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      01-13-2020, 11:48 AM   #1497
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FormulaMMM View Post
This is amazing.

Apologies if I've overlooked somewhere in the 68 pages -- what's your current mileage? VF620 with rod bearing service, anything else? Original box?

I'm pondering round 2 with my E90 as a street + track car (after going back to stock). 65k miles. But powertrain concerns. DCT was beginning to give me some concern here and there on track. Have changed fluid since.

thanks
For the DCT you need the slon workshop DCT pan plus the do88 cooler, that's it.

My E90 with GTS software shifts faster and most importantly more consistently than the F80 CS with stock CS software
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      01-13-2020, 11:55 AM   #1498
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FormulaMMM View Post
This is amazing.

Apologies if I've overlooked somewhere in the 68 pages -- what's your current mileage? VF620 with rod bearing service, anything else? Original box?

I'm pondering round 2 with my E90 as a street + track car (after going back to stock). 65k miles. But powertrain concerns. DCT was beginning to give me some concern here and there on track. Have changed fluid since.

thanks
I think the mileage is around 56000 now. I don't really do things based on miles anymore. It's more about how much usage we think a part or fluid has endured and then we make decisions about maintenance or replacement. Supercharger went on at 14000. All track days have been done with the supercharger.

Regarding things done directly to the engine-----rod bearings......and that's it. I change spark plugs on a regular basis long before they are "needed" to be swapped. I keep replacing air filters on a regular basis. Engine oil never sees more than 4 track days. It comes out looking like new.

My approach at this point with the engine is that I am not touching anything on the inside beyond rod bearings until something gets damaged/ruined/blows up, or we somehow know for sure that something catastrophic is imminent. It's been so reliable for 8 years. Opening up an engine is $15k.

The DCT transmission fluid pan has been replaced with a Slon Workshop pan. And the DCT cooler replaced with the do88 cooler. These REALLY helped with my shifting issues. 98% of them are gone. So happy with those products---especially the Slon pan. I got it on a group buy, but now I'm not sure of the status of the vendor on the forum. You can reach directly out to the vendor. He's in Russia.

Other than that, the transmission is original stock, the engine internals are stock.

I don't understand what you're asking when say "Original box". What are you asking there?

(I also have a 2009 E92 M3 DCT that has 90000 miles on it. It's mainly a street car, but I take it to tracks occasionally here in CO for fun. Does fine. The transmission starts to lag on shifting when it gets hot. I can push it pretty hard because it has JRZ suspension and an old AP Racing BBK and a set of DH scrubs. But the car has been fine. Probably going to replace the rod bearings in that car because I don't think they've been done. I think I'm the 3rd owner of the E92. Got it with 71k miles on it.)

btw, ALL mods to the car are listed on the first post of the whole thread.
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      01-13-2020, 12:05 PM   #1499
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I don't understand what you're asking when say "Original box". What are you asking there?
Thanks. I meant no rebuild.
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      01-13-2020, 12:07 PM   #1500
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Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow View Post
For the DCT you need the slon workshop DCT pan plus the do88 cooler, that's it.

My E90 with GTS software shifts faster and most importantly more consistently than the F80 CS with stock CS software
Roger that, thanks. Also have the GTS software.
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      01-13-2020, 01:13 PM   #1501
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@frontstreetmedia @globaltimeattack #globaltimeattack
Looks like you had that track sweeper in the background pretty well gapped!


Sounds like the makings of a potentially pretty epic road trip you guys are getting ready to go on!

COTA is a bit funky but I really enjoy it. Traffic can get a little annoying at times but Chin usually has a pretty decent flow out there. I think sub 2:20 is within reach for you if the weather cooperates. One thing to keep in mind though is that this looks to be the first event after they finish their repairs. Going to be multiple fresh asphalt patches on the track so might have some varying grip levels. Might really be interesting if it gets wet.

