[Ryephile]

Originally Posted by HGR Z1LE

I think the brake dust issue I had is subject to heavy car and no brake duct cooling. I see brake temp well above 1000F all the time. I was black flag at Gingerman once becasue the corner worker at T11 saw my rotor glowing. Your brake temp is definitly warm, but I guess it's ok for stock set up. Adding a brake duct to the camaro seem pretty easy. Since there is a duct opening already, just need to mod the back plate and add the hose.

1:26.6 at Grattan is definitely fast! That's on par with GT350 and C7 Z51, or even faster.

1000F rotor temps, are you using paint to verify that? In any case, visibly red rotors in daylight is certainly in the 1000F region. Given my hub temps after cool-down and how quickly the rotors are checking/cracking, I wouldn't doubt mine are right there too. A flex-hose connecting the bumper duct to the backing plate seems to be the next logical step.

1.26.6 is a tenth better than track record for NASA TTA, for what it's worth, and I was maintaining consistent high 1.26's all day.

[HGR Z1LE]

Originally Posted by Ryephile

1000F rotor temps, are you using paint to verify that? In any case, visibly red rotors in daylight is certainly in the 1000F region. Given my hub temps after cool-down and how quickly the rotors are checking/cracking, I wouldn't doubt mine are right there too. A flex-hose connecting the bumper duct to the backing plate seems to be the next logical step.

1.26.6 is a tenth better than track record for NASA TTA, for what it's worth, and I was maintaining consistent high 1.26's all day.

I was told iron rotor start to glow above 1200f. I used the stranoparts 750f,1000f,1250f temp kit. When I use ds2500 and xp8 with stock tire, temp is between 750 and 1000 after hot pit stop. After I change to r-comp tires, I used both xp12 and rp2. They defintely exceed 1000 and 1250 at Gingerman.

I think cracked iron rotor is unavoiable if the car is tracked even with cooling duct. At long as the pad life is normal, additional cooling is not necessary, but it will dramatically increase pad life and save the brake system!

[Ryephile]

Originally Posted by HGR Z1LE

I was told iron rotor start to glow above 1200f. I used the stranoparts 750f,1000f,1250f temp kit. When I use ds2500 and xp8 with stock tire, temp is between 750 and 1000 after hot pit stop. After I change to r-comp tires, I used both xp12 and rp2. They defintely exceed 1000 and 1250 at Gingerman.

I think cracked iron rotor is unavoiable if the car is tracked even with cooling duct. At long as the pad life is normal, additional cooling is not necessary, but it will dramatically increase pad life and save the brake system!

Iron starts to glow visibly in daylight below 1000F, just FYI.

In all the years I've been tracking, I've only seen heavy cars crack rotors, most commonly C5 Corvettes. I went over 4 years on the same rotors in my Exige S, no cracking, and virtually no wear either for that matter. My Miata has gone the last 2 seasons on the same insanely cheap Wilwood rotors, also no visible rotor wear despite chewing through pads quicker as it's heavier than the Lotus with worse weight distribution. The 1LE still has some catching up to do to match my Exige S pace on track, and it certainly won't do it by following in the footsteps of the C5 'vette. The rotors need cooling on this heavy beast.

[jaymsu]

I once seriously considered picking up Miata for track because of their inexpensive and long lasting wear items - tires/pads/rotors. I bet their gas mileage on track is much better than our cars too.

I used to get 6.5-7.2 mpg with C6, but with Camaro, I'm getting 5.1 mpg on track.

[Ryephile]

The Exige S was fantastic with on-track fuel economy, it got about 10 MPG. Less power and less weight but sticky tires are all boons for fuel economy.

Yea the Camaro is thirsty for sure! It makes me wonder if it's enriching significantly during extended WOT. Given it runs stupid narrowbands from the factory, we'd have to add a WBO2 to check that.

[Ryephile]

Finally got the Track Day pads back out of the car. GROSS, the iron plus brake dust caked into a nice cement on the wheel barrels. I hate when track pad dust gets wet, it makes such a major mess. The one thing I like about Grattan however is the slippery asphalt results in much fewer rubber chunk marks on the body, that makes clean-up quicker.

In any case, there's evidence the front pads were literally starting to melt. The wear pattern is also biasing to slightly more on the front inboard pads than outboard, though the caliper/pad sliding areas all looked good. The front pads are down to on-average 7.5mm, and the rears are at 8mm.

