chilly summit point scca weekend

[pixelblue]

well folks kicked off the track season in what felt like arctic weather. our first session started with 36 deg temps. local 1er community were representing strong. Focus & GaryS showed up with their tricked out AW's sporting their bling RB rotors. also from the community, MDORPHIN was there with his sweet AW 1M. needless to say this wasn't the weather for r-comps which they felt as hard as a brick. couldn't get the tires above 120 deg and the MOT is 160 deg. didn't push the car too hard in the corners. I had very little confidence with their skidish grip. it was a great day to avoid galloping herds of dear, cars spinning out and basically blowing off the cob webs. this year I have added a procede tune with a ETS intercooler and the ER oil cooler. I increased my top speed from last year by 6 mph but I was coming into the straight 15 mph slower. not sure if that would translate into 20+ mph but the power is GREAT. I was hitting 6k rpm in 5th gear right before standing on the brakes for turn one. one cool feature for this tune is you can set a two stage shift alert. I can't say how useful this feature is. no more over revving or taking your eyes off the road. brakes performed flawlessly but I am sure no where near as Chris & Gary's brakes. comparing the race data to previous best showed I was braking harder and later. love harry's laptimer! Chris was charging hard and laying down some fast lap times. I am sure he will chime in and let us know he's impressions and videos. here is a video from the last session. some good action. backend came loose at 7:24 on T5. no grip. sorry about the audio. please mute the wind noise. I had rigged for external mic but forgot to turn on the mic

[Focusedintntions]

Need to get my my vids off the phone and uploaded to the pc get the HD...but here's a teaser lap from day 1. The GT3 with Rcomps and I on street tires ran dead even all the first day. Second day when things warmed up he finally left me but i had tons of fun trying catch him Enjoy the me getting on the throttle a lil to aggressive on the last turn lol. Woulda hit 1.27.xx if I didn't mess that up for sure!!!

[pixelblue]

Chris, you were carrying some speed through T10. very impressive time for street tires brother! btw, the pca event is not showing up on motorsportreg.com. can you let me know their registration page

[Focusedintntions]

Thanks Kori! I'm pretty sure I can come through there faster, but really don't want to risk it anymore than I do as they're isn't much room for a mistake.

Here's the link for the PCA event...

http://pcapotomac.org/index.php?opti...d=18&Itemid=38

[yandy]

Originally Posted by pixelblue

Nice! those are really cold temps for R-Comps, but you kept it under control. Does look like a fun track, though; What's up with the lane markers?

Originally Posted by Focusedintntions

Need to get my my vids off the phone and uploaded to the pc get the HD...but here's a teaser lap from day 1. The GT3 with Rcomps and I on street tires ran dead even all the first day. Second day when things warmed up he finally left me but i had tons of fun trying catch him Enjoy the me getting on the throttle a lil to aggressive on the last turn lol. Woulda hit 1.27.xx if I didn't mess that up for sure!!!

Nice driving! Those RB rotors look like they're performing really well.. gotta get myself a pair.

[GaryS]

It was great getting back on track after winter break. I love running with SCCA because their 5x20 minutes schedule is my favorite.

Unfortunately I had to cut it short after two sessions on Sunday due to brakes failing. The head instructor came over to tell Chris and me that the turn 1 flaggers were concerned about our rotors glowing bright orange and how late we were braking. We checked my brakes and they looked pretty bad. My caliper paint was turned yellowish. Brand new RB rotors are scored - not sure yet how badly. I was trying Hawk DTC30 pads in front and they were 3/4 gone after 7x20 minutes. My fluid was boiled over and pedal going close to the floor.

Well either DTC30 pads are incompatible with the RB rotors or the pads or rotors are in some way defective. I'll take it apart tomorrow and see how bad the rest is. I'll need new dust seals for sure, hoping I won't need new pistons or new rotor rings.

Anyway, I still had a ton of fun for 7 sessions and good to see Kori and Chris.

[pixelblue]

omg that's crazy! you guys were really working those brakes chris how bad does yours look?

[Focusedintntions]

I'm down a 1/3 of my dt70's in front, rears not sure but i'm taking everything out tonight. This was also my second weekend on the pads and I did 3.5 weeks of driving on the street with them. Rotors looked brand new for me other than some minor pad material build up around the edges of the holes. It was really surprising to see how bad gary's rotors are though. Something was off as we have similar setups and I was running the more aggressive pad and showed no ill wear on the rotor. One big difference I noted though is that the holes on gary's rotor got filled up with pad material while mine stayed open. I suspect that may have contributed more to gary's heat issues. Also I was runnign the 1mm TI shim while he just had stock backing plates.

[joeo]

Looks and sounds like you guys had a blast! Gary - I wonder if the 30 compound is too soft? The HT10s only lasted 2 track days on main - and I'm wondering if it's because they are soft?
Not sure. One thing is for sure - seeing glowing rotors during the daylight means those things were seriously HOT!

From what I've read so far, people with the DTC70's/60s are OK.

Love the videos Kori and Chris - nice driving! Love hearing the ABS come on before the corners - stand on those brakes!
Hope to see another 135i this coming weekend out there!

