Gone very far to the Dark Side

13 minute(s) of a 189 minute read

Yes that's true. Especially when people ask if its a "real one". Some guys get annoyed but I think if it looks good enough to raise the question why not just take some pride in your work. The other thing is there is always something to go. Just upgraded my sound system so I can have WAZE & other maps show up from my phone to the radio screen,

8-25-2016

Time goes by way to fast especially when you are pushing 3/4 of a century real hard. Its already time for the Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway again.

Our local Porsche dealer again hosted a meet & greet the drivers buffet at their store. They did not bring a race car down this time since tomorrow is the last practice day & the mechanics will not let go of the car. So we were stuck with the 918SPYDER for visual entertainment. Would have scooped it up in a heartbeat but alas it was already sold.

Quality of the cars is really improving in the area. Today I was out in the Cobra & when I pulled out of the sub-division I was in back of a yellow Ferrari 458. He turned off Possum track at SixForks going west toward the boat ramps. About another 700 yards down the road met a gunmetal gray McLaren P1..

The Oak Tree is going to be run on the full course at 3.27 miles. The C&D Lightning Laps is run on the Grand Course North at 4.20 miles. Would have liked to see the race & LL on the same course because I believe the handicapping system neuters some of the cars. You can drive a StingRay off the dealers lot with more horsepower than the race car has,

I asked Nick Tandy who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year for Porsche what the drivers thought about the system. He said we all have problems with it when it hits our cars but the reality is without it there would be no race because of basic differences among the cars.

That said it would have been interesting to see the times of the race cars vs the street cars on the grand course.

9-17-2016

Ran my & the COBRA's first Auto-X today. Was a nice event with 130 cars getting 5 runs each.

Car was assigned to the XP class, Note in the clubs rules said XP used to be the PRO class.:surprise:

Good news is over 5 runs dropped my time by 16 seconds with no penalty's. Bad new was I was 4 to 6 seconds off the pace. Car was solid & handled much better than I expected. Needs driver improvement.

Some other interesting cars that ran:

Modified bug with full roll cage. Guy gave me a ride on one of his runs. Much fun & much leaning in the turns.

Local Toyota dealer sent along a lot of tires with their car.

Its true, the flat plane VOODOO engine in the new Shelby GT 350 does make a strange howl at WOT.

Big Bucks showed up. This confirms there are at leat two of these cars, Dark Gray & Orange lurking in the Triangle.

Once upon a time this was a Corvette. Amazing thing is its still street legal.

9-23-2016

No trucks, sorry about that. Being as its in Carolina one for pickups would be very interesting, would enter my 4X4 Ranger. One of the posted his run on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v2Oe0qWYJ4&feature=youtu.be

10-16-2016

Interesting road test of an early 260 powered COBRA done in 1964 by Road & Track. I saw this very car in yellow paint at the New York City Auto Show that year. IIRC it was the only completed car Shelby had. It was painted different colors for the various magazine tests to make it look like the car was in full production. Fact was it was the only complete car in existence at the time.

http://cobra.ratsey.com/uploads/Road&Track1964.pdf

1-5-2017

Some interesting stuff for anyone building up a COYOTE engine from one of the COBRA guys building a 1300/1500HP engine for an FFR Challenge series race.car.



This is the current Challenge car which has been featured at SEMA



The intake system will be used on a lower powered N/A version for a FFR Daytona Coupe he is building as a street car. The new race car will have a FI version with a custom designed intake system for the supercharger. In order to support the boost required for that much power the COYOTE has to be sleaved it prevent catastrophic Destruction at WOT. This is what is being done to sleeve the all alloy block of the COYOTE in a article on HotRod TV.

How to Prep a Coyote Block for 1,000 Horsepower - Hot Rod Network.

The Hot Rod piece was written by Driver Owner Builder Mark Gearhart

Wrapup of 2016 with some racing championships in various classes

Factory Five's Top 10 of 2016

1-6-2017

There are convertible tops with side windows available from FFR & a few other suppliers. Also there are a few 3rd party detachable hard tops. Here in NC I don't know anyone who has either but up north they seem to be in use. Depending on tires the cars are not good gad weather cars. All the guys in our group have semi race street legal tires that are temperature sensitive & get weird under 40 degrees. In rain you need to drivecarefully & smoothly.

Weather here is good enough you can drive the cars all year round with out a top. I have a Tonneau cover that zips down the middle & holds the heat in pretty well when its cold. DOT fasteners hold the cover on. Only a few of us use them. In the pictures the cars with the studs around the cockpit have Tonneau's roofs or both.

