[Nathanwilson808]

I am wanting to set up my car to be able to compete in both road course and 1/4 mile drag. I recently bought a 2300 Magnuson and some +30% injectors. I’m assuming that I need to ditch the idea of using the meth if I want to road course race, but don’t mind ditching the idea of road course racing all together because I imagine it’s going to be difficult to do both effectively. This will be my build list once I’m done putting everything in. What type of fuel should I plan to run and what type of power can I get out of a setup like this?

2018 ZL1 M6
2300 Magnuson
Texas Speed EL-C7 V2 Cam (227/239 .646"/.631" 115 LSA, 112 ICL w/ +32% Fuel Lobe)
Speed Engineering 2" long tube headers with 3" X-pipes
DSX Aux fuel pump with DSX flex fuel sensor
DSX 9.25" harmonic balanacer
Griptec 2.6" upper pulley or 80mm Magnuson pulley
RotoFab Big Gulp Intake
Soler 103mm throttle body
XDI 30% injectors
Alky dual M10 nozzle meth injection
WeaponX TripleX heat exchanger
McLeod RXT 1200hp twin disc clutch
Viking Crusader PT triple adjustable rear coilovers w/ 750lb springs

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Nathanwilson808

I am wanting to set up my car to be able to compete in both road course and 1/4 mile drag. I recently bought a 2300 Magnuson and some +30% injectors. I’m assuming that I need to ditch the idea of using the meth if I want to road course race, but don’t mind ditching the idea of road course racing all together because I imagine it’s going to be difficult to do both effectively. This will be my build list once I’m done putting everything in. What type of fuel should I plan to run and what type of power can I get out of a setup like this?

2018 ZL1 M6
2300 Magnuson
Texas Speed EL-C7 V2 Cam (227/239 .646"/.631" 115 LSA, 112 ICL w/ +32% Fuel Lobe)
Speed Engineering 2" long tube headers with 3" X-pipes
DSX Aux fuel pump with DSX flex fuel sensor
DSX 9.25" harmonic balanacer
Griptec 2.6" upper pulley or 80mm Magnuson pulley
RotoFab Big Gulp Intake
Soler 103mm throttle body
XDI 30% injectors
Alky dual M10 nozzle meth injection
WeaponX TripleX heat exchanger
McLeod RXT 1200hp twin disc clutch
Viking Crusader PT triple adjustable rear coilovers w/ 750lb springs

I’d ditch the meth and buy either an LPE BB HPFP or the new Goliath HPFP. Then run E85. Should be able to net 800+ WHP. The 2300 is a good step behind the 2650 FYI… if you’re serious about big power that’s a no brainer upgrade.

[nighttowl]

Have you ran your car on the road course stock as is?

[Nathanwilson808]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

I’d ditch the meth and buy either an LPE BB HPFP or the new Goliath HPFP. Then run E85. Should be able to net 800+ WHP. The 2300 is a good step behind the 2650 FYI… if you’re serious about big power that’s a no brainer upgrade.

I really don’t have the extra $3000 to spend on a BB HPFP right now. I’m looking to optimize what I currently have.

[Nathanwilson808]

Originally Posted by nighttowl

Have you ran your car on the road course stock as is?

I have never road course raced before. My brother is a SCCA instructor and I’m interested in getting into it.

[nighttowl]

Originally Posted by Nathanwilson808

I have never road course raced before. My brother is a SCCA instructor and I’m interested in getting into it.

The problem with upping the power and taking it to a road course it is engine overheat and braking.
Its very easy to get in over your head when you have a fast car.
I only go 2-3 times a year since the 2000's but I can say I've seen at least 1 person wad up thier car / motorcycle on every outing. I have seen a few people die also.

You should take it to the road track as is if its your intention to see what it will do. These cars are extremely capable on the track.

if you are only going to 1/4 mile it - I'd say go wild. I hate seeing guys wad up thier car at the track.

As a road guy here is what I would recommend.
go and watch the races and see what people are running up there. If you are serious about SCCA, I would recommend starting with a fwd car that has some power and gut it. upgrade the tires and brakes and go racing. Its super fun and if you have a car that is cheap to maintain its affordable to go all the time.

[airtroop01]

If you’re serious about SCCA, you’ll likely need to remove your mods as you would have to be in the unlimited classes where you will get killed as a newbie.

