It was a
HOT HOT HOT day !!
I left Tokyo at 5am in the morning to avoid the usual saturday-morning-let's-all-go-to-the-beach traffic jam on Tomei expressway. The traffic was actually moving ok and I arrived in Gotenba (exit for Fuji Speedway) by 8:30am.
The 1st session was from 9:30am and the weather at that altitude was not too bad, only about 50% humidity and some 26 degrees and cloudy (thank god !).
The other 2 sessions I ran in mid-afternoon were in an almost 29 degree heat, direct sunshine and 80% humidity...it wasn't pretty but to my surprise a lot of cars in each one of those sessions.
Couple of interesting points worth mentioning (refer to the below image)
My water temperature reached at one point a maximum of 101 degrees C (still within the limit) and to my surprise there was no residual coolant overspray in the engine bay ! I don't know if this can be attributed to the new coolant I got from Seeker but it was definitely a welcomed surprise (in this kind of heat especially!) ! On average during 2-3 sessions of time attack that temperature was between 90 and 95 degrees ! Great !
Also I had no issues with the oil pressure gauge but the oil temperature was a
big problem this time !
As can be seen above it reached 131 degrees C (6 degrees C over the warning level set by Defi/Seeker, ignore the red arrow on the bezzel). It was a nuisance because in order to bring it down I had to back off the accelerator, let it come down to 120 and try again but this was happening too much !
My initial thought was did I set the limit too low ? Is MOTUL 300V oil's operating temperature up to 125 degrees C only ? I was afraid that exceeding the limit would break down the film in the oil rendering it useless. This also happened when the sun came out from behind clouds and shone right down onto the car. Doing some web browsing in between sessions I read that these oils withstand up to 150 degrees C and don't break down so should I change the warning limit ? Buying an oil cooler is not an option as this is a summer thing I believe but still if anyone can help me understand this it would be much appreciated.
UPDATE : I just found a link to a
spec for that oil . It appears its flash point is beyond 200 degrees C but when does the film break down ?
So besides a few laps of time attack I extensively practiced the heel-toe technique, braking and the line. The usual deal.
Also due to some initial understeer I dropped fronts to 245kPa and rears to 230kPa! The car felt great !
Here are some photos
I took down the license plate to aid in cooling.
That DC2 next to my car is Ken's who came to support me for the day.
Besides that I came back sunburnt and exhausted. I can still feel my muscle aching.
Can't show you any video of the day because I installed the mount incorrectly and camera shake was terrible. Next time !
