Roeblling Test Weekend with SeatTime
08-13-2008, 05:25 PM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Roebling Test Weekend with SeatTime
Needing to relax after a grueling weekend of the 24 Hours of LeMons followed immediately by travel to Chicago we, as a family - Mom's vote did not count - decided what would be better then a weekend event at Roebling. Since it was expected to be a low turnout event we took two cars to do some intial track testing. The 1983 Supra and 1988 Mustang had never been tracked by us so it was time to kick the tires and light the fires. Naturally, since I was on travel, and the boys would be doing most of the driving, I felt it was only reasonable for them to do all the prep work.
I returned home to a loaded trailer, truck and Supra with all the stuff we needed to run for a weekend - it was a pleasant surprise. The drive down in the dark was uneventful with no deer sightings to break the calm. SeatTime has gotten signup down to an art form. I fully believe it is due to the ability of Ray to multi-task. As we were teching cars I figured out there was a pretty decent turnout for August.
The weather was darn hot with a good breeze to take the bite out of it and the track conditions were tolerable. Jake and I had great students all weekend which makes life even easier. It did allow Jake, Josh and me to concentrate on the cars we brought. The Supra was howling around the track like a banshee on the tires that came on the car with Josh at the wheel. You could hear it long before you could see it and the body roll was unbelievable. It was good to get a good baseline on the car. It weighs in right at 3100 and can get down to 2860 so we need to look at what is "not needed". The baseline time (from the video since timing is not allowed at SeatTime) was in the 1:39 range. The TTE guys need not worry too much at the moment - but wait till we get some new parts under the car.
We spent a lot of time sorting out the '88 Mustang. It has no ABS, it weighs in at ~3100 pounds, has a spec "street" tire with only 235mm on the ground and brake rotors the size of a healty coaster so it is no C5 Corvette. It does have a decent suspension, good engine, and a great transmission so it was a blast to drive - so I hear - the only car I drove all weekend was a students Porsche 911. We did manage to boil the gas since the exhaust dumps under the car. But like the Supra we were able to sort out a few items and establish a "video" baseline in the 1:27 range. With the Roebling CMC track record standing at 1:23 we have some work to do on the car, and the driver, to get it down there.
We even had a celebrity drop by the track, Danny Popp - who was vacationing at Hilton Head, but he was way too important to stop by the Team England compound. Guess since we left the Vettes at home we were not worthy.
It was a great weekend and we were able to really concentrate on learning some new, to us, cars on track. With a big checkbook, and a little time shop time, we will have them whipping around the track soon near you.
I returned home to a loaded trailer, truck and Supra with all the stuff we needed to run for a weekend - it was a pleasant surprise. The drive down in the dark was uneventful with no deer sightings to break the calm. SeatTime has gotten signup down to an art form. I fully believe it is due to the ability of Ray to multi-task. As we were teching cars I figured out there was a pretty decent turnout for August.
The weather was darn hot with a good breeze to take the bite out of it and the track conditions were tolerable. Jake and I had great students all weekend which makes life even easier. It did allow Jake, Josh and me to concentrate on the cars we brought. The Supra was howling around the track like a banshee on the tires that came on the car with Josh at the wheel. You could hear it long before you could see it and the body roll was unbelievable. It was good to get a good baseline on the car. It weighs in right at 3100 and can get down to 2860 so we need to look at what is "not needed". The baseline time (from the video since timing is not allowed at SeatTime) was in the 1:39 range. The TTE guys need not worry too much at the moment - but wait till we get some new parts under the car.
We spent a lot of time sorting out the '88 Mustang. It has no ABS, it weighs in at ~3100 pounds, has a spec "street" tire with only 235mm on the ground and brake rotors the size of a healty coaster so it is no C5 Corvette. It does have a decent suspension, good engine, and a great transmission so it was a blast to drive - so I hear - the only car I drove all weekend was a students Porsche 911. We did manage to boil the gas since the exhaust dumps under the car. But like the Supra we were able to sort out a few items and establish a "video" baseline in the 1:27 range. With the Roebling CMC track record standing at 1:23 we have some work to do on the car, and the driver, to get it down there.
We even had a celebrity drop by the track, Danny Popp - who was vacationing at Hilton Head, but he was way too important to stop by the Team England compound. Guess since we left the Vettes at home we were not worthy.
It was a great weekend and we were able to really concentrate on learning some new, to us, cars on track. With a big checkbook, and a little time shop time, we will have them whipping around the track soon near you.
Last edited by varkwso; 08-13-2008 at 08:22 PM.
08-14-2008, 01:20 AM
#4
Le Mans Master
Jon puts on a great well organized event. Track time was a plenty. I couldn't believe that I saw oil temps of 293* when the air temp wasn't all that bad. I ran much harder this weekend with NASA and the new oil cooler did a great job. The highest it got was 267*, but it usually stayed in the upper 250's. 
08-14-2008, 06:47 AM
#5
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Jon puts on a great well organized event. Track time was a plenty. I couldn't believe that I saw oil temps of 293* when the air temp wasn't all that bad. I ran much harder this weekend with NASA and the new oil cooler did a great job. The highest it got was 267*, but it usually stayed in the upper 250's.
08-14-2008, 09:56 AM
#6
Racer
Roebling is one of my favorite tracks, mainly due to the great job Jon does with SeatTime. He also keeps this event very affordable, especially compared with Chin.