Klasik-69

Wow, what a great.............no, FANTASTIC lesson on audio recording with a 7. I really got a kick of some of your technical explanations, like "dead pussy". I googled on Amazon.com to see if I could buy one inexpensively and they just don't list them. Must be a regional item :hat: Ok, so now I'm on the hunt for a ProCM24 mic. By the way, do you have a $24 million budget for testing this stuff ? I can only admire your determination to find the perfect solution. Question: Were you totally friggin drunk when you taped the mic to the exhaust or did you do this while somewhat sober ? I don't have room to talk as evidenced by some of my videos with the sound of............well a Eureka vacuum cleaner running on 220 VAC. I never would have thought of puting the mic in the engine compartment but I have to admit it is brilliant, and very logical. What are we trying to record ? The sound of the engine of course, so why not put the mic close to the engine. I can't thank you enough for taking the time and incredible effort to lay out all the possibilities, post the results, and explain how and why. I can't speak for the others but I can vouch that I would have given up way before coming to the conclusions you did. You must be in the electronics business. Absolutely BRILLIANT presentation.:cheers:

If you have the 7 pin factory connector, then your vehicle is already wired to accomodate the brake controller. Tekonsha is the most common. Having it under the dash is better for the brake controller than one that sits outside. Out of the weather and out of grabby little hands too. I use the Tekonsha in the Tahoe. My Ford F-150 has the built in controller and electronic sway control too, which makes towing a whole lot easier.

I used an air nibbler which cuts a 3/8" notch. It doesn't distort the metal. However, Eastwood sells a hand operated metal shear that is supposed to be a lot better and doesn't distort the metal either. I believe the hand shear is also a lot more accurate since you go at your pace rather than the tool. Having said that, it looks like you can avoid cutting the bonnet by taking the ITG air cleaner and giving it a little rubber mallet revision. If you can avoid cutting the bonnet, do it. When it rains, you won't have to worry about the foam element getting soaked. I wish I could have avoided it with mine but mine is a S3 chassis and there just isn't the room for the ITB and air filter.

I thought about sticking it up my butt. That way, road noise would be completely muffled and well, my emotions would not be :jester:. Someone mentioned puting the mic in the engine compartment. I never tried that but I will. I also thought about puting the mic under the dash, not sure how well that would pick up the exhaust noise and not the road noise. Sticking it inside the muffler would seem the best place, not sure if Olympus would warranty the mic in that location.

I actually thought about going up this year but the Chasing the Dragon event was too close in time. However, this is my last year in SCCA TT events so next year my schedule will be a lot more open and I may well do the event with you guys (with permission of course). Maybe Croc can show me where NOT to put the mic when I do a video. My videos look like:deadhorse:and sound like:nopity:

One thing I should add, Heikki doesn't just have a fast car, which he does. He is an extremely talented driver who would likely be fast even if driving a school bus up the hill. He is also one of the nicest people you will ever meet and always very humble and gracious. Mike

Yeah, Heikki, you're trying to break the 1:14 record. I thought you had the record but then I saw it posted. Not sure what kind of car it was, or maybe a low flying plane ??? I'm pretty sure you can do it but I hope you stay safe trying. Are you getting a bigger turbo on the engine ? This event absolutely trashed my paint job. I've got chips on every surface of the car and some on my helmet as well. I should have wrapped my car in bubble wrap used for shipping, maybe two layers would have been enough. It is a "paved" road but only by the most liberal of all descriptions. Mike

That is a great video, very well done, and some very good driving as well. I sure wish I could make a video like that but I'd need someone on the side of the track taking some of the out-of-car shooting. I really like the way you even had your buddy shoot video of your car from behind. Very professional. Only one little critique..................anybody but the Rolling Stones. :smash: How about Simon & Garfunkel...........slip sliding away ! That one sweeper looks like a 270 degree turn/curve, looks like it goes on forever and I bet really tests your patience to hang in and not get too eager. Fun looking track.

