F600 Novakar - First Race, First Impressions
I arrived at Summit Point Motorsports Park on Friday (test & tune day) for the Labor Day double Regional intending to get some seat time and check out the conversion. Spend all day Friday fixing all the things I found at the last minute that didn’t workout as planned. No test and tune.
Saturday morning had a 12 minute qualifying session. Driving a F600 was much different then I expected. I’ve driven race cars that require shifting but none of them required me shift as fast or as often as the GSXR 600 MC engine. Get it rolling in first gear grab second, crap all the dash lights are flashing I’m already at 14,000 RPM, grab 3rd same thing all the way up to 6th.
First Impression: CVT has better acceleration then MC gears but my top speed is better due to the efficiency of the 6 speed transmission.
Spent the entire qualifying session marveling at how frickin busy I am trying to shift up and down as well as feeling out all the changes made from F5 to F6 chassis and trying to staying out of the way of faster cars. Oh, did I mention we were in group 5 - all sports racers (except SRF) and all formula cars. Not my favorite race grouping. Down shifting did not go as I thought it would. For some reason I thought I could up and down shift without the clutch. Up shifting was a piece of cake, just a momentary lift on the throttle and “snick” right into the next gear up. Go for a down shift (no clutch) and sometimes it would downshift and other times not. Hard to focus on driving when all, or at least most, of your attention is on what’s happening with the car. So, Saturday qualifying is over and nothing broke or went up in flames. I convinced myself that was a successful session.
Saturday afternoon was a 14 lap qualifying race for Sunday’s starting position. I remind myself this is really not a race but a second opportunity to test the car and get some more seat time, and try to figure out how to downshift. My qualifying time was about 4 seconds slower than when I raced in F500 trim. The race was uneventful with the exception of some of the faster cars lapping me about half way through the race. Last few laps of the race my water pressure light was flashing off and on. Temps looked OK about 185 degrees so I just took it easy and finished out the race.
First Impression: I have my AIM dash shift lights set to start flashing at 13,500 RPM. Half way down the front straight and the lights are already flashing – need to change final drive ratio. I let it ride and see about 14,500 and 134 MPH when I check the data after the race. That’s 8 MPH more than my best F500 top speed.
Sunday. After talking with a friend on Saturday night who has raced DSR with MC engines, he suggested I just use the clutch and not worry about doing clutch-less downshifting. Doh – why didn’t I think of that on Saturday?
Our race was right after lunch and I was late to the grid. Everyone had already left on the out-lap. I caught up with them about halfway around the track and fell in place behind the single FV that showed up. Race was uneventful with the exception of down-shifting using the clutch. Wow that was a lot better. I was able to get somewhat comfortable in the car and pick-up my lap times by about 3 seconds. Two (2) laps from the end of the race my water pressure light came on and stayed on. Temps still looked good but I decided to end it early to see if there was a real problem with the water system. No leak in the water system and it’s still full of water. Not really sure what the issue might be. Thought possibly the pressure cap is faulty but don’t know for sure. Any suggestions?
Still a long way to go but making progress and looking forward to the next race and more seat time.
Another First Impression: Seems strange to me but people really are impressed with the sound of these cars. Sound readings on Saturday were 102-103 dB and yes I was using a muffler. Not sure what I’ll do when it’s cool and we’re first out in the morning. Sound readings will most likely be over the limit.
After the race a guy came up and said he had two F500s, one brand new one and an older Invader. Said he was going to convert the older Invader to F600 but didn’t like the idea of a jackshaft.
See my car below. The Volvo tractor trailer rig is NOT mine!
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Originally Posted by tedsimmons2
