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How many Lemmy users are non-technical background?
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Work on/build racecars. Some of it's very technical, but probably not the type you're asking about. Also a woman. I'm checking off all the abnormal demographics here. Right?
We should normalize what you do. Woman can build racecars or do any other work a man can. Great work, keep it up!
@techconsulnerd I agree!!! It's been a very, very slow process, but I have been seeing more women in motorsports, which is awesome. Even F1 has a new series F1 Academy, which is an all women series. I'm way too old, but if I was younger, I'd sure be trying to get in.
Male prostitute
/s
(Seriously, agree with you in general though)
Yeah the only other abnormal demographic I can think of is being totally normal and well functioning mentally.
But I mean c'mon, this is an internet forum, we are all nuts here haha
Haha, yeah I'm DEFINITLY not "normal" or "well functioning mentally".
Don't you love the term "well adjusted" :)
Always makes me smile.
ha. I'm definitely not that either, but yes.
Def need an AMA. Or whatever we call it here. What kind of racing?
Can definitely do an AMA, but not sure how interesting it would be.
We have built multiple kinds. We have build engines/cars for Rolex GrandAm, Drifting (Formula D), Land Speed Racing (we actually hold a bunch of records in our class), King of Hammers/Baja type off-road (engines/wiring only, not chassis), and then the more casual type stuff for the weekend warrior types (autoX, desert toys, etc).
I'm super jealous. I live for motorsport so yeah, I'd be down to hear any cool stories! (No obligation, just curious)
It's not as glamourous as it seems lol. It's so much awful shit sometimes, but it's fun sometimes too.
I'll preface this story with here are some articles about a car we built (engine/wiring mostly), and took to Bonneville Salt Flats. (I'm not sure if links are allowed, so if not, LMK) If you want to read about it, there are about 15-20 pretty technical articles on Moto-IQ about the build (I'm co-owner of 5523 Motorsports, so articles with us apply). You can see them here (they don't seem to be in any particular order, and there's other unrelated shit, but they were publish chronologically originally and I suggest reading them chronologically). If the link doesn't get them to load, search project LSR on Moto-IQ site.
So, we were out at Bonneville, running the LSR 240SX which had our destroked SR20 in it. We get up to the line, start our pass, take off, and the car spins at right about 200mph (we never officially clocked 200 (lame), but datalogging shows we exceeded it). Next pass, same thing (I think it was a total of three times it spun that weekend). One of, if not the last pass we did of the weekend, we were in line in front of (maybe we were right behind, it's been a while) Danny Thompson (Mickey Thompson's son), who was running his dads Challenger II car (google the history, it's long, sad, and sorted). Our team was mostly at the start line, but I was at about mile 5.
Whichever order the cars went out in, I saw both from mile 5. Challenger II takes off, and I can't see it (curvature of the earth, I couldn't see it until it reach somewhere around mile 2) but the announcers are broadcasting on an AM channel so I can hear whatever they are calling out. I hear mile 1 xxx MPH, mile 2 xxx MPH, mile 3 xxx mph. I witnessed this car go 450.9 MPH on salt. I know that kinda sounds dumb, but you're brain really can't comprehend how fucking fast that is until you see it in person. I've been around cars, and fast car my whole life, but this was something else. Danny beat his dad's old record, which was the point, but my god that car was impressive.
So we go back out for our next pass, and what do we do, again? Spin, of course. There is the in car video of it in this article on page 3. The funny part, is that I have series of pics (which I'd have to go searching for now), where you can see the spring come off the chute, then the knob (the cable for the chute itself wrapped itself around the knob and launched it when it deployed), then the chute starts to deploy, and the last pic of the series was the nose of the car facing the fully deployed chute. We did set the record though. yay!
IDK how interesting that story is, but it was a fun weekend of racing. If you ever get the chance, going to the races out there is really fun. It still feels like back in the day, where everyone helps each other, and seemingly wants to collaborate, in some capacity. The crew next to us in the pits had a ranchero that they had put a Nissan engine in. It was an older Nissan engine (I don't remember it even having a true ECU in it) and they were struggling with the "tech" that was in it. IIRC it was just one of those MSD electronic ignition boxes (like the 6AL). We helped them as much as we could, and they lent us some tools. Hell, tech inspection, after we spun was some dude rubbing his hands around the circumference of the tires, to check for anything abnormal, and then the thumbs up to go again.
I will say the most flattering part of the whole weekend was these HUGE teams that were running these crazy cars really took notice of what we were doing with our little team/car. I didn't even have to be near the car, or mention it, and people would ask me about it. It's really something different from most other forms of racing anymore.