HPDE, on the other hand, will allow you to keep the mods and enjoy them while getting your skills up. I have a Maggy 2650, long tubes and port injection and it’s a blast.

Lessons learned:
- Road courses exact much more strain on the car than 1/4 mile, 40-roll, or anything else you may have been doing. For that reason, meth is out. Also, you’re likely not going to have enough of a tank to keep it. I run 100% e85 for the detonation resistance as well as the higher octane to keep power levels up. The only thing there is going through 1/2 tank every 20m run. So, go back to pump gas and a less aggressive tune, switch to race gas and open your wallet, or go to port injection like I did and keep dumping 5 gal tanks of fuel in every run.

- Invest in the DMS larger heat exchangers, oil cooling - perhaps look into the Griffin crash bar/cooling setup. Oil cooling is a real thing on the lt4 motor.

- Find some proper 200tw tire, the Supercar 3Rs work well but can be expensive and unavailable sometimes. Also make sure you have a quality tire gauge. Maybe consider robbing a tire shop (kidding)

- alignment; find a good competent person and hold onto them

- last, go out and have fun but, refer to the first thing that I said. Any mod that you’ve done that isn’t 100% over engineered and solid will come back to bite you in the rear. The zl1 1le is already shaken out by the factory. While other mods are fine for the rest, the road course will eat em up.

[dreksnot]

I second what airtroop01 has spoken. What you have said is what I tried to do with my 5th Gen - it was good at everything but not great at anything. Take your car, as is now, to the road course and run it. I think it will surprise you how well it does just with the LT4 blower. I took my ZLE to the road course 22 hours after receiving shipment (off the trailer) of it (it was used). Compared to my heavily modified TT 5th Gen, well.... no comparison as to how well these 6th Gens do (plus I did run into motor over temp issues even with extra cooling (larger radiator and oil cooler on the 5th Gen)). Good tires are a must - I was running worn SC3R's. Last low-speed autocross I ran with the Corvette folks, I settled into 4th place position out of 27 drivers. I don't feel too bad because they were professionals or SCCA people with dedicated cars to boot that lead me by less than a 2/3rds of second on a minute long course (my wannabe metal racecar driver). I did get the new Hoosier TAP tires and a better alignment that would work for street/track. The additional LT4 SC power did help on that course but most of the time, extra power isn't needed and can actually cause traction issues when not desired.

Now, for the 1/4-mile stuff, that just needs raw power, good drag tires, and any other additional mod (15", 2-step, etc).

I'm on the fence about adding more power to my ZLE. With more power usually causes more issues... like more heat to try to get rid of, more wrenching on the car, but done moderately, can work. It's just finding that moderate position to be key to the best ride ever. They do make boost controllers like the SmoothBoost and Atlas that you can dial down boost (power) - that may be a saving grace to prevent heat/traction issues when not desired.

[Stephen12ZL1]

definitely focus on cooling mods & brakes first...power mods last for reasons mentioned above

[LiquidRS]

Interesting topic so thought I'd wade into the discussion. For any FI car, the biggest issue on track is managing heatsoak/IATs. Any dyno type headline BHP figures are rather meaningless in the context of repeated hard accelerating over several laps. Hence what becomes more important is repeatable/sustainable horsepower over a 20-30 min period. From experience my modified C6 Z06 was quicker on track (on the straights) than a modified ZR1 after a few laps, because of heat soak on the ZR1. I've heard of similar stories around SS vs ZL mid way through a session. So approach any track build with the above sustainable BHP in mind and most of the usual street/drag strip mods are rendered rather useless.


And finally address oil temps as the little heat exchanger on the block seems puny given its task at hand, maybe a air to oil cooler is more appropriate.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

I’d ditch the meth and buy either an LPE BB HPFP or the new Goliath HPFP. Then run E85. Should be able to net 800+ WHP. The 2300 is a good step behind the 2650 FYI… if you’re serious about big power that’s a no brainer upgrade.

Like others have said, stop thinking about the POWER and work exactly as I did to remedy the issues you will find when running trackdays to push your car to higher limits. My video shared elsewhere on this Forum and down below here goes over my step-by-step journey over the past year with my ZLE, beginning with the issues I faced from my first track day to having zero issues my last two track days.

