Where's the race report? Who won
Ummm... I think I did
(with the aid of superior aerodynamics - one fewer external mirror and one fewer windscreen wiper) but in all seriousness yesterday was the all-important first outing for my car where top-speed takes secondary importance to things like:
stuff falling off the car
brake (effectiveness or lack of)
cornering ability / stability at speed (again, or lack of)
engine issues (o/heating, oel pressure, general state of tune, revability)
At which point I can work out a plan to sort the problems out. The results were pretty ordinary but nothing unexpected, so I'm ready to get my hands dirty again and start building a more competitive 116.
* Nothing fell off the car, and nothing externally sounded like it was working its way loose - don't laugh, its at a place like a racetrack where if something its going to come loose it will. Cam's car was making an interesting brake noise despite our cars having, now, identical braking systems....
* The QFM Comp 3 750 degree brake pads were absolutely phenominal - felt like a giant's hand was pulling up the heavy sedan no matter how fast we were going - no fade and consistent pedal effort once the pads were up to temperature. And here's the thing, they probably aren't up to their optimal working temp until sometime during the 2nd lap. I warmed mine up during the aptly-named warm up lap by braking early on the two straights before the competitive laps started. At the end of the runs both cars came in with front brakes with a vaguely copper-smell (not in a bad way).
* Cornering ability - can't speak for Cam although by all accounts he's pleased with it - but our cars differed with mine being SLS. I can say with much conviction that for all its usefulness in towing or moving a car full or people and luggage, the SLS system responds far too slowly thru twisty turning race track. The car never felt like it was going to let go, just it was wishy-washy. There was also a bit much body roll, but it was generally controllable and with the R-spec tyres, never felt like it was about to understeer or oversteer out of control.
* Engine - I knew mine was tired-as but for what it was it conducted itself as well as you'd expect a Mercedes engine. Oel pressure was lousey, esp. at idle (1.0 bar), it was just hitting 3.0 bar at 3000rpm, the state of tune let the engine down as it was out of power at 5000, and over that there was a large amount of visible emission (ie. smoke) from the worn valve guides/valve stem seals. I've never checked the chain stretch (assume its vast), or tappets. ignition timing was set to (?) because I can't see the timing marker due to the SLS pump. Top speed was indicated at 145km/h on a 350SE speedo coupled to a 450SE diff. If someone wants to do the calcs I think you'll find my top speed was something around 160.
On the plus side the cooling system held up perfectly, didn't go over 85 degrees, the oil got to 85 degrees also. the fuel pressure sat on 30PSI no matter how fast or slow I was going, the trans didn't slip and the diff didn't whine. The steering didn't leak or so anything stupid. The Oel pressure, its hard to judge - according to the guage its crap, but looking into the oil filler at idle there's a good feed of it to the cams... that and the engine didn't seize at 5000+ rpm...
Any questions just ask me.
Ian.