Patrick's 1986 944 Turbo by 333pg333

13 minute(s) of a 264 minute read

So went to the dyno again with the new wastegate. Got some basic charts back. Included is a back to back run with the ramp rates changed just to show how you can pick up instant hp without doing a thing. This is still on a conservative brand dyno compared to others so we could bump 400whp if we wanted to post a number. 

4/21/12

Sorry to say but I had a pretty decent off yesterday at the fastest part of the track. Met with the tyre wall at a reasonable pace. At this stage it looks fixable but won't know until all the panels are stripped off. Fingers crossed. Pretty sure it wasn't entirely my fault. It looks like there was something on the track that caused me to lose traction very rapidly. Oil or marbles. Hit the wall quite hard. Feeling pretty sore but I'm ok. Ribs are very sore and to make matters worse I have a cold/cough...OUCH! 

I have copy of the video which I might post up. Not for young viewers!

4/22/12

The day was going pretty well but the car felt a little taily and sort of darty from the outset. So we took the rear sway bar off completely and changed suspension settings a little. Car felt better. Engine felt strong. 

Well here's the video. This is on the new short North track at Eastern Creek.The new flip flop is quite challenging and quite a bit heavier on the brakes than I anticipated. I was behind an 'interesting' car. An AlfaSud....Sports Sedan. Mid engine 13B with GT35. Pretty fast in a straight line but he was holding me up in certain sections. So having fumbled around trying to create 3rd gear from 5th at the top corner (to date, this refuses to comply) I set sail after him and was quite deep before shifting to top gear. Car just seemed to get a bit light initially and I corrected but then the surface just felt like it was pulled out from underneath me. All I could think of was not to over correct too much and snap back onto the inside left wall. Seen this happen quite a few times and it's not pretty. Totalled cars are the norm, roll overs not rare. So I just had to sit out the ride across some wet grass and through the gravel. Even had time to downshift. Managed to scrub off a bit of speed but as you can see, the impact is still pretty solid. 

Ribs are sore and to make matters worse I have a cough which kicks in at night as you lie down. Tore the muscles even further in a very painful bout last night. 

Got the car back to the shop and on the hoist. From appearances it looks like the frame is ok. Roof and windscreen are straight. Whole left hand side it damaged but from underneath could only see lh tie rod bent. Will have to slowly build up an inventory of spare parts and put it back together again. That's the risk with this hobby.

ps...if you really want to feel sorry for me you can all join in and sing Happy Birthday! haha...too funny.

Yes still a few more things to be done when back again. I do have a Hans but we just ran out of time to fit the Helmet fasteners. Stupid really, but HANS won't help so much in lateral incidents, more front to rear movement. I'm sure it would have been better to have it than not though. Neck is sore. Didn't get knocked out but the helmet actually hit the GoPro behind me so quite a bit of head movement. Might have to get a seat with a Halo I think.

A few things to take out of this. If I get this all back together it won't be without net, hans and halo seat. I count myself lucky to have only sustained the injuries that I have. Going to get them checked out this morning. 

My recollections of the moment were that I felt an uncertainty of traction. The correction 'seemed' pretty mild and I felt as if on edge. Sort of tip toeing through the corner. There are a series of bumps through that corner that can also assist in unsettling the car. We also noted that the rear right hand bushing that holds the banana arm to the torsion tube carrier had a little fore/aft movement but couldn't replace it in time. We felt that under compression it would be ok. Perhaps it was a combination of a few things but I have to say that loss of traction seems the main culprit. Not to assuage my ego, merely examining the event. The car in front seemed to have stuff billowing out so much so that I thought I was behind some Dragon car on a Japanese kid's show. I also noticed the shifter moving sideways. Not sure quite why that is the case? The car has all new mounts in it. Have to check into this as well. 

As Chris notes, I did downshift. This was a deliberate attempt to scrub off more speed. Sitting on the sidelines as a Monday Quarterback, it is doubtful that this did much to slow the car...but I didn't have many options at my disposal. Wonder if yanking on the handbrake or just jerking the wheel suddenly sideways would have helped? Rotate or Rollover??

Well the ribs are fractured and while the neck is pretty traumatised, it's not in any danger of further damage by way of X-Rays. Now that the adrenalin has worn off, things are tightening up and starting to tickle. 

As for the corrections and discussion, well don't worry, I am happy to have people's opinion and don't take it personally. Of course an event like this dents the ego and confidence as much as the panels, but I think in my 'defense' I have to point out that there were two mitigating circumstances going on. One was the absolute conscious thought of not letting the outside tyres get onto the grass and causing a rapid hard left hand turn to the inside wall. This was a very clear and pervading thought as I was going through this. We have seen plenty of video or been at the track when this has happened. Generally presents a worse result than the one I experienced. So as I started to lose it to the right I was very much trying to straighten the car up. Of course this may have produced an over reaction based on my concerns of the inside wall. I'm sort of happy that at least I was thinking while this was all unfolding in beautiful 'Surround sound You 'R' There 3-D'. You can throw in 'Scratch and Smell' there too if you like! 

