Ron Simons' week in Athens.
Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:03 am
Tomorrow morning I'm taking Ron to the airport; he flies home after what I think was a very exciting week with the Alfa and Lancia perverts here. We had two track days, Thursday and today both blessed with excellent weather, mostly sunny with temps around 14-20*C. Today was more special as the Integrale guys were there and we managed to have some good wheel-to-wheel battles where my heavy 75 proudly held its own against cars with 300hp+. The highlight of the day was when one Integrale owner brought his recently aqcuired (from Italy) 75 GpA 3liter racecar...with a 24v engine!!! All red of course, cambered to hell all around, side-exit exhaust, alloy A-arms, tubular swaybar, Colotti box with cooler and inboard 4pots, Haltech efi, 17" OZ racing centerlock wheels, Michelin...+...+...+ The thing weighs 1000kg and has ??hp. Ron drove it for a few fast laps and really gave the fat slicks a tough time!
He also did several laps with my 1.8T and 3liter cars. On Thursday, he drove an Alfetta gtv 2liter Historics racer, also ex GpA car recently imported and having his full RSRacing suspension package.
On my part, I had a great time severely testing the reliability of my new engine and general car performance against other serious track users like Integrale (~300hp) , Mitsu evo (~300hp), Peugeot 205 (188 dyno hp!)and many others. Severely testing means doing more than 60 laps all-out per day (=140km all within 3hrs, grouped in 15-20 lap stints)), shifting at 6900 all the time. 8 shifts per lap using 2nd and 3rd gears (with 1.8T box). Max speed at end of straight is ~162kph. The 205/50-16 BS 540S tires are unfortunately proving too thin for the weight but since this is my everyday car (and look the part) I can do nothing more. Good news for the brakes, no more warped discs, the Wilwood 48-vane HD's are great performers when clamped by Brembo Reds with DS2500 pads and RBF600 fluid, NO disc wear!
As for power, I will post the dyno sheets after I also dyno a std 3liter car so we will all have a valid reference point. Suffice it to say I'm very satisfied with the outcome, noting the engine has stock Motronic (S) cams. It now has almost 3000km on its back and it really is too early to measure power but work can't wait! Now, if I only had my special cams I would put them in and dyno again but....someone is giving us all a hard time here!
C'mon, I want to put the 24v in there!...
All in all it was a very entetaining week for Ron and all of us. He made his presentations to the Alfa and Lancia clubs, covering all aspects of handling, suspension setups, 75experience etc. During our leisure bumming around time, we talked cars and drooled at great pairs of....whatever walked by, assigning grades according to universal rules in this nice weather...! We'll see him again in May in his home court...the 'Ring!
Jim K.
He also did several laps with my 1.8T and 3liter cars. On Thursday, he drove an Alfetta gtv 2liter Historics racer, also ex GpA car recently imported and having his full RSRacing suspension package.
On my part, I had a great time severely testing the reliability of my new engine and general car performance against other serious track users like Integrale (~300hp) , Mitsu evo (~300hp), Peugeot 205 (188 dyno hp!)and many others. Severely testing means doing more than 60 laps all-out per day (=140km all within 3hrs, grouped in 15-20 lap stints)), shifting at 6900 all the time. 8 shifts per lap using 2nd and 3rd gears (with 1.8T box). Max speed at end of straight is ~162kph. The 205/50-16 BS 540S tires are unfortunately proving too thin for the weight but since this is my everyday car (and look the part) I can do nothing more. Good news for the brakes, no more warped discs, the Wilwood 48-vane HD's are great performers when clamped by Brembo Reds with DS2500 pads and RBF600 fluid, NO disc wear!
As for power, I will post the dyno sheets after I also dyno a std 3liter car so we will all have a valid reference point. Suffice it to say I'm very satisfied with the outcome, noting the engine has stock Motronic (S) cams. It now has almost 3000km on its back and it really is too early to measure power but work can't wait! Now, if I only had my special cams I would put them in and dyno again but....someone is giving us all a hard time here!
C'mon, I want to put the 24v in there!...All in all it was a very entetaining week for Ron and all of us. He made his presentations to the Alfa and Lancia clubs, covering all aspects of handling, suspension setups, 75experience etc. During our leisure bumming around time, we talked cars and drooled at great pairs of....whatever walked by, assigning grades according to universal rules in this nice weather...! We'll see him again in May in his home court...the 'Ring!
Jim K.
was the co-driver of RZ @ Ron's course a few years ago, got me completely hooked on the N'ring......
