17 replies to this topic

[ChrisA]

I realized driving into work today that when I scaled my car to determine how much ballast I needed, that I had left the side windows in the car. I scaled the car with myself and 1-gal of gas and had enough ballast made to put me right at 2400. Without the windows I'll likely be a little under IF I roled in with only 1-gal of fuel left. That said, the chance of me rolling in with that little fuel is slim, as it would be sucking air in the corners. Should I add little more ballast or just let fuel do the trick?

 

Also, when setting up your cars' ride-height, corner balance and alignment, is it best to do so at Min. Weight or with more fuel on board? If more, how much?

 

Thanks!

[Ron Alan]

Was your cool suit in full of water? Having a couple 5 or 10lb weights that are easily added or subtracted is a good thing! Permanent weight that always has you over...even with no fuel...is not ideal. 

[Alberto]

I realized driving into work today that when I scaled my car to determine how much ballast I needed, that I had left the side windows in the car. I scaled the car with myself and 1-gal of gas and had enough ballast made to put me right at 2400. Without the windows I'll likely be a little under IF I roled in with only 1-gal of fuel left. That said, the chance of me rolling in with that little fuel is slim, as it would be sucking air in the corners. Should I add little more ballast or just let fuel do the trick?

 

 

 

FYI

I just weighed one window from my 1.6 on the bathroom scale @ 6 lbs.  The windows on the 99+ cars are probably a wee bit heavier since they used thicker glass.

1 gallon of liquid weighs about 8 lbs.

iirc Local teen challenge racer Chris M was DQ'ed for being 8 lbs underweight at the last race.  He double stints with his father and they forgot to add ballast in between sessions.  

It's probably worthwhile to add the ballast and not have to think about it.

 

In case you haven't seen it yet, East Street's Ballast system is awesome: http://mazdaracers.c...llast-system/  

[FTodaro]

I would not be worried about a pound or two on this set up because you cannot assume that the scales at the track are going to be the same as yours, so you are always going to go into impound and see what your wt is relative to the scales your going to be on so if your light just add a little more gas.

 

As far as what wt should you use as the base line when setting your corner wts. Jim Daniels approach to use one gallon the amount of approximate gas on the last lap or two is a good approach for a sprint race. having two gallons in there is not going to change it much. I would not do that for an enduro, which i did the last time and the car was not good till it was close to out of gas, in that case i would set up with a half a tank.

[Bench Racer]

Sprint race:
One gallon of fuel.
Drivers net weight.
Drivers gear including cool suite and cool water as you race.
Because I'm anal, I put a scale under my feet when seated in car and place said weight at heel location with remainder of driver/gear weight in seat.

[ChrisA]

Was your cool suit in full of water? Having a couple 5 or 10lb weights that are easily added or subtracted is a good thing! Permanent weight that always has you over...even with no fuel...is not ideal. 

Cool suit, what's that? I've got no money run one of those yet. Maybe in a year or two I can splurge and pick one up. Until then no Jul/Aug southern races.

 

 

In case you haven't seen it yet, East Street's Ballast system is awesome: http://mazdaracers.c...llast-system/  

Yes, that is what I have. Have the plates made locally to save the shipping cost.

 

Because I'm anal, I put a scale under my feet when seated in car and place said weight at heel location with remainder of driver/gear weight in seat.

We are of the same mind set.

[ChrisA]

I would not be worried about a pound or two on this set up because you cannot assume that the scales at the track are going to be the same as yours, so you are always going to go into impound and see what your wt is relative to the scales your going to be on so if your light just add a little more gas.

 

As far as what wt should you use as the base line when setting your corner wts. Jim Daniels approach to use one gallon the amount of approximate gas on the last lap or two is a good approach for a sprint race. having two gallons in there is not going to change it much. I would not do that for an enduro, which i did the last time and the car was not good till it was close to out of gas, in that case i would set up with a half a tank.

Consistancy in approach is probably the most important thing. I was just curious whether setting up the car should be done at its' end run, middle or beginning weight. Yeah, for an enduro I would image the Full to Empty weight swing would impact a car optimized for either extreme noticibly.

[Bench Racer]

The cool suite is the very best $400.00 I ever spent on a race car. At my maturity, 25 laps with no cool suite is very mind numbing and exhausting. Doesn't make me any faster, but it makes it easire to go the distance.

[Alberto]

The cool suite is the very best $400.00 I ever spent on a race car. At my maturity, 25 laps with no cool suite is very mind numbing and exhausting. Doesn't make me any faster, but it makes it easire to go the distance.

 

I made mine for $70 in parts.  Bought the shirt though.  It is indeed awesome

[David L]

You can buy a Don joy Iceman ice therapy machine or similar on ebay for about 40 bucks. They plug right into the cool shrits. Been using for about 3 years no problem.

[Keith Andrews]

Consistancy in approach is probably the most important thing. I was just curious whether setting up the car should be done at its' end run, middle or beginning weight. Yeah, for an enduro I would image the Full to Empty weight swing would impact a car optimized for either extreme noticibly.

 

I inadvertently set the car up with fuel in it one time and thought I was going to have to go back to square one.  I can't remember the exact change in cross I had from 7 gallons to 1 but it was a lot less than I expected.  As I recall it was minimal.   

[Bench Racer]

 

You can buy a Don joy Iceman ice therapy machine or similar on ebay for about 40 bucks. They plug right into the cool shrits. Been using for about 3 years no problem.

Are you talking about the DonJoy blue/white box they sell for $149.99???

[Johnny D]

 
Are you talking about the DonJoy blue/white box they sell for $149.99???

 

http://www.ebay.com/...w=donjoy iceman

J~

[Ron Alan]

Cool suit, what's that? I've got no money run one of those yet. Maybe in a year or two I can splurge and pick one up. 

So plan ahead and make sure you can take out 15-20lbs easy when you splurge! 

[Bench Racer]

Thanks David and Johnny. Johnny, that's the one I viewed of theirs for $149.99.
That's quite a deal, IIRC cool shirt for $120.00 (they can be found for less) + cool box for $50.00 = $170.00 rather than $400.00. No matter how you cut it, the cool shirt does it's job............

[DCP]

You can buy a Don joy Iceman ice therapy machine or similar on ebay for about 40 bucks. They plug right into the cool shrits. Been using for about 3 years no problem.

At the risk of considerable thread drift, how are you powering it?  The ebay ones sometimes include an AC adapter that is 7 volt. Are you powering it with 12 volt?

[jrhenson]

I used the adapter that came with the unit, cut off the transformer and direct wired it to a switch in my dash. To my knowledge it is actually a 12V pump that they send 7V to in an effort to make it last longer. Either way, running ice water through it keeps it cool enough.

 

BTW, it was the best $150 I have spent so far...

[RussMcB]

I'm building a mostly-homemade cool shirt system.  There are a lot of very good threads on the internet.  I went with the Ultra-Chiller shirt.  The rest (Cooler from Ack, Rule pump from Walmart or a marine store, tubing and bits from McMaster-Carr) will cost about $100.

 

I decided after the last (Hotlanta) race that it would be a good investment.  I'm looking forward to 'cool running' at Barber, AL later this month.