We are heading out there for at least that Saturday with Chin. Want to check out the track conditions after the repairs & need as much testing time as I can get before the SCCA races out there the next weekend. Feel free to give me a holler if you need anything.
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      01-14-2020, 12:27 AM   #1502
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OG Shark View Post
Looks like you had that track sweeper in the background pretty well gapped!
haha! It's time attack. You can never really judge what's going on in a picture like that. The Miata behind me is Ryan Passey. Great driver and a super crazy Miata build. When looking at personal bests, he's 0.4 sec faster than me at Buttonwillow. In November at SLB, I drove 0.03 sec faster than him. Buuuuut, he chooses to run in Limited Class on 100TW tires. I'm on slicks. hehe that Miata is formidable. Interestingly, he ran at SLB COTA last year and did a 2:23 in his Miata. I saw a post on some forum where he said that COTA was a big neutralizer for his car. Being light was only so effective at COTA. He was starving for more power.

Quote:
Originally Posted by OG Shark View Post
Sounds like the makings of a potentially pretty epic road trip you guys are getting ready to go on!

COTA is a bit funky but I really enjoy it. Traffic can get a little annoying at times but Chin usually has a pretty decent flow out there. I think sub 2:20 is within reach for you if the weather cooperates. One thing to keep in mind though is that this looks to be the first event after they finish their repairs. Going to be multiple fresh asphalt patches on the track so might have some varying grip levels. Might really be interesting if it gets wet.

We are heading out there for at least that Saturday with Chin. Want to check out the track conditions after the repairs & need as much testing time as I can get before the SCCA races out there the next weekend. Feel free to give me a holler if you need anything.
Glad to hear that you'll be at the Chin event! I look forward to seeing ya out there! And I appreciate the offer to help.

I'm not worried about lap times at the Chin event. My goal is to get a sense of the track, push the car around and try to find some limits that weekend. COTA is definitely tricky.

Yeah, if we do the whole trip to the East coast, it would be amazing. We'll see.
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      01-14-2020, 12:32 PM   #1503
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dogbone View Post
haha! It's time attack. You can never really judge what's going on in a picture like that. The Miata behind me is Ryan Passey. Great driver and a super crazy Miata build. When looking at personal bests, he's 0.4 sec faster than me at Buttonwillow. In November at SLB, I drove 0.03 sec faster than him. Buuuuut, he chooses to run in Limited Class on 100TW tires. I'm on slicks. hehe that Miata is formidable. Interestingly, he ran at SLB COTA last year and did a 2:23 in his Miata. I saw a post on some forum where he said that COTA was a big neutralizer for his car. Being light was only so effective at COTA. He was starving for more power.



Glad to hear that you'll be at the Chin event! I look forward to seeing ya out there! And I appreciate the offer to help.

I'm not worried about lap times at the Chin event. My goal is to get a sense of the track, push the car around and try to find some limits that weekend. COTA is definitely tricky.

