At Winton Raceway Today

[jimnielsen]

Took the Q4 to Winton Raceway today.. It performed very well for its first track outing.. I still have a lot to learn about how to drive this car at Winton.....

But anyway its making 1.35 bar all the way out to 7000 RPM now - so its quite a handful out of 2nd gear corners! Also AFR's are great being right where I want them and near flat to 7000 RPM - not bad if you conside the lack of resolution in the Q4's fuel table... and its on E85!

Results..

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re...2009.WIN.S14.Y

I was 11th of 90 - and the 2nd fastest Alfa. Decided to take it home after a massive off...

you can see it at the end of this video..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y5j_CgVS_E"]YouTube - winton aug 09 Q4[/ame]

jim ~

[RMB-Racing]

Nice.

The engine sounds very powerful now, and the engine takes revs very fast.

Congrats with the results! (Despite the off..)

[1NRO]

looks like fun was had, your racing again. Seems to be a tight twisty circuit you had to wrestle with there, just that last corner to suss out I've got to say I am impressed how you've dialed it all in so quickly, top job fella.

[wrinx]

Interesting that you were beaten by a GTV6...what power is it running?

wrinx

[jimnielsen]

Its a full on racecar - carbon fiber, slicks, race brakes, turbo - LOTS of power. But I'll beat him next time...

[AlfaJack]

Very impressive stuff...sounds great too! I would love a spare Q4 to do this with

[jimnielsen]

I found out why the car would not stop at that corner...

no brake pads.. lucky I didn't try to keep going.. but the brake feel had been getting progressively worse.. all afternoon.

& I should have listened to wrinx when he said that the bolts that hold the turbo on, with these 'ebay manifolds' come loose. Well mine have too - resulting in a lot of exhaust noise and a stuffed gasket. Its easy to fix, but I may have to take quite a bit of 'stuff' off to get access to it. Also, I have to have to take off the front of the exhaust to see if bits of the gasket have removed any compressor blades..

[SteveNZ]

Hi Jim

There is no need for a gasket between the turbo and manifold. Just make sure the surfaces are flat. I find thats the more reliable way, gaskets there just cause problems. I expect your turbo will be fine.

Awesome results by the way, Are you going to get it back on the dyno for a final check?

[jimnielsen]

Thanks Steve, well, I'm happy with the fueling and thats all I am really interested in looking at on the Dyno. I expect it would show more power now as its making more boost - but Benincas is 160km from my house and its a lot of hassle and a full days mucking around. They normally have a 'dyno day' there for the Alfa club here in Victoria each year and thats probably the next time it will be there (barring disaster, of course..). The cars next adventure is 13th of September at Sandown. So I have plenty of time to sort out my 'issues'.

I may go down the 'no gasket path' because then I would not actually have to disassemble so much stuff..

cheers, jim ~

[wrinx]

Its a full on racecar - carbon fiber, slicks, race brakes, turbo - LOTS of power. But I'll beat him next time...

Good to see it was a full spec'd car...yours is doing very well!

wrinx

[wrinx]

& I should have listened to wrinx when he said that the bolts that hold the turbo on, with these 'ebay manifolds' come loose.

Exactly the same as mine...found the nuts resting on the turbo

I' have thought the gasket material would have been blown outwards due to exhaust pressure, so hopefully the tubby should be fine

Must say, I'm impressed the ebay turbo has lasted more than one session!

wrinx

[jimnielsen]

another video - this time with boost / RPM / speed data superimposed..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jeaokC9w-s"]YouTube - Alfa Romeo 155 Q4 at winton with data[/ame]

[jimnielsen]

ok, yes, its the same video - but with better data.. this one also has the AFR's and inlet manifold temp data.. its very interesting to see how inlet manifold temp rises with boost.. at least it is for me..press the HQ button on the video for the full effect!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoOHuO99T7Y"]YouTube - Alfa Romeo 155 Q4 at winton[/ame]

cheers, jim ~