I found a REALLY shitty picture of a computer monitor with the dyno of the SR15VET we built for the LSR car.
sorry it’s an instagram link
You can see how low the power is until about 6k rpm, and then it’s like a switch was flipped, and POWER.
Little bit of the wiring
You’re my hero. I always wanted to work on cars. I ended up in IT. I miss repairing shit back in my tech bench days. Using my hands to repair, build, make better. What kind of racecars?
We have built engines/cars for Land Speed Racing, Drifting (Forumla D, and lower classes), Rolex GrandAM, 24 hours of lemons (or similar series), more weekend warrior type stuff like AutoX or off-road toys, and engines/wiring for trucks that run in series like King of Hammers or Baja 500
Can I be you when I grow up? (Am already in my 40s but that’s okay right?)
I mean, if you want to.....
That's an amazing story! I've never been out west, but Bonneville would be awesome. Over 400 on salt sounds absolutely nuts.
Did you ever determine what was causing the spins? Aero or mechanical?
Ok, the TL;DR is lack of aero, and weight, and we couldn't really fix it, and keep our class.
As I mentioned, we took an SR20 and destroked it to get it under 1500cc. We loving (sometimes) referred to is at the SR15VET or the 150SX. The class also limited aero. We were able to take some of the JDM body pieces off of the Type X Silvia, but we couldn't add any other aero components, and keep our class.
Our best guess, since it happened religiously at the same speed, was that it was an aero issue (mostly). Air would get under it, the car would get light and then spin. Land speed racing is counterintuitive to EVERYTHING you know about racing. Typically, you want a light as possible, and the biggest fattest tires, with relatively low tire pressure, amongst other things. You also typically want a linear power band, with progressive power over the whole range. Land speed racing is it's own beast. You want the skinniest tires you can get to work, and I swear, you overinflate them. You want the car to be heavy too. Our power band was also, basically, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing ALL OF IT. I can't find the dyno right now, but it really couldn't get out of it's own way, and then when like 6k rpm hit, and the turbo started to get happy there was a MASSIVE power/torque increase.
Some of the old timers came by our pit, in their golf cart, and started chatting with us. They seemed fascinated by our little import, and what we were doing. So they start asking questions. "How much does the car weigh?" "2800lb", or whatever it was. "bullshit, you need to add xxx more pounds" "what kind of tire pressure you running?" we reply "xxxpsi" "bullshit you need to be over 70psi". "did you add ballast?" "no....." "bullshit. you need to talk to xxx guy, he'll tell you where to get some cement" This was really our first foray into land speed racing, and it was definitely a learning experience.
Our next course of action was to add ballast, but the thing about land speed racing is that it takes place on "dry" lake beds (typically). Here is an iconic pic of Challenger II in 2014, when Speed Week got rained out (happens a lot). They had dragged the car all the way to Boneville only for the weekend to ultimately be cancelled. And they had to take pics of the car on the "salt" of course.
The year that we went out, and set the record (same year Challenger II did) a massive storm blew in over the mountain range, as our car was in tech, making sure we could make another pass, on our last day. Well, it was lingering over the mountain range, and heading for us. I've seen what that amount of water can do, and how fast it can do it, so we decided to get the pit packed up and head out, before we were submerged. There were EZ-Ups blowing away, shut flying everywhere, raining, windy, and salt was already getting more soggy (there is only a patch in the middle of the lake that's dry enough to drive on typically. The edges are usually still lake-ish. The day we arrived, I drove the "borrowed" SUV off the end of the road, and onto the salt, but I had to drive through water to get to the pits. The water was up to about the side skirts of a big chevy SUV. When we left the salt on the last day, the water was basically trying to come in the cabin, it was that high, at that point. The whole point of that is that we didn't have time to play with any changes, and the team captain and driver weren't able to continue with the car the following seasons, so it go mothballed.
@Plaid_Kaleidoscope
@techconsulnerd
Amazing! Thank you for sharing. I've heard about the wanting heavier cars and over inflating your tires before, but I had never considered the powerband before.
I've watched a few things about land speed machines and it's truly fascinating. Especially the aero stuff. Aero seems to be the epitome example of dunning Kruger, as the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. (as I've been told)
That was a really cool picture too. When it rains like that, does the salt stay hard underneath or is it muddy?
Everything about cars is that way. You think you know something, and then you learn a little bit more of the tech behind something, and it just makes a million more questions.
