VIR Test 3-11-11

Ready for the first test at VIR. The car is all unloaded and ready to hit the track. Unfortunately the weather was a little less than cooperative. The morning brought 40ish degree temps and strong gusty wind. The sun came out, but not until we were done around 4:30 in the afternoon. So, it was a blustery day of testing.

After the first session on the track, my crew (Mark Walthew in picture) were concerned that the RR brake might be dragging. The rotor was a little discolored with pad material, and they saw a little smoke wisping out from the rim as I pulled into the pit lane. Thankfully, it must have been one of those self healing gremlins from lack of recent use. We bench tested it (seen here) and saw no issue, so out on the track I went for session #2, a little apprehensive, but it cleared up on its own and was not an issue again.

Also, during the first session, I learned that I was not going to be able to use the seat that came with the car. I felt like I was driving like a senior citizen, bolt upright and 2-3" too close to the dash. So one of the big orders for the test was to get me comfortable in the car. And I mean literally comfortable - able to shift cleanly, move my arms around, work the pedals and other controls etc...

Thankfully the mechanical portion of the test was an unqualified success. Everything worked just as it should. The base-line setup was spot on, and the car was easy to drive and handled well with good manners. In fact as the day wore on, I found myself with the sinking feeling that this was all going just a little too well... (more on that later)

After the first session I was extreemly uncomfortable in the cockpit. As a test day adjustment, I removed the upper half of the seat entirely, and Mark helped me tape in some strategic foam padding (thanks to Eric Cruz who had it in his trailer). This worked very well and I was MUCH more at ease in the car the rest of the day.

The rest of the days test sessions went extreemly well. I began to concentrate on adjusting to the car and relearning to finer points of getting around VIR. We had a small mixed formula group from FV to FA, so closing speeds were a little concerning at first, but the FA and F1000 drivers were all very courteous, and I had no issues at all. There was at least one other Piper FF/Honda testing, but I never got to hook up with him during a session. My crew tells me that we were running similar times so I guess I was not too far off the mark.

To be honest, I had told myself that I would keep my driving VERY low key and concentrate on the task at hand - adjusting the car, and adjusting the controls to get comfortable with driving it. So I had gone into the day with a very modest goal - get under 2:10 by the end of the day. With the cold damp track I was doubting that even that was realistic.

But, I did, despite my promise to myself, start to press a little bit as the sessions wore on. With an adjustment to the gear lever, I found it much easier to shift, and as the forth session began I started to actually drive a little harder. Still not quite race pace, but not exactly loafing around either. Before long, I was seeing times dropping well below my goal. I was so pumped by this that on the final lap of the 4th session, I decided to see if the car could go through turn 10 flat. The result was my one spin of the weekend. A wild ride across the grass and a general wake up call. This was not the time to drive at 10/10ths.

As I motored back onto the race surface (thankfully with no damage, and minimal mud on the car) the car started to miss and sputter. No I was regretting that sinking feeling that things were going too well. I limped back to the pits and asked the crew to check for a loose wire or obvious problem. They couldn't find anything wrong, and as the checker was already out, I motored back to my paddock spot, spitting and coughing all the way.

Back in the pits, racing guru Frank "Doc" Malone, suggested that maybe I was just out of gas... NO WAY it couldn't be that! I had put 1-1/2 gallons in before the session - thinking that there was still a couple of gallons in the tank. We put the dip stick in the tank and it came up dry. Hmmm...

Gassed back up, I fired the engine up, and in a few seconds the miss was gone. I had also noticed that the dash Fuel Pressure readout was down 4psi when I motored back to the pits after the session. Now it was showing 52psi (my normal reading). So, while I was all preparred for a complex wiring problem, or a flat battery or God knows what - it was really that simple. I had run 11-12 laps at VIR and ran out of gas!

Unbelievably this was my worst problem of the weekend.

I had entered the day with low expectations. I was sure that something would go wrong. The car would handle badly with the compromise Koni shocks, a wiring issue would crop up, parts would loosen up or fall off, it would overheat, or leak or ????

