THSCC Forums

Freeze some milk containers filled with water, or get some block ice and the cooling will last longer. a good cooler also helps big time.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

We had pretty good luck with our homemade cool shirt system- though we all had Coolshirt brand shirts.


I think Bernie's idea of freezing some containers full of water and putting them in the cooler is a good one- but I'd say use soda bottles- either a bunch of the 16-20oz plastic bottles or a couple of 2 liter bottles should last a long time. Only problem is gonna be when it comes time to re-freeze them at the track- how is that gonna work unless you've got a 500k motorcoach with built in freezer??


Other than that, a cooler with a tight sealing lid is a must- that really seems to help the ice last longer. We had someone scooping out water with a big cup + then adding ice to the cooler during driver changes.

We had good luck with freezing a bunch of blocks (enough for the whole weekend, almost) and keeping them in a separate cooler.

I like the 2 liter/20oz bottle ideas. I think our cooler could handle a couple of 2L bottles

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Bret, where did you get the quick-connect fittings that worked with the store-bought cool shirts?

I'll probably use block ice next time. I just don't want anything bumping into the pump and messing anything up. I may build a metal cage for it and bolt it to the bottom of the cooler.


For evacuating the melted ice, I put a t-fitting with a ball valve on the return line. I'd just open the valve and hang it out the door to bleed off the extra water.

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"Every ship is a minesweeper, once."

You could also just use a 3-4 foot piece of hose and let it siphon out to the ground, and eliminate a potential point of failure.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

The reason I use milk bottles is because they are square sided and don't roll around in the cooler as soda bottles do. As far as keeping them for the weekend Ryan is right on the money. Store them in another cooler packed in ice and they will last the whole weekend. Just don't store anything else in the cooler but ice and the frozen blocks. Presto you just saved 500K.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

ah, but did anyone rock a homemade coolshirt PLUS personal hydration all-in-one system? yeah i thought not.

I hardly touched the camel back, the cool shirt had me so frosty I wasn't sweating much.

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"Every ship is a minesweeper, once."

Not sure- it was made by a friend of mine, I'll axe him and report back.


I seem to remember him mentioning McMaster- but I don't have any more details than that.


Bernie- I agree about the shape of the milk jugs, but most of the 1 gallon milk jugs they sell now seem to have the snap on lids which arent' all that secure. No big deal really, if some un-frozen ice spills out and mixes with the water in the cooler.........

anyone have an idea of how long a freeze can lasts? it costs $12, but if you could get 2 hrs out of one can, it might actually be a good option to the cooler.

cooler is heavy, a pain to refill with ice, cannot be changed in the hot pits at Lemons.

the can would be light and could be carried to the car with the driver in the hot pits.

the big draw back is the price and the unknown duration.

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05 MCS

About 5 minutes..........

At least according to a friend of mine who tried one, he said it was awesome until it ran out of gas........


So, not a very good option IMHO.

I thought of that, but decided I'm too lazy and made ours automatic. To avoid having to dip out the excess water each stop, I added an overflow tube that dumped beneath the car to maintain a constant level. No effort required at the pit stops…just add more ice and go. Also to avoid having the baffle tip sideways and get wedged in place, I added support tabs. They are black pieces attached with pop-rivets in the pics. We never had a drop of water spilled from the cooler so it worked well.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

Buy the next few bottles of milk at Kroger, their brand has screw on lids. or I'll save you a few of mine.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

"hey Mr Lemons track official, I think I see something leaking from that #0 car.....might want to black flag them so they can come in and check it out"

I thought of that too, but luckily the car fixed that for us. Follwing a driver change, we would notice a puff of smoke after each exit of T14. After seeing Dieter blow-up my mind went straight to "Oh, no the headgasket". As it turned out, as the water sloshed reward under acceleration, it would push out the overflow and dump right onto the exhaust. Cold water + hot exhaust = steam = puff of smoke. As soon as the level was low enough during the session the mysterious puff of smoke would stop.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)