Track Day with T28 Turbo :)

Raymond A. Kawski sr20de@epix.net
Sun, 12 May 2002 20:41:05 -0500


So I took the car to the track on Saturday.  It was a cold day to
start off.  Probably in the low 50's.  This was at Pocono the
South course with PDA.

The car was great the first 2 sessions.  I was easily passing
Corvettes, Mustangs SVT's, and was up the butts of many other
fast cars that wouldn't point me by.

Towards the end the session I would drop the boost down
to 10psi for most of the track because the engine was getting
heat soaked and I didn't want to risk detonation.

By the 3rd session the outside temp had gone up
to 65-70 degrees.  Towards the end of the session my stock temp
guage moved off half.  I backed off and took 2 cool down laps.
By the 1st lap I was down to normal but took another lap around.

I got back on it and 2 laps later the guage was moving up
again.  I took another cool down lap and then pitted.  The
session was almost over anyhow.

I again checked oil and pulled plugs to check for any detonation.
Plugs looked fine and oil level was good.

I called Rob Cadle just to chat with him and he suggested running the
heat the entire session.  So for my next session I ran with the
heat on high with it on defrost and recirc per Robs suggestion.
I also swapped the TTZ cap back on.  Rob also suggested shifting
out at 6500 to prevent the water pump from cavitating.   I was
shifting at 7000 anyhow so 500rpms less wouldn't be to hard.

I pushed the car very hard that session and the temp guage
never moved at all.  I was quite pleased.

Even with the open diff trans in the car it was still doing
pretty good.  Wheel spin was controllable with throttle
modulation and I've gotten myself used to being in a gear
higher then I would be if the car was NA.  So I didn't have
too much trouble but I wasn't as fast thru the turns as I
wanted to be.  This wasn't too bad because it helped me
learn the track better.

The next time I go I'll have the water injection on which
Mike Kojima says will help with the thermal runaway greatly
as well as I want to get an oil cooler hooked up because I'm
really cooking the oil.  I also want to get a water squirter
for the intercooler.  The Quiafe diff trans will be back
in the car.

After the first session my friend Joe went up the driver of
an NSX who's ass I was up the whole time who I could have
passed had he pointed me by.  He went to tell him his rear
caliper was locking up because it was smoking.  Joe says
"Yeah I was in the Charcoal Sentra".  NSX driver:
"That things fast".  :)  I'm sure others were thinking
the same thing but we were parked in the Garage while most
of the cars in our run group where parked in the gravel lot.

RK
--
Ray Kawski
1998 Sentra SE Turbo, 1991 NX 2000, 340K mile 1991 Sentra SE-R
Poconos, PA