Watkins Glen Best Road course in the North East
04-29-2015, 09:31 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Watkins Glen Best Road course in the North East
Watkins Glen: a 3.4 mile course with high speed S turns 125 mph straights and the famous boot with toxic elevation change!
So while everyone was making the Cobalt meet in Framingham, MA I was slaving away filling my car with E50, motul 600 brake fluid, XPR Royal Purple,and slappin on some Advan A048's. Playing mad scientist with some of the only E85 stations within a 100 mile radius was fun, State trooper had to love it when he pulled up beside us with 5 5 gallon gas cans in my trunk. Making the 370 mile trip avg 20miles to the gallon with 80lbers was a bit time consuming.
Being My 2nd time to the Glen, The drive was beautiful as expected rolling hills and much country side, but I had a problem, a p0017 code that popped up after messing with the CMPS, bad idea. After deleting the code car ran fine, but was still phantom until turning the car off. then code would pop up, i would delete it and it would start. Extended start was a pain. Especially at tech in. Did they care about the extended start? Not a bit but they did care about the lead acid battery with no back seat. So off to Advance and $185 later with an AGM battery. back to tech. Got my pass sticker.
My group was already on track and I was scrambling to get the battery in while i still had time. I was told by my NEW instructor my other instructer took a look at my brakes and said he wasnt getting in my car. Puss. screw him my new instructor had a LS3 vette, it was quick, headers and HP tune with about 450whp around a track. quickest car i had been in around a roadcourse.
10 min late but I Got on track. Kept my eye on oil temps and coolant. everything looked great and oil temp finally rose to 220 perfect race temp. So I began the game, with 10min of race time I got my first victim a new miata lightly modified. got the point by. next victim camaro ss driven by a chic, she was still learning. I had an oppurtunity but i took a cool down lap. Brakes were starting to fade. Yep 1 piston LSJ calipers were good for about 3 hot laps and they were toast. still have lots of air in em. Was told there was 'no passing' in the first session. Ha. My instructor didnt mind
Next session: It takes about 2 laps for warm up and i have 20 min of WOT race time left. Time to get some. 2nd victim a newer cayman porche. He didnt want to give a point by to no cobalt. He finally relented after riding him on the turns, he was only slightly quicker in the straights. hmm stg 2 pulley on here folks with a built engine, goes to show proper build does the trick. At this point I was ecstatic as could be and came up on an AMG mercedes; c63 possibly? I couldnt remember. Only thing I could remember is coming out of long sweeper reallin him in. Im wide open in 2nd around 7500RPMs;car dies. back fires galore and straight up dead, thought I blew the engine... pulled off on the side. disheartened and feelings to shreds. the cayman passes me. **** that. I crank er up, extended start, dammitt! cranked again... Shes alive!!. At this point I had mixed feelings 1st one was catch the cayman; so i ripped into 2nd but my instructors voice of reasoning was there, so i slowed down and took it easy. Did a broke down lap if you will. She seemed fine. He told me to go ahead and try it again. So waddya know 1 lap later and all seems fine im back on the miata again. But i never made a pass. Car dies again. I crank her up and head for the pits
I go to Advance again this time for a new CMPS sensor, wow was that a PITA to get to. I had to let my instructor know it was looking grim, While my JDM buddy was even slaving away on my car as hard as I was. Found my instructors car. Wrecked. He hit an outside retainer. In the boot of course. tuff spot, he was nowhere to be seen Never made the 3rd session.
Replaced the CMPS still same code. still extended start. I was cursin alot. Got a 3rd instructor. He wanted to see the infamous powerloss he heard so much about. Car seems to be getting around. hmm. not in the good way. Last session was worse. Car cut out 3 times, i did however get a point by from the Camaro SS again, only to get passed again bc my car was being a...'be nice'.. an ass to me. Last session of the day. And the instructor was telling me my car was unsafe bc of it dying around a turn. told me i dont have power brakes when it cuts off i argued with him and told him my car still makes vacuum in gear that works the brake booster, but he was an idiot, btw: he drove a fwd corrola that had a bumper sticker said Hybrid: burns gas and oil.
My buddy never got any track pics only a vid of me playing catch up to a mazdaspeed3 but it was sad. my day was over by that point and i was trying to get the turns down w/o having to go above 7k or else the engine would die. thats what I figured out. would only happen about 1 out of every 20-30 times WOT above 7k.
I made it home fine without an issue other then extended starts. So mechanically sound but electrical gremlins made for the hayday. I will have to figure out the issue before limerock 4th of July. Anyone wanna join me NASANE.com Hope yall enjoyed my story rant
So while everyone was making the Cobalt meet in Framingham, MA I was slaving away filling my car with E50, motul 600 brake fluid, XPR Royal Purple,and slappin on some Advan A048's. Playing mad scientist with some of the only E85 stations within a 100 mile radius was fun, State trooper had to love it when he pulled up beside us with 5 5 gallon gas cans in my trunk. Making the 370 mile trip avg 20miles to the gallon with 80lbers was a bit time consuming.