As for the powerband, if you think about it, it all kinda makes sense. If you’re driving a technical, short course, like streets of willow, for instance, you want a wildly different powerband, and probably car, than you would if you had to run down the back straight at big willow.
For streets you’ll want power in the low to mid rev range. You don’t need top end, because, unless you’re dumb like me, and drive an 89whp RX7 with like 3 ft-lb of torque, you aren’t likely to be anywhere near top speed, or the top gears. But, because there are tighter, more technically corners (which you’ll slow down more for), you’ll want some lower end power to get you back out of them fast.
If you’re on a much more open, and longer track, where you may reach top speed on a straight, but don’t need to pull the car out of tight corners often, you’ll probably want power in the mid to high rev range. Using my RX7 as an example, I’d run out of power long before I ran out of straight away on the back straight. Not the right car for the job.
For land speed racing, it’s far more important to have top end power, since it’s going to be closer to wide open throttle (mostly), and probably at the end of gearing, all the time. Once you get the car off the line, you aren’t going to slow down until the run is done. In fact, there are a lot of the vehicles there that get bump started off the line with a truck. So because we wanted as much power, at the top of the rev range, we chose a turbo that would be at peak power where we wanted it, which meant it seriously made like 50ft-lb until it didn’t.
The surface is wildly varied and racing gets cancelled often because of the surface conditions. The ever hating shoe person that I am, I had my feet in the ~~sand~~ salt as much as I could. The end and outside edges of the track are where the “crunchies” are. Imagine if salt built itself up naturally to be little peaks and valleys. Stepping on it collapse it to flat. The flattened edge of the racing surface is wet enough to make little snow men out of. I know, I got bored waiting for cars. lol. But it’s relatively thick (disclaimer it’s been losing salt for many years, and there are people trying to bring awareness to restore it. Don’t go out and do dumb shit to it. People have gone out and damaged it more than once. Article here ) actual track surface is pretty well packed. It’s surprisingly cold to the touch too. It’s really weird. If it’s submerged, I actually didn’t walk in that so I can’t for sure but driving on it, it was pretty stable. More like driving on hard packed dirt than loose sand.
Dropping knowledge bombs. Saltmen, who woulda thought lol
Ohhh what kind of racecar? I'm actually going after work to the shop to go scale our car. Cross is a bit off keeps getting a little loose at the corner exit.
Also a woman btw
Edit, just saw your other comment were racing very different cars but that's awesome!
Thanks! Yeah, we do all kinds of stuff.
Well, actually women doing extremely cool technical work are in perception more normal than women doing more usual technical work. =\
Username is great!
Thanks!
That’s freakin’ awesome.
I’m sure you have a bajillion replies, but I would love to see some of the race cars y’all build.
I already linked the land speed car we built in another reply (should be easy to find under my original reply). If not lmk.
I was looking for a link to another car and stumbled on something one of our customers did.
YouTube video on the “Hakobird” build
So funny story, I guess. Not so funny for the poor person, ME, who covered themself in fiberglass for weeks for it to be completely ruined by someone else. The part where he shows the wide body kit installed and perfectly aligned and pretty? Yeah. It left our possession to go to paint like that. I spent weeks making it perfect, and I had to re-engineer A LOT of the kit because their mold was off by about 20-30* to the right, so nothing fit. At all. Then the painter ruined it.
The car has a built SR20DET in it. It did 350whp first day we had it on the dyno, with plenty more room.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/m1t0rdqMCrY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
That is just SO doap.
The 510 is one of my all time favorite cars ever.
And the 510 with that front end and that bad ass wide body kit? Absolute perfection.
SR20DET is just the icing on the cake. Usually you see those KA’s in the 510s, which are great engines and perfect upgrade for auto crossing and stuff. That SR20DET just turns it into another beast.
Friggin’ blows having the painter ruin all your hard work. You can tell from those shots a lot of care went into it.
Badass build. Y’all should be proud.
Thanks!!!
Funny enough. We just built two SR20VET engines. And even funnier, they were both going into roadsters. Neither guy knows each other, we didn’t suggest the combo. Just a coincidence.
We’ve done a few 510s with SR20DE/DET engines now. We actually do a lot of SR engines, both VE/VET and DE/DET.
We’ve done L series too, but I can’t think of a KA we’ve done that ended up in a 510. Usually they stay in an S chassis.
We also built an SR20 that ended up in a 300XZ. Yeah….. I still question the thought process behind that one.
Unrelated, we also built a VQ35 for Dai Yoshihara in 3 days. Moto-IQ did an article about that one too.
@potato