Overheated Z06 Passenger
06-12-2015, 04:46 PM
#1
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
Overheated Z06 Passenger
Gotcha.
Today marked my third time riding as a passenger in Sean (Poor-sha's) Corvette de'jour at Summit Point Raceway. The first time I went was in his Z51 C7, and I was shocked at how confident and solid the car was on track. Time number two was in his modified C6 Z06 and, well, that car is fast. When it's running right.
Today was turn number three, and this time in his new 2015 Z06.
Note that Sean and I have been friends (outside of the forum) for the better part of a decade. So if, from time to time, it seems like I'm busting his ***** in this thread, it's just standard fare.
Anyway, the important stuff: Sean's car is a stage 2 that he added Cup 2 tires to, along with aftermarket brake pads. Otherwise, it's bone stock. Since he's an instructor (God help us all!), he's afforded 3 sessions during the day. Two of them are back-to-back 25-minute sessions in the morning, separated by a black flag to quickly get the cars off the track so some other classroom maintenance can happen between then. Then in the afternoon after lunch, the instructors are granted a 40 minute session.
Today's afternoon temps were in the mid-90s. It was miserable there (my ghostly white skin is burned a bit, even with screen on). I buckled in for the first session of the morning, and it was already climbing into the high 70s. The executive summary: the car ran the entire session under Sean's concrete-laden right foot without a single issue. No temperature warnings, no brake fade, nothing.
As planted and confident as his former Stingray felt to me as the passenger, the Z06 felt significantly more so. Some of that is tire, but not all of it. I know what tire grip (and the confidence that comes from it) feels like. The car itself just feels like a solid chunk of aluminum, hewn into the shape of a Corvette, and glued to the track. It doesn't shake, falter, vibrate in any strange way, or anything like that. That's the sign of a bolted-down chassis and suspension.
That's not to say the tires aren't sticky; of course they are. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. They afford the Z06 driver the ability to chuck the car into corners at speed that would have a lesser tire howling for mercy and sliding towards the gravel trap. Sean knows how to use each of these advantages to a very comfortable level, and out-drive any of the other instructors on the track. By a long shot. It wasn't even close; the speed differentials in corners and straights between him and the next-fastest instructor (which was... um.. hell I don't even know!) was epic. He'd pass a car and literally leave it in the dust, only to pass another car, and another, and another. Each time his car would overtake the slower instructor and it's like their car just evaporated into thin air behind us.
I'm sure once Sean gets done processing the PDR data and footage, he'll post our ride-along up in Vimeo, so stay tuned.
Anyway, I hopped out of his car during the break between the two morning sessions because, as with the last trip around the track with him: he made me sick. I don't do well as a passenger on-track, which is one of the reasons I won't ever become an instructor. Sean is, IMHO, a bit ham-fisted with some of the car's inputs, and could probably knock a little time off of his already blistering laps if he smoothed things out a bit. Be that as it may, I didn't want to go out with him during session #2 and potentially decorate the interior of his Z06 with my breakfast.
To give you an idea of how hot it was already at that point in the morning, when I got out of his car, I was drenched, head to toe. And I wasn't driving. But the car never faltered once.
Sean can fill in how session #2 went, but I think it was more of the same. I think he'd noted he turned even faster laps in the second session, but we can wait for him to verify that. Session #3 didn't last as long as it should have, unfortunately, because an instructor stuffed his 911 into the wall in Turn 3, and pretty much obliterated it. I think he's OK; I've heard nothing to the contrary. But in any event, that cut Sean's third session down from 40 minutes to 25ish or so. He had a passenger with him, and again said that the car did everything he asked it to do without any mechanical or cooling issues whatsoever. Given the track temps, he did overheat the tires though, and was noticing a slightly greasy ride. But, that's standard fare when running at Summit during the warm months.
Aside from that, I assigned myself another task and that was to try to get some pictures. I'm not sure how well they turned out; they'll show up later in the thread when I've had time to process them in Lightroom.
Oh, BTW: Anyone wanna buy a 2010 ZR1?
Today marked my third time riding as a passenger in Sean (Poor-sha's) Corvette de'jour at Summit Point Raceway. The first time I went was in his Z51 C7, and I was shocked at how confident and solid the car was on track. Time number two was in his modified C6 Z06 and, well, that car is fast. When it's running right.
Today was turn number three, and this time in his new 2015 Z06.Note that Sean and I have been friends (outside of the forum) for the better part of a decade. So if, from time to time, it seems like I'm busting his ***** in this thread, it's just standard fare.
Anyway, the important stuff: Sean's car is a stage 2 that he added Cup 2 tires to, along with aftermarket brake pads. Otherwise, it's bone stock. Since he's an instructor (God help us all!), he's afforded 3 sessions during the day. Two of them are back-to-back 25-minute sessions in the morning, separated by a black flag to quickly get the cars off the track so some other classroom maintenance can happen between then. Then in the afternoon after lunch, the instructors are granted a 40 minute session.
