I wanted to get this car on the track since last night. I almost got out of bed to run it, but then got a chance to do what I wanted today. I grabbed a few cars and headed upstairs.
My main concern was the 908. I grabbed a few cars that turned interesting times last race to compare times with. The Playstation GT2, the Gulf 917K, and the Sunoco 908 as the matched car. None of the other cars had been updated or messed with since the last race, but the track has changed, so new times are needed. Since this is primarily a test of the 908, I'm not going to make a big deal out of any of the other lap times run.
There is also the matter of finishing the tire sanding on some of the cars. I've been waiting for the Ortmanns, but they haven't gotten here yet. So today each car gets the treatment if needed. Down to smooth. Crazy that the Sunoco car had been running pretty much with untreated tires. Last night I saw a video Harry did about the secret to NSR tires, so I thought I'd try that today. Turns out is a slower rotation and a little dampness. Wet sanding. I'm going to experiment with it.
Laps: 25
Car Time Lap
Montjuich 908/3 2:25.29 5.8
Gulf 917K 2:22.33 5.68
Playstation 911GT2 2:29.78 5.96
Sunoco 908/3 2:21.74 5.64
A couple of things about this race. First, while the Montjuich handled better, the front end was still light, causing it to come off twice. The same issue occurred with the Sunoco car in the same spot. It was so bad on the Sunoco Porsche that I originally DNF'ed it. I think it's time to add a little weight to the two of them. I ended up re-running the Sunoco car and finishing with the above time.
With that said, all the NSR cars handled better after sanding. Turns out it's not that much longer of a process than high-speed tire sanding, although this is a method for NSR tires, and not a general method. The idea is that you get the tires spinning at a slower rate so that the tires don't overheat, causing them to come off in chunks. Slower wins the race this time. It works and sharpened all the cars right up.
Seeing the Montjuich car up there is good, but it still needs work. It's 2/10ths off the Sunoco pace. But that the 908 put in a better lap time than the GT2 shows me that it has improved from that second to last place finish.
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| There's every reason in the world why these two cars should be running neck-and-neck right now. |
So it continues. Any minute: tools, tires, stuff. Until then, add weight and run laps. I'll tell you something, though. If the weight stops these cars from deslotting in the front, they are going to be INSANE.
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LATER THAT EVENING:
So I'm sitting here, reading over this entry up to this point, and thinking, "okay, I got the Montjuich 908 up to speed, sitting there looking pretty good. Even though it's a different layout and I am running other cars that I haven't done anything to in awhile...."
I don't really know how good the improvement may or may not be. I have no way to tell. Running on a different layout with no reference numbers to go by makes it impossible to tell if the car is improving. Sure, if you have a pack of cars, and they're all running consistently, it's possible to tell when cars are running better or poorly in different layout conditions, but when you're doing tuning and testing, you need to have a reference point that doesn't go anywhere until you're at a satisfactory position. So for me to say that a car is running better isn't really truthful. The car might feel better, but that doesn't mean it's going faster.
So I decided to rebuild the layout how it was for The Grand Meeting and run laps from there. That would reset my reference laps back to the race positions. Anyhow, so I ran the two 908's and the Gulf 917 to see how they would run. Before I did that I did a finer sanding job to my tires, taking out the fine sandpaper and smoothing out the smoothed out parts of the contact patches.
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| The last race had the hill on the beginning of the backstretch on the upper right [I run counter-clockwise], which completely threw off a number of cars. I mostly put it there for the enjoyment of my daughter. She's 3. |
I also added a little bit of weight to the 908's right under the front axle. I think the problem is that both cars are lifting on acceleration and not correcting until they're hard-breaking. There's a spring in the guide flag pin that keeps a stable contact with the track, but it's also quite springy, so it's helping bring up the nose on the cars. Adding a little weight makes the spring act more like a shock absorber and less like a spring, so the car doesn't want to come out of the slot so easily.
I went ahead and ran 25 laps, and we can look right at the race finishes to see how we did:
The Grand Meeting Finish Times:
Pos Car Time Lap
1. Sunoco 908 #6 2:20.77 5.60
3. Gulf 917K #19 2:21.35 5.64
15. Montjuich 908 #83 2:33.00 6.12
Today's Test Laps:
Car Time Lap
Sunoco 908 #6 2:18.36 5.52
Gulf 917K #19 2:17.69 5.48
Montjuich 908 #83 2:18.58 5.52
So each car improved their time over the race time, the Montjuich 908 considerably. I knew it had it in him. It was just a matter of finding it. I think that weight really helped, though. I had this similar problem with the Alfa Romeo 33/3 and the Matra. I'm finding that some cars are made so lightweight that they need a little weight just to act right.
I don't have a proper timing system to really nail down these numbers, which is why both 908's running identical lap times is a little curious. But I swear I'm doing what I can. Besides, I'm looking to shave tenths, not hundredths. And since I have so many new cars and I'm doing little things all over the place to them, I'm not looking for little improvements. 1/10th is a small number. 3/10ths is an improvement. These cars all sitting at 5.4 / 5.5 and right in line to me. The little numbers would only matter at the end on race day. Otherwise I'm aiming for a larger improvement. So the Montjuich cutting a half second off it's lap time is a HUGE improvement. That's exactly what I was looking for, and I'm satisfied with the result.
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