Street pads [Power Stop Z26] are back in, and the calipers and suspension now all washed and fresh looking. No Brownbo's yet. I think the anti-rattle backing plate on the pads are helping to insulate the pad heat from the caliper.

[JeromeS13]

Originally Posted by Ryephile

Finally got the Track Day pads back out of the car. GROSS, the iron plus brake dust caked into a nice cement on the wheel barrels. I hate when track pad dust gets wet, it makes such a major mess. The one thing I like about Grattan however is the slippery asphalt results in much fewer rubber chunk marks on the body, that makes clean-up quicker.

In any case, there's evidence the front pads were literally starting to melt. The wear pattern is also biasing to slightly more on the front inboard pads than outboard, though the caliper/pad sliding areas all looked good. The front pads are down to on-average 7.5mm, and the rears are at 8mm.

Street pads [Power Stop Z26] are back in, and the calipers and suspension now all washed and fresh looking. No Brownbo's yet. I think the anti-rattle backing plate on the pads are helping to insulate the pad heat from the caliper.

Do you think titanium shims would be a worthwhile investment?

[Ryephile]

Well, they're not going to hurt, that's for sure. I think it depends on the pad you use. Glamcem's Raybestos appear to have more thermal conduction, based on his calipers' white lettering turning beige, but mine are still bright white and my backing plates still black, as it appears the Power Stop's have lower thermal conduction.

[Ryephile]

Oh it's been a bit since I updated! The 1LE turned over 4000 miles, and was part of it's first big car show at Rodgers annual Camaro event. It was a really fantastic turnout. I have to admit I wasn't sure what kind of demographic would be there; it was a pleasant surprise that pretty much everyone I talked to was very down to Earth and friendly. It was really great to get about 5 minutes with Al O. and pick his brain about some of the intricacies of the ABS and PTM calibrations. He's still skeptical that some of us are already heat-checking the brake rotors; so either the production iron isn't what they specified or we're harder on brakes than they test for. Given we're running high-mu track pads, I'm inclined to believe the latter.

Rodgers Chevrolet 2017 Camaro car show. by Ryephile, on Flickr

Rodgers Chevrolet 2017 Camaro car show. by Ryephile, on Flickr

And my car was way back in the "back 40" since I arrived a bit late.
Rodgers Chevrolet 2017 Camaro car show by Ryephile, on Flickr



I also went back to Grattan, but this time with the Miata. I have fresh Hoosier R7's (225/45-15) for that car, and wanted to see how it would compare lap-time wise with the stock 1LE. On one hand, I set a personal best with the Miata, at 1:27.3. That's 3.2 seconds quicker than the NASA Spec Miata lap record! On the other hand, it's 0.7 seconds slower than the 1LE. So, to keep it all in perspective, the Miata has a power-to-weight of 8.5 pounds per HP, and the 1LE is 8.2, pretty similar. The datalogged end-of-straight speeds were 128 and 140 respectively, indicating a massive difference in power (260 vs. 455). Where the 1LE uses it's power, magic LSD and dampers to put power down cleanly, the Miata's main advantages are it doesn't have to slow as much for the corners, and it's brakes are also much better. Once the brake temps are improved on the 1LE and stickier tires are added, it'll decimate.

Something that's often overlooked, is the Miata is *much* more physical to drive. With sticky Hoosiers and a de-powered steering rack, it requires a significant amount of physical strength to turn the car. As an example, I let a long time good friend take the Miata out for a session, and as he reversed out of my paddock space, he said "the steering is stuck, it won't turn!". In fact, he didn't realize the steering needed *that* much effort, even with the tires rolling. To counter-point that, I keep the Camaro on "touring" steering, which is easy and light, and frees up the mental processing that's otherwise fairly distracted by physical exertion. After 5 sessions in one day with the Miata, I'm physically exhausted. After 5 sessions in the 1LE, I'm still fresh and ready for more....all while going quicker. It's really a testament to how incredible the 1LE is.

Grattan May 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

Grattan May 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

Cheers,
Ryan

[glamcem]

Cars look great, and thanks for sharing your feedback on Miata vs 1LE
Now I really want to see the new ZL1 1LE in person

[Ryephile]

Sad week for the 1LE. Both rear tires got a rough carpentry nail in them. One of them I patched but the other is holding air well enough I just left the nail in there until the new tires show up

Tire Rack is shipping a new pair of Supercar3's to my tire shop. I just don't feel comfortable doing a track day on patched tires.


