Day of Thunder

[stig]

Well, took the Can-Am to Rockingham for its first track day.

The car was awesome on track (the first time I've driven there) and you really got a great Nascar buzz as the V8 reverberates off the concrete walls on the banking

However, despite some great morning runs, just before lunch there was a 'bang' and the fire went out.

Turns out that the coil broke down causing a backflash into the carb which set fire to the air filter

Couldn't find a replacement coil, or jury-rig a get me home setup, so unfortunately the journey home was on a flat-bed

Still, hopefully it will be easily fixed with a new coil & air filter and I'll be at the open day on Sunday

Will do a full write up on the website. One thing that did impress me though was that the car had not a hint of understeer? My GTR wasn't great in this respect, but the Can-Am was spot on. Short of anything with slicks/wings (read Radicals etc.) we were pretty much the fastest thing out there

Video's with plenty of flaming over-runs on their way too

[crazy of cookham]

Envy!!. Bet you are glad you blocked air vent. Sorry coil spoilt day. If you need quick fix I do have a slightly foxed airfilter at home. welcome to use it until your replacement arrives. How did you get on with noise.

Brian

[ultimacz]

Probably best to put a spare coil on stock. We had 2 coils to be replaced over the time. I suppose it is the heat in the engine bay...
Same applies to the MSD ignition box, it can fail as frequently as the coil. I would order a spare one, too.

[stig]

crazy of cookham said:

Envy!!. Bet you are glad you blocked air vent. Sorry coil spoilt day. If you need quick fix I do have a slightly foxed airfilter at home. welcome to use it until your replacement arrives. How did you get on with noise.

Brian

Thanks Brian! I need a new filter element and top. Can get away with a standard 'closed' lid rather than an XStream to get me up to the open day.

One unexpected benefit of having the louvres was that we could see the smoke straight away. Having a blocked scoop could have meant a far bigger fire had I not realised what was happening

[stig]

ultimacz said:

Probably best to put a spare coil on stock. We had 2 coils to be replaced over the time. I suppose it is the heat in the engine bay...
Same applies to the MSD ignition box, it can fail as frequently as the coil. I would order a spare one, too.

Thanks Peter. I don't run the usual MSD 6 unit, I have a far simpler Blaster SS and ready-to-run dizzy combo. I strongly suspect heat from the exhaust header caused the demise of the coil. Must have been all the fuel that was flaming out of it

Will be insulating the replacement or perhaps reposition to avoid it in future.

[tuxman]

Great news stig sounds like you had a good day (until the fire )have to admit rockingham is awsome have had our can-am round it too ,interesting about the lack of understear our can-am turns in very well too makes you wonder why the GTR seem to suffer so much . simon