Did my First HPDE with Porsche Club on Sat.

mopwer · 04-21-2008, 01:21 PM

It was a blast! It was held at FIR West Track Firebird International Raceway (West Track Page) I was in a student group since it was my first event and they gave me an instructor. Get this, while they were handing out instructors they would call your name and the car you were driving, then pick an instructor and ask them if they would ride with that student. Well, when they called my name and said it was an MR2, they asked one instructor if he would ride with in my car and he said no! I thought, "You prick!" An older gentlemen, said he would do it.

Well, we got on the track and everyone was driving like it was a Sunday drive. I was riding some ass since we could only pass on the straight and when signaled by the car in front. Not everyone was paying attention and my first and most of the second session, were very slow. I did get some sarcastic point by's (you would understand if you saw it). I'm sure they were pissed a little MR2 was blowing by their Porsche. I was allowed to pass some just to be held up by another group. I sure hope the guy that wouldn't ride with me was stuck in one of the cars I passed

I represented the MR2 community well, until the third sesssion....

Going into the straight, and got on it when I heard a pop. I knew exactly what it was as I have head it before. Blew off one of my intake hoses. It didn't have enough power to get back to the pits so I had to pull off and wait to be towed off. I did try restarting it a few times to get it back to the pits. When I got off the side of the track I did notice a little smoke coming from the back of my car. I thought the exhaust was just burning off some oil or something, but it was strange. Then it stopped. Well, we noticed that the flag stations where flying two yellows and then also a red cross flag. My instructor said he had never seen that flag actually used before and something bad must have happened. So we are looking around for an accident, but didn't see anything.

The safety safari gets to us and lets me know I had about a 12" flame coming out of my pass side tail pipe! Probably a combination of the super hot exhaust and the engine going really rich because of the intake hose. Well, get the car back to the pits and check the tail pipe area where the fire was and some of the paint is bubbled, but the bumper is not harmed. Check the engine and the PVC 90* bend I had put on for my BPV is gone! Now I check under the car and notice that there is some water leaking. It is red so I know its from the engine and not the A2W, which is green. I was thinking ****! I blew the head gasket, but I checked the overflow tank and it was completely full. Just boil over from the engine not being able to cool down propperly (no cool down lap). Whew!

Now I have to figure out how to plug the BPV hose so that it will run and get me home. Then my buddy notices the PVC piece it lodged in the heat shield. I pull it out and the end is melted and flattend some. That is why it came off, too much heat and it collapsed. It was still in good enough shape to put back on and get me home. No troubles there.

In between sessions, I was dropping a frozen water bottle in my A2W IC tank to try to cool down the water temp. After the 2nd session the water was too hot to get the bottle out with my fingers! So I just shoved another frozen one in there. Luckily there was room! I have to figure out how to get the water cooler between sessions now. Maybe dry ice! Not sure how it might effect the coolant.

Its amazing how hot stuff gets. I do have some video, I still need to edit for time and upload. I'll post later.

Overall a great time even though I didn't get my last session.

Greg

kbrew8991 · 04-21-2008, 05:31 PM

sounds somewhat fun outside of the car issues

turn the boost as far down as you can, should help some of those issues. It'll make you have to work harder as a driver to catch people which should help you pick up things faster too

mopwer · 04-21-2008, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbrew8991

sounds somewhat fun outside of the car issues

turn the boost as far down as you can, should help some of those issues. It'll make you have to work harder as a driver to catch people which should help you pick up things faster too

Good advice. I turned it down some, but not quite down to stock. I fixed the problem with a piece of copper pipe with bumps to keep it from coming off again. Actually fits better too!

Greg

PHOENIX · 04-21-2008, 08:11 PM

cool story

Glad you got your problem worked

Nice to see the porsche guys letting you in the fun even though there was 1 or 2 dickhead instructors.

kbrew8991 · 04-21-2008, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mopwer

Good advice. I turned it down some, but not quite down to stock. I fixed the problem with a piece of copper pipe with bumps to keep it from coming off again. Actually fits better too!

Greg

other benifits:
- cooler temps (coolant, oil, intake, intercooler coolant, brakes..)
- uses less gas
- easier on brakes
- easier on tires (maybe....)

thats on top of keeping your intercooler hoses on and making traffic less of an issue since you won't eat up the gaps so much on the straights...

Gairloch · 04-21-2008, 08:49 PM

Great to hear you had fun! When are you going to go again?

