Sonic does One Lap 2016

In the spirit of Mazdeuce's great thread on his One Lap adventure last year (https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/mazdeuce-does-one-lap/97935/page1/), here is my own thread detailing a first time One Lap event, when we are just looking to have a good time and see what this is all about. We will do our best to keep this updated leading up to the event, and then as the event takes place. We decided to run it this year as the event was going to be around the northeast and had transits all of 600 miles or less, and the timing and budget allowed it if we did not do any west coast lemons races as we have done the last few years.

Our car for this was bought mostly for this event, but also to fill a gap in our fleet for a big, comfy, long distance cruising car that is still fun to drive. It was a 2 owner northwest car with a big stack of maintenance records, 94k miles, and in great shape. 2007 Mercedes CLS63 AMG.

With 507 hp, 15.2" brakes with 6 piston calipers, heated and cooled multi way adjustable seats, and adjustable AMG tuned suspension, this should be both a nice place to spend many hours and miles, and also pretty fun on track.

I'll be driving with my girlfriend and race team mate Chrissy. We are splitting the two daily time trial segments with each of us driving each track every day. We have done many long trips before including 20+ lemons events, several BABE rallies (how we met), and get along great on trips, and even on TSD rallies.

Here's where we are in the prep now. I wanted a spare set of wheels and tires to run the event on, and the car came with 2 extra wheels, so I searched eBay and car-part.com for another pair. These wheels are really hard to find, and the car needs 19" wheels to clear the ridiculous brakes. The car takes 19x8.5" front and 19x9.5 or 19x10" rear stock, and I had one 8.5 and one 9.5. I got another 9.5 in good shape from eBay and found a junkyard in NY with what was advertised as a pair of 8.5" in rough cosmetic condition for $430 shipped for the pair, a real bargain when sets of these typically go for $2500-$3000. When these arrived, they were not 8.5s, but were 10s! With some test fitting, it does seem that the car can run 19x9.5 in front and 19x10 in the rear.

At this point, I had already ordered 2 sets of tires from Tire Rack in the stock size of 255/35/19 front and 285/30/19 rear. The stickiest tires (RE71, rivals, etc) are not available in these sizes, and running Pilot Supersports I would have had to step down in width, and they were really really expensive. In the end, I ended up with the Continental DW, a tire I have had great experience with on my Z4M, and as we are not pushing for a win, giving up a little bit in the tires to have something that will be decent in long term use, the right size, and 30% cheaper than the Michelins seemed like the right choice. Even better, these are the same size as I run on the BMW.

So after a very expensive call to Tire Rack, these showed up, one set for testing (that will later move to the BMW, and then a set to mount right before we leave so we have a fresh set for the event:

and I got a set of TPMS for it, giving VDO Redi-Sensors a try, they seem like they will be easy to program to the car and they were very reasonably priced, under $40 each.

I dropped one set of tires and all 4 wheels off at a good local shop. The next day I had a call from them, one of the wheels had a bend (one that came with the car) and one had a small crack in the inner lip (one of the 19x10s from the junkyard). The shop sent out the bent wheel to a local rim place to straighten it ($100), and is going to TIG weld up the other ($100). Now, I pick these up tomorrow and will fit them this weekend, along with a brake fluid flush to Motul 600.

Other stuff to do:
-making a mount for the fire extinguisher I stole from the Lemons car
-Installing the Schroth Rallye 3 belts so we can use the DefNder in the car on track
-change the spark plugs (nothing about that in the service records)
-maybe install brake ducts

I've also gotten a good Ram mount for the phone to record video on track and run Waze on the transits, gotten a new aluminum jack and stands, a small 8x8 pop up tent, and a few other things.

The weekend of the 15-17 I'll be at Summit Point for the NASA spring rumble, taking the instructor clinic on Friday and instructing the rest of the weekend, mostly to shake down the car and to run Summit main course that I have never run (only shenandoah) Chrissy is coming down Sunday to run in HPDE2 and get a feel for the track too.

So, that's where we are now. Updates to follow as things progress!

This thread makes me happy.
I could talk for hours about One Lap and the things I think I learned during 2015. In truth, you guys will find your groove and do well. I'll be following along and looking at the results every day to see how you're doing.
Post lots of pictures.

I dig the oloa 2016 inscription on the tires.

I am very interested in this thread also! We need many pics.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Please do share anything you think is valuable, the more we can learn from what others have done, the better off we will be!

I picked up the now fixed and mounted/balanced wheels and tires this morning. They will go on the car this weekend along with most of the rest of the needed work, as it is going to be in the 30s and raining/snowing here, making it tough to work on the Lemons cars, so might as well get the Mercdes done.

Any reason to stay with the 255's on the front, especially with the 9.5" wheels, can't you go up on the front section to help reduce understeer on what I assume is a well over 4,000lb front heavy vehicle?

Yup, 2 reasons. First, I had already ordered the tires with the one lap branding when I found that I didn't have the 8.5s as expected for the front, and second, when I test fit one of my current rear wheels on the front with a 285, it had about 1mm of clearance on the inside. As we are not looking for every last tenth on track, I left it alone rather than try to return tires that are likely not returnable and play with spacers, etc.

The car is about 4200lbs, and supposedly has 53/47 weight distribution.

This is going to be good

Ok, since you asked for it.....
This is going to be long and I'm going to try and work my way through the event in order, sort of.
Packing: Pack in as few bundles as you can. This makes loading/unloading take less time and less brain power, two things you'll need to conserve. The more waterproof things are the better, you should be able to find someplace covered at most venues, but if you can't, it'll suck. Pack hotel stuff in one bag if you can. One thing to bring into the hotel, one thing to bring out.
Bring a spray bottle and a vinyl squeegee. You'll have a LOT of stickers to apply and some of them are pretty big. The better they are applied the better your car looks. You can either apply them the evening you get them at the meet and greet or the next morning at Tire Rack. When you get to Tire Rack the next morning your spot will be labeled with your number. Park there. This is the only day where arriving early does nothing for you. Just more standing around. Do drive to the event on your tires. Getting all of the mold release off and getting some heat cycles in them make them perform better on the wet skid pad which is the first event.
The easiest place to make up time is at the hotel. We were showered and in bed within 15 minutes of checking in. In the morning we were up, grabbed breakfast and were gone within 20 of our alarms going off. This is important for sleep and so you can arrive at the track early.
Arrive at the tracks early. Two reasons. The first is paddock space. Any given track has 20 or so really nice covered places to park (it varies obviously) and you WANT ONE. You will desire either shade or rain protection depending on the weather. Be generous and share with all of your new friends, but good paddock space is awesome. You also want to be able to walk the tracks, even the ones you know. The format makes the event more like an autocross than a track day from a learning standpoint. You have the one sighting lap, then a standing start with two hot laps. The more times you can walk the track and try and remember it, the better. If you could fit bicycles, I'd recommend them because you can get 6-7 laps in biking for every one walked. At a bare minimum I'd try and hunt down some razor scooters. They pack small and you can get 2-3 laps on a scooter for every walked lap. That's the difference between two laps walked and 6 on a scooter. This is the thing I most wish I had last year and I should have bought one along the way.
If you use your time wisely you don't have to speed anywhere on the transits. We never had the cruise set more than 3mph above the limit the whole time. Some of the guys like to roll as a high speed convoy and for them that's part of the event, but it's not necessary, and some of them certainly had to talk to the police about their decisions. You'll also get talked to a LOT by people in the towns you stop in for food and gas. It gets old by about day 5, but be nice, a lot of them will be young guys who are interested in cars and this is the kind of thing that sticks with them for a long time. Your car will be photographed by strangers. A lot.
Make friends. The One Lap group is almost universally a great bunch. They're laid back and friendly and nice. You have a LOT of down time at the tracks during the day and it's great to pull up a chair and chat about life and family and cars and pretty much everything. Remember to bring a chair.
I'll probably think of some other things and add them on, but this is the bulk of it. I'm jealous, I wish I was going to be there.

Seth, thanks! That is all good stuff, and also helps me feel like we are in pretty good shape with all of that.

Packing: we are used to doing this from Lemons, and already have plans for something similar. There are some big things that have to go in on their own, everything else will be in a plastic tote or specific bag. We also have a tarp.

Vinyl: not on the list but it should deb, we have plenty of them around from having a vinyl cutter for the Lemons cars, just need to remember to bring it and the bottle.

We won't be making it to Tire Rack for Friday night, we are leaving as soon as Chrissy gets out of work on Friday and headed straight there, it is about a 9 hour trip, we should be able to get pretty close if not to South Bend that night before crashing. Good to know there is no rush to get there early on Saturday morning. We are getting the fresh set of tires mounted the week we leave and driving there on them, so check there.

We are usually pretty good at the "spend as little time as possible at the hotel other than for sleeping" game from our travels. We can crash right away, get up, shower, scarf breakfast, and head out. Most of the tracks we are going to have no covered paddock or garages, with the exceptions of Pitt Race and possibly NCM (though there are no good google earth pics of that one). We have our 8x8 tent and 2 folding chairs and are used to wandering a paddock to make new friends, so that will be easy!

For track walks, we are bringing rollerblades as we already have them and they are super portable, and they should get us around a track almost as fast as a crappy bike, plus we get a bit of a workout. We are watching some video already to try to get a basic idea of which way the turns go, to be cemented in walking while there to see the nuances.

I think I would poke my eyes out doing all of this transit at 3mph over, but I'm also not one to join the super high speed packs. We'll take it at a moderate pace, running waze and the V1, knowing how much the car will stand out. We're also used to talking to people at stops from towing around some very strange lemons cars and driving wacky stuff in BABE rally, so that all seems pretty normal.

Thanks for all the words of wisdom, if you think of anything else as it goes along, please continue to share.

I ran in 2007. The most important part is do NOT change anything to your car at least 1-2 months before the event! Drive the car as much as possible, preferably several thousand miles at least a month before the event, after you've made whatever changes you made.

The largest reason for DNF's on this event is people thrashing to get their car done, then having inadequate time to shake it out. One Lap is like an over grown auto-x, you do a few timed laps, then drive a whole bunch to the next event site. As they say, "To finish first, first you must finish".

Sleep is important. With the car you're in you'll have fun but probably won't be in the hunt for a win, so just have fun and enjoy it!

The car is bone stock, and I have been daily driving it for the last month. The only changes will be/have been fluids, spark plugs, tires. We have a shakedown weekend with it on track for HPDE next weekend to get used to the car at speed and see if anything else becomes a known problem to address.

We aren't planning to win, just have a good time, especially in our first time out in this event.

This is awesome. Post lots of pics!

NCM has a row of garages (20-ish?) right off of pit lane.

Sweet, some good inspiration for me to keep up on. I'm 1 years out from my own run, so I'll be watching with great interest.

Lots of work done this weekend, and the car is basically race ready.

Started off with changing the spark plugs as I had no record it had been done, and the plugs looked original, still had the Mercedes logo on them. These are the narrowest plugs I've ever seen, and use a 14mm socket, not either of the standard spark plug socks. Getting the plugs threaded I just stuck the end in a piece of sturdy 5/16" fuel hose and twisted it in.


To get to the plugs, you have to take off the air filter boxes, which are on top of the motor over the valve covers, The throttle body is actually at the firewall end of the motor. When working on it it becomes evident how huge this motor is. 25" long just at the valve covers

Each AMG engine is supposedly built by one person who has their signature on it. Mine was made by this guy:

I also found that this signature plate is the perfect spot to rest your beer while working, it is flat, smooth, and just the right size!

After that, it was time to put on the new wheels and tires, and flush the brake fluid for Motul 600. Everything went smoothly there. I did find the left front wheel bearing was a little loose, so that was tightened up.

Here is the crack that the shop welded up. It was about 15mm long on the outer lip

Then I made the fire extinguisher mount, all from scrap bits in the metal pile, working with what I had. I had a fire bottle with metal brake that I stole from the Lemons Civic, so I wanted to keep that intact as it will go back in the Civic. I made these brackets which will bolt to the seat bolt holes in the floor, and then have holes to bolt the fire bottle bracket from the Honda. This location behind the seats is because there really is no place in front of the seats to mount it, as there is a cubby and trim and controls for the adjustable bolsters there, which is riveted to the seat. I cleared this location with Brock.