Yeah, if we do the whole trip to the East coast, it would be amazing. We'll see.
Oh I have no doubt that Miata is very, very fast. I like the crazy aero setups on some of those cars - the front end on that one reminded me of the brooms hanging out of a sweeper. And yeah power is a huge neutralizer at COTA, definitely nice to have out there. I think after a couple of laps out there you will pick up on the flow of the track - I really like the rhythm of 2 through 11. The back straight is a bit long but then 12 through 15 wake you back up from that long break down the straight. 16 through 18 (the carousel) ought to be interesting if they were able to smooth out the bump near the apex exit of 18. 19 is typically my everest out there - my tendency is to over slow & not get the weight back on the rear. Nice thing about COTA is there is ample run off so you are typically ok if you need to open the steering up. I like to think of COTA as three big rhythm sections with a couple of drag strips mixed in. I know its not the favorite for a lot of people but I really enjoy it. Might be a sentimental thing though since that is mainly where I cut my teeth.
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      01-14-2020, 12:55 PM   #1504
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OG Shark View Post
Oh I have no doubt that Miata is very, very fast. I like the crazy aero setups on some of those cars - the front end on that one reminded me of the brooms hanging out of a sweeper. And yeah power is a huge neutralizer at COTA, definitely nice to have out there. I think after a couple of laps out there you will pick up on the flow of the track - I really like the rhythm of 2 through 11. The back straight is a bit long but then 12 through 15 wake you back up from that long break down the straight. 16 through 18 (the carousel) ought to be interesting if they were able to smooth out the bump near the apex exit of 18. 19 is typically my everest out there - my tendency is to over slow & not get the weight back on the rear. Nice thing about COTA is there is ample run off so you are typically ok if you need to open the steering up. I like to think of COTA as three big rhythm sections with a couple of drag strips mixed in. I know its not the favorite for a lot of people but I really enjoy it. Might be a sentimental thing though since that is mainly where I cut my teeth.
It's fun to see the insane builds at a time attack competition. They do some crazy stuff. The Miatas can look really crazy. My car looks totally boring by comparison.......hehe....at the awards ceremony in November, the announcer called me up to the podium saying, "In 3rd place, in the family sedan....." There's just no love in the world.....

I think I have the layout of the track in my head now. Lots of interesting challenges.

Really eager to see how my car feels out there!
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      01-14-2020, 07:07 PM   #1505
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Try to track (ha!) down Julie Wolf about some of the east coast tracks. She went out there for a couple years and cleaned up in BMW CCA club racing. RRT transformed the car, but Julie has always been a strong driver. PhD in Engineering apparently has practical applications!
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      01-15-2020, 06:07 PM   #1506
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"In 3rd place, in the family sedan....." There's just no love in the world.....

That's freaking awesome. You need to fab in a couple of child car seats in to the back for the COTA event. Would be so worth the wait penalty.
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      01-15-2020, 09:42 PM   #1507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OG Shark View Post
That's freaking awesome. You need to fab in a couple of child car seats in to the back for the COTA event. Would be so worth the wait penalty.
hehe I was joking around recently saying that I should bolt in a child seat in the back seat area and see if I could pass tech at a time attack!! hahahaha C'mon the look on the inspector's face would be worth it!
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      01-16-2020, 11:33 AM   #1508
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hehe I was joking around recently saying that I should bolt in a child seat in the back seat area and see if I could pass tech at a time attack!! hahahaha C'mon the look on the inspector's face would be worth it!


I know you remember when these were on half the cars on the road
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      01-16-2020, 08:10 PM   #1509
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Better yet, you need a few bags of groceries in the trunk.
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      01-16-2020, 10:27 PM   #1510
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haha I know.....the family sedan is such an easy target. That's ok, we can take it!

hehe Awhile back, I was at the gas pumps at Willow Springs. A dude in a Corvette was at the pumps at the same time. He asks me, "Were you at Buttonwillow last week?" I said yes. He continues, "I knew it! Damn it, you were the fastest thing out there that day. I was timing you. I said to my friend, how sad is it that the fastest thing out there today is a family sedan?" haha I guess it must be pretty sad....
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      01-17-2020, 12:32 AM   #1511
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I swear some people truly hate pointing a family sedan by.
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      01-19-2020, 08:18 PM   #1512
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been following your youtube channel for a while and just wanted to drop in and say congrats on the super lap battle podium!! really admire your smooth driving style and my absolute favorite lapping videos! (clear and stable video, clean engine sound, perfect overlays!)
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      01-19-2020, 08:46 PM   #1513
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been following your youtube channel for a while and just wanted to drop in and say congrats on the super lap battle podium!! really admire your smooth driving style and my absolute favorite lapping videos! (clear and stable video, clean engine sound, perfect overlays!)
Thanks!! Glad you stopped by to say hi!

I have a new video to post. Went Willow Springs today and got a new personal best! Hopefully I can post the video later this evening.
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      01-19-2020, 08:49 PM   #1514
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Thanks!! Glad you stopped by to say hi!

