Anyone done Panoz track days?

[HSSS427]

Beautiful day - except very cold in a car with no top at 0 dark-thirty this morning. Managed to attract one of SVOBUD's Gwinett counterparts at 6:15 this morning - I thought that would be prime donut time since there is no one on the road.

Then, of course, my group's first session starts promptly at 10:00 - oh wait, your car is too loud for quiet hours - sorry, you'll have to wait till 12:30. So, hitched a ride in group A with a neighbor buddy in his Subaru rice rocket - man that thing hauls buns and only has half the cylinders I do.

Finally got out at 12:30 and in turn 1 a big white cloud of smoke erupts behind the car, then another in turn 7. Come in looking for oil, water, anything - some say it looks like tire smoke, but tires look ok. Hmmm.....

So I go back out - same thing. Instructor suggests I'm getting oil loaded up on left side of the engine as it seems to only happen in heavy G right turns - not what you want at RA. Thinking maybe intake gasket is leaking, maybe valve stem seals, hmmmm....

Well, they let me back out next session and the smoke seems to be subsiding. Engine is running great. Get back in and a couple of guys look under the rear of the car and one spots the issue - inside edge of left rear is machining itself a nice flat spot where it's rubbing against the inside front of the wheel well.

So, most seem to agree that there's plenty of rubber left and now it's worn down enough for clearance, so I continue the day. Needless to say, either the tires are completely out of balance, or they are actually square! I feel like I'm holding onto a jack hammer as I go down the back straight.

Manage to get in 4-5 sessions and had lots of fun. Now have some body work to do on the fender wells, and the clutch fork is vibrating against the foot box. Got to switch to a different actuator, or hack away some clearance on the foot box.

Fun time!

[chill]

Wow. My Saturday session was far less dramatic. Did they have you registered for Saturday? I thought I heard you paged at some point during the day Saturday.

Saturday AM was defintely c o l d ! Fortunately I did not attract any unwanted attention.

Good time and a well-run track day. I will be back in March to play with Panoz' GTRAs.

[Johan]

Maybe as a precaution you should jack up the car and check for play in at least the left rear ? Sounds like you guys had a great time.

[HSSS427]

I was originally scheduled for Sat on the Sept event. For some reason, I had it in my mind that I'd changed to Sun when I moved it to Dec. So showed up and found no confirmed spot, but they worked me in when they had a cancellation. It was pretty full, so I think I got lucky!

Johan, good to hear from you. I'm going to be taking all the tires and wheels off anyway and putting the street set back on. I think I've got a clearance issue as I found there's only about 1/4" between the inside edge of the tire and the wheel well.

That said, I think I need to just have someone give the whole suspension setup and good check and adjust as required. Planning on going to Gran Turismo, but appreciate any suggestions on other good places to go.
Thanks!
Scott

[chill]

Glad it worked out. I mentioned to Scott that I thought you were supposed to be in the Sunday group, so they should not have been surprised.

p.s. Hey Johan!

[w-lewis]

Since Panoz' technical rules state: "Roll bar-4 point minimum, required on open cars", are 3 point Cobra's disqualified in class C?

[HSSS427]

They didn't have a problem with mine and one other with just the driver side 3 point roll bar per the original look.

[svobud]

wow - I'm really missing out on some good stuff. oh well ... back to training the dog. The FFR is hidden waay back in the garage. Last time it out was in Sept - when I ripped it a new one all the way to Suches and back.

Scott - 6:15 am is normally shift change time. You really have to be doing donuts to get someone's attention. but just in case - don't mention my name, as they might actually know me and that wouldn't be beneficial to you.