Catching up on Digests - Nascar Jack, Brake Fluid, and roll center/CG

[Andrew Garcia <aggarcia@domain.elided>]

	I finally have caught up with everything since the six hour endurance race
last weekend. We took 2nd in ITS ( we had the lead for 5 hours and 45
minutes from the end a ignition rotor exploded ).

	Someone had asked about Nascar style floor jacks. We at the track they are
god sent. to drag a jack over the wall and quickly change tires their is no
other option. A friend shared a pit with us and we used his new light weight
Nascar jack. His weighed about 37 lbs and took 5 or six pumps to get fully
extended. You only need to get the car off the group so three pumps were all
we needed to lift the GTV6. I have asked Santa if she will have this under
our tree this year so we will have use for the 2002 season. Expect to spend
around $550 - $600.

	Under no circumstances  use Valvoline Synthetic on a track car. In the hast
for preparation for three weekends straight of track events the fluid was
changed. I went from ATE Super Blue to a mixture of ATE Gold and mostly
Valvoline Synthetic ( I ran out of ATE gold and had the Valvoline for the
street cars). While running Hallet at the Alfa Rodeo the pedal would get
inconsistent. The brakes were bleed throughout the day with limited success.
The last session of the day while setting up a Mustang Cobra for a pass, I
suffered total brake fade. This resulted in leaving the racing surface at an
extreme rate of speed. I had about 300 or so feet of run off room and
eventually ended up in the woods, about 20 feet or so. A swap back to ATE
solved the problem. We just finished a six hour race with brakes almost as
good at the end as at the start. I would recommend you use ATE, Wilwood, or
another high quality race style brake fluid.

	All of this discussion about roll centers and center of gravity was great.
Because of limits by the rules, none of what was suggested is a legal for
the IT racers. Here is what I do know from trial and error - 1. You can not
lower the front lower A-arms so that they are higher than parallel to the
ground 2. as you lower the rear you need some sort of method to adjust the
Watts linkage on the Dedion or your rear wheels will not be square with the
front wheels. 3. Currently the is not an off the shelf suspension package
that works for the GTV6/Milano. 4. We need someone to build some descent
front torsion bars for the racers. The lower front spindles mentioned will
help keep the front suspension geometry as designed. There are several
racers working together to help develop good race torsion bars for the GTV6,
but nothing beyond the testing stage. From my experience the GTV6/Milano can
be made to handle extremely well and is fairly competitive in SCCA IT
racing.

	ANDREWG
	Houston, Tx
	#68 ITS GTV6

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided