Track Day 36 -- PIR With Cascade Sports Car Club -- Better Data, Intake Manifold / IAT temps, and oil pressure is back!

So the 36th track day for this car was at Portland International Raceway with Cascade Sports Car club. I was instructing and driving, so I covered a lot of ground, but here's in general how it went!

Upgrades / Repairs Made Prior to the Event

Better trackaddicts / Lap data acquisition:

I've been struggling to capture information since I gutted the interior of my C5 Corvette. Without a glovebox or center console in which to place my cell phone I've taken to just duct taping my phone down, which is proving to only have a 25% or so success rate. Then I also have the headache of constantly charging and dealing with the phone and bluetooth GPS receiver... needless to say I'm struggling to capture data. I also want better information to process in session whether changes I've made are yielding improved lap times.

The plan was to add a ram mount to the car and then also add a 12v USB adapter setup. I then wired up my previous android phone and bluetooth 10hz GPS receiver to just leave it in the car long term. I pulled 12v power from the old Cigaratte lighter adapter, but put it on a switch since it's constant 12v regardless of ignition/accessory. Now I can turn it all on and charge it all up at the track or at the shop when the battery is on the charger!

Parts used for data Acquisition:

• Old Android phone I had laying around (guarantee you have a friend with one)
• Ram Mount
• USB Charger Power Socket
• 12v Switch
• 12v Wire Connector Plugs (highly recommend for ease of disconnecting your work in the future)

I actually did this exact same setup on our Lemons Accord, and it honestly worked REALLY good over there, so I'm excited to see how well it works on the Corvette!

LS6 Intake Manifold & IAT Modifications:

As part of my creating trackable power for this car, I'm going to put my LS6 intake manifold on the car. Now is as good a time as any, and I also have some various temperature related modificaitons to put on both the intake manifold and the cold air intake. Plus, I need to remove this to easily access the oil pressure sensor which went bad a few events ago... so now is the time! My hope here is pick up a few horsepower with the new intake manifold (gaining even more later when it's tuned) along with reduce intake air temperature (IAT) which should help with a bit of extra power, but at the very least help avoid the car from pulling timing should intake aire temperatures become excessive.

Replace Oil Pressure Sensor:

These are known for going out on the C5 Corvette, and sure enough, mine went out. So I'm going to replace mine while I'm doing my LS6 intake manifold. I don't think I've had any oil pressure issues this entire time... but i have now done several track days without knowing my oil pressure for certain, so this is quite overdue.

How the Track Day Went

The event itself went as smooth as a day this jam packed can be. I was juggling 1:1 instructing with a student all day and running the advanced group, along with doing ride alongs in the Corvette in the instructors specific session. The Corvette though performed admirably, running many laps equal in time to my previous PB, and as you'll see below I also set a new PB. With the fairly friendly temperatures of 85 degrees or so peak I kept oil temperatures below 254 degrees and had no cooling issues.

I did spin once though... video to come. I was getting bold on hot tires and  had just held a pretty good drift the lap prior so I decided to have some fun with things... and it bit me! No big deal though, car is fine and I'm all good.

New Personal Best of 1:27.524

Despite a lot of traffic in the advanced group (and a lot of non-advanced drivers) I was able to run a 1:27.524, beating my previous PB of 1:28.764. I can't unfortunately fully attribute that to recent modifications as the temperature was 25 degrees cooler for this event providing for increased traction and likely more power just from reduced ambient temperatures.

Comparing apples to oranges though... Top speeds on both straight was increased from my previous PB time. Back straight was up 2.9mph and front straight was up 3.4mph, so not insignificant gains. Whether that can be attributed to a slight increase of power with the LS6 intake or the different gearing of the Z06 transmission which was changed since that last time, or just ambient temperatures... we'll never know as my data logging isn't good enough unfortunately to have captured IATs last time! I'll know more after the next event at the Ridge though when I can compare top speeds though that were both accomplished with the Z06 transmission, leaving just recent power modificaitons for determining differences.

One minor bit of awesomeness, I loaned my car out for a session to this fellow who drives an MG car out on the track. He was having brake pad issues and he had his girlfriend go pick up his brake pads for him, but they weren't going to be there in time for his session. So, I let him hop in my Corvette, and he did and went out and drove it around. He put down a 1:31, which is pretty respectable considering he'd never been in the car AND he was driving it like it wasn't his! His overall feedback on the car was that it is an exceptionally well balanced car... so I must be on to something!