Yesterday at WSIR

[Chino 240Z]

Still feeling yesterdays excitement at Willow Springs Inter. Raceway, open track racing group. Finally had some track time to do some debuggin and car setup at last! We were lucky in the afternoon, Borris Said showed up with his toys and did some impressive testing in the afternoon.

Pic of a little pressure of a ZO6 on my tail.

Craig

[Victor Laury]

Craig

That looks great. Was it tough staying ahead of the overweight chevy grand tourer?

[2ManyZs]

Err, Victor, they may be heavy... but those Z06's are quick...

Craig, the car looks like it's pretty well set up.. not much body roll at all. I just have one question, have you checked your rear tire temps? I only ask because you seem to have quite a bit of negative camber in the rear....Depending on the tire used, most of the Z car guys run very little negative in the rear...

[Chino 240Z]

Thanks 2Many, Still learning what this car is suppose to feel like. I have a mechanic friend with some professional experience with the whole game. He has several cars, one is a 260 & a 510, I will add the camber question to the list I am putting together so I can go over it with him. The tire temp, was about 145* inside edge, 139* in the middle and about 136* on outside edge. All 4 tires had this type of reading. Except the lefts were hotter than the rights because turn 8 & 9 are 90-110mph turns just before you exit the track to the pits, so the holding side (left) builds the heat.

Victor, I was out of their way in the turns but always gave them the point- by for them to go ahead and pass me a the straights, yep, they're fast! I was all over the rear of one ZO6 for 2 laps, I was learning the line more by the end of the day. I'm not out of the woods with my nes SU carb problems yet. Over 5000rpms, 5th gear over half throttle would fall, sputter, I am working with either too much or not enough fuel, (on the straights wide open). But it's getting better with each little tweak!

Cindy at the wheel in this pic.

[2ManyZs]

Ok, mainly I was wondering if you were taking the temps at all...I've been crewing for my old ITS 280 this year and it took me a while to convince them to get a pyrometer....

You might want to take just a little bit, maybe 1/2 degree of camber out... main reason is to get your tire temps as close as possible across the whole tread, then you can work with tire pressure a bit. If you can get within 5 degrees across the tread, you've got it about as close as possible. The closer the temp is, the better it is.

[Chino 240Z]

Ya know every time I looked at it I wonder, and now that I was reading the temps across the tire somewhat different, I got that stooper of thought that I might put some positive camber back in. I saw a camber degree little tool angle, thingy in I/O Port, Racers Equip. or some catalog around here some where around here, for quick camber angle checks. I think I'll hunt that thing down. Thanks. I'll think of acouple more things on my mind I'd like to pick your brain for.

craig

[2ManyZs]

With a pyrometer, you really don't need to spend the money on a camber gauge.. unless you just want to know what it is set at so you can write it in a log. If you run more than one track that will be a big help, since every track is going to require a different setting for the best result. If you change it for one track, you can re-set the camber for another track with the gauge according to your set-up log.

I've read on some of the racing forums that some of the tires really fall off if their temps get up to 150 plus degrees. Given that you might have lost a couple degrees exiting the track before you got the tire temps, you might be getting close to that now. That's one of the reason I said something.....Can't remember which tires they were talking about though, whether it's the Hoosiers or the Kumhos, but either way, you should try to even the temps out no matter what for the best handling.

[Chino 240Z]

2Many, I understand and agree. I did make up some log sheets and tried to record tire temps, pressure, track temp, notes of adjustments that were made before and after a run. Somewhere this info. compiled will help my setups per track. I am using a Raytech Laser Mini Temp gun, do you know if this will give me the same results?

The tires are Toyo RA1 225-50-R14, the max. temp I think I saw was 145* with 125* track temp @ 2:00pm. Another Turbo-240Z that shared our shade had Yokohama (street tread, I think) tires and I read 175* after one of his runs, OUCH-HOT.

The next time out is December, Wed. 3rd @ Willow Springs, the big track. The temps will be way down then too, so we are preparing and talking about the things we want to try and how to get better results each time out. I showed my daughter how to help by taking the car & track readings, covering the tires in the direct sun, keeping the fan on the engine, preparing the car before and after a run and stuff like that. It's tuff being a one man show. So we are all learning what and how to do things to make everything go well. Mrs. Chino-240 Cindy can't wait to go out again!