The other thing was that previously when I've had a loss of traction on the circuit due to too late braking or just too fast into a corner you have the advantage of all the friction between tyres and tarmac. With this one I had grip, then no grip. So there was very little chance of keeping it on the road surface. I'm sure a pro would have handled the situation a lot better than me, but it's only when you get into these situations that you are confronted by whatever is in your artillery. If you don't have the moves then it's hard to consciously pull them out. Instinct is ok but experience and knowledge is better. 

To add, with the extra rubber and springs when they do give away it's just faster. (900/1100) If I'm honest, I wasn't entirely convinced that we'd got really close to setting the car up yet. All we'd done is go in with certain bump and rebound settings, taken the rear sway off as the car was too taily with it. We'd made some minor adjustments to the rears and went out again. The car was feeling a little nervous or jittery even in a straight line in the morning. It was a bit better during the ill fated session. There was still a lot of work to be done. 

Just a damned shame to get this far and bin it first time out. Took a lot of time, money, effort and now we're back quite a few places. Like playing Snakes and Ladders! 

Onwards!

4/23/12

Wish I had of had a bit more tarmac and friction to utilise. A slow spin is fine if you have a straighter bit of track. This is at the fastest part of the circuit and a long 90o bend. I was a fair way into 6th gear and probably doing 110mph+ through there. A lot of momentum wanting me to go to the rhs of the track, especially with a sudden slippery surface. I think the only thing I could have done in hindsight would have been to pull the wheel hard left as to rotate the car. When it let go there really just wasn't time to straighten things up on the road with little adjustments or by pushing down on the gas pedal. I was going off to the right hand side no matter what. What I'd like to know is what would have happened had I rotated the car? That's the uncertainty in my head and obvious concerns about flipping the car. These are the things that should be taught as much as car craft etc. To add, they are spending what amounts to no small fortune on this track however I suspect that they will leave changing or upgrading the known areas of concern either to the end or not at all.

To be honest and this isn't to make any excuses, but the car is very different to what I was used to. Don't get me wrong, I love it and can feel the potential. Missing 3rd gear selection a few times has me irked. I never missed in my old box. The brakes are very different but I was growing to like them. Seating position is different. Motor felt good though. Having a guy on the sidelines very calmly analyzing everything that the data produces is great, but also slightly distracting. Still, it was great feeling like there was sooo much more to learn. 

Anyway, time to put it behind me and get over it. Life goes on.

4/24/12

Just to answer a few questions. 

These are the details I have on the Motons:

So the fronts are 160kg w/ 30kg tenders and the rears are 200kg w/ 40kg tenders. I'm not sure if the tenders are counted in the overall spring rates. My logic tells me that a spring is a spring and therefore can resist pressure and should be counted? However I've heard other people say that they are just locators. So approx 900lb front and 1100lb rear. Steve, you may well be right. My builder and very good driver * wants to take some rear spring out. We had them set at 9/15 bump and 7/15 rebound all round. We then knocked 2 clicks of rebound out of the rear when we took the rear sway-bar off. The car did seem to handle a bit better after that but was it bar, shock or both? I also think that having virtually no rear downforce might have been an oversight. We just didn't have time to put the big wing on and there seems to be enough advice to suggest you need more power to drive through the aero drag. Might have to wait for the next motor. 

Hans, halo and netting will be in the next version. 

* A quick little montage that the builder Paul put together. This was with him driving it after bar was off and shocks were adjusted. 

Thanks again for all the positive support by all. Much appreciated. 

Here are my geometry stats:

Well if the tender is completely 'flat' or compressed under the weight of the car, is it doing anything or is it just sort of acting as a bump stop and locator? Or even though it's compressed 100% is it still part of the quotient just because it has a rate? 

Another thing to consider is that I'm rusty, virtually everything in the car has changed and I'm getting driving coaching by the engineer based on data. I did feel like I was very slowly getting my head around the car. In some ways it felt awesome, yet in others I can see that I'm driving with caution compared to the previous incarnation. I don't have the data yet but I have to assume that I was going fairly quickly when changing into 6th gear not that far from the braking point. Maybe I'm imagining things, maybe the old rear wing did exert some downforce. When I showed the cross section template to Simon McBeath he kind of laughed in a polite way...so who knows. 

I'm going around in circles a bit here guys. Vascillating between beating myself up then feeling like people are saying I'm to blame and it was an amateur mistake. I know I've driven around that track enough times and while I'm certainly no pro I have faith that I'm an ok driver. The feeling of lack of control when it happened reminded me of two other times. One when I hit a rain storm while driving on fully worn R specs with no tread, and the other time was when a slick had deliminated and threw me off the track. I had zero control and can't believe many others could have saved the situation. 

Nevertheless. It is what it is and I have to get past it. Sick of hearing myself write about it and think about it. Extremely frustrating to get the car to this point and have this happen 1st time out. Sure it's just a car, but damn...I've had a LOT of problems over the last 5 years and am certifiably stupid for persisting. I wish I had another pastime that I was so passionate about because I'd be turning my efforts towards this about now. I do appreciate all you guys and your input. Just wrote to the organisers of SuperLap to withdraw for the 3rd time! Extremely frustrating and embarrassing. This is a very limited event and we were finally back in the field with a car I felt I could be proud of.