I also got some help from a friend at GM regarding the 1LE's very odd audio system setup, but I'll save that info for a more complete post. There indeed is no amplifier in the 1LE, nor is there active noise canceling. The only way to add an external amp is to use the front channel speaker-level inputs.

[Ryephile]

Joined the Great Lakes Lotus Club yesterday for a track day at Gingerman. Took the 1LE this time, and it was a super light turnout, only 18 of us! The weather was moderate and the sun was intense. The track got reasonably greasy as the afternoon went on, so my lap times suffered slightly compared to this spring. Still quite consistent though, within a few tenths a lap, given the car is very easy to drive. It does take some tire temp management, as the Supercar 3's get greasy when they're hot. I've been targeting about 36 PSI hot pressures, and the wear looks fine for the alignment. I do need more front camber than the -2.0 it currently has. Coolant temps were higher this time too, 221°F means I'm giving up some power from timing pull.

I discovered my PDR did not in fact remember the finish line I marked. It wasn't until after lunch that I was looking at the data and I was having 20 minute "laps". Hmmm. So I went back out and re-marked the finish line. I guess that'll have to be part of the morning warm-up from now on.

There was a GT350R there, but it wasn't a fair comparison as he's fairly new to tracking. One of the point-by's he gave me was in the beginning of the back straight, and while my exit speed was slightly higher anyway, I pulled a noticeable gap by the braking zone. I did not expect that given his higher power.

I did discover some heretofore unknown dynamic behavior of the 1LE. The eLSD actually adds stability under power on corner exit. I spun exiting turn 6 on two separate occasions because even though my exit speed was 1 MPH less than normal (both times, incidentally, isn't data great!) I wasn't on the throttle enough, and that slight front weight transfer and/or different eLSD lock amount brought the rear end around. If I rolled into the throttle sooner the cars' yaw is more stable and exits the corner roughly 2 MPH faster. Win-win. "squeeze back in it sooner" exiting turn 6 is my takeaway.

I gave a few rides to Lotus owners. All of them complimented the cars ability to turn and rotate beyond their expectations. None of them mentioned it but I noticed that the Recaro's held them very well; nobody was clamoring for something to hold on to.

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

This Fox body belongs to a long-time instructor. It has a Coyote 5.0 in it and a whole crate of Maximum Motorsports goodies. Clean car and a clean driver.
GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr


And finally, Auto Europe let me drive their "house" Spec Miata. It was interesting comparing the SM suspension to my Miata w/Penske's. Money dampers do make a tangible difference, but I also appreciated the rigidity the full-cage gives the otherwise al dente chassis.

GLLC HPDE at Gingerman, July 2017 by Ryephile, on Flickr

[Ryephile]

Pictures of new toys:

Moreno camber/caster plates, TBD install date
Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr

Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr

Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr

Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr


And the big gadget, DSC Sport's V2 MRC computer. It's like a standalone ECU for the dampers. Been playing with it for a few days now and it's very cool. You can dial in whatever feel you want (within reason) for each of the three modes, Touring, Sport, and Track. It feels like it uses Touring settings for Snow/Ice mode, BTW.

Out of the box the included tune seems to be optimized for Track mode, as Touring wasn't well tuned and lmcgrew79 and I have been going back and forth on improving Touring mode's ride quality, and I think we got it pretty nailed now.

Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr

You can see the micro USB port for comm'ing with a laptop for tuning and firmware updates.
Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr

All the pins looked good, no issues plugging it in.
Camaro stuff by Ryephile, on Flickr

My next track day is Labor Day weekend, so I'll report back how the controller changes things, hopefully for the better.

[Ryephile]

Just finished the install of the Moreno camber/caster plates. I set them up for about -2.5 deg total, middle-roading the knuckle camber and maximizing the plate camber. This maximizes the tire-to-strut clearance, making room for future wider front tires. I also added a whiff of positive caster to emulate the ZL1 1LE alignment specs. The alignment is roughed in for now and I'll schedule a precision alignment ASAP.

The big takeaway from the shake-down test drive is the incredible precision from going from rubber strut mounts to spherical bearing strut mounts. I forgot how impressive they feel, and it's amplified with the incredible front-end grip the 1LE has. A huge improvement in telepathy. No tangible increase in NVH either, impressive.

Another thing to keep in mind is with less flexible strut mounts, the dynamic camber loss is reduced. This means that less static camber is needed to achieve the same dynamic camber. I'll get the alignment dialed in where I *think* it should be close, but next track day I'll also do IR gun measurements and see how close my estimate was.