I have a new video to post. Went Willow Springs today and got a new personal best! Hopefully I can post the video later this evening.
notifications are on so i look forward to checking it out!

my next time at big willow is at the end of april so i've been taking notes.
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      01-20-2020, 07:56 AM   #1515
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It's been a very busy week with car stuff.

The carbon doors are on the car. I really like the final results. Racewerkz did a great job of installing them. There was a LOT of work required to get them on the car. (I'll talk more specifically about them later. I'm still traveling and have tons to do so I can't write in detail until I return home.)





I was able to test them at Willow Springs on Sunday. They worked great. No issues with the doors. The car is definitely faster now as a result of the weight loss. I've never gone 150mph at Willow Springs before Sunday. Fastest ever was 149.6mph. On Sunday, I hit 151.4mph on the front straight.

My goal wasn't to drive the car at it's limit on Sunday to get a new personal best. I was simply there to make sure the doors are workable at high speeds since I'll be seeing ~160mph at COTA. But-----the weather was PERFECT......ideal weather----high 55ºF. No wind. Low car count/wide open track----only 10 people in Advanced. The car accelerates better and holds the ground better. I haven't even worried about braking yet, but of course that will be better too.

I promised myself that I would not pound my new doors into the nasty rocky WSIR desert. So, I drove very much within my limits. And even still---in my fourth session, on tires that corded two sessions later, I ran a new personal best of 1:25.58.

On this lap, when I compare it to my previous best of 1:25.8, by Turn 3, I was a half second faster. But then I gave almost all of it back in Turns 3,4,5. That section of the track felt terrible yesterday. Several people were talking about it. Then I picked up a bit more time on the rest of the course. There's no doubt in my mind that on fresher tires the car can do 1:24....and possibly even dip into 1:23 if I had my act together. But I never show up with fresh tires at Willow Springs. That track is simply a tire eater. On my fast lap, after Turn 6, I had to pass some sort of luxury sedan. I am very thankful that they got way out of the way and didn't impede me at all. phew! haha

I have some aero issues to deal with today. My splitter is getting old and some support screws have pulled out. We’ll have to see if we can reattach it. Honestly, I wish I had more time to replace the splitter. It's trashed after 5 years of hard use.....darn it. Maybe I can come up with some way to get it replaced before Texas. I would have to sort out some solution this morning.....This is where living 1000 miles from the car gets complicated......

Here's the lap. Honestly, not my best driving, but the car wants to run.


Now, my sights are set on COTA. And I gotta tell ya, putting down a new fast lap at WSIR right before I go has put me in a really good mood. The car is really driving strong which makes me excited. I've been looking at the weather for the Chin Track Days event at COTA on Feb 1-2 and Day 1 looks fantastic. Day 2 may start with a bit of rain. For COTA, that seems pretty good.

Alright, time to get this busy day going. Got lots of logistics to take care of on the car and lots of miles to drive to deliver the car to San Diego for transport to Texas and then get onto a plane to go home.

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      01-20-2020, 09:09 AM   #1516
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Methinks you went faster mostly because awesome air and not overdriving - it's amazing how effective telling yourself to just chill out can be at throwing down a fast time

But hey low weight is good - that course is so underrated as a fun driver's course by us other-half of the country people IMO now that I've had the pleasure on GT Sport I can see what attachments it requires to get a solid lap - that last sequence is just epic, I'm jealous
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      01-20-2020, 11:43 PM   #1517
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whats the final weight shedding with the doors?
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      01-22-2020, 02:18 PM   #1518
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Alright, it's time to talk about carbon doors. I’ve been trying to get this done for a couple years now without luck. Thanks to lemanszcpm3 for pushing the project along and donating his doors for molding. As I mentioned, I’m really happy with the final result. The doors look beautiful and the car feels fantastic on track.