It's hard to tell. If I had run a set of the R25's, I'd have a reference point to make a comparison but I don't and if I uttered any opinion, I'd be talking out of my hat. My recomendation is to call Hoosier and ask to speak to one of their engineers. They will ask you what kind of car you're running and then place you in contact with one who deals with that type/class of car. then that engineer will ask you what you're doing with the car, the type of events, the type of tracks, etc. It is incredible how much those guys know and how helpful they are, and it's all free. Temperature wise, our asphalt tracks heat up to about 155 to 160 in the summertime in open sun, and the tires on my car will warm up to about 125-135 degrees at the warmest, and 15 to 20 less on a cooler day. In comparison, my Z06 would warm up the R6 radials to over 165 and at times reached 190 degrees. Pressures on those tires were much higher than the 7 with 32 to 38 psi, whereas I now run 18 psi all around and let them work up to 19.5 degrees before knocking them down. Again, I had a lot of good suggestions from Hoosier, like the starting off point of 18 psi which proved to be 100% correct. They also recommended I knock off -2 degree camber I had and bring it back to -0.2 to -0.8, again very correct. I knocked over 4 seconds off my lap time at Talladega GPR.

Mike, you guys have way too big a budget for stuff like that. Us married guys have to account for some of what we spend:nopity:. I figure that for track wheels which are more likely to have some kind of unexpected event happen to them, it's best to go on the cheap side. On the tire side of the equation, I can't help but think that you guys would be better off with a harder compound than the R25, especially for summer runs. I don't think many of you run in the winter time. Mike, you're the only one I ever saw rent a car on a fast track while it's snowing. That takes some elephant sized balls, or a lot of booze. Maybe both.

Wow, and I see you're getting 100+ degree temps lately. I'm surprised the R25 compound is still hard enough to keep from getting greasy. I was worried about the R35 compound being hard enough for the southern track heat and never considered the softer compound. And yes, I wish I had a 6 speed vs. my 5 speed. Actually, I wish I had the sequential gear box but I'm too cheap to fork over the money for it. Another supplier of wheels is Marsh Racing Wheels. They have 13X8 and 13X10 race wheels that weigh 13 and 14 lbs respectively with a published price of $99.95 and $109.95, and make them with any offset you want and with a variety of wheel bolt patterns. Their website is; http://www.mrw-wheels.com

You are correct in gaining a few MPH with a larger tire. My problem was not being able to use 5th gear due to the rear end ratio (3.62). Now, I can rev up in 4th, jump into 5th and still accelerate. I have a 5 speed T9 adn 5th being a .8:1 doesn't help matters any. The R25b's are pretty soft and better at gripping but on hot southern courses, are too soft to hold grip after 4 or 5 laps on our hot asphalt. Hoosier recommended I run the R25b's at the Chasing the Dragon hillclimb but budget constraints told me that one set is all I get.

For racing wheels, you can try; http://rockcrawler-mrt.com/index.html or http://www.bassettwheel.com/ I saw on Heikki's car the Bassett wheels in a 13X10 on front and back. They look good but are not flashy. They were painted black and appeared well made. And based on Heikki's speeds in anything he enters, I would say they are likely pretty strong too.

If its of any help to you, I am running the Hoosier bias ply slicks; Product # 43169 20.0X 7.5-13 C2500 in a R35A compound fronts Product # 43185 20.0X 9.0-13 C2500 in a R35A compount rears I have gotten so far 2 days at Talladega GPR track, 1.5 days at Road Atlanta and 1 Chasing the Dragon hillclimb (2 days). The tires show very little wear and still grip like a steel trap. I run 18 psi front and back and they may get up to 19.5 to 19.8 psi after a 30 minute TT event, depending on outside temperature. I got them from Appalachian Tire since they support our SCCA events with incredibly good service and very competitive pricing. These tires, however, are not DOT road tires and are illegal for the streets. The rims I'm using are the ones that came from Caterham and are spun aluminum rims with a cast center for a 3 piece wheel. They are extremely light and allow the car to spool up faster, especially out of turns. The only down side is they typically will pick up every rock and piece of gravel on the road and hurl it in any given direction but usually at the driver. As a result, I had these really ugly front cycle wings fitted with mud flaps on the bottom to keep the tires from killing me with flying debris.

I've seen him at Amelia Island Concourse D'Elegance several years ago when he was at the RM auction trying to buy a few vehicles. I never did speak to him. He is the foremost authority of Ferrari automobiles in the US. I was surprised to see so much American muscle car stuff listed on his web site. I knew he liked some of them but thought he was more the Bugatti/Bentley/Ferrari type of guy. We went to his buddy's bike museaum in Maggie Valley a couple of weeks ago, Wheels Through Time, and met his friend who owns the museum, Dale Walksler. We also saw the Thor motorcycle with sidecar that Wayne purchased earlier for around 25K..............wouldn't give you $5 for it either. And we saw the world's ugliest BMW coupe that Wayne bought at one of the auctions and was so proud of having. It's in Dale's museum just as it was in the auction, and just as ugly in person as it was on TV/

Here is a link for a 1967 Lotus 7 car being offered for sale by F40 Motorsports. Some of you may be more familiar with his TV show, Chasing Classic Cars. The star of the show is Wayne Carrini and he is known as being one of the foremost Ferrari gurus of North America. http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/lotus/super_seven/1571604.html I spotted a 49 Chevy truck he is also listing for around $58K which I saw him purchase at an auction for less than $30K. I suppose that gives him a little room to dicker with the price.

