Doing the impossible, can a 2009 Mustang GT trophy in Street Touring Xtreme at SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln? Many think that the car is simply too heavy, too powerful and too wide to be competitive. I think otherwise and this is my story and my struggles and triumphs getting it done.
Well, time for that final update for the season on the last event for the year. Winter weather is quick on the heels of this event so I'm glad we got it out of the way before bad weather ruined all hope of a decent event! There were a few setup changes so I'll outline them below in traditional form:
-Ground Control Coilovers – 440lbs*in front/200lbs*in rear -3.0º camber, -0.10º toe and +7.0º Caster
-Fays2 Watts link – Top bolt hole
-Strano 35mm front bar – FULL STIFF from the middle position
-Strano 25mm rear bar – Middle Position instead of the stock swaybar
-Cortex Racing Torque Arm
-Modified stock lower control arms with Modified Prothane Poly Bushings
-Hankook RS3's in 265/40/18 at 36 PSI front and rear
-Enkei PF01 in 18x9 ET45
If you can't tell the changes, they are the addition of the Strano 25mm rear swaybar in the middle position, the moving of the front sway bar to the full stiff position and the addition of some modified rear lower control arms with Prothane Poly Bushings.
The process was quite laborious to make the modifications... it involved flames, lots of them, and a hammer, and a drill and maybe even a dremel!
The final product turned out quite nice:
Anyway, the changes were done to make the car work a little better. One thing that plagued the car during the autocross marathon at the end of August and start of September was a powerful on power push. The car had so much rear grip it was almost impossible to drive the car fast because it would just reward you with push and more push and more push. The ratio of front to rear wheel rate was increased slightly with this change. The overall addition to spring rate should help at the front end too. It was a bit of a gamble to be honest. I knew the end goal, but was a bit "paralyzed" as to the correct direction to take. I was also unaware how far the poly bushings would push the balance of the car towards oversteer. I knew the bar would move it pretty far. THANKFULLY the balance didn't go TOO far to the oversteer direction.
The course will look familiar to those who payed attention to the Nationals update as it is the West Course from Nationals this year. The perfect opportunity to see if any impact was made on the driver mod front and on the car prep front!
The course:
The course was completely unchanged from Nationals... same cone markers and the whole nine yards so this would be a good measure in the land of could have, should have, would have, what the changes to the car would have done for me at Nationals and there would also be fun runs! Of course the advantage of fun runs means that I can get the resident aliens to drive the car and get their opinion too! Tons of win to be had in this event!
Run #1 – After discussing with my co-driver how the car was behaving I went out and gave it a run. He said it wasn't overly loose but there were portions of the course where the car was power on loose. Considering the temperature outside (mid 60's) and the colder pavement, I was sure this was almost entirely due to the RS3's absolute LOVE for cold temperatures (not!). Car felt pretty damn good to me! Having a tire warmer sure helped out in my opinion! ;) The car was a touch loose in quick transitions, probably due a shock setting but it was totally controllable and not over bearing. It felt "just about right" to me.
The first run ended with a 60.593 which was three and a half tenths quicker than I ran at Nationals (60.9XXX). A good sign considering the tires were still pretty cool after my co-driver's first run.
Run #2 – I didn't make a change to the car at all. I was actually enjoying the way the car felt in it's current state and it seems that the car was working the best it has ever been. Maybe channeling Toilet Duck while washing my car the night before was working! ;) Unfortunately the entire run I ended up coming in too close to the car in front of me and set off a chain reaction of timing issues. I got a re-run and took it a few minutes after coming back to my grid spot. This re-run actually felt better than other run and the time showed it. The time fell to a 60.274 which was about seven tenths faster than my fastest run at Nationals! At this point and time I set out to break into the 59's.
Run #3 – Still no changes made to the car, not even pressure checks. The tires were not getting warm enough at all to really build up pressures anyway and the car was still pretty well balanced after the last run. Again, maybe a touch loose under power but not loose enough to be uncontrollable. This run came in as a 59.548 and was originally believed to have been coned. My co-driver confirmed that I hit a cone but the results do not indicate a cone so... I'll take it! ;)
Run #4 – Ok, I'll stop telling you if I made changes to the car, because I didn't, for the next runs I didn't change a dang thing on the car, not pressures, not shock settings, nothing. I just drove the car. This run would end up getting a re-run because I stopped for a ton of downed cones and workers on the course. No red flag on course for it them though? One thing I'm noticing is that the corner workers are paying LESS attention than normal. I'm not sure why. Anyway, the re-run actually went better all the way until the end. I lunched a cone by trying to carry a slide wide when the car stuck. The scratch time was fast at 59.568 but with the cone it became a 61.568.
Run #5 – I was unaware during this run that Run #3 was going to be counted as clean so I went out again to try and recreate it and maybe attempt to better it. Unfortunately it would not be so. I ended up running a 60.087 which was still faster than my Nationals runs and what I thought would be my fastest run of the day.
My runs would be fast enough to win the class for the day and ninth overall which I think, not 100% sure of, maybe even STX for the year in the Nebraska Region. More interesting is in the land of would have, could have and should have and how if we take out the cones on day 1 and use these new times on the West course I could have ran a 140.606 combined time which would have placed me in 41 of 59 drivers. Not that I'm complaining about my position but it just goes to show there is a lot of time left in car prep and obviously A LOT left for the driver mod! The confidence gained from a car that is actually working feels great. I think the rush to get the car ready for the Mid Divs and Nationals may have needed a little more direction and guidance. I had a test'n'tune to actually test these issues and I think lazyness got the better of me and I didn't flesh out all the potential options for a properly set up car and that hindered performance at Nationals some.
Enjoy a photo from nationals since there wont be any photos from this event:
To add to that, I had our resident alien drive my car during the fun runs... I figured since he won CSP at Nationals he'd be a worth while driver to show me how it's done! ;) And show he did! He managed to pull two back to back 58.5XX second runs... He even said he made a few mistakes and made a recommendation for a little less rear swaybar or something that would preserve the turn in but allow better power down. Not a horrible run, consistent with cars in the 20-30 positions. Who knows what advantages he could have taken with the added power over other cars in the class on Sam's course. We probably will never know since this car may never run that course in STX trim again let alone in similar conditions. It is ALREADY a stretch to compare times from today to Nationals in September so it's nothing more than a mental exercise!
That said I now have the "data" necessary to keep this balance in the car, and there is sufficient "room" to alter the car tighter, both through RC height adjustments and swaybar adjustments if necessary. I should also be able to take this information and get newer spring rates too if time permits. Unfortunately though... My brand new GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition decided it would "eat" its fully charged battery after being shut off, Wi-Fi off after getting it "setup"... Horray... I guess I'll just pull the damn battery from now on and maybe get some aftermarket ones such as the WASABI ones. Anyone used them? I was hoping to recreate my front and rear suspension videos in an autocross setting to which I obviously failed at because of the dead battery...
Planning for next year:
Next year is going to be a bit hard to plan for. I received a call earlier this month from a local Police Department and they have extended an offer to me to join their department and I have accepted. I start on November 4. My academy start date isn't until April and goes for 16 weeks. That would mean that I would be missing Spring Nationals AND potentially missing Nationals. While it may "suck" from the perspective of autocross, this is the start of a career and that will always take priority over hobbies!
The original plan was to buy A6's and go play in ESP until such time that STP gets created but it seems both unlikely that I'll have the time to participate either Nationally or locally, but it would also be entirely silly to buy a set of Hoosier A6's and then use them in the maybe 2 or 3 local events I would be able to attend. I'm also not 100% sure I want to do that. For right now, "changes" are on hold to the car. Obviously I will try my hardest to continue to be active in autocross but it may be a full year before I have enough "stability" in my work hours to begin participating. I have yet to decide what direction I will take the car. There is a bad thought in my mind about building this car into a "CP" car Nationally and SM locally since the local SM contingent runs street tires only. Since ESP and CP run similar times, the freedom of the CP rules seem to be a bit more fitting of my desires for this car.
Of course there is one issue with this and that comes in the form of the 2015 Mustangs. That is a certain "unknown" right now due to the sparse details but from the sounds of the Turbo 4 Cylinder's power/torque and weight make it appealing, and of course the reduction in NVH from not having to resort to extreme measures to make the car work correctly (read: No Watts Link and no Torque Arm noises! Yay!). The lower weight and IRS should certainly make for a better ST car, maybe even fit into the existing ST framework without special considerations...
So I guess that concludes Project Tilty then? It seems awfully strange that it has already been two years in STX, and three in autocross and that in three years the car has come so far. Fascinating how far it really has come since last year even! It is also sad that I will be leaving the National autocross scene for a year as I'm sure I'll greatly miss my new found friends from across the US that travel to Lincoln every May and September.
It's the update you all probably haven't been looking for. I mean honestly, who reads these things anyway? :) Nationals is finally here and finally gone and what the experience it has been. I met a lot of new faces, saw some friends I had made earlier in the year and happened to autocross in the process. I have to say that if you have never been to Nationals, by all means come for the cone carving but prepare yourself for all the stuff that happens in the paddock too because a lot of the fun is hanging out with your fellow competitors and I would argue that that is the sole reason many people show up to Nationals! I would also like to say that I wish things worked out better for me scheduling wise so I could have been down there later at night but my brother's cats are very temperamental and the one requires daily eye drops and he happened to choose this week to go on vacation. Next year I'm going to tell him to pound sand so I can catch all the excitement in the paddock because compared to the racing, I think the paddock stuff is more fun!
Before we begin I thought I should just recap on what is on the car so people can judge for themselves what the "prep level" of the car is:
Ground Control Coilovers (custom valved Koni singles) 440lbs/in F, 200lbs/in R
Ground Control Street camber plates (-3.0º camber, -0.10º Toe out, +7.0º Caster)
Strano 35mm front bar (middle position)
Stock 20mm rear bar
Fays2 Watts link (top bolt hole)
Cortex Racing Torque Arm
Freshly rebuilt Traction-Lok (rebuilt before Mid Div 3 ish weekends ago)
Car weighs in around 3425lbs at 1/8t h of gas
Enkei PF01, 18x9, ET45 ~19lbs
Hankook Ventus RS3 in 265/40/18
It doesn't look like much but suspension wise the only allowances not being taken advantage of are a larger rear swaybar and poly bushings at every suspension component. The only thing left for the car by my count (please correct me if I'm wrong) is Diff (largest time shaver left) Seats, harnesses and bar, battery, exhaust, CAI+Tune, brakes and poly suspension bushings in the front lower control arms (I have stock arms with poly bushings ready for the rear). The total weight removal is around 100lbs (I have 122lbs calculated but the Torsen T2R weighs more than the stock diff) which would put this car around 3325lbs. All things considered, that isn't too bad it's just a hell of a lot heavier than everything else in STX and STU. If I had a pile of money sitting around I could take probably another 20-30lbs off between much lighter wheels, much lighter coilovers, super light weight brakes and custom aluminum or titanium exhaust but I don't have a huge pile of money sitting around and this is my daily driver.
I'll let you all decide how "prepped" the car is. On to the Test'n'Tune stuffs!!!
Evo Test'n'Tune + Randall Prince's Test
On Sunday I drove down for the Evo Test'n'Tune hoping to get some valuable seat time with an instructor. I also set out to really gauge how the car was doing since at the previous event and test'n'tune I moved the swaybar full stiff and Dave Whitworth and myself fought push all day long. I moved the bar back to the middle position for this event since it didn't do much in the way of Chapman lawing the suspension into a more ideal portion of the camber curve.
On the test'n'tune course the car was a tad bit pushy so I played around with tire pressures some to better balance it out and the tire pressures fell to a rather even 31 PSI front and 31 PSI rear. The push was relegated to "on throttle push" and maybe a hair understeerish in steady state depending on how hot the tires got.
It was at that time that I asked an instructor to join me to see if I'm making some sort of driving errors. We spent probably 4 or 5 runs figuring out what types of mistakes I was making and the largest one seems to be turning too late on some key cones and over turning in some sweepers when I could let the car come out wider and carry more speed with less scrub. It was highly enlightening and I managed to crack out a 32.0XX on the test'n'tune course and having seen a few other STX cars run only a half second quicker I felt pretty good.
At this time the instructor jumped in and took a few runs in the car. He managed to get a 32.0XX as well and had some reassuring comments on the car setup. He felt the car was reasonably balanced, push on acceleration but a slight stab of the accelerator away from being correctable and he was surprised the car stuck as well with street tires. His major comment to me was to be more aggressive with the brake pedal since he felt like the car had two areas of superiority over the class, the brakes and the power. He said I had the power side down as I was getting on the gas way earlier than any other car in the class he has driven (he's a Corvette guy though, no it wasn't Sam Strano, I wish! ;)) and was shocked it put power down as well and as early as it did.
A few days later on Tuesday I came down again to meet up with Randall Prince to chat his ear off and in general be annoying while he's trying to get his car ready and it was nice to be able to chat with a member of the STAC although I'm not sure he felt the same way. :) More importantly he and I both wanted to see just where the car was at. He hopped in for 2 runs and managed a 32.1XX and a 32.5XX. His own BMW was only running .6 quicker on the practice course which was about where most of the other STX cars I had seen were at. I don't want to put words in his mouth but I think he was reasonably impressed with the car's capabilities, a few comments were made about wallowing (an indication of needing better valving on the Koni's and stiffer springs all around) but the car took a set and just gripped and went. Apparently the gas pedal isn't an instant "Fry the Tires" switch as was described by other drivers trying out Mustangs on street tires which is kind of what I was going for with my suspension choices. Anyway, I'll let him fill in the rest of the details (don't forget to push the comments to other forums).
At this point the only things really left to do were to hang out, watch the people on course, walk the course and run. I felt pretty good about the course going into Day 1 because it had places were the torque and power of a V8 should provide a reasonably large advantage and maybe get me higher standings to go into on Day 2.
2013 Solo Nationals Day 1:
Day 1 would start with pretty tolerable weather (heat 1 workers were probably loving it) so I decided to get another course walk in before we started to run Sam Strano's East course. I had picked out a few key cones, remembered a few of the Evo Course Walk cones and made a game plan to not suck! :)
This is the course map, it's better than my MSN paint drawings and a heck of a lot more self explanatory:
Some notables on this course: Lots of big braking points and not a lot of difficult transitions. Most of the stuff on the course was visually open so the keys were to get the right line and find the right braking points. The optional slalom wasn't but thankfully you were already "shut down" right before it so there was PLENTY of time and grip available to make the corner without fuss and get on the correct side of the slalom.
Run #1 came awfully soon after I got back from the course walk and boy was I glad. I've had the jitters all week going into this. I was confident and ready to strut (horrible pun) my stuff and this car's capabilities to the whole of the STX world and flaunt it in the face of those who I beat (just kidding on the flaunting part). Run #1 ended up coming in to a 98.9XX something... no way that could be right?! "There's been a timing error so a few cars are going to get re-runs." PHEW! A free look at this course at speed at a National event!
Run #2 didn't take much longer (5 minutes really) to get to and I had all the "mistakes" I made in my head from Run #1 to correct. Most of it was not fast enough/braking too soon. I managed to get all the way around the course and in the final slalom a downed cone, SLAM on the brakes and point to the downed cone... corner workers didn't even flinch... continue to point to the downed cone as I roll by it, FINALLY someone starts to go get the cone so I took off and finished the run. 88 something IIRC and ANOTHER re-run! Sweet! Two free looks at the course at speed, warm tires and a power friendly course?! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!
Run #3 is what went wrong, well, more specifically cone #502 in the optional slalom is what went wrong. The car felt great, hit all the braking points, got to the optional slalom and walloped #502... damn... it's ok, two more runs to go, clean it up and you'll be fine. I ran a 81.058 but the 2 second cone penalty brought it to 83.058.
Run #4 I got a little greedy on some parts of the course, particularly going into the back sweeper which was WOT from basically the start of the wallom before the sweeper to the braking point IN the sweeper, FAST! Like 63 MPH fast! I got down on the brakes and when I turned in the car 4 tire slid out wide and nearly took out the cones at the exit to the turn. I guess the tires are hot?! I made it all through the course, got back in and got the time slip and it was an 81.981 which was at least clean, but a second slower than the previous run. I think this time on solo live had me in like 43rd place or something. I was stoked! Not DFL! :D
Run #5 I set out to fix the errors in 4 by braking a touch sooner to get around that back sweeper's apex cone rather than slide out and nearly kill them and I did manage to make less errors on that run. I came in with an 81.257 which was a good solid run!
