Well, what a two weeks for the car.
170 miles of track at Brands then a turbo change forced by the lambda sensor coming off into the exhaust wheel then off the germany.
Over in germany it did around 550 miles on track and never missed a beat, not one hose popped off, not one drop of oil used and only about 100 ml of water.
I changed back to the Z rated PF pads for the trip as the ring isnt that hard on brakes once you know the track as you can carry speed through corners without braking.
This trip was the first I had done in the current set up. Last time over I had approximately 150bhp less than I do now. Quite a difference ! As a result, the speeds that I was arriving at corners was massively altered and I had to re-learn braking points and gears.
As an example I hit 130mph (gps speed) on the run to flugplatz, 148mph down to Schwedenkreuz and around 135mph down the foxhole. All of these were way over what had been achieved before. New lines were therefore required to be able to cope with these and smooth it. I also opened it up down the dottinger hohe straight and managed in excess of 160mph top speed very quickly before I backed off to cool it down before the exit
I would love to do the full straight as I reckon 190+ would be possible.
Unfortunately there weren't many laps without some kind of roadworks so unfortunately i never got a full lap on it but still took 15 seconds off my best time from last time without trying. There is another 30 seconds or so to go IMO using the full width of the road.
Best recorded time this trip was 8min 31 with the roadworks and traffic that compromised lines. Sector analysis showed 8min 24 was what it should have been without these. Not bad for still just less than 100 laps of the track and a distinct lack of drama all the way around proving that there is way more to be had. I would rather creep up to the limit rather than take massive leaps over the limit after recent oulton park experience. (the last time that I had driven it on track)
Review of the components:
Engine - The engine was as strong as ever and still recorded 6 bar oil pressure after 3 laps on the bounce with oil and water temps in check. I never had to lift the bonnet all week. Just what the doctor ordered and exactly as specced with Area 52.
Charge Temps - with ambient temps at 27C the highest I ever got on the Charge Temps was 42C right at the top of the 2.4km uphill flat out section. Very pleasing.
Power - I ran baby boost on the saturday and sunday (on road tyres) with the traffic from a busy weekend as I didnt see the point of stressing it too much. This was at 1.5bar flat with ocassional peak of 1.7 bar up the hill once into 6th. I upped this to 2.2 bar peak and 1.8 bar flat for the rest of the week and needed all of this to stay ahead of the viper up the hill
I just let him past to get this shot into the Karussel:
Suspension - was raised slightly for this trip to allow a bit of clearance into the Karussel... good job I think (the suspension geometry was reset to cope with this and post crash damage):
Brakes - I got a very small amount of fade of the z pads from 3 laps on the bounce but this was down to excess heat (i had stolen the ducting from the brakes for the oil cooler and air filter) but they never failed to slow me down enough and soon recovered on the next straight (if there is one there
).
Pipework - even at high boost, the Murray Corp constant tension clamps held everything in place firmly and never popped one off.
Tyres - RE070 on the sat and sunday were as great as ever, these are awesome tyres and I think perfect for the nordshleife. 888's from Monday onwards got a little hot but seemed to plateau even with the laps on the bounce once I had dropped the pressures down enough to give headroom in the pressures. They ran to 33 hot psi in the end and this gave an immense amount of grip all the way around. Wear isnt too bad either from the miles done - I was surprised as I wasn't expecting to like them so much.
Fuel Surge - I finished one hot lap with the fuel gauge at below empty having got 5 laps to the tank. Problem solved for good and no issue with leaning out due to excessive fuel temperatures in the engine bay either. I will be fitting a fuel cooler at some point though to assist.
Aero - Rear wing was set relatively flat with a 10 degree angle to the main element. This was a good compromise between top end speed and down force for the 125mph+ corners up from bergwerk and 110 mph flugplatz & schwedenkreuz. Front splitter was also working well as I had to find a solution to the front assembly popping out from under the headlights from the force. Leading edge tape seemed to do the job nicely.
Mapping - I backed of the map a little on the timing side to allow a choice of fuels when over there and remove the need to take any octane booster. The DH 98 ron was fine but the Aral 100 Ultimate was perfect and never lit the knock sensor up at all. As such the map was not altered in any way while we were there. Flat shifting (which I absolutely love) was used to full effect and never caused any issues.
Summary : A great test of the car which it passed with flying colours. Love it 8)
A few changes will be made for the Snetterton round but this seems perfect as it is now to enjoy the final round
