and only switched rotors when I switched to a different pad up front for more bite, Wilwood Polymatrix H. Like this pad also.
This time out I am going to go with Carbotech pads. I have no experience with these but I have heard lots of good things so I will run the xp10 up front and the xp8 in the rear.
On the last car I made my own floor pans but that was about 12 years back and I am fatter and much lazier this time around so I bought a set of pans from Rise Fab as they are much nicer than anything I would have made. Since this car is only D/E use there will be passengers so there will be a pan with a full foot rest on the other side for them. Covers the hose for the sump, wires and the many grounds located up in the right corner of the car. Hopefully these will be done by next week so I can take them with to the track.

Winter project for me is to try to shead about 100 lbs from the car from the firewall forward. A/C out, different fan, and I am either going to make my own deadlight blanks or bust out the saw and hack the oems as they weigh a ton. For the start of the blanks I purchased a set of lenses off ebay ad will see what I can come up with to secure them to the original location on the car. A guy on the Corvette forum made some real nice ones out of carbon fiber. So it can be done at home, yeah right! Anyway thats the plan near term.