Tuning session report

The GT was with Northampton Motorsport yesterday for a tuning session now that the car starts. The quick report, is that bar three issues that arose its suitable for the road as long as I keep the speed below 100MPH LOL.

The above video shows some of the three hour tuning session, much of the time was taken up with mapping things at lower revs and various throttle positions. We had a discussion with the main man at Northampton Motorsport and decided upon a max revs number (7200) and to undertake an early Power run (before the full map was finished) there are two advantages to this a) we get a base line number to work from; and b) should anything go wrong it was better to go wrong sooner rather than later (time costs money at Northampton Motorsport so wise advice).

Here is the car ready for rolling / tuning.

So the fist step was to map to 3500 rpm then undertake the suggested early power run, (using best inferred settings for higher revs). Once that was done then map the higher rev range correctly, a lot of strain gets up on the car during this mapping hence the earlier power run idea.

Here is the mapping taking place before the first power run.

The power run was backed out at 6000 rpm as a heavy vibration was felt from the underside / rear of the car, and a suspected prop angle issue was diagnosed / suggested. I have yet to look at this so cannot confirm of deny the issue. However that single power run did produce 188bhp at 6000rpm, which was short of the previous 203bhp at 6900 rpm on the engine dyno. The torque numbers were similar to the earlier engine dyno run as well. I am sure we will match the earlier numbers once the issues are dealt with (to make the car safe to proceed up the rev range).

So the exhaust design paid off (well done Nat I hope you are not still having nightmares about that manifold). 2014 Retropower mental breakdown.

The rest of the morning was spent mapping the rest of the rev range up to 6000 rpm but in 3rd gear (to lower the revs on the prop and axle), we had a small fire during this period which panicked me a bit, we were up in the md 4500rpm range under full load when smoke and flames shot form under the car, later in the afternoon whilst on the four post ramp it was noted the reverse light switch wires had melted, this was the source of the fire, they will need to be routed further away from the exhaust.

The last issue from the tuning session was the failure of the radiator fan, I suspect the fuse needs to be bigger, as neither the temp probe nor manual override would work and the fuse box warning lights Popped up each time.

I left Northampton Motorsport with the car at Lunchtime and it was delivered back home this morning having had the all important tracking done as well. So another job finished and ticked off. Still much to do, and the interior to finish off before its looking complete, but I am happy with the progress so far.

Last image is the tracking report, the car appears to now point in the right direction at last!! No more fighting the car when moving it about.