The first question is: how much weight was shed? Quick answer: 70 lbs when starting with fully gutted OEM doors. Here’s how we arrived at that. At Racewerkz, we had my OEM gutted steel doors without hinges, latches, mirrors or handles. Each one weighed around 28 lbs. The carbon door also without hinges, latches, mirrors or handles weigh around 10 lbs. So, 17x4=68 lbs. Obviously the weight loss would be much more dramatic if you were starting with stock untouched doors.

But the story gets more complicated. The car wasn’t weighed at Racewerkz before the job began. The last time the car was weighed was at EAS a few months ago. The weight at EAS was 3212 lbs no fuel no driver. Nothing else has been done to the car until the door job. The weight of the fully assembled car at Racewerkz after the carbon doors went on was 3120 lbs——a 92 lbs difference. (Yes I account for fuel!!!!) I had the car weighed at Minicorsa on Monday——it weighed 3110 lbs—a 102 lbs difference. I was aching to go to EAS and weigh the car and see what their scale said, but I could not get there before having to drop off the car in San Diego for its journey to Texas. I want to get an “after” weighing down at EAS since they did the most recent “before” weighing, but if the car goes to the East Coast, I won’t be able to weigh the car there until later this summer……..

Anyway, the topic of overall weight is baffling at the moment, and I don’t see any clarity coming any time soon. I am (mildly) surprised that different scales seem to show such different results. All I can tell you is that the car is lighter, and I feel it on track, and I like it. There’s ZERO doubt that the car accelerates faster—the top speed at Willow Springs showed that. And the car held better in Turn 2 resulting in half a second gain over my previous best after two turns……holy cow! It’s making me consider losing even more weight.


Alright, let’s talk about the shop that fabricated the doors. DTM FiberWerkz in Northridge, CA created the doors from a set we gave them. As far as the fit, it’s very good. The doors retain all the lines and shapes of the stock doors. Casey from Racewerkz noted that the doors are a fiberglass infrastructure with a carbon shell. This makes sense since the doors weigh 10 lbs. (Years ago, when I looked at M24 doors, they said they could make the doors 4-6 lbs depending on how much resin went in. Clearly, that would be all carbon.) Unfortunately, it took 6 months for the project to be complete because DTM was busy and we were a small side project. But now that they’ve made the molds, it should be just a couple weeks for a future order. DTM plans on making the doors a regular item that they sell. DTM FiberWerkz says you can also get the doors in fiberglass and it’s quite a bit cheaper and not much more weight. Buuuuut, you would have to paint or wrap the fiberglass doors which adds cost back in. The carbon doors can be left as-is without paint or wrap which is how I plan to run them for the foreseeable future.

With these DTM FiberWerkz doors, it is important to understand that they don’t just drop onto the car in 5 minutes. There is a lot of detail work required for them to be ready-to-track. Also, the topic of mounting the OEM mirrors took quite a bit of work to sort out. The OEM mirrors are several pounds and they have to be able to take 160mph of wind punishment. Racewerkz was not comfortable with the mirror mounting point. That area may have been molded true to the original, but the original metal piece could withstand high forces. The thin fiberglass piece that was supposed to hold the mirror wouldn’t be enough. They felt it was too thin and the rear-ward part of the mounting area was not connected to the door frame to give it any stability. (I wasn’t excited about aftermarket mirrors, and I was running out of time to order them anyway.) Racewerkz ended up laying up several rounds of fiberglass into that area to thicken it, and they built a fiberglass bridge to the door frame to give it some strength. It worked well on track. They vibrate a bit, but nothing that bothers me.

Racewerkz spent 2 1/2 days on this install. It was a lot of work. When I was looking at doing carbon fiber doors, I didn’t consider that so much labor would be needed for installation. So the cost of the install is something to consider. I may talk to DTM FiberWerkz and see what their take is on future production of these doors. I’ve heard that M24 doors just drop onto a car without hardly any work.


