Estoril Experience Day - The 2nd Track Day

As the first one, on the 7th February, this post will be split into the 4 legs. This time I found less pictures of the car online but I have on-board video. Car went to the track again on top of a recovery vehicle. All happened as last time. Took with me the jerrycan and the bag of tools. Left the jerrycan hidden away on the track parking lot and was going to take the bag on the passenger seat but a very nice person offered to keep it for me every time I headed to the track.

1st Leg

I was anxious to go so I was the third on the row to enter. Which is not very smart since I usually let everyone that comes pass by so that I have clean rear mirrors.

When on the track, all was going OK. Except for the fact that my fidling with the Digidash did not fix the RPM showing wrong numbers that are too high. And now, instead of erratic gears, it always displays 1st, neutral or clutch...

The wheel alignment and putting my head down made doing speed on the straight a lot easier. Still felt odd trying to shift into 6th on the straight. After a couple of laps, and after sliding a bit exiting a bend and having my first "brown trousers" moment of the day, I lost gears. Meaning, I could not shift down and had trouble shifting up. Went to the pit stop. Then was able to shift again, went back on track just to limp back to the pits. Gave up and went to the parking lot.

I had to fix the issue or would lose the whole day. First hunch was something with the gear linkage. But all seemed tight. Then looked into the clutch cable. It was coming loose... Tightened the bolts that held it in place on the engine block. Tested on the parking lot going up to 3rd and back to 1st and it was great. Decided to tighten a bit more, tested, it was slipping and failing. Undid some again, 3rd test and all is good again. I was ready for the 2nd leg!

2nd Leg

Went on track happy and all went perfectly. Fixing the clutch cable also fixed my issues getting 6th gear. The car was wonderful! I was trying to push for a new best lap but on the other hand I'm always afraid of going to fast on bends (has to do with my only crash while driving on the road) and I'm still building up confidence on the car. Spun going into the chicane once but didn't get trapped on the sand trap, so not much time lost.

3rd Leg

Third leg went great too. Made my best lap as the first full one. I think I could have done a lot better if I was not so worried about being in the way of faster cars and afraid of going around bends. I still have to get my head around how much better this car is cornering than anything else I have driven so far.

Session was red-flagged and we all went to the pits while the stewards removed 3 cars from sand traps. We were then allowed to go back on the track for a couple more laps.

It was a bit crowded by then, providing this nice photo

I cut the leg's video to have one of just the fastest lap, in all it's (lack of) glory

4th Leg

The last leg was not as fun as the previous ones. After a lap my engine would sometimes stop (noticeable by a shudder and lots of blinking on the Digidash while it rebooted) followed by a loud bang on the exhaust. I stopped on the pit lane to see if there was any visibly loose cable. There was none. But the battery is held in place by an aluminium bracer I made and the nut that held it down was missing. Probably the battery was moving and one of the leads was either touching the aluminium or the engine block. Either way, that shorted the circuit and caused the shut-down. I had no nuts with me so I headed back on the track to get the best out of the remaining time. This I could only fix at home.

Conclusion And Next Steps

The wheel alignment and putting less pressure on the tires gave me a better handling. Properly tightening the clutch cable gave me flawless gear changes. The car is going great and I'm holding it back. The cutting issue may make me look into different ways to keep the battery in place while keeping it easy to remove.

The Digidash display of RPM and current gear is still not working and it seems worse than before I fiddled with it. Since I had no idea on RPM, I did the track day gearing up when I felt the engine cutting, far from optimal.

The software I use on my mobile, RaceChrono Pro, tells me that, although my best lap was 2m52s, my optimal lap, meaning, the sum of the best time in each sector, would be 2m42s. I'm pretty sure I could do even less than that. I'll work towards it. Just a couple of nice words towards RaceChrono Pro for Android and my SJCAM SJ4000 that was used to do the filming.

I'm now going to work towards getting the car road legal, so this blog will be slow (although not completely halted) for a couple of months.

Configure Digidash and More

Objective:

Started by connecting the wife's laptop to the Digidash and see what was there and if I could change anything to make the gears and RPM look more sensible (the speedo was great, so nothing to change there).

On the "Gears" tab, changed the primary ratio from 1,521 to 1,000. I don't know why I had that value as the primary, but since I have the engine connected to the diff with a propshaft, I don't think it makes sense for this to be other than 1,0. It makes sense to be more with a sprocket on a chain-driven transmission, which is not the case. Let's hope and see... Pictures of before and after. Gears are from the Haynes manual.

