Well, I guess not really a disaster, the car is in one piece. I'll start off by saying that some how, 4 years has gone by since my last HPDE. Over the years, I've done several things to my 97 SS with a 396 making 380 rwhp. Strano hooked me up with springs, shocks, and a rear sway bar. Before I had SS springs and Hotckis sway bars. I also dumped my LS1 brakes in favor for C5 brakes (C6 rotors), added a Blaine PS cooler, and now have fixed back racing seats and a 4 pt harness (6pt soon to come). 4 years ago I bought 275/40/17 Hankook track tires. They were fantastic, 4 years ago. Sitting in my garage has hardened them up. I fully expected them to not be like new, but definitely good enough for HPDE, and a hell of a lot better than street tires. My first session at VIR on Saturday went as planned. I was the last one out and took it really easy. I was bedding in my new rotors and Carbotech pads, warming up the car while watching the gauges, and also knocking the cobwebs out of my head. The tires were not sticky at all, and I honestly was surprised at how disconnected the car felt, especially the back end. I remember thinking, well I'll have to change all the suspension bushing out soon, I must have a lot of play.

Anyway, 2nd session went great. Brakes were fantastic! The tires had twice as much grip as the 1st session, and I was really feeling pretty good. I was still letting nearly everybody past me in my advanced group. I didn't push it, as it was in the 90's already, and I had a long weekend ahead of me. At the end of the session, I pull into the pits and find the car is pulling HARD to the left. I mean bad. 20 degrees wheel right is what it took to maintain a straight course. If I let go of the wheel, it was a hard turn to the left. I pull the wheels and look at everything I can. I find nothing. I try to check the toe with a tape measure and a friend, and everything looks good. I felt there was nothing unsafe and thought I'd go back on track to see how it is. Nasty handling, and the 120 MPH right hand kink in the front straight was unsafe. 2 laps of that and I called it a day. I decide to miss the rest of the day and drove 40 minutes each way to the nearest alignment shop that'll take me. Toe was pretty close to 0. Camber and caster was just as it was on Friday when I got it aligned, 3.5 ish caster and 1.8 camber. They 0 out the toe and I drive it down the road. Pulls hard to the left, just as it did before I spent $60. The tire guys at the alignment shop said tires, yet visually couldn't find anything wrong with my tires. Long story short, I had a gaggle of people, very experienced racers, mechanics, and everyone in between help me. I had the car off the ground, wheels off, test drives no more than a dozen times. I am currently still pulling wheels off my car in my sleep. Nobody had even seen my situation. With the steering wheel unlocked, car off, push it forward at a crawl and the steering wheel will turn to about 45 degrees left. If I roll backwards, it'll do the same, but to the right. Everything was checked including tires.

I finally said screw it, and pulled the track wheels/tires and put on my street wheels/tires. Problem solved! Now we know the problem, we looked even closer at the tires and found the left front tire had a slightly larger circumference on the outside than the inside! I'll post pictures later.

So, the next day (yesterday), I was excited that I was going to have a full day of racing on street tires. 1st session out and I couldn't have been happier. I couldn't believe how solid the car was and how much grip there was! No more disconnected feeling at all. I was passing everybody out there. The, about 15 minutes into the session, the engine starts breaking up. I yell out, OPTI!!!! I dumped the clutch and noticed that the car was still running. I was able to use low RPM and low power settings to get myself back to the pits. I shut off the car to find that a PS rubber line had shifted and touched a pulley, spraying the engine with PS fluid. I ran to the auto parts store and repaired the line. I said a little prayer and hit the started. It started right up and idled beautifully! As I'm turning the wheels back and forth to bleed the PS, the engine shut off cleanly, as if I turned off the car. That was the last time it ran. Zero spark. Opti probably shorted. My weekend was over.



The weekend wasn't a total loss though. I did find that I have this car set up perfectly and I couldn't be happier. The PS never overheated, brakes never faded or boiled, water temp 220, oil temp 250, and 50 psi of oil pressure. I also got about 3 rides with instructors, so I got to get some track time. And, most importantly, I learned, once again, to NEVER rule out something that is quick, simple, and FREE!!!

If I could only go back in time, to Friday as I was packing up and getting the car ready and tell myself not to bother with track tires, and to use one more zip tie, I would have probably had a much better weekend.

I always rent a Uhaul trailer, so that was definitely worth the $125. And the other positive is I didn't use much fuel this weekend!

I'm going to be back to VIR next month. I'm going to run my street tires this time though. In the mean time, I'm going to replace my rear bearings (tiny amount of play), and figure out what to do with the Opti. I am so mad that a $3 hose ruined my weekend.

Anyway, I'll post some pictures soon. Sorry for the book, but I figured that someone on here is going to be bored, read this, and hopefully learn something from this and maybe save them a lot of trouble.


I'd like to thank everybody who helped me over the past couple of weeks. From brakes, to seats, to PS coolers. BTW, I highly recommend Alan's PS cooler kit. Very easy to install and works great. It was 100% my fault that the PS hose shifted from where I had it originally secured.

Steve

This post has been edited by Steve91T: Jul 4 2011, 03:44 PM

Here are two pictures of my track tires. Check out the tire on the right. I was mistaken, it has a larger circumference on the INSDIE, not the outside.

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v199/Steve91T/Camaro/2011-07-04_11-34-24_938.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v199/Steve91T/Camaro/2011-07-04_11-34-35_461.jpg)

Can you see why I overlooked the tires for so long? Only after looking very closely, with the tires out of the dirt paddock and on the paved road did we notice the bad one.

Steve

I have got to be honest, I cant believe nobody said swap the tires side to side? Haha oh well you got it sorted.
Those who have opti problems seem to keep having them, some never have a problem? I have always wondered why..

Well, everyone thought tires, but then they looked at them and couldn't find anything wrong. And I had no vibration or anything even at 120 MPH. I wonder what would cause the tire to change shape like that. Did a belt slip?

We always swapped the tires side to side to check out a tire pull, but that one is pretty subtle. 4 year old tires can be a big roll of the dice, I had an old Hoosier start to separate like that, and then come completely apart.

This post has been edited by Mojave: Jul 5 2011, 03:29 AM

My street tires are the same age, does that mean they are potentially unsafe as well? I was planning on running my street tires at the HPDE in a month.

Steve

street tires are a completely different animal then any kind of race tires. streets will harden, but be a hell of alot safer then old slicks. as long as theyre not dry rotted or chunking, theyll be fine, albeit less then ideal traction. can always try formula V if youre worried.

Frustrating, but at least you figured it out. I'll be at VIR in July with NASA. I'll be in the HPDE2 run group and my Son in the HPDE1. Look for a Blue WS6 and a Silver Z28, that'll be us.

I'd love to make it, but I think I'm going to have to wait for the next BMW HPDE in the end of Aug. You never know though. My wife is thrilled that I'm going to sell my motorcycle to be able to fund more track days.

Steve