Lachstock and Four Turbo Charged Cylinders ['04 NB SE]

[KevGoat]

Nice! I should really do this, my top usually just resides against a wall in our spare room covered with blankets. It's actually back on the car at the moment while all the renovations take place. I always forget just how nice the car looks with it fitted.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[Daffy]

There may be a market for this mate, do some sums, manufacture and postage costs etc $$$

[ManiacLachy]

The weather here in Brisbane, and greater Queensland has been utter absolute rubbish for the last 2 weeks, and though there is some sunshine today, we're still dealing with tropical 99% humidity, and at least a further week of rain. It's like a cruel prank. So I haven't had the car out since my run up the mountains the other week.

But I had a great day yesterday despite the weather!


Drool

Last year was my 41st birthday, in July, but we treated it as a belated 40th thanks to Covid lockdowns being in full effect in 2020. A bunch of my generous friends banded together to get me a gift of the Porsche Experience. It's a glorious marketing package where you get to drive and experience all of the Porsche range on a road course, a skid pan and a motorkhana, plus a ride along on an off road track in a Cayenne (and with this weather it was properly sketchy), and a hot lap on the road course in a GT3.


Road course line up

To start with we were on the road course with 4 cars, a 911 GTS, a 911 S Cabriolet, a Cayman GTS and a Tycan 4s. I got in the 911 GTS first.


The red one is faster - also it's the most powerful one here

You get about 4 laps in each car, with an instructor beside you. I've never dríven a Porsche before, let alone a 911 GTS with over 400whp - did I mention it was very wet? I was apprehensive to say the least! I took it pretty easy, there's a lot to take in. The cars are all PDK, and though I like the idea of a manual, I don't think I would have had the mental capacity on this day to shift gears - they were left in automatic the whole time.

The 911 GTS was the fastest, and noticeably different to the 911 S, with more power and shorter gearing. The Taycan (my first electric car experience) was a heavy slug, with mushy brakes. The Cayman was light and really well balanced, it was the last one I drove in this segment probably my pick out of the bunch on this course.

Next was the skid pan coated in water and diesel so it was super slippery. We had a base 911 and a base Cayman on hand for this one. Again you get a go in both cars, first I went out in the Cayman with an instructor, I spun a bunch of times but also managed to catch it pretty well and hold a couple of slides. The instructor also turned the traction control on to demonstrate the difference and I couldn't get the car to slide, smart computers (not present in my MX-5!)

Next into the 911, this time with one of the other participants with me while the instructors were back at the hut with walkie talkies. I found the 911 easier to get the rear out thanks to more power, but actually easier to hold as well - they say the Cayman should be easier. I managed to string a couple of corners together. A lot of fun and the 911 was my pick of the 2. I then got into the passenger seat and the other participant drove, it's all low speed, 20-35kph so not scary, and plenty of space all around.


911 getting the pendulous ass out

The final driving event was down on an empty parking lot, covered in water from sprinklers. First was an emergency break test, then adding in a swerve maneuverer. Basically, floor it, then brake hard and swerve to avoid cones, getting a feel for the car's ABS and stability control. We had 4 cars, a Cayenne Turbo, a Macan GTS, a Boxster S (I think), and a 911 S (again, I think?). We got 2 attempts in all 4 cars doing both the emergency stop, and the swerve and stop. All the cars handled really well, and it was interesting to experience the different weights. I had fun in the Boxster with the top down. The Cayenne was heavy, but very nice.

Then it was motokahana time! Same carpark, now down to 3 cars, the Cayenne was parked up, and the Boxster was swapped out for a Cayman. We got 2 laps in each, both timed but the 1st lap is a trial, the 2nd lap is "scored". I started in the Macan, my first lap was pretty slow, my second lap I got into it, but I overcooked the hairpin something wicked and lost a lot of time! Then the Cayman, I over shot the hairpin again on my 2nd lap, but not as badly. And I finished in the 911, by which time I was getting a feel for it! The 911 was my favourite on this exercise, I think I liked the power.


Leaderboard - only the 2nd times count towards the total time

So, you can see my Macan "scored" time cost me dearly! I was faster on the whole lap except for that hairpin, I think I would have lost ~2 seconds because of it and my mistake cost me the win! I took fastest lap of the day though, in the 911 - so that counts for something right?

To wrap up the day we got a ride along in a Cayenne on the offroad track, it was a stock car except for some knobby tyres. It was really impressive to me, who has no 4WD experience, but the track was really wet and muddy after 2 weeks of rain, but the Cayenne handled it all easily.

And last but not least was the hot lap in the GT3. 2 cars were on hand with experienced drivers at the helm. We just jumped in the passenger seat and strapped in. It had stopped raining a little earlier, but midway through my lap it started raining again. But even with the rain the grip and speed these cars have is amazing. It was very impressive, and not actually scary, the car felt very planted. Sadly it was only 2 laps, of which only 1 is actually at pace, I would have liked to have gone around again.


I forget which one I went in - does it matter? They're both amazing

So, a pretty awesome day! I'm very grateful to my friends for chipping in and coming up with such an excellent present.

I of course looked up Carsales at lunch, but even a cheap used Cayman is beyond my means Hopefully I'll get to drive my MX-5 soon!

[Daffy]

That looks the proper epic experience mate, and definitely something I’d want to have a crack at one day!
Hopefully this crap weather will break soon- with a couple of years of covid pains and now rainy days most days this year, the happy drives are too far and few in between.

[greenMachine]

Very envious! That sounds like a great experience.

[ManiacLachy]

It was a good day for sure. And it's got me excited to use my car on more track events (track days, motokhanas, skid pans)!