Being My 2nd time to the Glen, The drive was beautiful as expected rolling hills and much country side, but I had a problem, a p0017 code that popped up after messing with the CMPS, bad idea. After deleting the code car ran fine, but was still phantom until turning the car off. then code would pop up, i would delete it and it would start. Extended start was a pain. Especially at tech in. Did they care about the extended start? Not a bit but they did care about the lead acid battery with no back seat. So off to Advance and $185 later with an AGM battery. back to tech. Got my pass sticker.
My group was already on track and I was scrambling to get the battery in while i still had time. I was told by my NEW instructor my other instructer took a look at my brakes and said he wasnt getting in my car. Puss. screw him my new instructor had a LS3 vette, it was quick, headers and HP tune with about 450whp around a track. quickest car i had been in around a roadcourse.
10 min late but I Got on track. Kept my eye on oil temps and coolant. everything looked great and oil temp finally rose to 220 perfect race temp. So I began the game, with 10min of race time I got my first victim a new miata lightly modified. got the point by. next victim camaro ss driven by a chic, she was still learning. I had an oppurtunity but i took a cool down lap. Brakes were starting to fade. Yep 1 piston LSJ calipers were good for about 3 hot laps and they were toast. still have lots of air in em. Was told there was 'no passing' in the first session. Ha. My instructor didnt mind
Next session: It takes about 2 laps for warm up and i have 20 min of WOT race time left. Time to get some. 2nd victim a newer cayman porche. He didnt want to give a point by to no cobalt. He finally relented after riding him on the turns, he was only slightly quicker in the straights. hmm stg 2 pulley on here folks with a built engine, goes to show proper build does the trick. At this point I was ecstatic as could be and came up on an AMG mercedes; c63 possibly? I couldnt remember. Only thing I could remember is coming out of long sweeper reallin him in. Im wide open in 2nd around 7500RPMs;car dies. back fires galore and straight up dead, thought I blew the engine... pulled off on the side. disheartened and feelings to shreds. the cayman passes me. **** that. I crank er up, extended start, dammitt! cranked again... Shes alive!!. At this point I had mixed feelings 1st one was catch the cayman; so i ripped into 2nd but my instructors voice of reasoning was there, so i slowed down and took it easy. Did a broke down lap if you will. She seemed fine. He told me to go ahead and try it again. So waddya know 1 lap later and all seems fine im back on the miata again. But i never made a pass. Car dies again. I crank her up and head for the pits
I go to Advance again this time for a new CMPS sensor, wow was that a PITA to get to. I had to let my instructor know it was looking grim, While my JDM buddy was even slaving away on my car as hard as I was. Found my instructors car. Wrecked. He hit an outside retainer. In the boot of course. tuff spot, he was nowhere to be seen Never made the 3rd session.
Replaced the CMPS still same code. still extended start. I was cursin alot. Got a 3rd instructor. He wanted to see the infamous powerloss he heard so much about. Car seems to be getting around. hmm. not in the good way. Last session was worse. Car cut out 3 times, i did however get a point by from the Camaro SS again, only to get passed again bc my car was being a...'be nice'.. an ass to me. Last session of the day. And the instructor was telling me my car was unsafe bc of it dying around a turn. told me i dont have power brakes when it cuts off i argued with him and told him my car still makes vacuum in gear that works the brake booster, but he was an idiot, btw: he drove a fwd corrola that had a bumper sticker said Hybrid: burns gas and oil.
My buddy never got any track pics only a vid of me playing catch up to a mazdaspeed3 but it was sad. my day was over by that point and i was trying to get the turns down w/o having to go above 7k or else the engine would die. thats what I figured out. would only happen about 1 out of every 20-30 times WOT above 7k.
I made it home fine without an issue other then extended starts. So mechanically sound but electrical gremlins made for the hayday. I will have to figure out the issue before limerock 4th of July. Anyone wanna join me NASANE.com Hope yall enjoyed my story rant
Last edited by Shanman; 05-03-2015 at 09:17 PM. Reason: ease of reading
The following users liked this post:
Micro (01-26-2016)
04-30-2015, 07:36 AM
#3
No problem reading here. Although I read on FB first. Would love to hit a road track like Thompson CT or the new one in MA opening this year (palmer motorsports park) but I think its too much for a family car/daily driver. Plus I had a guy mention many insurance companies wont cover a racing accident on a track in case something were to happen.
Any incite? I have Geico BTW
Any incite? I have Geico BTW
05-03-2015, 09:15 PM
#4
Junior Member
Thread Starter
No problem reading here. Although I read on FB first. Would love to hit a road track like Thompson CT or the new one in MA opening this year (palmer motorsports park) but I think its too much for a family car/daily driver. Plus I had a guy mention many insurance companies wont cover a racing accident on a track in case something were to happen.
Any incite? I have Geico BTW
Any incite? I have Geico BTW
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
DANRICKARD
Problems/Service/Maintenance
8
10-01-2015 12:08 AM