Simply put, you will want some sort of fueling to resist detonation and the inevitable pull of timing to limit power when on longer straights. Running straight E85 is not effective nor necessary as you will have to take a 55-gallon drum to each event!! Tune your car to run on E20-30 which is all it will need to be safe and then take the tune to E40 as I did to give a little boost in that power!! Right now, E85 at the pump near Road Atlanta is $2.1/gallon versus buying 100-octane unleaded VP fuel for $14/gallon at the track pumps!! I would blend in 5-gallons of E85 to get me over 20% for each session, which netted incredible results not only for fueling with zero timing retard but also reduced engine MATs, Oil Temps and increased power.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Originally Posted by LiquidRS

Interesting topic so thought I'd wade into the discussion. For any FI car, the biggest issue on track is managing heatsoak/IATs. Any dyno type headline BHP figures are rather meaningless in the context of repeated hard accelerating over several laps. Hence what becomes more important is repeatable/sustainable horsepower over a 20-30 min period. From experience my modified C6 Z06 was quicker on track (on the straights) than a modified ZR1 after a few laps, because of heat soak on the ZR1. I've heard of similar stories around SS vs ZL mid way through a session. So approach any track build with the above sustainable BHP in mind and most of the usual street/drag strip mods are rendered rather useless.


And finally address oil temps as the little heat exchanger on the block seems puny given its task at hand, maybe a air to oil cooler is more appropriate.

SOUND ADVICE!!

The abuse Road Racing puts on every part of the car is massively more taxing to every system. In drag racing where straight-line acceleration is the key, everything is loaded for acceleration... unlike road racing where the throttle is used like a whip, beating the drivetrain into load, unload and load at a frequency beyond comprehension of most drivers.

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by ZLElvira

Like others have said, stop thinking about the POWER and work exactly as I did to remedy the issues you will find when running trackdays to push your car to higher limits. My video shared elsewhere on this Forum and down below here goes over my step-by-step journey over the past year with my ZLE, beginning with the issues I faced from my first track day to having zero issues my last two track days.

Simply put, you will want some sort of fueling to resist detonation and the inevitable pull of timing to limit power when on longer straights. Running straight E85 is not effective nor necessary as you will have to take a 55-gallon drum to each event!! Tune your car to run on E20-30 which is all it will need to be safe and then take the tune to E40 as I did to give a little boost in that power!! Right now, E85 at the pump near Road Atlanta is $2.1/gallon versus buying 100-octane unleaded VP fuel for $14/gallon at the track pumps!! I would blend in 5-gallons of E85 to get me over 20% for each session, which netted incredible results not only for fueling with zero timing retard but also reduced engine MATs, Oil Temps and increased power.

E isn’t just about power my friend (as I’m sure you know). The octane is crazy high (higher than 100 octane race fuel) which of course resists timing retard as you mentioned and E pulls heat out of the combustion chamber.

You’re looking at it from a road course point of view so I see where you’re coming from. I’m coming at it from a drag race point of view so E20 doesn’t cut it at my power level… Plus 5 gallons of E last me the whole day haha. But I can see why you do what do and it obviously works too.

[Patriot Motorsports USA]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

E isn’t just about power my friend (as I’m sure you know). The octane is crazy high (higher than 100 octane race fuel) which of course resists timing retard as you mentioned and E pulls heat out of the combustion chamber.

You’re looking at it from a road course point of view so I see where you’re coming from. I’m coming at it from a drag race point of view so E20 doesn’t cut it at my power level… Plus 5 gallons of E last me the whole day haha. But I can see why you do what do and it obviously works too.

I have MAD Respect for you and what your car has achieved! I had my Nissan GTR turned up so high, it had to run on straight MS109!! The VP 100 Unleaded was just enough to stop the misfires due to the OEM tuning with the heat issues on the left side of the engine. During the summer July trackday heat, running straight VP at $14/gallon cost more than the entire trackday and all it really did was slow the car down!

Switching to my formula gave me the results I was looking for and the datalogs revealed we got it right with zero timing being pulled at any point on the track. Our initial concerns were the back long straight running from 2nd to 8th gear since the RPM dropped to 3200 coming off the corner with a WOT PTM transition to 6200 RPM shift points. The knock would hit just off the corner at a lower transition, not the actual rev-limit shifts. Once I addressed why this was happening from the temps POV, the remedy was clear.

Thanks Josh!!