On the "Calibrate" tab just changed the "Gear Cal Factor" to also 1,000 from prior 1,500. The reasoning is the same as above. Pictures for before and after. The "Speedo Cal Factor" was calculated with the DigiDash tools and should be correct because the car's speedo agrees with the phone's GPS in what regards to speed (as observed on track).

Also changed the display of the 1st screen to have, besides oil pressure, temperature and water temp to also show speed and gear. This can thus become my sole screen for track. Upped a bit the brightness of the gear-changing leds.

After this, went for other small things. Wired and placed some isolation tape on the lighter I bought so that I can connect it to the battery and use the tyre pump. Then tested it, the tire pump and the tyre pressure gauge to see how my tires were and prepare them for track. Have now all tires around 1,4BAR (20,3PSI). This should make the car bump a bit less on the track than the previous 1,7BAR I had. My friend (on track tires) recommended 1,3BAR but I have road tires so...

I then tried to see if the right stop was not working because of the plug I crimped. Pulled the plug out and connected the wire directly to the wire that comes from the pod and nothing. But connecting another (live) wire turns the light on, so... It must be something somewhere else. I'll have to ask Steve at Aries, because looking at the wire diagram it makes no sense to me that the left stop works and the right one doesn't. It should be a fail for both. As a last resort, I may consider pulling a wire from the working stop to the other one, although I don't like that (just because it is a workaround and not a solution).

Finally, I started the engine just because, watched it idle a bit, tested all nuts on the wheels and then closed shop.

During this week I'll pull the battery out to charge it. Next Saturday I'll be going on the track day again and I hope I'll have videos etc.

Open Hood Vents and Checks

Objective:

Today I spent most of my car time opening the vents on the hood. They look awesome open and it should help move hot air out of the engine bay. Lots of work but not much to tell.

After that, went around the car checking levels of coolant, oil and brake oil. All was good and ready for the next track day.

Spent the evening preparing a laptop to configure the Digidash (may try it one of these nights before the next weekend). Yesterday also got me a tire pressure checker and a lighter body. The lighter may end up installed behind the dash to charge mobile phones. But initially it will be used connected directly to the battery to feed the tire-filler pump.

On a side note, the Race Chrono Pro app I have on the Android phone had a new version. This one allows layering more than one gauge over the video (that can be recorded using an external cam and mixed directly on the phone). So, if all goes well, on the next track day I can have footage with the track and my position, speed and G forces and times all on screen. Makes me a bit sad the engine is not ODB2 compliant and, as such, I can't get RPM and gear on the screen too.

Action Camera and Fixes

Objective:

Had a very short list of tasks to attempt today. First was to brace the support for an action camera that I bought, in preparation for the next track day. It came with lots of accessories. After some trials, decided which ones to use and held the cam in place. It has a wifi functionality that allows me to control it (start and stop recording) from my mobile phone. The card holds around 4h20 of video. More than enough!

Then tried to fix the fog light that would not light up. After some fiddling, turns out it was just a bad contact. Bent one of the contacts the bulb sits in a bit to make more pressure over the bulb and success!

Moved on to the rear right stop that does not light up. The bulb has 2 filaments and the presence one lights up. With the presence lit, unconnected wires and connected the wire that leads to the brake filament to the loom's presence wire. It lit up. So, the problem is neither the bulb nor the terminal I crimped on the light pod wire. I'll have to study the wiring schematics and see where to test next. For now, I'll be on the track with just the left-side stop light.

Tried to inflate the tires with a new pump I got that connects to a car lighter. Since the car has no lighter, I also got an adapter to a 220v socket. Turns out that adapter blew after being in use for 5s. For an euro and a half, shipping included, from China... You get what you pay for. So, tires still need air and I'll have to do it later, when I have the tintop around.

Since when the car last weekend was on the ramp, I checked underneath to see if any propshaft bolt was coming lose. All was tight and nice, so I don't have to do that in preparation for the next track day.

Fired up the car and took it for two laps on the merry-go-round to test the camera. Regarding the wheels, I don't feel any difference in this short drive but the wheels no longer sound like rubber sliding when cornering slow. Must be a good sign!

After this, it was mostly pack up and call it a day. For the next track day I just need to check the tires' pressure, check the oil and water levels and put more gas... Well... Maybe still look again into the brake light. And try to configure the Digidash properly...

On the legalisation front, the contact I got provided me with their partner for that type of work. They guaranteed no issues with importing the car. Steve at Aries already told me when he is available to receive the car. Need to find a company to transport the car to the UK. I'm starting to believe I'll be able to drive my car on the streets to go to the track day that will happen in September...