Did you learn anything new from the instructor and did he tell you what those flags meant?

Davis · 04-21-2008, 09:26 PM

Yeah, what are those flags? Sounds fun though that's forsure! =]

kbrew8991 · 04-21-2008, 09:41 PM

double yellow = full course caution
white with cross = ambulance and/or other emergency vehicles and crew ahead

mopwer · 04-21-2008, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gairloch

Great to hear you had fun! When are you going to go again?

Did you learn anything new from the instructor and did he tell you what those flags meant?

Yeah, I read up on those before I even got to the track, but we also had to sit through some classroom time before heading out and after the first runs.

I did actually learn some things from both the classroom and in car instruction.

Next one, with PCA anyway, isn't until August. I do have 3 autoXs in May though!

Greg

Gairloch · 04-21-2008, 10:25 PM

W00t! You going to run with any other clubs? I bet you could get hooked into some NASA events down there.

mopwer · 04-21-2008, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbrew8991

other benifits:
- cooler temps (coolant, oil, intake, intercooler coolant, brakes..)
- uses less gas
- easier on brakes
- easier on tires (maybe....)

thats on top of keeping your intercooler hoses on and making traffic less of an issue since you won't eat up the gaps so much on the straights...

QT. I did come up with an idea on how to cool down my IC and water between sessions. I'm going to get 2 coils of aluminum fuel line, some rubber hose, 12v pump, and a cooler. I can have one coil of fuel line inside the cooler and the other outside the cooler with hose in between both. I may have to have a small tank of some type to house the coolant that will be pumped through this closed loop system. I can also put some coolant in it to keep it from freezing. I will fill the cooler with ice/maybe some dry ice, and when I need to cool the IC system, pull the cap off the IC water tank and drop in the outside coil. Plug the pump into my lighter and let it run. I can also turn the IC pump on so it will circulate all the IC water.

Thoughts?

Greg

mopwer · 04-21-2008, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gairloch

W00t! You going to run with any other clubs? I bet you could get hooked into some NASA events down there.

Yeah, that's some of the stuff I need to figure out. How to get in with the other clubs. How do you guys do it? Really only want to run in HPDE type stuff now. After running on the track, I'm itching to build a track only car. Wife says on of the other cars need to go before that can happen though.

I was thinking about a Mk1.5 with a Gen 3 engine/trans. then the rest of the car race prepped (stripped and all the safety equipment). I really don't want to get rid of the Mk2 though...

Greg

Gairloch · 04-21-2008, 10:42 PM

Here's the AZ NASA region site: Club Racing Arizona

You have to pay $40 for a year long membership to NASA (comes with a subscription to Grassroots Motorsports magazine) then it's a matter of checking out the schedule to figure out which events you want to run. Most places a full weekend entry fee is ~$300.

mopwer · 04-21-2008, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gairloch

Here's the AZ NASA region site: Club Racing Arizona

You have to pay $40 for a year long membership to NASA (comes with a subscription to Grassroots Motorsports magazine) then it's a matter of checking out the schedule to figure out which events you want to run. Most places a full weekend entry fee is ~$300.

Thanks. They actually supplied the flag worker for the HPDE I was at on Sat. I just registered on the forum.

