oil pressure drop on hard left turns

[Brett Dikeman]

Just got back from Mont Tremblant (awesome track!) with a slightly odd problem.

On hard left turns, I get a drop in oil pressure; the gauge drops as 
low as 2 bar depending on the sharpness of the turn, and on some 
turns the autocheck alarm triggers as well.  Oil level is fine- if 
anything a little higher than I usually keep it, about 3/4 up the 
hashed area on the dipstick.  No signs of leaks, except for a couple 
of spots of oil on the wastegate frequency valve electrical connector 
boot, a few on the top of the alternator, and some smoke off the 
exhaust manifold area.  No smoke or oil spots until the last session 
of the day, which is when the oil warning came on and my instructor 
and I started paying closer attention to the oil pressure.  Temps 
were probably 120C by the time the sessions were over.

The spots of oil and smoking happening at the same time as the 
pressure drop are too coincidental, but the spots and smoking point 
to a leaky valve cover gasket- which, I would think, would not cause 
oil pressure problems.

The car pulls exceptionally well and cleanly right up to a few 
hundred RPMs from redline.  Only other weird behavior is that the car 
had a lot of trouble with luke-warm starts(ie come back from a 
session, pop the hood, come back in an hour or so, try to start- 
takes a good 10 seconds of cranking) which it has never, ever done 
before- and did not do during the multiple stops on the way home.

Any thoughts?

Brett
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