Thought I would spend a few minutes updating the build thread with a race report. I’ve also made a few changes to the car which I’ll update below.
Since my last post I have attended four National events and ran three local events. On the National level I took first in the National tour in Peru and Atlanta and finished 4th in both Pro-Solo events in Atlanta and Toledo. With the car still detuned for break in it really showed in the ProSolo’s with its drag race start. I was owned to the first turn in almost every start. The last day in Toledo we turned up the boost a tad and it made a big difference in 60 ft times and I was beating the other cars to the first turn. I had a run on one side of the course on the second day that equaled the fastest run in class, but could not back it up on the other side of the course.
Even though I was having success with winning the tours I was not happy with my times when compared to the other classes and the fastest drivers at the events. When we got back from Toledo I pulled the Koni shocks and sent them off to ProParts to be re-valved for stiffer spring rates. When we examined them off the car it was clear that the right front was blown and one of the rears seemed soft when compared to the other. Guy Ankeny confirmed this on the shock dyno when he tested them before the rebuild. The right front was indeed shot and the one rear was at 30% of what it should have been.
The shocks were originally setup to handle 600lbs front springs and 300lbs rears. I was shooting for 900lbs front and 600 rear but they were not able to be valved that high. We settled for 800lbs front and 400lbs rear on Guy’s recommendation.
We got the shocks and new springs back from ProParts and I also received the Nagisa Auto Upper Control arms I order from RHDJapan so we install the new parts and put her on the rack for a corner balance and alignment.
Current alignment:
-3 degrees camber front
5 degrees caster
.125 toe out front
-2.5 degrees camber rear
.125 toe in rear
The control arms allow me to greatly increase the amount of camber I can run up front and based on Erik Strelnieks suggestion I went with 3 degrees negative in the front and 2.5 negative in the rear. We were also able to lower the car more with the stiffer springs.
The first event with the new setup was let’s say…. interesting. The traveling circus (that’s what we call ourselves) headed down to Huntsville for their local autocross. It was a nice lot with a pretty good course setup that would allow me to push the car a bit. Right from the start I notice a huge difference in the handling. She was super crisp and responsive. Lateral grip was outstanding and she transitioned like a dream…. All the way up until the point where the back end passed the front
. On two of the five runs I had this issue during high speed, full throttle transitions, no warning, no change in the feel of the car just a super abrupt snap spin. Turns out that we lowered the car a tad too much and with the extra force of the wing at speed the rear tires would make contact with the wheel wells during high-speed transitions.
When we got back to the shop we raise the car about ½ in. which has solved the problem. At the next local event I set FTD (Fast time of the Day) by .5 of a second, and then I traveled to Chattanooga and set FTD there by 2.5 seconds the following weekend.
So far I am pretty happy with the car setup, we are installing the 4.77 ring and pinion and Kaaz LSD right now so that I can get a few events under my belt with it before the National Championships in Topeka. I’m doing two events this weekend so I’ll let you know how it goes.
Since the original build thread I have pulled the Corbeau FX1 and double locking sliders and replaced it with a Forza and two single locking rails. The FX1 was actually too big in race conditions as I felt I was sliding all over the car. The double locking slider broke twice and although Corbeau was nice enough to keep replacing, the third time they suggested going with two single lock sliders which has solved the problem.
I have also pulled the old Jacob’s ProStreet ignition amplifier and replaced it with an AEM twin fire, Magnecor 10mm race plug wires and new coils. Ari at Rotary Performance was nice enough to dig through his personal stock and send me a new Jacob’s twin poll coil for the leading plugs and I purchased two Jacob’s C-4 coils for the trailing. AFR’s went up almost a full digit with the new ignition so I had to do some retuning. The rise in AFR’s tells me the new ignition setup is doing a better job.
I have to comment on a couple of parts that have impressed the hell out of me. The Widefoot swaybar mount and the Hyperion fuel surge cover. Both of these products work like a charm and are well worth the money spent.
The Widefoot mount just works; plan and simple, I no longer worry about snapping off the swaybar mounts. With the fuel surge cover I have not found the lower limit of the fuel I can run without starving. So far I have ran just bellow ¼ of a tank and still no starvation.
All I can say is man is that thing fun to drive.
Linear Mode
