How many laps before overheating?

SoCal89GT · Aug 9, 2007

I have a buddy with a GT500 and he wants to take it to a track (The Streets @ Willow Springs) I am concerned that he is going to overheat fairly quickly under such extreme conditions. Has anyone driven their GT500 on a track such as that or have any idea how many laps he might expect to get in. For those who do not know, Willow Springs is around 100 miles north of LA in the Desert Mountains. Thanks in advance for the help...

Mr_Q · Aug 12, 2007

Don't race in the summer. I pretend Willow is infected by the plague and stay away all summer.

Why even beat up the car if you have nice cool fall and winters to race in?

jcthorne · Sep 2, 2007

He has nothing to worry about except as the car warms up and the weather warms up his power will fall off. Car will not overheat unless there is something seriously wrong with it.

I pushed mine pretty hard for better than 70 laps at Hallet in June and the temps were very near 100deg. The temp gauge never moved above normal. Sitting in Houston traffic with the AC on is far worse on the cooling system than flat out on the road course. The cooling system in the GT500 is pretty robust. SVT had its fill of overheating Cobras in 96 and likely will not repeat the performance.

Jon350 · Sep 3, 2007

As a regular at Willow, I can say without batting an eye lid that Right now is the worst possible time of the entire year to go!!!! Although I've never overheated in either my 65 fastback nor my S2000, the heat created out there by the super charger will definitely kill the power.

IF your friend is dead set on going, the constant flow of air through the engine while he's on the track will prevent overheating. BUT when he's coming off the track and into the pits, advise him to leave his car running (when he parks it) for 5minutes with the hood open. This has the same effect of a turbo timer and will help the engine settle before he shuts it off..........You don't want to run her hard and put her away wet.

SoCal89GT · Sep 4, 2007

Jon350 said:
As a regular at Willow, I can say without batting an eye lid that Right now is the worst possible time of the entire year to go!!!! Although I've never overheated in either my 65 fastback nor my S2000, the heat created out there by the super charger will definitely kill the power.

IF your friend is dead set on going, the constant flow of air through the engine while he's on the track will prevent overheating. BUT when he's coming off the track and into the pits, advise him to leave his car running (when he parks it) for 5minutes with the hood open. This has the same effect of a turbo timer and will help the engine settle before he shuts it off..........You don't want to run her hard and put her away wet.

You have no problems with 65 at all? On the streets or the big track?

SoCal89GT · Sep 4, 2007

jcthorne... I just looked at the Hallett track layout and i can see why you had no cooling issues, that track has got a lot of straights too, Willow is not so generous.

Jon350 · Sep 5, 2007

SoCal89GT said:
You have no problems with 65 at all? On the streets or the big track?

My '65 was running a custom Ron Davis radiator, 160 thermostat, Roller 5.0 engine, along with a 3 open cowl hood. So while it did warm up during certain occassions, it never came close to overheating.....One thing to note however, was that I never ran my fastback on the tracks during high temperature events. So that helped as well.

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