But none of the above happened. In fact, after I got comfortable in the cockpit, the car was flawless. It was literally one of those very rare "add gas and go" days in racing. I had a lot of fun, learned a ton about the car, AND I went faster every session...

So, as the day came to a close, the transport wheels went back on, and it was time to pack up and head back home. Despite the unfriendly weather, it was a great day at the track. An unqualified success!

Sean

This is probably an appropriate to for a big "Thank You" to my MANY supporters who have made it possible to get this far:
Marsha and Sam - My wife and daugher who have put up with me living in the garage over the past couple of months.
Dad - Who helped all along the way and valently rode to the track for the test day with a back so sore he was almost in the fetal position.
Eric Langbein - Who's engineering and fabrication skills made this project work.
Steve Lathrop - Who told me this was possible, and has put up with countless dumb questions ever since.
Steve Oseth - Who has been very willing to share his experience with me.
Eric Cruz - Who helped me figure out the last minute wheel nut issues and is always there to pitch in when needed.
Mark Walthew - Who stepped in for my ailing father and strapped me in every session even though he was suffering from food poisoning and wanted to puke (thanks for not puking in my lap Mark)
"Doc" Malone - For stopping me before I tore the car apart and convinced me to check the fuel level first.
Neil Porter - For getting me wheels on time that worked when the first ones didn't.
Tom and Julian - And everyone at HPD for all of their help.
Jeff Phillips - Who helped me cart everything up to Eric's shop.
Mike Memory - Who helped me retreive the car back in late November in a 20 hour marathon drive.
Dan Greaves - Who did such a nice job rebuilding this car as a FC - it made the conversion that much easier.
Lee Williams - For helping me get through my gearbox and slave cyl. issues.
ApexSpeed - The open wheel community helped out numerous times.

And the many more people who supplied me parts and pieces, or gave me the moral support necessary to make this happen in such a short time.

Load Up!

The car is ready for testing. So tonight was the load up for VIR. I always hate loading up for the track with a new car. You never know what to bring, so I tried to bring everything. When you work on a project like this for several months, your race trailer slowly gets emptied and it's contents disappear into every nook and cranny of the garage.

So, after a fairly exhaustive search I think I have all of the necessary stuff back in the trailer, and a lot of unnecessary stuff out of the trailer and back into the garage in a big messy pile...

It has been a while since I have owned a non-winged car, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how much room there is in the trailer.

Can't wait for Friday!

Sean

Alignment

First time on the new Panasports and F1600 Series spec Hoosier slicks. I like the look.

Up on the scales. After pretty much tearing this car down to the frame and reassembling it with many new or different parts, I was not sure what to expect. As it turns out it was remarkably close to in spec right out of the gate. I had to make some moderate adjustments to lower the front ride height, and the rear was set for a minor amount of toe out instead of toe in. Otherwise everything else was fairly close.

Since I was doing this solo, I had to come up with a way to simulate having me in the car to set the ride height and approximate the corner weights. Fortunately I had done a fair bit of road car maintenance recently, and I had a lot of brake rotors and calipers laying around. I carefully filled the cockpit area with literally every heavy object I could find in the garage, and managed to approximate a driver in the car (weight wize at least).

Screen shot of the corner weights after setting ride heights with my 'dead weights' stuffed into the car. Once this was done I removed all of the weights and inserted the real "dead weight" into the car (me). Not surprisingly the corner weights were off about 6-7 lbs across the front, so I had to do a few iterations of climbing out of the car, adjusting the pushrods, and climbing back in to check.

In the end I got the weights very close to the specs that Steve Lathrop had recommended, but the car definitely has a little more wheel weight distribution with the lighter Honda in the back of the car.

The other good news here is that the car is pretty light. Even with my 'stout' frame, making close to minimuz weight should be no problem - in fact I will have to add a little ballast.