I also own both a Corvette, well actually three of them, and a Caterham R300, both cars are a lot of fun in their own way. My 07 Z06 is a blast on the track, especially the ones with long straights like Roebling, Road Atlanta and Sebring. At Daytona, I had it up to 175 mph on the front straight. It's a thrill. However, running the Vette at the track is very costly. Hoosier R6 tires are $1700 and last about 3 track days, sometimes 4. The CarboTech pads cost $542 and last two days at Sebring. 50 to 60 gallons of fuel per day isn't cheap either. With my 7, I run all year on the same Hoosiers. I burn about 10 to 12 gallons of fuel per day, and brake pads are almost unused. However, a top speed of 132 or so is a little disappointing but that will wane off as you go ripping through the turns. If I had to pick another car to race, with a best bang for the buck as this thread is concerned with, I would choose the Stalker with an LS3 engine and Tremec 6 speed. I do think the Stalker will burn up tires and brake pads a lot faster than the 7, and fuel again will likely be between the 7 and the Z06. I'm not sure if the Stalker has the same wonderful character as the 7, and certainly more weight/mass is another issue. I'm greedy and I really want it all so I'm looking to add the Stalker later this year or early next year, and I don't plan on getting rid of anything. I'm fortunate in having a 3000 sq ft building to house and work on the cars. I also have another 1200 sq foot air conditioned detached garage to keep a few more. Cars are a lot of fun.

A friend of mine has a Datsun 240Z that suffers from vapor lock in the summer time. He found that by wrapping some aluminum foil around the fuel lines running from the fuel pump to the carbs, the problem is virtually eliminated. It looks a little crappy but it seems to work. This apparently is only valid with steel fuel lines, and it would seem that those who have vapor lock have steel fuel lines. I have never heard of anyone with rubber hose fuel lines having an issue but not really sure if that's a golden rule.

Gee, Heikki, what a handicap just running with the old turbo with only 19 lbs of boost (LOL). I can only admire your ingenuity and your extremely good driving skills. I figure I'm doing pretty good if I get within 10 seconds of your time. Even if I had more horsepower, my driving skill level can't get much of a boost. Keep doing what you're doing, you are an inspiration to all of us.

Actually, we had 4 pro teams with rally cars and one semi-pro team with a formula type car. The Martini team was using this as a warm up for other events. It gave them a chance to shake down the car without running a full type rally race. They were extremely gracious and complimented me on my car several times. I was running 13" Caterham wheels with 20.5X9.5X13 Hoosier Bias Ply #35 compound slicks on the rear & 20.5/x8.0X13 on the front. I was seriously concerned about road clearance since my Zetec sump is only 3.5" above the ground and this is a very very bumpy surface. Mike Breakey in his 67 Lotus 7 bottomed out the rear suspension on his run and almost got bumped sideways into a guard rail. My tires held like glue, never broke loose. If you look at Heikki's YouTube video that he recently posted, you'll notice how many times he had to turn the steering wheel 1/2 a turn to adjust for breaking loose. And he was a full 10+ seconds faster than I was. He was running 22.0X10.0X13 Hoosier Bias Ply #35 compound tires all around on Bassett race wheels. The guys in the formula cars were at the wrong event as this course isn't suitable for their car's suspensions. They were never able to get up to speed. One guy named Singer brought out his Formula Mazda twin rotor turbocharged car with OMG horsepower and was 4 seconds slower than my time, in spite of his 3 man crew and money-is-no-object approach. This kind of track/road condition would be best for a formula V car with much higher HP of course.

