I haven’t posted too much about racing as of late because I’ve been too busy with home, hobby, and work to do so. Our racing season here in the SE is quite front loaded and we’ve done a lot of events thus far. Since the last time I wrote in March we’ve raced a Roebling Road twice, VIR twice (Full Course), and CMP four times. I didn’t have time to put up videos etc. of happenings this year for the few racers folks that might be interested but I’ll post a couple of videos and describe some progress.
All throughout the year until this past Sunday’s race I’ve been fighting an engine issue. My motor would run well for a few laps, then when good and hot it’d starve and miss in high speed right hand sweepers. Turn onto the straight at Roebling Road, second uphill esse at VIR, The Kink at CMP. Watching the #1 carb EGT gauge (in cylinder #1) would show that the exhaust temps would drop to 800F quickly and you’d get the smell of gas fumes as well. Then, it’d catch and fire up and you’d be moving right along again. Here is what it looks like at VIR, and you’ll see Jeff in the TR8 blow by (he had been in front anyhow, had a little Agricultural Excursion a bit before this scene):
YouTube - 260Z Stuttering on Uphill Esses
All that noise with the motor isn’t me – I’ve got my foot to the floor trying to go fast.
We started look at ignition - pickup in the dizzy, put on the spare, etc. Then we started looking at fuel issues – pickups, pumps, filters, lines. Carb issues – float height, jets, needles, leaks, oil level in dampeners, and so on. Nothing really seemed to take and fix it. Sometimes it’d appear better, but then it’d be back just as bad as ever. And fuel somehow seemed most likely since it only happened when the car was g loaded.
This past Saturday it was acting up again at CMP. Checked everything out, still couldn’t find the issue. Then Jeff said, “Put some new wires on man, you haven’t done that, maybe that will do something.” Naturally given that the problem didn’t show on the dyno and mainly only shows in right handers I was 100% skeptical. But I was at the end of my rope. Out come the spare wires, on they go – and boom – no more stumbling and miss in the high speed right handers!
So we’ve been fighting this trouble for three months. And it turns out to be simple spark plug wires that are only about 12 months old.
Finishing positions have suffered – I’m not last and have placed as high as 5
th or 6
th when the field is weak, but the car just hasn’t been all there. I was pretty stoked about having a “running car” for the CMP races this past weekend and it turned out on Sunday I didn’t do too badly. I finished up 4
th, after giving up a 3
rd place that I held for all of like 45 seconds on the last lap of the race. Another fellow that was glued on my bumper out drove me on the last lap and secured himself a 3
rd place finish.
Here are the videos, the driver that took third is Jeff McCandless in the black 2
nd generation RX7 that starts ahead of me at race start. Jeff Young is in the TR8 there and all of those guys pull out to a pretty good lead. But over the course of the race I drove the most consistently I’ve ever driven and made up time. Don’t fret over those lines in video three –Jeff McCandless is right on my bumper and I’m running defensive. Those cars will out brake me into turns so if I ran a “normal line” I’d be toast. In video 2 and 3 Jeff Young’s TR8 is the car I’m following until he runs out and I and Jeff McCandless get by on the last lap.
Start/Part 1
YouTube - CMP May 2008 SARRC2 - Part 1
Part 2
YouTube - CMP May 2008 SARRC2 - Part 2
Part 3 – Checker, throwing away third
YouTube - CMP May 2008 SARRC2 - Part 3
All in all I’m pretty happy and looking forward to more!
We’ve also done some motor development this year to see what we can get out of the 260Z. Here are a couple of plots. The first one is around the time of one of the earlier VIR races and we’re right at about 160 rear wheel hp and 160 ft lbs of torque. The second dyno plot is after some exhaust work was done, proper cam setup, and so on and we’re right at 168 rear wheel hp, torque the same at peak but we gave up some mid range that I'm not happy about. I’m still off the pace from the top Z cars, both in lap times and horsepower, but we’re getting there. I need to be around 175 – 180 rear wheel hp to match the top builds, but we are making progress.
Anyhow, thus far 2008 has been a good time for me and the Z. It is still ugly (despite, or maybe because of the driveway paint job) but it is now reliable and getting developed into a somewhat competitive race car and I hope I’m improving as a driver. Jeff Young has been doing really well in the TR8 when everything comes together and has gotten some 2
nd and 3
rd place finishes with his driving. More is in store for the TR8 development and I imagine it’ll get a bit faster for later this year and 2009.
Ron
R Earp - May CMP Race with the 260Z 
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