^^^ That's a great place for the passengers right hand.

 

Yeah and no helmet! those guys are crazy....but what I was trying to show was the slide recovery. IGNORE THE REST

 

I finally got out to Dominion yesterday since I was invited by the drivers club to do a free event. When I heard free, I was all in.

I took the Viper and I'm glad I did. A lot of the members were at the event and they don't mess around. One of the members rolled up in a LP750-4 SV. There were countless GT3's and 4's. A nice 458 spider and a bunch of other p cars. I didn't realize the Lambo was the 650k one until I got home and looked it up. He was moving and I had no chance staying with him. Hahaha

i ran a timid 1:38.5 in my 3rd session. There was a total of 4 sessions. 1st session was 50 mins, 2nd was 20, 3rd and 4th were 30 mins.

The track is very challenging. I really had a tough time dealing with the walls going around 2 and 3. There was also a huge drop off after turn 3 that really freaked me out.

I wasn't there to race obviously, but the people that say the walls disappear after a session or two are way more courageous than I am.

I did enjoy the switch backs and the rest of the track.

The track is really bumpy along the straight. I started losing my brakes 20 mins into the 30 minute sessions and had to back off. I have some great video of all of these exotics kicking ass, but my GoPro moved around too much to get a decent vid.

In summary, the track reminds me of Shenandoah a little minus the long straight. It still needs a lot of work to make it safer.

Lastly the club club members said the fastest club time is 1:29.8ish. The fastest GT4 time is around 1:33

I'm still floating from seeing all of these amazing cars be driven like they didn't have a care in the world.

 

You need to post some video!!! Sounds like an awesome time. I am always happy to see people really driving those cars. My fastest so far in the S2000 was 1:38.6 on street tires, stock suspension, no aero. I just added slicks--so i am curious to see how much time that gets me.

 

I'll upload a couple of clips, but the shake is real. I was so bummed out when I got home and watched them.

1:38. is fast in the S2. Dominion is not a track where HP matters that much. The Vipers oem brakes absolutely suck. I want to have some sort of confidence braking into turn 1 at 135-145, but I felt like it was trying to stop my pickup up at such high speeds. I was letting off the gas way before the braking markers, then braking way early due to the total lack of run off.

If a GT4 thats moving is doing 1:33's and you are doing 1:38's stock, I'm not sure how much more time you can shave off that number. Maybe you could get into the 1:35's?

The GT4 has CCB's and Pilot sport cups with 1300 miles driven At Dominion.

In 2 weeks, I'll be at Bondurant racing school getting training in a Viper 2.0 T/A. I can't wait to get instruction with the car I own. I'm hoping to understand the limits more of the Snake.

Until then!

 

Yeah the video of my quick lap is a page back in this thread--same day i broke my tail light! in turn 1.....
competitive TTC times are 1:34-1:35 - I think in fully maxed out TTC trim with slicks aero and coilers i would be somewhere in the 1:33-1:35 range.... probably will never know as classes are changing after next year so I will likely just have to build for TT4. Anyway good for you man and that school is going to be awesome!!! those cars can be ridiculously fast on track with aero I hear. I have been kicking around the idea of selling the GT3 and buying a current gen viper or current gen z06.... I have never had a big displacement US car. What trim level do you have? any complaints?

 

Rough weekend at VIR. Just wanted to put this out there as a way to show how sometimes everything goes wrong and how sometimes everything goes great at the track.

Short backstory, i had just finished my engine swap 2 days before this event and had to take the car for a dynotune and get some other stuff sorted out. figured i would do a quick alignment in the morning at the track as time was very short and didnt want to be sleepy driving down there.

well that morning came about and the rear camber and toe were completely ceased. no way possible to adjust. gave the car a vibration at speed but it was managable. no big deal.

took the car out for the first session and lost power on the opening lap at turn 4. blackflag came out. damnit it was the negative battery cable came loose. but i felt like much less of an ass after i found out 2 other cars also went off on that opening lap also causing a black flag.

second session came around, i was back on track ready to go. 15 minutes into the session a corvette caught fire (big big big flames) and we were all pulled into the pits.

3rd session, i went out and did 1 lap but started losing electrical power at the start of lap 2. first was power steering and then systems were failing one at a time. barely made it back to the pits with any electrical power. We later attributed this to the battery. And to top it off, with a cherry, i ran over something in the pits that caused all the air to leave my front left tire in about 30 seconds. damnit!!!!!!!

seperately ,my good buddy in his 350z had previously blown his trans and we were planning on swapping it out that night to get him back on track in the morning. he drove to north carolina to pick up a 130k mile trans from a junkyard and it was about this time that he returned and we got to work on his trans. I gave up my 4th session and just helped him work on the car. The swap ended up taking until midnight but he was back in action and ready to go. no more problems for him this weekend.

begin day 2:

we begin the morning with me swapping out my flat tire and realizing my brake pads (which were at 90% life) were now at 10% with my APracing brake kit after 15 minutes of driving on track. Wtf. this is not the first time that this has happened with pads with this brake kit either. so i swap them out and as a result, miss my first session.