Ok, so why go through all the trouble to get doors made domestically instead of going with a ready-to-go solution in Germany that is even lighter? Here was my line of thinking:
1. Fitment: The main reason was that my cage (and also lemanszcpm3 ) has NASCAR-style door bars that flair out all the way to the skin of the door panel. I was worried that the pre-made offering from Germany was not going to be able to accommodate bars that went out so far. And everyone was worried that trying to cut those doors could be a big problem. By having our doors molded, we would guarantee that the fitment would work. If they work for us, then they would most likely work for anyone else who ordered them.
2. Replacement: I’m going with the assumption that these carbon doors will need to be replaced due to damage at some point. I didn’t want to have to keep going back to Germany and dealing with shipping a door overseas again. I wanted to have a local source available. DTM claims that they can turn a new door out very quickly now.
3. Cost: A few years ago, the German doors were expensive. With the exchange rate at the time, they were $5000. Then you had to ship 4 big, fragile doors—-expensive and you hope they arrive undamaged, then you had to pay import duty——who knows what that would add. Then they still had to be installed. At the time it seemed really expensive so I shied away from importing doors. These days, I’m not so sure there is a big cost difference——the current exchange rate has reduced the price, and IF the M24 doors really do just drop right on the car and don’t need several days of labor, that really makes the M24 doors and the DTM offering similar in cost.


Other notes:
-When Racewerkz built my cage in 2015, one of the things they did was to make my front doors “quick release”, meaning when the door was fully open, you could lift the door off the hinges. This was VERY convenient because I prefer to drive the car in and out of the trailer, but if the door is on, you can’t get out of the car. Between the fixed OEM steering wheel and the cage bars and the door bumping the trailer wall——forget it. Of course, you can winch the car in, but pushing the car out of the trailer is a pain in the ass for one person. Originally, Casey thought that I would have to lose the quick release feature with the carbon doors. He was worried there may be too much flex. However, as he fitted the doors, he decided that the quick release feature could stay. So, the driver door is still quick release. I didn’t have any issues with it at Willow Springs. Phew! So I can continue hanging the door on my fancy wall hangar! Hahaha Another potential solution would be to have an escape hatch side door built into the trailer so I could open the door and get out. I priced it out—$1500-$2000…. But, I have a height clearance issue with clearing the trailer fender/wheel hump/cap. My car sits low enough that the door hits that hump. Before the doors were removable, I used to have to drive up onto a 1” thick piece of wood so I could open the door without hitting that hump.

-I’m considering getting some carbon fiber mirror caps. It would seem to make more sense from a looks standpoint versus the blue that’s on there right now.

-The door seals didn’t seem to fit onto the carbon doors, so we left all that off. As a result, there’s a gap that's almost an inch wide between the frame of the car and the door frame. You don’t really notice it when looking at it from outside, but when you sit in the car and look out the door window, you see the gap. I was feeling how much air sneaks in there on track. It’s not a ton, but in the future, I may explore something to fill the gap.

-We installed new plexiglass windows on the rear doors. That came out nice. The old plexiglass didn’t work because, on the steel doors, we had left the OEM glass on that last tiny section. So, a whole new piece had to be made.

-I was hoping some kind of mechanism could be fashioned that would allow you to open the door from the inside of the car. But nothing quick was possible. So, I still have to reach outside the car to pull the handle. No big deal. I’ve been doing that since 2015. But it would have been nice to be able to open it from inside.

So, the weight loss for me from a gutted steel door, when you weigh each door, seems to be around 70 lbs. But the car on non-EAS scales is showing 90-100 lbs lighter than the last EAS measurement. Until I can get to EAS, that will continue to be a nagging mystery. If someone does this mod from a fully stock door——the weight loss would be tremendous. (Of course, I would strongly recommend staying away from this mod until a full cage is in the car.) Regardless of the exact number of pounds, the car felt fantastic on track, to the point that I set a new personal best on scrubs that corded two sessions later.

The big question floating in my head now is——what is possible at Buttonwillow? Could the 1:46 be possible now?? I’ll probably have to wait until at least November to give it a try.
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