Heikki won the whole thing, not sure who Bowland is or what he drives. Heikki's time last year was 1:24.... This year, 1:16:634. He beat the two top pro teams, one of which was the Martini rally race team from Italy. The closest any of them came was 1:17. Heikki was telling me he wants more HP and will look into getting a bigger turbo. I asked him how his transmissions were holding up, and he said they don't but he keeps buying Miata 5 speed trannies from junk yards for $95 each. He buys Miata engines the same way for around $300 and just slaps the turbo on it. The last engine he put in is a built from the ground up. I asked him if that meant he used a Scat crank, forged pistons, etc............oh, heck no, he said, he used special rod bolts and that was it !!! The man is so incredibly honest and humble, and brilliant as well, that it's hard to find fault with what he does. AND, he wins everything he enters.

Mike, do you think putting the mic under the dash has any merrit ? I seem to pick up suspension or wind rushing noise regardless of where I put the mic but have never put it under the dash. No wind under there but perhaps the suspension noise would be....not sure. Also, I don't use what you call the dead cat cover on the mic............I assume we're talking about the big hairy thing that is supposed to eliminate wind noise. Another thing is my exhaust exits ahead of the left rear wheel. It used to be at the rear of the car but the pipe was rubbing on the wider tires and I found this solution to be the easiest way to eliminate tire rubbing. About kissing the wall, it's part of going fast. If you don't spin out, don't ever go 4 wheels off, you're likely pussy footing around the track. So kissing the wall is like the red badge of courage, the ultimate trophy of putting life and limb, and car, in a lower priority to overall speed.

This year they suspended an inflatable dragon before the start line inflatable and it was awesome. I wish I had taken a picture of it to show you. It was about 12 or 14 foot tall and was suspended from a cable that went between two trees on the mountain. We tried to figure out how they got someone to climb up the mountain, about 80 feet up, to attach the top cable. By the way, the NCR of the SCCA just announced a few days ago that this was the largest attendance for this hillclimb. I think we had 92 cars and 101 drivers, and thousands of spectators. Luckily only two accidents which were relatively minor.

Thanks for the kind words but I really did a bad job on the audio, sounds like the mic was attached to the tire. I'm not using a powered mic but maybe I should. However, in the scheme of things, I try to concentrate on getting the track driving done and fit in the electronic gadgetry as time and energy permits. The RaceChrono that you recommended (thank you) works quite well but seems to demand a lot of recharging so now I have it wired to the car's battery to eliminate that problem. The GoPro3 (white edition) works well and takes very good video but as you and everyone else has known, pretty bad audio. However, i think the built in mic does a better job than the Olympus mic I used. Someone said you wired the mics in the engine compartment and it turned out to give excellent sound. I think all of us consider you to be the wizzard of electronics (and possibly the master of Lotus driving) so your input is like the Holy Graille. I'm trying to avoid having so much electronics going on that I focus on it rather than my lap times. But having said that, I am open to suggestions on audio. Powered mic ? I found the software you suggested, Race Render, to be really slick and use it to sync my datalogging to the video, and it works great. And it's relatively easy to use. So please give me some suggestions on mics and locations.

Thanks to all for the kind coments. What kind of speeds did I hit ? About 110 or so, average speed is around 92 mph. Why is sound so crappy ? It's me, I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to video. Croc went a long way to educate me but I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I put the mic in the rear storage area under the canvas cover. Like putting a mic in a garbage can and beating the outside with a ball bat. Yep, dumb place and no sound effects of that beautiful symphony of the Zetec winding out. Boxologist is correct, this is part of the Joyce Kilmer State Park and the road is a dead end with a total of 4.2 miles. We start at about the 1.8 mile mark and run 2.2 miles with a change of elevation of approximately 1000 ft. The road is extremely bumpy and rock and gravel fly everywhere especially when driving on Hoosier Bias Ply slicks with a very soft compound. I recommend doing this run to anyone who enjoys a challenge and doesn't mind road rash on their car. My car is ready for a complete paint job. Rear wings were beat to hell. To protect the paint, you'd need to use about 2 or 3 layers of clear plastic like some used (kitchen shelf material) and even then the rocks seem like they're shot out of gun. I have chips in my face shield of my helmet. The trick to getting a good time is going all out at the beginning, running full out for the first 3 or 4 turns, putting aside common sense and fear, driving like a mad man on heroine. Keeping the car under control with the bumps is the hardest thing, not the sweepers. Cars with soft or compliant suspension do the best. We had a variety of formula cars running and I beat all of their times, even the McClaren with 850 HP. And no, I'm not a driving genius but my car was more suitable for this run than theirs. I believe that I could trim another 4 or 5 seconds off my time and bring it down close to 1:20. But I could never bring it down to Heiki's 1:16 even if I gained another 100 HP. Heiki is just that good.