Warm & dry the cars will pull over 1G without breaking a sweat. My rears are NITTO 555R 315's with 100 tread wear rubber compound & when heated the car have no trouble getting in the low 3 high 2 second range to 60mph. Guys with more grunt then mine are running 9 second 1/4 miles. Any COYOTE package will put the car into the 11 second class which will get you booted from an NHRA 1/4 mile track. The car is too quick & too fast for the onboard safety equipment - they want a full roll cage. You may be able to run a test & tune night, depends on the track.

Track day & driver school you are generally good to go with the stock car. For drivers school where an instructor will ride with you you need two roll bars or a full width bar. On a shorter road course 1 mile of so the car will run heads-up with a Lamborghini Gallardo. Lack of aero aids on a street car will cut its safe top speed on a course with long straights. Very hard tp manage in the upper 150's. With aero aids top recorded speed is a bit over 200mph at Daytona..

Car is legal for.SCCA Solo Auto-X. The car runs XP (X-Prepared) class. This is a cubic inch to weight class not a production class.. Original Cobras & cars like the Mosler, Nobel etc run in the class

2-11-2017

Passed 2017 Tech Inspection & am good to go for the season.

2-25-2017

Street tests of my NITTO 555RX555R (100TR) went well. Striped all 4 tires with white shoe polish. Ran as hard as I ever intend to on the street & the stripes showed even use across the tread & no roll under on the front wheels.

The ability of the tire to maintain its contact patch in a hard turn was a concern. Think the fact that the car is almost a ton less than the cars that the tire is designed for might contribute to this.

Air pressure is F23PSI R24PSI.

Will not get a chance to test the tires in an Auto-X until the THSCC Cary, NC event on April 8 which I am registered for.
Had hoped to do a Charity Laps run at VIR's full course week after next but think the weather will not work for a car with no roof.

FWIW the 17" 315 NITTO 555R on the rear have just shy of 6,000 miles on them & are still in good shape. Fronts 17" 255 NITTO 555R were just swapped on last week.

These were taken after an 80mph run over country roads. Almost zero traffic so it was pretty safe except for me.

FRONT

REAR

Stripes are unretouched from when I parked the car. Was thinking about a 1 or 2lb drop on the front ones. Any thoughts/suggestions on the tire pressures?

Yeah, the NITTO 555 are 200 tread wear & the 555R are 100'sWas running 555 on the front & 555R on the back since I got plates for the car. Doing more track & Auto-X this summer so wanted more grip on the front without going to sway bars. Was pushing the front end last year on hard sharp turns.

The NITTO 555 are 200 tread wear & the 555R are 100's Class wise any 100 tread wear tire puts you into XP which is the top displacement to weight class. In other words from the point of view of a 5.0 engine its an open class with as much power as you want to bring.

3-10-2017

One of the guts sent me this, good explanation of under/over steer :

I'm not getting gray, I'm adding chrome....

“Under-steer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car and over-steer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you take the wall with you.”
-- Jacques Schnauzee "World Famous Racecar Driver"

"If you can make black marks on a straight from the time you turn out of a corner until the braking point of the next turn, then you have enough horsepower."--Mark Donohue

4-18-2017

Got a nice photo spread by someone at a local Cars & Coffee, also a really great Viper Competition addition + the usual Ferraris, Porsche's etc.

Morrisville Cars and Coffee Hotrod Hotline

End of Page 2 beginning of page 3. had a DNF at the last Auto-X. Developed dome kind of a rub or interfearence on full lock right turns. Trying to chase it down, going to one of our group members house on Thursday to use his lift. Have a training school coming up at the Danville Va airport on the th of May. If I cant clear the problem will have to bring the 135IS. Daughter is bringing her 911 & if she hands me my butt will never live it down.

7-3-2017

Picked up the 440 at the BMW Performance Center Delivery program in Greer SC on Wednesday. Lots of fun & one excursion into the grass. Car is a little dirty after 250 odd miles. So theses are quick & dirty pictures.

Some background:

Brought the 440 home from the BMW PCD system today. The car has the usual options + the M Performance Power & Sound Kit (MPPSK) & the Track Handling Package (THP).

Lots of dynos around for the 440 MPPSK/THP in the 368/372WHP range. Will dyno this one after 1200 miles. Followed the 135is being driven by my daughter, there is a reason she led & for 233 miles average speed 79MPH the car knocked down 31MPG with 10 miles on the clock to start.

Daughter lead because she had a better all clean runs during track time. Your friendly Car Talk poster & ace driver managed an somewhat un-controlled drift that took out 14 cones & ended in the grass. That said my clean runs were all faster than hers, you believe me right?

A 90 second vid of a very hot lap by 2 prepped M4's during the PCD program.. Vid does not do justice to the speeds & G loads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbYUDWdBwKY&feature=youtu.be

Some issues with the vid try this link. You can hear my daughter in the background.