Now, onto the Schroth Rallye3. The back strap went to the mounting point for the rear seat belt at the C pillar, threaded through the stock hole in the trim. I had to leave a finish piece around the belt off so it sits down on the latch, but this won't stay in the car after the event. The front belts mounted to the stock locations, which are seat mounted. Overall, this was kind of a pain in the ass.

We then tried test packing to see how much room we would have once the necessary gear was in the car. We ended up getting most of the gear into this one plastic box, including fluids, brake pads, road triangles, jack stands, paper towels, vinyl squeege and a bunch of other stuff. Other than this box, we have the tool bag, pop up tent, 2 chairs, a tarp, the jack, a clothes bag for each of us, a bag of race gear, helmets, a small cooler, and a box of snacks. We will probably keep the clothes bags, cooler, and snacks in the back seat, and everything else should fit in the trunk easily.

We also removed the inflatable temporary spare tire and did get one of the stock front wheels (8.5" wide) to fit in the hole, just for on the road emergencies. It makes the trunk floor sit up about 2-3", but works well enough.

We then went out and did some errands and programmed the car for the new TPMS sensors, which was quite easy. The new wheel/tire setup fits fine up front, and has a bit sharper steering response than the 8.5" wide wheels with Michelin Pilot 3s.

At this point we are in good shape for running with NASA this coming weekend to shake it down. I'll bring the whole one lap setup with us and see if we find anything else we might need, along with testing how easy it is to pack and unpack.

awesome to see; and I look forward to meeting you out in Southbend!

Taking all the stuff along this weekend is a pretty good idea to 'shakedown' your kit, figure out what works/doesn't and anything you might add. You might also try running the sprinkler over your plastic tote to see how it'll hold up to any rain.

As per the "on the road assist" thread, I'm about 20 miles or so from Palmer, and I have a lift, compressor, welder, etc... I'll be up at Palmer to hang out on the 2nd, and to do the Track Night in America after your thing is done, I'll try to hunt you down to say "hi!"

Sleepyhead: Likewise, thanks!

Wonko: That's excellent, thanks for offering, hopefully we won't need anything, but please do say hello when you're there. I certainly have the "on the road assist" thread in mind just in case.

Are you using a HNR of any sort? We used a couple of varities of Simpson with the chest straps that will sort of work without proper harnesses. After talking to the guy who nosed into the Armco at NCM, I'm glad we brought them.

Yup, we both have DefNders from racing Lemons, and that's why I installed the Schroth as they need a proper harness to actually work.

I'm at Summit point, taking part in the instructor clinic today and instructing for the rest of the weekend. Chrissy is coming on Sunday to run HPDE2 to get a feel for the car, learn the track, and get some instruction.

The setup this morning was really easy, even by myself and taking my time. I did learn that I should have taken the stock jack and tool set out at home as they are now redundant.

Here's the setup:

I uploaded pics and posted this all from my phone so success there too.

How's the car on track you ask? For starters, check out this mileage since reset when I got gas last night:

The car is just as I expected. Very fast in a straight line, a bit wallowy but still controlled in the corners, understeer is dominant but oversteer is only a right foot away. It is easy to control at the limit and communicates very well. Overall, easy to drive and though it is a bit out of its element in track, it did a great job for what it is and I'm pleased with it. Oil temps stayed less than 130 C, hit 135 on the main straight during my 80% laps. Brake rotor temp back in the paddock was still 400, I'm going to think hard about some brake ducts. Brakes were firm and confidence inspiring with no fade, but that is hot and I could smell them as expected hauling a heavy car down from high speeds.

I turned the traction control off for the second session which probably helped keep the rear brakes a bit cooler, you just have to modulate the throttle and let the limited slip work.

Overall, a very successful shake down day.

Cool! I'm in to watch this one.

recall, that OneLap is only 3 hot laps. So, cooling might not be as important as you think? If you get a chance you might come in after 3 laps and take a reading on the brake temps to get an idea?

I think the only brake failure I've seen was a poorly specc'd ebay rotor purchase that failed at the first 'hard use'.

In fact, you'll probably need to keep in mind getting the brakes up to temp on the warm-up/sighting lap, lest you come up with reduced mu at the end of the first long straight.

ymmv