On September 3rd, Club Lotus Northwest held their second track day of the season at Portland International Raceway. We decided this would be a good opportunity to track test our prototype Sport turbocharger system, and also meet some local Lotus enthusiasts. The night before, we had a chance to do some dyno testing and we set the car at about 310 Hp at the rear wheels for the track. We decided to run Kumho V710 slicks to help put the power down and enable us to push the car harder than street tires normally allow.
Throughout the day we datalogged critical engine parameters. This data is used to pinpoint any issues with the turbocharger kit that are not immediately obvious externally.
The day was perfect for the track. In Oregon, that means no rain. After running the first three morning sessions, we took off the rear clamshell at lunch to perform an inspection. Good thing we did, because we discovered some melting hoses, and lost a few fasteners off the downpipe. After a quick trip to Baxter Auto Parts, we had it all fixed and were able to make 3 more runs in the afternoon and even drove the car 25 miles back to the shop in stop and go traffic.
The track day was a valuable learning experience and the issues we encountered would not have happened during normal street driving. We have already implemented solutions to these issues in the production turbocharger kits. We plan to do another test-n-tune later this month down at Thunderhill Raceway in northern California with the Golden Gate Lotus Club.
A big Thank You! to CLNW and Mark Viskov for organizing the event and we look forward to doing it again.
(Video coming soon)