Today's afternoon temps were in the mid-90s. It was miserable there (my ghostly white skin is burned a bit, even with screen on). I buckled in for the first session of the morning, and it was already climbing into the high 70s. The executive summary: the car ran the entire session under Sean's concrete-laden right foot without a single issue. No temperature warnings, no brake fade, nothing.
As planted and confident as his former Stingray felt to me as the passenger, the Z06 felt significantly more so. Some of that is tire, but not all of it. I know what tire grip (and the confidence that comes from it) feels like. The car itself just feels like a solid chunk of aluminum, hewn into the shape of a Corvette, and glued to the track. It doesn't shake, falter, vibrate in any strange way, or anything like that. That's the sign of a bolted-down chassis and suspension.
That's not to say the tires aren't sticky; of course they are. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. They afford the Z06 driver the ability to chuck the car into corners at speed that would have a lesser tire howling for mercy and sliding towards the gravel trap. Sean knows how to use each of these advantages to a very comfortable level, and out-drive any of the other instructors on the track. By a long shot. It wasn't even close; the speed differentials in corners and straights between him and the next-fastest instructor (which was... um.. hell I don't even know!) was epic. He'd pass a car and literally leave it in the dust, only to pass another car, and another, and another. Each time his car would overtake the slower instructor and it's like their car just evaporated into thin air behind us.
I'm sure once Sean gets done processing the PDR data and footage, he'll post our ride-along up in Vimeo, so stay tuned.
Anyway, I hopped out of his car during the break between the two morning sessions because, as with the last trip around the track with him: he made me sick. I don't do well as a passenger on-track, which is one of the reasons I won't ever become an instructor. Sean is, IMHO, a bit ham-fisted with some of the car's inputs, and could probably knock a little time off of his already blistering laps if he smoothed things out a bit. Be that as it may, I didn't want to go out with him during session #2 and potentially decorate the interior of his Z06 with my breakfast.
To give you an idea of how hot it was already at that point in the morning, when I got out of his car, I was drenched, head to toe. And I wasn't driving. But the car never faltered once.
Sean can fill in how session #2 went, but I think it was more of the same. I think he'd noted he turned even faster laps in the second session, but we can wait for him to verify that. Session #3 didn't last as long as it should have, unfortunately, because an instructor stuffed his 911 into the wall in Turn 3, and pretty much obliterated it. I think he's OK; I've heard nothing to the contrary. But in any event, that cut Sean's third session down from 40 minutes to 25ish or so. He had a passenger with him, and again said that the car did everything he asked it to do without any mechanical or cooling issues whatsoever. Given the track temps, he did overheat the tires though, and was noticing a slightly greasy ride. But, that's standard fare when running at Summit during the warm months.
Aside from that, I assigned myself another task and that was to try to get some pictures. I'm not sure how well they turned out; they'll show up later in the thread when I've had time to process them in Lightroom.
Oh, BTW: Anyone wanna buy a 2010 ZR1?
Last edited by jvp; 06-12-2015 at 06:33 PM.
06-12-2015, 05:54 PM
#2
Thanks for the entertaining write up. I have driven our c7z 8 hpde and I was amazed. I didn't push it hard because I need to learn it first. ..but it handled everything almost flawlessly.
06-12-2015, 06:11 PM
#5
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
06-12-2015, 08:07 PM
#8
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
I'm going to let Sean caption this photo. I'll have others up later.
06-12-2015, 08:24 PM
#9
Max coolant: 234
Max oil: 270
Max coolant was in the afternoon session. Oil was in the second morning session. Best time was only a 1:21.8 due to the traffic and frankly it took me a bit to get reacquainted with Summit Point and get over some of the ghosts of putting it in the wall. I turned better times in March on Super Sports so this is hardly a benchmark.
In any case though I definitely wasn't being easy on the car. Interestingly I noticed in the last session that the rear stepped out on me several time under throttle. That's pretty unusual as PTM should keep that in check. I'm guessing it was a combination of the heat, high pressures (they were up around 36/37), and probably the MPSC2 starting to cycle out.
As for the picture... Well... Have you ever met jvp?
Max oil: 270
Max coolant was in the afternoon session. Oil was in the second morning session. Best time was only a 1:21.8 due to the traffic and frankly it took me a bit to get reacquainted with Summit Point and get over some of the ghosts of putting it in the wall. I turned better times in March on Super Sports so this is hardly a benchmark.
In any case though I definitely wasn't being easy on the car. Interestingly I noticed in the last session that the rear stepped out on me several time under throttle. That's pretty unusual as PTM should keep that in check. I'm guessing it was a combination of the heat, high pressures (they were up around 36/37), and probably the MPSC2 starting to cycle out.
As for the picture... Well... Have you ever met jvp?