Looks like we're in for another weekend of wet here, after a mostly dry week I'm very close to losing my sh*t over this weather, so many things I want to do for fun, or around the house, that require time (weekends) and dry (Murphy's law ensures this is only weekdays).

[ManiacLachy]

When I first upgraded to the EFR Turbo, I outfitted it with a Turbosmart single port wastegate actuator. I did this for 2 reasons:
The first was that the stock actuator that comes on the EFR was the medium canister and would have delivered ~14psi, which would likely deliver torque in the danger zone for the stock rods. I could buy a low boost actuator, which would be ~7psi, or I for a little more I could get the Turbosmart.
The other reason is the Turbosmart would allow me to vary the base spring pressure. You can open the canister to change or combine the springs for a variety of base pressure levels, meaning the canister would grow with me when the engine is built.

But. Always a but. But, the Turbosmart didn't work out as planned, the actuator rod bound up because the turbo wasn't exactly aligned, and then it leaked once I better aligned the turbo.

Lokiel was kind enough to loan me his low boost stock EFR canister and I was good to go.

A short time later, Turbosmart announced a new actuator, this time with a ball joint. This meant that if the turbo wasn't perfectly aligned, the arm could pivot and not bind, while still offering the flexibility of being able to change the springs. I've been keeping an eye on this actuator for a while, and the other day a deal came up that I couldn't let slide and now it's mine. On the weekend I installed it.


The old single port Turbosmart, the new 2 port Turbosmart, and the EFR Low Boost canister

The new actuator is a 2-port version. This means pressure can be applied to the top and the bottom of the diaphragm, as opposed to only the top in a single port design. The upshot is a far wider possible boost range when running EBC with a 4 port solenoid. I'm not replacing my solenoid at this time and I don't need that increased range, so I'll be running it a single port and blocking off the rear ports.

The new design actually has 2 ports front and 2 ports back so I need to seal 2 ports off. The kit came with 2 hose nipples and 2 plugs, it obviously assumes you'll run it in a 2 port configuration. I just put a vacuum cap over the unused nipple.


That ball-joint is the secret sauce


The old canisters without the ball joint - the rods on both are now slightly bent from use

I tested the new canister for leaks with my air-compressor and it held really well. So I took it for a test drive, with EBC disabled to find what base pressure the spring would deliver me, I was expecting between 7 and 8 psi, and I got 7.5psi

Now I need to go and re-tune boost, and hopefully complete my close-loop boost control setup (and give me more information to flesh out the boost control thread).

[PaulF]

Nice one, the ball joint seems like such an obvious solution to an issue that you see a lot.

[greenMachine]

(taking notes ... )

That is a very neat solution. I presume the fitting between the ball and the housing can handle the off-axis forces without excess friction affecting the movement of the shaft.

[ManiacLachy]

It should do. It's in 3 parts. The diaphragm housing, the ball joint section, then the rod.

The ball joint has great articulation, and screws into the base of the housing. The kit comes with 3 different rod lengths so you can choose the most suitable.

This kit also comes with various springs and a spanner tool. The old kit came with only 2 springs, and no spanner. I of course bought the spanner and an extra spring separately for the old kit, all of which is now redundant

[greenMachine]

Sounds good, definitely on my list.

[bootz]

Surely a mx-5 with an EFR setup would be superior to a Cayman or Boxster???

[ManiacLachy]

Surely a mx-5 with an EFR setup would be superior to a Cayman or Boxster???

Perhaps in terms of outright performance, once the car is fully setup. But no where near Porsche build quality.

The Porsche's feel solid, great ergonomics, they feel like you could thrash them all day hard as you like at the track, then take it to a fancy dinner that night, never skipping a beat. However, you definitely pay for it.

[ManiacLachy]

I've been sick for nearly a month with the flu. It's been worse experience than corona for me. The symptoms not as bad maybe, but the longevity of this thing, and the roller-coaster it's taken me on - I'll feel great for a day, think I'm out of it, then crash back deep into it. Makes it hard to do anything with my spare time.

But, I have a track day planned at Morgan Park for Thursday with some friends. My girlfriend who has also been sick with it, got it about 4 days before me, is now better, so if that's the timeline I should be coming out of it in the next day or 2, so should be good for Morgan Park.

I had a couple of things to square away before the track day. First and easiest was headlights - both my headlights and high-beams went out, so a trip to Autobarn for some new bulbs, and I had light once again. I got some Philips bulbs that are meant to be vibration resistant and provide great light. You might think bulbs aren't strictly necessary for a track day (though a good idea in general), but Morgan Park is in Warwick, about 2.5 hours away, and I might get caught in low light or night, so better to have them working.

I noticed while running about to do the bulbs that the car had developed a leak, I knew it'd been weeping a little while and thought it was likely the turbo oil drain. I really didn't have time to source the issue and fix it this time, especially in less that top health. So I took the car to the crew at Autoworks (where I had the dyno done), and they quickly found the leak to be coming from the valve cover gasket. I guess between me doing the timing belt job and Darren fixing my exhaust cam seal, the gasket might have been reused a few times and compromised. So a new one went in, so far no leaks.

I wanted to tune the boost a little, but I've run out of time. I did try loading my old settings, the Turbosmart actuator is around the same spring as the Low Boost one I had one after all. But the car hit boost cut (12psi) really really quickly. I was shocked how fast! So I'm back on spring pressure only, sometimes it's hitting about 8.5psi in this cold weather. This should be plenty for the track day, as I'll have a lot to get used to again.

Hopefully I'll have a good, incident free report on the track day for anyone interested come this weekend

[bruce]

Did u have a flu vaccination?