Well, the wheels are back on, but literally, the rubber is off them now.
Learned some things about excessive Toe-out and daily driving, namely, it destroys tires.
As the car has never been aligned since the suspension install, and now camber plate addition, I finally checked the Toe again after James had said at the Nat. Tour that it's "a bit too much"
My measurements with crude home built toe plates came out to nearly an inch of toe out at full camber, which is negative 4 degrees plus. I'd guess that at race camber (-3) we were still at 1/2" toe out, which is WAY too much.
Adjusted the toe down to zero at the middle of the plates which is about -2 degrees camber. With that, we ended up with pretty close to 1/8" toe out for the Pro-Solo. Unfortunately, running the car daily with that much toe, caused the insides of the front tires to be pretty close to corded when we got to the event.
With the tires that far gone, we we're probably at a mental dis-advantage, worrying about them.
The first day's morning set of runs ended up being my best with a 47.7 on both courses in my second runs on both sides. I suppose the tire degradation may have been getting us by this time, but the front tires were, for the most part, fine. James, was doing just about as poorly as I was, but I think we ended up 5th and 6th after the first day. He fought back to 4th on the second day, but I'll have to update this since our local club is about 10 times faster at posting race results than the SCCA is. Getting real tired of their website "upgrade"
Locally, the added camber has evened things out between Todd and I. We're still extremely close, but I've been able to pull one nasty run out of each of the last two races to end up on top. I'm pushing much harder at the local races than I can seem to make myself go at the big ones, but the car still needs a bit more work, and of course, new tires.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
2012 SCCA SunBelt National Tour
My second National tour was yet another learning experience.
Co-Driver James Wilson proved that the car can be competitive, which was important. The money tree needs to start bearing fruit soon, so the power upgrades can be made. The camber plates were a big help, proven by catching up to Todd at the local events. I actually ran 5th, and only a couple hundreths of a second off Mark Sipe's fastest clean run on the second day.
Ended up 6th out of 9 in STX. James missed winning STX by less than a 10th of a second over two days runs. Overall, ended up 1.3 seconds out of 1st, and only 0.9 seconds out of the trophys. I never felt like I put together an "all or nothing" run. I know when I'm pushing the car, because I hit ABS when I brake, and I don't think I ever hit ABS. I don't trust my braking, or the car's ability to "un-bog" itself. More power will help with that.
Ended up 6th out of 9 in STX. James missed winning STX by less than a 10th of a second over two days runs. Overall, ended up 1.3 seconds out of 1st, and only 0.9 seconds out of the trophys. I never felt like I put together an "all or nothing" run. I know when I'm pushing the car, because I hit ABS when I brake, and I don't think I ever hit ABS. I don't trust my braking, or the car's ability to "un-bog" itself. More power will help with that.
The Spokes Hotel
Tech Trailer
James, the co-driver, and Todd, the competition (He took 4th in the MS-3!)
"The Road to Lincoln" Trailer
I love the smell of burnt rubber in the morning...
Vitek's Banshee, and Federico's Alpha Boxster
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)