Driving the RMS Gen3

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Posts: 111
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:32 pm
PostPosted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:08 pm
Well, put me down as one happy camper with the new Gen3 !! The car is great and what we needed to make the car exciting again.

You don't have to change over to this version if you are in love with your 1.9, but this car is a kick in the pants to drive.

There were 2 Gen3's at the event, one with PM Racing with Brian Schofield driving and the RMS car.

The RMS car had been sitting for 8 years as a bare chassis. It was due to be rebuilt, but just never got done. So it sat in the back of the shop on it's side for all that time and all of the parts for the car were stored upstairs in the loft. Talk about cobwebs!!!

The instruction manual that came with the kit was very precise and there were a lot of pictures that were sent via email as part of the install.

Since the RMS crew members Mark Eaton and Dabney Smith did most of the work on the build of the car and the Gen3 install, I let Mark drive the car first on the Friday test day at the Sebring short course. There were no issues with the Gen3 parts that were sent with the kit, but we did have a self induced misfire. AGAIN, IT WAS NOT BECAUSE OF ANY PARTS THAT ENTERPRISES SENT WITH THE KIT, IT WAS AN ORIGINAL HARNESS PROBLEM. No rumors about problems with the Gen3 kit that RMS received please.

It took us until Sunday morning to figure out where the problem was, we had a faulty tach that would shut the car off.

Mike Davies arrived at Sebring Friday afternoon to monitor and make some adjustments to the ECU program to fine tune the cars. When he heard that we were having a problem, he stayed at the track until 9 at night searching to find the problem. The data that the system provides helps him with great ability to monitor systems through the entire run. But a bad stock tach that is not part of the monitored data program did not show up.

Thirteen hours on Saturday and 2 official SCCA sessions still had the car with a bad miss. I never did a complete lap without the car shutting off. On the qualifying session, we used a 1.9 coil pack just to see if we could eliminate the coil as the problem, but it didn't like the 1.9 coil... Late into the night again, we basically took everything apart, did tons of checks on plugs and grounds, sometimes twice just to be sure. Checked the new battery, everything checked out.

Sunday morning, Mark said, "let's disconnect the tach, I remember a long time ago when that was a problem". I was loosing faith in the process and I had a paying customer that ran Saturday and Sunday. Another SRF driver was having problems with his car and asked if Mark could run his car in the Sunday morning race. Since we had to help the RMS customer get into his FE, I told Mark I would do 3 laps and then come in and take care of the FE driver. Mark diagnosed the problem with the 1.9 car.

I did not have a qualifying time from Saturday so I had to start last, but right ahead of me was Mark in the 1.9 SRF. He didn't get a qualifying time, so he started 2nd to last, I guess the officials thought I would stall again and then didn't want Mark to run me over. :D

The Gen3 car did not hesitate on the pace lap. Yahoooo, maybe that tach was the problem! All the way around the pace lap the car ran fine. I was giving Mark a thumbs up to let him know I might be coming through on the start. Then I thought about it for a minute and fell 50 feet back before the green flag fell to give everyone a shot at turn one if my car ran correctly.

Green out, and I swear I spun the tires in second gear on the start!!! Holy shamoly get outta my way!!!

I had no idea what gears to run and I was shifting kinda by sound, but I would guess around 6750 rpm. :lol: Yes, the rev limiter works just fine....no engine over rev problems either. :lol:

I made it through the field in 2 laps and could see Brian up ahead, and then I remembered that I had an FE customer waiting in the paddock to get belted in for his race that followed ours. Talk about having a hard time pulling out of the race, I did my 3 laps and headed in, but the smile on my face was huge!!! The car ran the entire time.

The car has power all the way to the shift point, no hesitation. it's easy to spin the tires in second gear. The shifting points are a little further down the track from the 1.9, like 30 yards, but basically in the same points. We figured we were going 10 to 12 mph faster into the corners than the 1.9. Glad we had new vented rotors on the car...it stopped really well.

I really like the change. it's the same fun only going about 15 mph faster!
Mick Robinson

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