I missed session 2 because the idler pulley faied and was flopping around. i drove into town, found a replacement and returned over an hour later. it had also flopped into some wiring that shorted out and smoked like crazy. two kind gentleman at the track ran over with a fire extinguisher just in case it started flames. i was in TMI racing getting a replacement battery at this time.

3rd session of day 2 at this point, after all the repairs i was ready to go, exhausted and slightly pissed but still in a positive mindset, i hit the track. Boom! I remember thinking that it was all worth it and as soon as I opened her up, a smile came to my face and i was like yessssss!!!!!!! i should mention that i was running a 255 dunlop z2 square settup. the spare tire i was using was a 16 inch, 4 year old, 225 dunlop z1 tire in the rear right. this combined with the terrible alignment I mentioned earlier made the car nearly undriveable. but i was dedicated to seeing the checkered flag at least one time this event! that is until 1 lap later when the power steering failed. i might have stayed on the track if it wernt for the alignment and weird 4th tire issues. never the less i pulled off track and parked the car for the remainder of the event. From here i helped instruct and just hung out drank beer. Decided it wasn't worth the headache to possibly get one more session in.

what a shitty end to a shitty year. For those that dont know me, i have already blown 2 engines this year. If you're just getting into racing, be prepared. Several friends of mine in this thread haven't had any issues after years of tracking their cars, and other people like me have blown four engines and 5 head gaskets in 2 years. Not to mention all my other little issues. i have always had the worst luck with cars. The worst part is seeing all my friends go out there and have a good time while I just keep having issue, after issue, after issue. now the bank is really hitting me hard with maxed out credit cards and ill have to take a year off the track. Honestly, at this point, I really don't even want to think about cars for the next year anyways.

I love the track and i love the people ive met out there. but it may be unrealistic for me to continue this trend.

 

Hey buddy, so sorry to hear about this. It is great you were able to help others get back on track though--I think that is part of what makes this sport great--always seems like there are good people willing to lend a hand when needed.
Your luck reminds me of my last track car which was a 1997 Nissan 240sx with the Japanese sr20 motor/tans swap. About half the time it didn't run for one reason or another. A big reason I switched to the s2000 as a track car was for improved reliability, and so far so good in that department...knock on wood. Have you thought about going back to a stock motor? I credit the motor swap with a lot of our reliability issues on the Nissan.

Anyway--hang in there man. Take the time off if you need to. Decompress, regroup, and I am sure you will be back!

 

Sorry to hear Derek. I'm sure you'll get things all sorted out but it definitely takes time. The fact that you've been rushing to get the new motor in to make the event probably doesn't make things any better. At least with many of us that still drive the car on the street we can "shake things down" from a basic running perspective to make sure things seem ok (like your battery issue), while you're literally swapping the entire drivetrain in a rush, throwing it on a trailer, and then beating on it on the track.

It seemed like you had things running pretty well for a little while until you popped an engine. As I've mentioned, I think your recent engine problems are in no small part linked to the fact that you have an engine that's normally mounted laterally and it's now mounted longitudinally. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some oil starvation going on unless you modify the oil pickup and/or oil pan. K series engines have been thrown into all sorts of cars/configurations, and they run modified oil pans and pickups to compensate for them.

Ultimately, I'd just say sometimes taking a step back helps out. Slow things down and take your time. Track time is fun, but constantly wrenching can wear anyone down. Heck, even on my car that doesn't see THAT much track time I come across some issues. I had a couple alignment bolts strip where thee nut wouldn't stay tight, so I replaced them (and now keep spares handy). I consider them wear items due to the constant torquing and retorquing with alignments. After my last track day I noticed a stud with some slightly "buggered" threads. I'm sure the 3mm spacer doesn't help to clear the BBK, and it's only a matter of time till I need to pull the front hubs and install extended studs.. Shit happens for sure and this is an expensive hobby.

Many of us have learned the hard way regarding modifying cars and the "slippery slope." There's a point of "no return" where things get to be a lot more hassle/headache/money than it's worth to you. You just need to find where that point is. I've spent days swapping engines, dropping trannies, and helping friends swap engines and it wears on you after a while. Now I try to do everything I can to keep it reliable and minimize "unnecessary" wrenching. When I have it all figured out, I'll let you know.

 

Also aren't you an instructor now? You could always come out and instruct without driving--maybe they would give you event credits if you tell them your car is currently down so you could save them up for the following season! Just costs your time and might HELP( a little bit) to satisfy your track cravings too!