Final checks of camber and toe. I pulled down the old home made alignment bars that I made years ago for my 1997 Van Diemen. They were an almost perfect fit, so this process was pretty simple. Front toe was spot on. Rears were toe'ed slightly out (my specs call for minor toe in at the rear). So a few easy adjustments later and it was all taken care of.

So, the trek to the VIR test day moves on. Now to clean up the garage and trailer and figure out what I need to take with me...

Sean

Rear Floor - DONE!

So hear is the rear view of the final installation (at least for now). While it is not quite perfect, it looks quite good for a worn out reclaimed FC part. The bodywork is all secured as the original was with several small aluminum "L" brackets and should not be able to flutter around at speed. I am impressed that Eric got the exhaust system right so that it fits almost exactly as the original FC system did.

Tomorrow -setup time. Racing buddy Eric Cruz came by yesterday and loaned me his Longacre scales and turn plates.

So I still have a bit of work in front of me, but things are looking good the hit the track Friday! Just hoping for some dry weather.

Sean

Finishing up the rear floor

So the last act before setting the suspension up for the VIR test Friday was to fit the rear floor to the car. If you remember my Dad, Bill had made up the floor for me a few weeks ago. We used an old torn up FC diffuser for the basis, and Dad took some basic measurements of the car right before I trucked everything up to Maryland for Eric to do his magic.

So, it was with more than a little trepidation that I carted the floor out of the trailer last night. I hoped it would fit easily, but I had to suspect that it would not be that simple.

Fortunately, if not miraculously, Dad pretty much got it spot on the first time. The only real mod required was to enlarge the flange areas where the floor meets the joining aluminum plates at the side pod bottoms, and reducing the size of the 'tounge" area that slips in on top of the chassis floor under the front of the oil pan.

After a little dremel work I decided that the enlarged flange areas were too week (because I had to remove the outside glass layer. Fortunately I had just replentished my composites suppies from Fiberglast.com. So a little expoxy and some 1" eglass tape were applied to strengthen the area back up and a few mangled old mounting holes were repaired.

I am not a terribly patient person. (In fact I was one of those kids who could never build a good Revell model because I was too impatient to wait for the glue to dry step by step). But I supressed my urge to rush the process, and the result was worth the wait...

To set the floor height I clamped a couple of pieces of square tube to the sidepod floors so that I could gauge the curvature of the undertray and make sure that I did not stray from the 1" deviation rule. (FF rules specify that the bottom of the car must be flat - within 1" from the front of the car to the rear of the rear tires). Wanting to make a bit of extra downforce, I elected to set the back of the floor up a bit, but not close enough to invoke the wrath of the tech inspectors (hopefully).

And here is the final product. Two 8 hour nights of adjusting, making brackets, mounting, fitting the rear 'filler' panels etc...

I am pretty pleased with the result. It is very stiff and pretty light. Hopefully it will work as good as it looks on the car.

Assembly Continued

One of my bodywork concerns was that the new radiator hose routing might interfere with the side bodywork below the seam with the sidepod on the left side. Thankfully this was not an issue at all and the panel went right into place. Eric had designed my new engine bay cradles so that I could retain the Dzus fastener setup (mounted on a barrel that slides inside the rear upper cradle attachment point). This worked very well, and the lower panels went on with no drama at all.

One quick note:
Before I mounted these panels, Dad and I bled the clutch slave cylinder. This process led to much consternation, because after all of the air was out of the system, we still could not get the clutch to disengage. It seemed to be working, but depressing the clutch still did not disengage the engine from the gearbox. I was really starting to worry at this point. After coming this close to making the test day, I just knew something would crop up that would be a show stopper.

After more head scratching and several more bleeding sessions, we came across a simple idea: maybe the Honda setup required a little more clutch travel than the FC Pinto engine. WHAT AN IDEA! So a few turns to lengthen the clutch pushrod later - all was right with the world. I could easily row through the gears, and applying the brakes and clutch at the same time allowed me to stop the rear wheels from spinning without killing the engine... PROGRESS!

