Old...

Yesterday we had at Portland wet with drying qualifying and a wet with drying race. With taking my time in the race, (I was P10 in the wet/drying qualifying) I worked my way up to 2nd when track conditions were almost back to normal. The chicane had a nice, small sized lake in it the whole time. Never could catch up with Dan!

In today's qualifying it was a dry track all the way through and I was second again behind Dan. I decided not to race in the wet. So watching today's race in the wet, GEN2's finisihed 1-3 with a GEN3 in fourth spot. GEN3 spun at T3 at the start. Got back in the race but could never catch up. So, my observation was on a wet track, there is generational parity. Also, I had a major shunt on the last lap of qualifying which made my no race decision quite easy. Did I mention I don't like the current rain tires? They scare me !

As an aside, the muffler clamps were not doing the job. My muffler fell off the first time out and my pit mate had his exhaust pipe from the muffler come off on the same outing. Both are now safety wired on !

I'm not surprised at the rain challenges with the Gen3; the torque, clutch/flywheel and lower gearing are not your friends (but you will get to learn a lot!). Did everyone use the "rain" switch setting?

Fortunately, I didn't lose the muffler during the last event, but did need to tighten the clamps after nearly every session until they eventually seated properly. Fun part was then trying to take them apart (testing the "Laguna" muffler).

I did notice that the clamping was better if you put them at the end of the muffler pipes over the slits; too far close to the muffler body and they just didn't want to clamp down. Also, safety wired at the tailpipe end since I didn't trust the rubber hangar to hold up properly. One technique that may make sense was to have a large clamp over the center of the muffler and a metal strap up that the frame (may want some flex, though, to prevent the header from cracking (one driver used that approach and it seemed to work well.)

There should be lots of Gen3 rain feedback after the Road Atlanta majors feature race yesterday if anyone cares to share.

Bob, do not know on the use of the rain switch. Maybe Todd B can chime in.

Definitely generation parity in the rain.
I had the rain map switch on the entire Sunday race. Helps a little feeding power in at corner exit, but it’s still touchy. And actually the lighter rear end does not help in the rain. Was doing fine until I got spun around in T12 on the first lap and then had to work my way back up to second in class, 7th overall.
Definitely harder to drive in the rain, particularly with the current “grooved dry tires”.

Have already (again) complained to Erik about the current so called “rain” tire.
Testing is underway for 2016 tire selection and I have it on good authority that they are paying attention to a rain tire selection as well.

I (gen2) think I was about 2 seconds off of Tray's fast Gen3 rain time this weekend at Road Atlanta (4.5 is the dry delta) but he's way better at that track than I am so that may not be a great gauge.

I spoke with the GY guys about the rains and they said that if they are retained for 2016 and beyond the first thing they will do is find a *rain tire between what we had now and what we had before that works well. As such, we should have a new rain tire starting next year regardless of tire vendor.
Of course this is just track hearsay and is not official. Enterprises is the official word.
RacerX

I bet with the lighter Gen 3 weight the old rain tire would last even on a drying track...just as long as the driver controls the wheel spin.

Racer X wrote:As such, we should have a new rain tire starting next year regardless of tire vendor.

Will this will be my 3rd set in 4 years?
I never burned up hero tires this fast.

jim flynn wrote:Yesterday we had at Portland wet with drying qualifying and a wet with drying race. With taking my time in the race, (I was P10 in the wet/drying qualifying) I worked my way up to 2nd when track conditions were almost back to normal. The chicane had a nice, small sized lake in it the whole time. Never could catch up with Dan!

In today's qualifying it was a dry track all the way through and I was second again behind Dan. I decided not to race in the wet. So watching today's race in the wet, GEN2's finisihed 1-3 with a GEN3 in fourth spot. GEN3 spun at T3 at the start. Got back in the race but could never catch up. So, my observation was on a wet track, there is generational parity. Also, I had a major shunt on the last lap of qualifying which made my no race decision quite easy. Did I mention I don't like the current rain tires? They scare me !

As an aside, the muffler clamps were not doing the job. My muffler fell off the first time out and my pit mate had his exhaust pipe from the muffler come off on the same outing. Both are now safety wired on !

Hi Jim- I'm the one that spun out at the start at T3. I agree with others here that the G3 is slightly less forgiving in the rain with less rear weight balance. I liken the difference to that between a 911 and a Boxster. The SRF3's handling balance in the dry is much better, but that comes with an easier tendency to get in a flat spin as grip is lost like in the rain.

Thanks for giving me the P2 spot BTW! but I lay the blame for the spin at my feet, not the Gen 3. A lot of us use Motec with the upgrade to Gen 3 and reviewing my spin in T3 I was at 100% throttle despite remembering that I was being gentle on the throttle- data doesn't lie! My bad and a total waste of a great starting position, I'm normally very good in the rain, but the red mist at the start took over. Lesson learned!