However... I didn't know this until the grid sheets came out after impound, but I coned the last two runs away. I honestly had no idea as I don't remember any cone hits on those runs?! That was a bit shitty feeling. While I was waiting for my work assignment I went and looked at the corner sheets, turns out I hit cone #502 in the optional slalom on EVERY SINGLE RUN. What the hell are the odds of that?! I guess I made cone #502 my bitch! Now I want that as a shirt! Hell, I may make a "fake" racing team out of it "Cone 502 Racing". How frustrating. This would pull me all the way down to 55th of 59 going into Day 2. Good news is that I was not last going into day 2! :)
2013 Solo Nationals Day 2:
Day 2 had a more positive start. I wasn't in last place going into day 2 and I had a course that was more my style of driving. It may not have been a particularly Mustang or power friendly course but the much smoother transitions rather than the hyper violent brake/gas/brake/gas fight that was Strano's course suits me better. Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoyed Strano's course but it isn't what I would call my driving strong suit. I'm not sure I have a true driving strong suit, but if I did it would be the smoother "road course like" transitional courses. Unfortunately that isn't what I would call a Mustang strong suit, being wide it's stable in transitions but it requires a lot of movement to get around cones in a transition. This is, of course, no surprise to anyone with half a brain so it definitely isn't a surprise to anyone reading this thread!
So here is the course map:
As has been stated the Speidel West course is a "speed maintenance" course... or at least more of one than Sam's course was. I personally think that all autocross courses are speed maintenance courses, the highest average speeds in every corner with the shortest distance always seems to do well. Certainly this course was less punishing of mistakes than Sam's course was which would literally hang you if you blew a braking zone. I'm glad I'm in the Nebraska Region and we will get to run these courses again because I REALLY REALLY REALLY want another shot at these courses.
I wouldn't be getting any re-runs on day 2, just 3 quick runs and the "band aid" had been ripped off and my first Nationals would be over. Of course the goal was to do the best I could and have a blast doing it.
Run #1 would be my fastest run, thankfully it was clean. It seems that my "tell yourself not to hit cones but be fast" routine before we started runs helped level my head enough to get at least one clean run in before the end of the day. Honestly this run felt like I left a lot of time on course and that would be because I did. The following runs never felt as quick or as smooth and without reviewing the videos back to back to back I'm not sure I could pick out the reasoning why. I came in with a 60.904 with which I felt another second could easily be lost. I went for it on run #2.
Run #2 would be my time to kill off some of the time I thought I left on course. Unfortunately that over zealousness to going faster came with a price, a cone price. I would hit two cones, both in slaloms I believe. It wouldn't matter, the scratch time for this run wasn't faster than my first. That would be disappointing because it certainly felt faster in some places.
Run #3 started off well. I had told myself after run #2 that I needed to clean it up and run the car hard but hard in the right places and not everywhere. I focused on my course walks and tried to remember what the other Nebraska Region drivers had said when they ran this course, where to stay tight, where to let it push out and so on. At the end of this run I felt really good and the run felt extremely fast. I was fast in places I needed to be and slow and tight where I needed to be but the time just wasn't that good. I came in with a 61.047. In hindsight I wish I had ran a "slow but tight" run around this course as I think that approach could yeild some interesting results.
At the end of the second day's runs I felt a massive release, it was almost euphoric. I had managed to survive my first Solo Nationals without any drama (well aside from that stupid cone #502...) and managed to have fun in the process. I put a lot of faces to names on forums and hopefully made some friends that I will see again in the future. While some may look at my 143.962 and 53r d of 59 entrants and scream failure, I think we need to step back and look at the relative success. A 3425lb Mustang driven by a hack with streetable preparation level managed to NOT be dead last in one of the deepest talent pools in all of Solo. If we look at the "could have, should have, would have" side of it I could have placed as high as 47t h at my first National Championship in a car that has no place in ST. I don't see the failure here, what I see is success. Success in the sense that I achieved a rather simple goal that I basically failed at Spring Nationals: Don't be DFL of those that compete both days. For my first Nationals, in a major underdog car, I don't see failure here at all. I don't see success either.
What I see is room for improvement. I'm a hack, a serious hack of a driver, and I don't think it is fair to base the fate of the car on my driving alone. This is my 3r d year of autocross and my second National event EVER so my driving is not what you'd expect to take a trophy spot. That said what is left for car prep is not going to kill the 3.671 seconds per day deficit to cars that can and do win.
