Sebring

[Siestarider]

Finally made it to Sebring. I am using meFISTo's track report format because I admire it.

Event: May 2&3 2015 NASA at Sebring International.
Weather: Clear 70's
Driving: HPDE 1 and 2 recreational lapping, four 25 minute sessions per day.
Car Setup: 205/45/16 BFG Sport Comp, Cobb S3 tune, Cobb IC, 2J DP, Mountune shift kit, rear seat delete, Motul brake fluid, otherwise stock, 11,600 miles.
Prior experience: Two HPDE days at PBIR.
This event:

Wow! Every session learned more, at end of day 2, bump drifting through turn 1 in 4th at 6000 rpm is more than a hoot! I call it bump drifting because the track is so bumpy in turn 1. Maybe hop drifting would be a better description.

Brakes: New rear pads, original front pads. Maybe a little fade on hardest braking into the hairpin, or maybe the tires were giving up at that point in the hottest part of the day, cannot say which for certain. Overall brakes excellent.

Suspension: Predictable and reliable. Track is so rough in some places that I would not want more stiffness unless I was certain it made the car quicker.

Powertrain: Found the right gears quickly, wonderful tranny. Traction on exit of fast turns was a problem. Nannies all off, but TC intervened on power exits to the point that I had to adjust the line to get quicker, when my preference would be putting power down sooner. Quaife or Wavetrac LSD definitely my next mod.

Tires: Hard to believe I have 10,000 miles on street and 400 miles on track, and still have tread. Could not hear radio on way home, tires so cupped and noisy, but I even enjoyed that. Better tires would make a big difference, but these are street tires and did a good job considering.

Tune: Flawless. When you cannot put the power down because TC is intervening, more power is not the answer.

Overall: Somewhere its illegal to have this much fun. For me, feeling the limits of adhesion under acceleration, braking and turnig with a street car is just a blast. Having a street car that requires a track to fully explore those limits is bountiful wealth. Happy happy.

 

[Sourskittle]

Sebring is so awesome !! I did 6 hours in my G35 and loved it. Toasted my brakes all day, but it was the best time I've ever had in a car ( yes.... I mean ever ).

I was supposed to go about a week and a half ago with my friend and his viper, but he had to work

My fiesta would need a more conservative tune ( or 100oct ), brake fluid, all new pads, and that would be about it.

What did you spend for the day? Like entry cost, fuel cost etc etc ?

My G35 ate two front tires, $275 brake pads, toasted all 4 wheel bearings, (changed diff/trans/engine oil), needed new brake fluid again, used 3-4 tanks of fuel, plus event cost with was around $400 ? Via Safemotorsports.

I also was warned about my helmet not being expensive enough...

My friend rode in a 880whp hefner twin turbo lambo, a viper race car, my car all day, and a Z06... I picked the worse day ever to be a driver, lol.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Sebring is very historic and I am sure it has some great attributes as loved by many but it is really a pretty crappy track in many ways but I AM GOING DRIVE IT all out when I get down there as it is on my bucket list big time

 

[Siestarider]

Sebring is so awesome !! I did 6 hours in my G35 and loved it. Toasted my brakes all day, but it was the best time I've ever had in a car ( yes.... I mean ever ).

I was supposed to go about a week and a half ago with my friend and his viper, but he had to work

My fiesta would need a more conservative tune ( or 100oct ), brake fluid, all new pads, and that would be about it.

What did you spend for the day? Like entry cost, fuel cost etc etc ?

My G35 ate two front tires, $275 brake pads, toasted all 4 wheel bearings, (changed diff/trans/engine oil), needed new brake fluid again, used 3-4 tanks of fuel, plus event cost with was around $400 ? Via Safemotorsports.

I also was warned about my helmet not being expensive enough...

My friend rode in a 880whp hefner twin turbo lambo, a viper race car, my car all day, and a Z06... I picked the worse day ever to be a driver, lol.

$495 to NASA, $50 for 2 tanks of 93 oct fuel, $75 for hotel room. Have 2010 Snell helmet. $5.50 for laminated numbers to tape on door.

 

[Siestarider]

Sebring is very historic and I am sure it has some great attributes as loved by many but it is really a pretty crappy track in many ways but I AM GOING DRIVE IT all out when I get down there as it is on my bucket list big time

Saw my first 12 hrs in 1963, have only missed a couple since then. Too many great memories to recount. Yes, its a rough track with too many different surfaces, but at the same time, enough corners are so hard to get right, a really satisfactory lap is very difficult to obtain. Faster you go, the harder it gets to obtain that fine lap. I love the place, warts and all.

 

[Sourskittle]

Sebring is very historic and I am sure it has some great attributes as loved by many but it is really a pretty crappy track in many ways but I AM GOING DRIVE IT all out when I get down there as it is on my bucket list big time

It is rough.... THAT'S MY FAV PART. Its not a road course, its a street by where I live that isn't perfect but has no other residential traffic AT ALL, and we can lap it over and over, lmao. Well... I mean... It's also a WW2 air strip, but I hope they NEVER EVER CHANGE IT.

There is a road course north of Ocala that I want to try, but I can't remember what its called. STARK is where it is. Its only a few years old.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I will have to tame my normal mode of driving down quite a bit when I run that track, I like to push it to the max, all the time, late on the brakes, early on the gas, hit most all the curbs, air time, etc.....something easy to get away with on most all the turns at Miller here in Utah, something many tracks just not a wise thing to do.

