spg993tt

been a bit since i researched the technologies, so i figured id post up here see what you hawks can recommend.

1. driver cooling - any new stuff out there? 3 years ago it was just Coolsuit and the momo coolsuit. i found it to work ok, but if you drove to long, it just circulated hot water. at one point, i had beta tested a product from i think it was coolsuit that was to use dry ice, no power needed . that product was a total dud. i saw a nwe coolsuit tub at stable that had the air hose through and back out of teh ice/cooling chamber. and in the gt3R i had a Koolbox which frankly worked really well, but was muy expensivo (came with the car) and sucked up a lot of power. and was just head. anything new worth consider? also in terms of 'coolsuit" shirts, i think ive seen rodgers traqgear stuff gaining great popularity (kudos to him!!). is that the hot new product?

2. radios - again, several years ago it was that motorola hard wired radio with the harness , ptt, imsa helmet connector. at one point, i think racing radios recommended kenwood handheld digitals. the handhelds were preferrable with a hardware adapter in place of the battery, because they were 25 watt if i recall so had better distance/reception. the digital kept stuff crisper. and i think in fact they had noise cancelling kits. it was pretty good but it wasnt like revolutionary and after all, how much chatting do you really want to do. but when you do need info like finding out time left in the race, or "green green green" its nice to have it work well. and if i have to buy something, might as well buy the right thing.

anyway, thanks in advance if you have some insight.

fleadh

Personally, I like a high powered helmet blower versus a cool suit.

-mike

spg993tt

mike, you need to update your RL footer!! great job!!

audipwr1

Steve - going back to racing?

stujelly

koolbox ac helmet blower works great, dont need cool suit, ice, added weight etc.

Digital radios the way to go. No repeaters necessary. Charles at racing radios sells a great package. I run a base unit in the car, handheld with the crew and they can hear me clearly from turn 7 at road atlanta or the kink at road america or the toe of the boot at watkins.

ApexPerformance

If you already have a cool shirt system and want to try an inexpensive upgrade, Cool Shirt has introduced a "cool-a-clava" that you can piggyback onto your shirt or run independently without the shirt and plug direct into the cooler. You can use either 2-sided tape or velcro to stick it to the inside helmet liner. It's very thin and doesn't take up much room. The two major comments we've had on it are

1) It gets too cold for bald guys
2) The tubing runs behind your head and another thing to remember to plug in.

Otherwise, a lot folks love it - sold one to a guy at Barber two weekends ago and he came back and bought two more for his friends. Inexpensive addon if you already have a cool shirt system.

http://www.apexperformance.net/Cool-...ava_p_785.html

It will melt the ice quicker introducing another piece of cool shirt equipment (water running thru the shirt AND the cool-a-clava) but not much. Cool Shirt recommends using block ice if you can. It lasts longer. They have also introduced gel packs and most of our customers claim they last longer than ice as well.

http://www.apexperformance.net/Endurance-Ice_p_424.html

Roger's Traqgear cool shirts are very nice. You have the fire protection as they are SFI and his fabric is moisture wicking, anti-microbial and soft/comfortable.

http://www.apexperformance.net/LCG-P...-33_p_746.html

Geneman

Steve I bought your handhelds at the shop sale: kenwood digitals. they are bullet proof and have been just superb. i use one of the handhelds in the car with an external antenna hookup and a PTT. great to see you are back in the game. best wishes Frank

spg993tt

great to hear. yeah, those kenwoods were awesome. might go that route. sometimes i like to try different things just for the heck of it. from what ive heard, most of the digital radios these days are great.

spg993tt

thats the idea!! hows that SPB?

stujelly

I don't think race suits have changed much since your break but again a good stand 21 suit with an ac helmet blower, problem solved.

Steve113

I think we all have something from Steve

Good to see you back my friend its much safe then those 2 wheels skinny things you have been riding

audipwr1

Sold it - actually did drive it again yesterday to get it setup - wonderfully built car

hf1

Any info/links for these radios? Thx.

spg993tt

the radios originally came in the flying lizard 997 RSR i had for a while. it was a kenwood "digital" handheld inside the car, they affixed a snap on hard wire power thing basically where the battery would go. which at first had me puzzled as well, since i hadn't seen a hard wird handheld in a car before nor really understood the digital to it. i had always used those motorolasa that so many had used. but also had a lot of reception issues and clarity issues with it. so i spoke to racing communications. and they walked me through it. they were supplying a LOT of teams in the imsa, flying lizards, and they used the kenwood digitals as they were super reliable, easy to program and very clear. but the main reason was they were, with the hard adapter 25Watt units way more strength than the 5w motorolas. . then racing communications built them noise cancelling harness which wasn't cheap, about 800$ if i rcall. the kenwood was like 800$ or so also, if i recall, the power adapter was like 200? they kicked *** as far as a radio goes. i could hear crystal clear no matter the engine noises outside no matter where on track so like the next 2 cars thereafter i went wit hthat setup. it was costly but afte ryou spent the $1800 or so (vs 1k) that's it, you never thought about it again. racing coms basically could hack anything together. in the flying lizard car they had redundant radio systems , one harness, one fails, you hit a button, it transferred to radio#2, same harness.
call them.

reidry

What is the capacity of your current coolbox?

In our endurance car we run a 30 quart cooler and instead of ice cubes we use plastic bottles containing frozen water with the cap removed. This will last two 1:30 - 1:40 stints in Florida. To make it last even longer, some teams run a PWM controller or an aerator timer. PWM controllers slow the pump speed, aerator timer runs the pump in short periodic cycles (e.g, one minute on, one minute off).

We also have a helmet blower, at this time it just circulates filtered ambient air, the air is not cooled.

Ryan