As the evening wore I was on a roll, so after a short break for dinner and a rare visit with the other occupants of the Maisey household, it was back out to the shop. As the car is coming together the process keeps getting more addictive. I just couldn't stop...

So with the engine lower panels in place I decided to bite the bullet and see just how bad the engine cover was going to be to fit. Turns out it was not really all that bad...

So out came the Dremel tool and with the removal of the small 'hump' behind the headrest and some clearancing of the area around the top of the fuel rails and the depression for the FF2000 carb. it fit fairly nicely. Certainly not quite the finished look that I will ultimately want, but certainly good enough for the VIR test...

So here she sits. Almost ready to take out for a test spin around the neighborhood. I must admit that I have spent most of the last hour just sitting on the steps admiring my (and a lot of other people's) work... I am pretty darned pleased with the result.

Tomorrow:
- Fit the rear undertray/floor panel.
- Alignment and corner weights.
- Clean out the trailer. (of course - it is supposed to rain all day).

I am hoping that I can fashion some sort of intake scoop/airbox in the next couple of days, but even if I can't I will feel perfectly comfortable doing the test next week the way she sits now. After all the objective of that test is not raw speed or asthetics, but to figure out if it all works together properly (and hopefully nothing falls off or leaks too bad).

Later, time for some Ibuprophin and sleep now,
Sean

Final Assembly (sort of)

Dad stopped by again this morning after tennis to help out. On the agenda was a long list of items to get the car ready for the March 11th test day at VIR. This included refitting the bodywork, finishing up suspension assembly, bleeding the hydrolic systems, adjusting the clutch and a lot of other stuff. Dad hung in for a good afternoon session and we got a lot of the work done. It looks like the test day has gone from a "best case scenario" to a reality. Pretty unbelievable given all the pieces that had to come together in such a short period of time!

While Steve Lathrop has convinced me that the original Koni shocks are not going to get the job done for the F1600 series, my new Penske units are still a work in progress. So Steve did the best he could with the Konis and sent them back to me this week to use for the VIR test. Unfortunatley actually getting them home was a bit of an adventure....

My house has two different entrances, and Thursday the UPS driver left me a note on the side porch indicating that I needed to sign the signature waiver for him to deliver them. I dutifully did so and posted his note back on the side porch door where he left it when I left for work Friday morning. Of course Murphy's Law being what it is, I called home Friday afternoon to make sure that they had arrived, only to hear Marsha tell me - "No no packages today, but the UPS driver left you a note ON THE FRONT DOOR." Doooh!

Without the shocks, I was no going to be able to align and cornerweight the car! The Friday test day was looking unlinkely. Crap!

So last night featured a side trip to the UPS processing facility in Richmond. This was like a trip into some strange alternate universe. I was told that I could retreive my package ONLY between 8-8:30. So I arrived at 7:50 to a scene that looked like a military base under Code Red lockdown. I waited outside the guard shack for 20-30 minutes as they let us in one-two cars at a time. While I was waiting I watched the same guards did a full search on ALL exiting employees wand and all.

Any way after a while I got in and after a much longer while they retreived my package from somewhere in the bowels of the plant. And I was back in business. My buddy Jeff Phillips and I passed the time smoking a couple of cigars and listening to AC/DC - so it was not all that bad....

So... shocks in hand, I got up this morning and set them up with the preload and spring setup recommend by Lathrop and got on with the project.

Bodywork going back on. As with all new things it was not as simple as I had hoped. The HPD wiring harness took up too much space in the area where the bodywork necked back in behind the radiator. So after a little head scratching and consideration, Dad and I figured out how to make a minor adjustment to make it work. After that the bodywork went on with only minor drama (although both Dad and I did manage to shed a little blood before it was all over with)...

Newly redone "Anteater" nose fit up nicely, and the paint Dan had given me with the car made it an easy match with the rest of the car. I had also chose to paint the two aluminum panels on the footbox sides to match the rest of the car. I like the result and think it looks more cohesive this way...