I quite going to MMP after a few years as could drive it fast in my sleep if I had to, only a few parts really challenged me so I started building really fast cars only to learn I really did not want to go that fast and parted them out, 3 in a row, I am so addicted to mods I could not help myself

I am close to as all out on the FiST as I can go and still use it on the street comfortably, this will keep me from going to nuts on it but it is still very quick and soon to have the first DHM EFR turbo kit, due to arrive Friday.

Anyway, back to the track, I will really enjoy it I am sure, there must be more than just all the history as I have read and listened to so many pros that absolutely love racing there

 

[Vash350z]

I went in January, car is 100% stock and performed flawlessly.

 

[DucesWild]

Juha got a great shot of your car there! How did you like the Chin event? We are starting to see more and more FIST's come out, and I am definitely going to track mine when it arrives in July

 

[Vash350z]

Juha got a great shot of your car there! How did you like the Chin event? We are starting to see more and more FIST's come out, and I am definitely going to track mine when it arrives in July

This was my first event with Chin and I loved it, you get a ton of seat time!

 

[Siestarider]

Sebring August 29. high 70's early am to 94 early pm. Too durn hot to track.

Same setup as May, except used Hawk pads bought after Autozone's best died in one track day (OEM were not available until August), I need to find and report the hawk part # (edit: HB725R.650) so trackers do not waste their $ on that particular street/track combo pad. Fine on street, no good for track.

Installed Quaife in July. Fantastic mod, shaved 7 seconds off prior best lap time, even using mediocre front pads. Transforms the car, now can drift turns with throttle control vs prior traction control restricting power down. Although it does not defeat TC, I did not feel it intervening. But right side front pad wear a little worse than left front, Sebring is clockwise, so it may have been on a little and I could not feel it. And with modded MBRP could not hear it either.

Blew IC hose off during 3rd session, 94 ambient, coolant temp 230+ and oil temp 250+, had to limp off without boost. Have lots of data to post soon as I organize it. Of course the hose blew at the clamp that requires nose removal, which requires wheel and headlight removal, which led to front brake line and pads replacement, more brake temp paint, etc, have another track day next Sat at PBIR.

Hope the turbo survived, I will find out tomorrow am. Edit: made it to work this am, have boost, hard to believe no ill effects. I am missing about 1 cup of oil. some of it obviously blew out the loose charge pipe, probably damaged turbo shaft seal a little.

Not fun driving 120 miles with a 21/2" boost leak. Have to look at the good side, made it home and none of the gauges said boo about it (except boost, lol).

 

[Sourskittle]

Car is pretty bad naturally aspirated isn't it? Lol.
I did a 42 mile loop yesterday as well. Man... Really reminded why I love this car.
Minus the 243 degree peak coolant temp ( on the street ).

 

[Siestarider]

Yeah, grannymobile, passing at 60 was a new adventure.

These coolant and oil temps we see seem abusive in theory, but the Fist does not pull power on me, so I have to assume the factory engineers allow it as long as charge air temp is within limits. Maybe the excess heat fail safe for digital ECU is blowing the analog IC charge hose.

Have to say I looked my crash beam over while the nose was off, thinking of cutting the center dimple out across the radiator. But too many other things more important to do at that time, needed to button up for next track day.

I was surprised that all my air hose clamps took one to a couple turns tightening, as I had torqued them all 6 months ago. I hairsprayed the hot side IC hose anyway.

 

[Siestarider]

Sebring 4/30 and 5/1 NASA
Clear breezy low 80's to low 90's
HPDE 25 min sessions
Cobb S3, IC, 3" catback, BFG Rival S 215/45/16 tires
First Track test of home made hood vents

Coolant temps peaked at 240 F, oil at 260 F, Charge air at 110 F in a fast lap during hottest session low 90's mid afternoon. Typical lap highs and lows more like 225-235; 250-255; 100-105 respectively.

No signals from ECU about heat, no perceptible power loss.

Running heater on Hi dropped coolant into 215 range, oil 225, no perceptible effect on performance, aimed vents out so not objectionable to driver.

Cool down happens fast once full throttle stops. Coolant and oil easily back into 215/225 range before pit in.

Compared logs of last May and August, coolant temps 235 max, I was not recording oil temps then. Nor was I driving as hard, nor were tires as sticky.

My best guess is hood vents likely kept me from limp mode this weekend. But running the heater works a lot better than hood vents.

The rest of it was just as great as ever, car is still better than I, but I am sniffing 2:40's at Sebring, life is good.

 

[Fidy Trim]

Great track reports! I'm in south Florida as well and it's nice to see some data and feedback on oil and coolant temps. Any plans to go back to Sebring over the hot and humid summers we have down here? Never had a chance to drive at Sebring but been there a few times to watch races. They say 12 hours and Sebring is just as tough on the cars compared to 24 hours at Lemans due to all the bumps.

 

[Siestarider]

I ran Sebring last summer, I love the place, bumps and all. For tracking in Fla this summer I will keep trying things like air dams, undertrays and hood vents for better cooling. But when I don't get cooling mods to work as well as I need, I turn on the heater. Drops coolant to 215-225 range and oil to 225-235 range. When driving hard enough to run up high temps, last thing I notice is cockpit temps, windows are open and its hot anyway. plus I do not want to add weight of oil cooler and big radiator just to run a few hot laps.

But Cyborg is next mod, more heat, so I cannot say if heater will handle the additional heat. Just have to try and see.