[yandy]

I concur on the DTC70/60 pair, I've had mine on EBC rotors (have to get a pair of RBs) and have done three weekends 4 days so far and both rotors and pads have plenty of life left.

[joeo]

Another thought on the brakes getting hot - perhaps the damage isn't done during the on-track time. It could be cooking the calipers after the car is brought in - especially if the cool down lap wasn't taken so cool.

Maybe a cool down lap with no brakes and then a drive around the padock area to keep air moving?

Gary - any news on the condition of your calipers?

[pixelblue]

Joe, I think the guys worked them brakes pretty hard but still should haven't failed as they did. I think Chris' rotors are cooked too. he was putting up some fast laps with street tires and you know those brakes were working hard.

[Focusedintntions]

Joe...my brakes are complete toast as the seals looked like little bits of bacon, the rotors are severely cracked and cannot be used again, and the rbf fluid boiled some as I now have a squishy pedal.

[GaryS]

Originally Posted by joeo

Another thought on the brakes getting hot - perhaps the damage isn't done during the on-track time. It could be cooking the calipers after the car is brought in - especially if the cool down lap wasn't taken so cool.

Maybe a cool down lap with no brakes and then a drive around the padock area to keep air moving?

Gary - any news on the condition of your calipers?

Not yet, probably later today. I left my car at a shop to get new fluid installed and their opinion on everything. They're also looking to see if they can cram in some ducting somewhere.

I'm pretty sure you're right that the DTC30 pads are too soft for the rotors and probably not heat resistant enough for SP Main. I don't know why I had to try different pads than everyone else.

I'm hoping I can save the rotor rings by cleaning them with DTC70 pads. But I'm also waiting to hear what Chris's mystery news is.

edit: Oh, I see what Chris's news is. Damn. Sorry Chris. Now I have no idea what to think.

[DriveHard]

Gary, Chris....

what do you have for backing plates ?? do you have them bent over or cut like Kori ?? just asking as i have recieved a left plate from the f30 to try out..

having run SP Main 3 times you guys must have been SMOKIN down the front straight and before 10.... Holy cow..

[GaryS]

My splash shields are cut and bent just like Kori's. Chris's splash shields are bent back similarly. I was using the OEM stainless steel backing plates, and Chris had 1mm titanium. We were both braking from 133-135 mph.

Joe said up above "seeing glowing rotors during the daylight means those things were seriously HOT". Agreed, but we've seen Neil's 1M rotors glowing bright orange too even between turns 4 and 5.

[Focusedintntions]

I'd say the 2 hardest zones for braking on that course are turn 1 and turn 5. Turn 1 b/c of the high speed....turn 5 b/c of highish speeds to the slowest corner while on a downhill. It's deceptively steep going into that corner.

[pixelblue]

Chris, I was checking your video for your breaking point for turn one and you didn't brake until the red cone. that's gutsy! was your abs coming on?

[DriveHard]

Originally Posted by pixelblue

Chris, I was checking your video for your breaking point for turn one and you didn't brake until the red cone. that's gutsy! was your abs coming on?

Hee hee.. LOL 132 @ the cone.. slight pause while you down shift ( maintained 120ish) then heavy decel to corner entry at 55ish..

thats burning off 80ish MPH in the distance from the cone to the corner...id guess thats less than 50yards ??? in a 3700lb car to boot

woooo Hooo... now thats hitting a corner hot and heavy..

But from looking back at the vid, its not like the car didnt want to turn or anything ugly... Maybe just simply asking too much of the set up we all have ???

I cant wait till my first day 4/14 limerock !!

[Focusedintntions]

Never felt any pedal pulse to indicate abs was on. Don't let the speeds on the vid trick you though as they're a bit behind b/c of the slow refresh rate of the gps on the phone. You can see my nose start to dive just before the cone. In any case they say shorter and harder is better for the brake right? Supposedly generates less heat. Occasionally you hear a tire making a bit of noise under braking but I was thinking it was just track surface. Don't think I had abs coming on. Always attributed the tire noises to the bumpiness of that track. At VIR it's quieter. Feel i'm pretty decent at threshold braking haha. I actually do my down shift towards the end of the braking zone to get the car ready to accelerate...don't really use engine braking.

[pixelblue]

I had my abs kick in a few times. you'll know when it's working. are you trail braking to the apex? I usually get off throttle around marker 5 and on brakes around 3-2 then I release and let my momentum take me to the apex

[GaryS]

Haha well I was braking one stripe before the cone at speeds up to 135, and lightly trail braking about one-third of the way to apex. I only braked at the cone or later in my first session when I wasn't going very fast yet.

I got my shop report. My caliper pistons are okay but of course the dust seals are gone. Whatever, that's standard 135i. They were already half melted before the weekend.

But the RacingBrake rotors are deeply scored and too dangerous to be used again according to the shop. There are no pad deposits on the rotors, so forget everything I said about blaming my choice of pads. The shop guys said they can't prove it but they think it's obvious that we got a bad batch of rotors.

Chris, have you talked to RacingBrakes? From what I've seen, he'll want us to start a thread at his forum. But I don't want to bang my head against a wall if it's not going to help.