Just another GT Saturday….. LOL
As some of you may know, along with Jason and his fine crew, we have been trying to provide support to these crazy Heffner TT owners with their mile and other track venues. (This, between the seemingly constant slew of rear-bumper deletes, pulley, and Whipple upgrades.) Mind you, we are not complaining…. quite the contrary as we consider ourselves quite fortunate to be playing with a different GT each weekend!! Pretty cool, huh?
Anyway, a number of TT owners had asked us to fit electronic boost controllers inside of the car so that with the appropriate fuel, they can effectively dial in boost (and HP/TQ) right from the comfort of the driver’s seat. We’ve equipped a couple of cars now with what we believe as an ideal and elegant solution. Today it was off to the dyno to dial-in the new boost controller and to adjust the parameters afforded us to allow for fastest boost engagement as well as a nice, smooth boost curves.
We rent dyno time from a wonderful couple of guys who operate a very well known and respected Nissan Z business and specializing in forced induction. They are always so accommodating to us – just as they were today, coming in and opening the shop just for us and a lonely Ford GT. Looking back through our previous dyno runs, it was clear that we were getting up on boost around 3K RPM with a stable flat boost line from about 4200 RPM up. Therefore, we decided that we could see how the boost controller was doing by simply running the car up to 5,000 RPM. That’s exactly what we did and our guinea pig car for the testing was AlohaGT’s beautiful Heritage. So, with the dyno shop owners and a couple of their gear-head friends standing around, we set up some initial parameters on the boost controller and began making some runs up to 5K RPM while datalogging AF’s, RPM, and boost pressure. EVERYONE was amazed at the way the GT engine just puts down HP so friggen’ effortlessly. Stopping at 5,000 RPM, I can tell you that the engine never even gets into full song… but the numbers are AMAZING. Try 616 HP; 615 TQ at 5,000 RPM on 11psi of boost! As we progressed up to 15 psi and above, we never got numbers below 700 HP; 660 TQ!!! (Keep in mind, these are the numbers at 5K RPM – pretty far from the redline set at 7K with the Heffner tune.) As much as we have been around these wonderful engines (and Jason’s not-too-shabby TT kit), we are still just as giddy as the new GT observers. “Holy crap, this dyno is stingy and you’re putting these kind of numbers down like it was NUTHIN’.”
Sorry if I digress…. the bystanders were all looking at HP/TQ and Ryan and I were most interested in the boost values and validating the behavior of the programmed boost controller variables. I can tell you that it was an exceptional morning. Both the car and the new boost controller performed flawlessly. The car never broke a sweat. But, we kind of felt obliged once we had everything set-up that we should make one final check of the boost curve up through the “normal” boost range with a ceiling of 7K RPM. I gave Ryan the green light to roll it on up to 6500 RPM insofar as the real time a/f’s looked good – which is the ONE thing that we have 4 pairs of eyes looking at during each run. As you might expect, once North of 5000 RPM, the ‘ol RPM needle begins to swing pretty fast. Ryan timed it pretty good (I’m always soooo proud of him) and shut it down at 6200. With 20 psi of boost, the car put down 946HP and 807TQ. With total candor, 1,000HP would be so easy – and we could have easily have done it. With the C16 Race Fuel, 22 or 23 psi would still be safe, but even if you project this 946HP w/20 PSI result through 6800 RPM, 1000HP is right there. AMAZING.
These cars start, idle, drive through traffic, etc. just like any other car….. but the power levels are simply insane. I still tease Terry (Apollo) after admitting when he came back into the pit area at the Texas Mile after a 207+ MPH run, that he had forgotten to turn the AC off.
It was just another really fun morning with the GT’s. And, if I can quote Chip… “as amazing as the cars are, and they are truly amazing, the quality and character of the owners is even better.” There’s no doubt in my mind that Chip is right on!!
As some of you may know, along with Jason and his fine crew, we have been trying to provide support to these crazy Heffner TT owners with their mile and other track venues. (This, between the seemingly constant slew of rear-bumper deletes, pulley, and Whipple upgrades.) Mind you, we are not complaining…. quite the contrary as we consider ourselves quite fortunate to be playing with a different GT each weekend!! Pretty cool, huh?
Anyway, a number of TT owners had asked us to fit electronic boost controllers inside of the car so that with the appropriate fuel, they can effectively dial in boost (and HP/TQ) right from the comfort of the driver’s seat. We’ve equipped a couple of cars now with what we believe as an ideal and elegant solution. Today it was off to the dyno to dial-in the new boost controller and to adjust the parameters afforded us to allow for fastest boost engagement as well as a nice, smooth boost curves.
We rent dyno time from a wonderful couple of guys who operate a very well known and respected Nissan Z business and specializing in forced induction. They are always so accommodating to us – just as they were today, coming in and opening the shop just for us and a lonely Ford GT. Looking back through our previous dyno runs, it was clear that we were getting up on boost around 3K RPM with a stable flat boost line from about 4200 RPM up. Therefore, we decided that we could see how the boost controller was doing by simply running the car up to 5,000 RPM. That’s exactly what we did and our guinea pig car for the testing was AlohaGT’s beautiful Heritage. So, with the dyno shop owners and a couple of their gear-head friends standing around, we set up some initial parameters on the boost controller and began making some runs up to 5K RPM while datalogging AF’s, RPM, and boost pressure. EVERYONE was amazed at the way the GT engine just puts down HP so friggen’ effortlessly. Stopping at 5,000 RPM, I can tell you that the engine never even gets into full song… but the numbers are AMAZING. Try 616 HP; 615 TQ at 5,000 RPM on 11psi of boost! As we progressed up to 15 psi and above, we never got numbers below 700 HP; 660 TQ!!! (Keep in mind, these are the numbers at 5K RPM – pretty far from the redline set at 7K with the Heffner tune.) As much as we have been around these wonderful engines (and Jason’s not-too-shabby TT kit), we are still just as giddy as the new GT observers. “Holy crap, this dyno is stingy and you’re putting these kind of numbers down like it was NUTHIN’.”
Sorry if I digress…. the bystanders were all looking at HP/TQ and Ryan and I were most interested in the boost values and validating the behavior of the programmed boost controller variables. I can tell you that it was an exceptional morning. Both the car and the new boost controller performed flawlessly. The car never broke a sweat. But, we kind of felt obliged once we had everything set-up that we should make one final check of the boost curve up through the “normal” boost range with a ceiling of 7K RPM. I gave Ryan the green light to roll it on up to 6500 RPM insofar as the real time a/f’s looked good – which is the ONE thing that we have 4 pairs of eyes looking at during each run. As you might expect, once North of 5000 RPM, the ‘ol RPM needle begins to swing pretty fast. Ryan timed it pretty good (I’m always soooo proud of him) and shut it down at 6200. With 20 psi of boost, the car put down 946HP and 807TQ. With total candor, 1,000HP would be so easy – and we could have easily have done it. With the C16 Race Fuel, 22 or 23 psi would still be safe, but even if you project this 946HP w/20 PSI result through 6800 RPM, 1000HP is right there. AMAZING.
These cars start, idle, drive through traffic, etc. just like any other car….. but the power levels are simply insane. I still tease Terry (Apollo) after admitting when he came back into the pit area at the Texas Mile after a 207+ MPH run, that he had forgotten to turn the AC off.
It was just another really fun morning with the GT’s. And, if I can quote Chip… “as amazing as the cars are, and they are truly amazing, the quality and character of the owners is even better.” There’s no doubt in my mind that Chip is right on!!
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