MMiskoe

Trying to sort out what gearing might be needed for Daytona, it is not like a lot of tracks. Looking at videos, lots of cars are getting to a top speed of 140-145mph range, but it is hard to know what kind of power they are making or what kind of aero they are running. Fox body mustang making about 300hp at the wheels. I don't know all the details of the gearing that it has now, but I know the 145mph range is about all it will do w/o over-reving the motor. Hoping folks would comment about what they hit for speeds vrs what range of HP they are running.

Got an email that this event had been rescheduled, but there was a comment about teams being limited to two people. Is that Two people TOTAL, or drivers plus two crew?

First kid got an Audi TT. It needed a clutch, starter, power steering lines, fuel pump. Second kid got two Miatas. One crashed with a motor and manual transmission, one very clean body, but no motor and an automatic. He did the swap. Both kids did the work while I offered support and guidance. Both ended up with pretty cool cars. Both had their respective cars running and on the road before they were old enough to even have a permit to drive them, never mind a license. What passes for teaching in one house might be considered abuse in another.

And the email arrives. Rats.

My experience with both series is as noted. Your mileage may vary. SM doesn't require a dash bar however many cars have them. Champcar also has rules about the center-to-center distance the door bars can be when they connect to the A or B pillar bars. SM's with dashboards don't always meet this requirement. Look closely at what you're getting into. SM requires the E-switch be reachable from the outside of the car so it is rare you will find one mounted in the center of the car (technically not legal for SCCA, but can be a grey area). An SM car will not be built with lightness in mind as their minimum weights are up there enough to keep the bigger drivers from getting un-justly penalized. Typically Champcar is fussier about bulkhead sealing then SCCA. Champcar in the past has given zero cares what other series the car might be legal for, if it doesn't meet all their standards, it doesn't go on their track. I have often thought this odd, SCCA carries supplemental insurance on their drivers and crew, Champcar does not yet SCCA has some less stringent safety requirements. You would think this is the other way around. Read about that fire. Ouch. You were not alone in losing a lot there, yours at least still resembled the car it once was. Pay attention to burning crap when working on a car there kids.

Sorry that it comes off wrong. I make a living from solving problems and by and large we don't need to talk about the parts that go well, we need to talk about the reasons things fail. It does make one look pessimistic. But we all know all the good parts, we want to make sure there are more of those than the problems. Do I think this will be useful? Yes. Do I think it can be a benefit? Yes. As stated, I am just not a fan of things becoming mandatory before their time. Also not a fan of mandatory items that are also single source. There is much room for abuse when those two situations coincide. It does not mean it will happen, but it can.

In reference to the FCC compliance. The manufacturer is required to sell it with a certain antenna, but can the purchaser take on the responsibility of how the FCC compliance is met (or not met) and change the antenna? Kind of like cars in the US are required to have airbags, but nothing stopping me as the end user disabling them. Still curious how many watts these things are to asses how their FCC licensing requirements. For the record I have no problem with the program, I have a problem with mandating an un-tested system. 18k laps is peanuts compared to how many laps get turned per season of Champ (well previous seasons at least). We all go out and buy a mandated piece of equipment and then find after a few races it really isn't working as planned and either it gets abandoned or the existing units are deemed not sufficient and we have to go buy another unit. And an item that likely has about $50 worth of parts in it but the buy in cost on the unit is several times that to capture the development cost. Something something.... AMB transponder costs and options something.....

Yes, I would agree, I've never seen an inductive meter for DC applications. In theory it should work, I just think there are not so many places it get used. Please verify this before you run with it - should be a way to have the amp-meter run in parallel to the line feeding the pump with a low impeadence meter, then put a resistor in the line headed to the pump. When the current flows, the path to the pump will be partially through the meter. You don't really care to know how many amps it is pulling, just that it is pulling current so getting the meter impeadence and resistor relationship accurate is not important. You're just looking for a simple on/off distinction. I am not great at electronics so I'm really speculating on the methods here. I would like to see what others might say about this method.

Seems that even if the pump is integrated into the system, they would have a separate power for the pump that gets switched via a relay. The power requirements for the pump are leaps and bounds more than the control of it. Can you put an amp-meter on that circuit? Other method would be to unplug the unit and drive without it. I talked to a guy who watched the data set up on an a Grand Am team. He commented that most drivers would drive the car w/o no assist first, learn the car, then try it with ABS, but in the end most drove without out and were no slower. The "ice mode" scares the crap out of me having seen a few cars go off as a result of lock up. Often where you get some wheel hop due to a bump. Not to mention the fact that the ABS wants to keep the wheels turning, so when you spin you will slow down, then it catches while you're aimed back into the oncoming traffic. It defeats the ability to go "two feet in".

Is this compliance something that the buyer can take on as their own responsibility once it has been sold? How many watts is this thing? I know the 5W radios we use struggle at tracks with some topography and that's with an external antenna.

Why can't there be an extension cable to allow a remote mount for the antenna? Looks like you could get a cable that goes between them.

Can you just run a low pressure pump from the surge tank to the main tank? When the car skips you need to turn on the low pressure pump, let it transfer 1/2 gallon to the main tank and get you into the pit? I haven't read the rules on this, but it seems simpler.

How is it getting tested when there's no racing going on? My complaint on this is that it needs about 10-20,000 laps (yes that many) spanning all tracks to see how it really works before just declaring it is required for everyone.

Popping out the piston and replacing the seals is a "every-few-races" item. I did have one weeping at me when we went to Atlanta last winter, so I swapped out the o-ring. Takes about 5 minutes.

What are you doing with them? I've got 20 years of Miata endurance races behind me and never a failure. Probably just jinxed myself.