06-12-2015, 08:42 PM
#10
Pro
Last act of defiance My car is also Shark Gray, I was able to run and tear up everything on the track as well when I received my car in December here in Florida , if you look at my history you will see that I also was confused by all the negative commits and I was carrying the GM flag. Just to be clear I still carry the flag, I love my car and I want it to work as I believe many on this forum do. I'm happy that Sean can run his car on track for complete sessions as well as Vinnie. however I will point out that these are 2 cars that do not seem to overheat when pushed. I will be at VIR with the NCM at end of June, Sean ran a 2:05 and I am impressed. I also am hoping my car stays cool.
None of us want our cars to overheat, and just to be clear post like this do nothing but take pressure of off GM. I don't mean to be negative but I'm just saying a lot of us have issues and it has been noted by Tadge so I for one want to keep the pressure on.
If we do not then we live with it, just like the value issue.
just my 2 cents.
Frank
My car is also Shark Gray, I was able to run and tear up everything on the track as well when I received my car in December here in Florida , if you look at my history you will see that I also was confused by all the negative commits and I was carrying the GM flag. Just to be clear I still carry the flag, I love my car and I want it to work as I believe many on this forum do. I'm happy that Sean can run his car on track for complete sessions as well as Vinnie. however I will point out that these are 2 cars that do not seem to overheat when pushed. I will be at VIR with the NCM at end of June, Sean ran a 2:05 and I am impressed. I also am hoping my car stays cool.None of us want our cars to overheat, and just to be clear post like this do nothing but take pressure of off GM. I don't mean to be negative but I'm just saying a lot of us have issues and it has been noted by Tadge so I for one want to keep the pressure on.
If we do not then we live with it, just like the value issue.
just my 2 cents.
Frank
Last edited by Cyclone09Z06; 06-12-2015 at 08:45 PM.
06-12-2015, 08:44 PM
#11
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
Google photo album
I made a somewhat "rookie" mistake and had my shutter set way too fast, so getting the panning/smear effect just wasn't happening.
I made a somewhat "rookie" mistake and had my shutter set way too fast, so getting the panning/smear effect just wasn't happening.
Last edited by jvp; 06-12-2015 at 08:57 PM.
06-12-2015, 08:50 PM
#13
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
Read more carefully into my post and you'll see that I might be backing Sean up in a couple of his rants regarding how silly the forums have become over the last 6-8 months.
just my 2 cents.
06-12-2015, 08:51 PM
#14
06-12-2015, 08:51 PM
#15
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
06-12-2015, 08:53 PM
#16
Last act of defiance My car is also Shark Gray, I was able to run and tear up everything on the track as well when I received my car in December here in Florida , if you look at my history you will see that I also was confused by all the negative commits and I was carrying the GM flag. Just to be clear I still carry the flag, I love my car and I want it to work as I believe many on this forum do. I'm happy that Sean can run his car on track for complete sessions as well as Vinnie. however I will point out that these are 2 cars that do not seem to overheat when pushed. I will be at VIR with the NCM at end of June, Sean ran a 2:05 and I am impressed. I also am hoping my car stays cool.
None of us want our cars to overheat, and just to be clear post like this do nothing but take pressure of off GM. I don't mean to be negative but I'm just saying a lot of us have issues and it has been noted by Tadge so I for one want to keep the pressure on.
If we do not then we live with it, just like the value issue.
just my 2 cents.
Frank
My car is also Shark Gray, I was able to run and tear up everything on the track as well when I received my car in December here in Florida , if you look at my history you will see that I also was confused by all the negative commits and I was carrying the GM flag. Just to be clear I still carry the flag, I love my car and I want it to work as I believe many on this forum do. I'm happy that Sean can run his car on track for complete sessions as well as Vinnie. however I will point out that these are 2 cars that do not seem to overheat when pushed. I will be at VIR with the NCM at end of June, Sean ran a 2:05 and I am impressed. I also am hoping my car stays cool.None of us want our cars to overheat, and just to be clear post like this do nothing but take pressure of off GM. I don't mean to be negative but I'm just saying a lot of us have issues and it has been noted by Tadge so I for one want to keep the pressure on.
If we do not then we live with it, just like the value issue.
just my 2 cents.
Frank
06-12-2015, 08:54 PM
#17
Pro
I was offering observational data; you and the rest of the audience are free to take it or leave it. I know for a fact that I overheated. The car didn't.
Read more carefully into my post and you'll see that I might be backing Sean up in a couple of his rants regarding how silly the forums have become over the last 6-8 months.
Here's a penny in change.
Read more carefully into my post and you'll see that I might be backing Sean up in a couple of his rants regarding how silly the forums have become over the last 6-8 months.
Here's a penny in change.
06-12-2015, 08:56 PM
#19
Tech Contributor
Thread Starter
Member Since: Mar 1999
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 10,087
Received 3,839 Likes
on
1,157 Posts
"Ask Tadge" Producer
06-12-2015, 09:01 PM
#20
Pro
Frank - no denying that you and SBC are having issues and I'm very sorry for that. I'm just trying to point out to the folks that the sky is not in fact falling though. So far the C7Z has done everything I've asked of it without issue (other than the stock brake pads fading).