Greg

04-21-2008, 01:21 PM	#1 (permalink)
mopwer 933SGTE Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Peoria, AZ Posts: 1,096 Thanks: 24 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (12/100% )	Did my First HPDE with Porsche Club on Sat. It was a blast! It was held at FIR West Track Firebird International Raceway (West Track Page) I was in a student group since it was my first event and they gave me an instructor. Get this, while they were handing out instructors they would call your name and the car you were driving, then pick an instructor and ask them if they would ride with that student. Well, when they called my name and said it was an MR2, they asked one instructor if he would ride with in my car and he said no! I thought, "You prick!" An older gentlemen, said he would do it. Well, we got on the track and everyone was driving like it was a Sunday drive. I was riding some ass since we could only pass on the straight and when signaled by the car in front. Not everyone was paying attention and my first and most of the second session, were very slow. I did get some sarcastic point by's (you would understand if you saw it). I'm sure they were pissed a little MR2 was blowing by their Porsche. I was allowed to pass some just to be held up by another group. I sure hope the guy that wouldn't ride with me was stuck in one of the cars I passed I represented the MR2 community well, until the third sesssion.... Going into the straight, and got on it when I heard a pop. I knew exactly what it was as I have head it before. Blew off one of my intake hoses. It didn't have enough power to get back to the pits so I had to pull off and wait to be towed off. I did try restarting it a few times to get it back to the pits. When I got off the side of the track I did notice a little smoke coming from the back of my car. I thought the exhaust was just burning off some oil or something, but it was strange. Then it stopped. Well, we noticed that the flag stations where flying two yellows and then also a red cross flag. My instructor said he had never seen that flag actually used before and something bad must have happened. So we are looking around for an accident, but didn't see anything. The safety safari gets to us and lets me know I had about a 12" flame coming out of my pass side tail pipe! Probably a combination of the super hot exhaust and the engine going really rich because of the intake hose. Well, get the car back to the pits and check the tail pipe area where the fire was and some of the paint is bubbled, but the bumper is not harmed. Check the engine and the PVC 90* bend I had put on for my BPV is gone! Now I check under the car and notice that there is some water leaking. It is red so I know its from the engine and not the A2W, which is green. I was thinking ****! I blew the head gasket, but I checked the overflow tank and it was completely full. Just boil over from the engine not being able to cool down propperly (no cool down lap). Whew! Now I have to figure out how to plug the BPV hose so that it will run and get me home. Then my buddy notices the PVC piece it lodged in the heat shield. I pull it out and the end is melted and flattend some. That is why it came off, too much heat and it collapsed. It was still in good enough shape to put back on and get me home. No troubles there. In between sessions, I was dropping a frozen water bottle in my A2W IC tank to try to cool down the water temp. After the 2nd session the water was too hot to get the bottle out with my fingers! So I just shoved another frozen one in there. Luckily there was room! I have to figure out how to get the water cooler between sessions now. Maybe dry ice! Not sure how it might effect the coolant. Its amazing how hot stuff gets. I do have some video, I still need to edit for time and upload. I'll post later. Overall a great time even though I didn't get my last session. Greg

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04-21-2008, 05:31 PM	#2 (permalink)
kbrew8991 gimme some turns Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 1,685 Thanks: 76 Thanked 82 Times in 70 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (5/100% )	sounds somewhat fun outside of the car issues turn the boost as far down as you can, should help some of those issues. It'll make you have to work harder as a driver to catch people which should help you pick up things faster too

04-21-2008, 08:11 PM	#4 (permalink)
PHOENIX Beams Owners Group Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: On Hiatus....... Posts: 9,266 Thanks: 92 Thanked 292 Times in 224 Posts Blog Entries: 1 My Google Map iTrader Rating: (49/100% )	cool story Glad you got your problem worked Nice to see the porsche guys letting you in the fun even though there was 1 or 2 dickhead instructors.

04-21-2008, 08:49 PM	#6 (permalink)
Gairloch Dreaming of apexes Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 5,313 Thanks: 139 Thanked 296 Times in 264 Posts Blog Entries: 4 My Google Map iTrader Rating: (7/100% )	Great to hear you had fun! When are you going to go again? Did you learn anything new from the instructor and did he tell you what those flags meant?

04-21-2008, 09:26 PM	#7 (permalink)
Davis Radical Dreamer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Long Beach, California Posts: 4,536 Thanks: 85 Thanked 125 Times in 113 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (7/100% )	Yeah, what are those flags? Sounds fun though that's forsure! =]

04-21-2008, 09:41 PM	#8 (permalink)
kbrew8991 gimme some turns Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 1,685 Thanks: 76 Thanked 82 Times in 70 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (5/100% )	double yellow = full course caution white with cross = ambulance and/or other emergency vehicles and crew ahead

04-21-2008, 10:25 PM	#10 (permalink)
Gairloch Dreaming of apexes Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 5,313 Thanks: 139 Thanked 296 Times in 264 Posts Blog Entries: 4 My Google Map iTrader Rating: (7/100% )	W00t! You going to run with any other clubs? I bet you could get hooked into some NASA events down there.

04-21-2008, 10:42 PM	#13 (permalink)
Gairloch Dreaming of apexes Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 5,313 Thanks: 139 Thanked 296 Times in 264 Posts Blog Entries: 4 My Google Map iTrader Rating: (7/100% )	Here's the AZ NASA region site: Club Racing Arizona You have to pay $40 for a year long membership to NASA (comes with a subscription to Grassroots Motorsports magazine) then it's a matter of checking out the schedule to figure out which events you want to run. Most places a full weekend entry fee is ~$300.