It's taken me two years to really admit it but the car is really quite difficult to drive fast on 265 wide street tires. I think it will get easier to drive fast with 285's but it wont make the car fast enough to win in STU. We are talking about over a 5 second per day deficit to the top STU cars with this hack behidn the wheel. It's not that the car is hard to balance on the edge, it's just that the car requires a finness in the controls that simply do not land a hand to the inexperienced. The car is not the scalpel that STX cars are and that really punishes the car when the driver makes a mistake. Add in a course that also punishes the driver and we have a very large compounding effect.
I want to put out this challenge now to whomever will take it: If you honestly think a Mustang can trophy in STX then I'm open to your co-drive at Spring Nationals and Nationals next year (assuming the Mustang doesn't go to STU?). If you think the Mustang can trophy in STU then I am also open to your co-drive at Spring Nationals and Nationals. Give me a non-hack driver and lets prove the car's capabilities.
So where does Project Tilty go from here?
I'm not entirely sure. I know the car can do well in ESP, again maybe not with me behind the wheel, but I'm sure I can do better than the bottom 6% of the class (basically the last 3 spots in ESP). I'm also 100% sure that skills learned in STU on wider tires will pay dividends later in ESP but at the cost of another year of frustration. At this point I remain conflicted. I championed the move to STU and should "see it through to the end" but by the same token my competitive side is SCREAMING to find a better place to play and ST just isn't going to be it for a while. I'm also extremely interested in the next generation Mustang's Ecoboost 4 cylinder, something which I hope lives up to the hype that is building around the car. At any rate, I fully expect my decision to come before next season. There is some long and hard thinking that needs to be done before we get too excited about the direction the car will go. I'll probably end up doing a full on "super serious" ESP build with the car:
(Running joke with Britt Dollmeyer and Tim Bergstrom)
ANYWAY... Some things are still planned changes for next year. If the move to STU goes through, I'll be buying 18x10.5 wheels anyway, I just need to decide if I'm going to ESP or STU and chose the appropriate tire for the class. Stiffer springs will go in and the class decision isn't going to play too huge into the descision making process, I'm thinking 550 up front, 275 out back, both Sam's bars on and adjust as necessary. The torque arm is staying if for no other reason than it was an expensive addition that I plan to work around. One of the consequences of it's installation was the throttle on push the car has. It would be nice to put down power while turning and I think a large part of that push comes from the type of differential I'm currently running. Clutch based diffs don't like turning but they sure do like to put power down. A Torsen style torque biasing diff with a high bias ratio should allow for turning under power without added push and it should remove a wear item from the car for at least a few years, hopefully a decade or so! :)
I would also like to add in some harnesses and a harness bar to help better support the driver. My knee caps will thank me for that and I'm sure co-drivers will too! We will see what budget, if any, is left next year to do anything beyond those modifications. I imagine probably not, but if so, I think it's time for an exhaust, cold air intake and a tune. I'm sick of people asking if my car is a V6 or a V8. It should be pretty damn obvious it's not a six cylinder car already but I was asked no less than 3 times this past week if it was a V6 and that doesn't include the folks before. I checked the sound readings and my stock exhaust came in on day 2 at a rather loud 85 decibels (that's a joke for the record...) so I can spare a little extra noise! :) I suppose I should think about seats in the not to distant future. It's more of a weight thing than it is a driver comfort thing.
Anyway, I WANT to tear this build, my driving, and anything related to it apart, so please, comments, both negative criticisms and positive ones. Comment away!
Project Tilty update time! Before we begin I'd like to thank Dave Whitworth for allowing himself to be bribed into driving my car for the points event! I don't know why anyone would want to do that, since you know, "high" HP V8 powered cars + street tires = instant failure. I also want to thank Neal Tovsen, not only for allowing me to drive his E36 but for driving Project Tilty at the test'n'tune. Both of you guys provided some valuable insight into the car's future and the car's potential. My only regret is that Dave didn't get a fair shot at a balanced car and I'll get more into that later.
The Test'n'Tune:
So I set forth to test some things on my car before Nationals that I hoped would make a substantial difference, you know things like tire pressures, sway bar settings and in general get some seat time in the car. Upon arrival to the Test'n'Tune I realized I forgot to bump up tire pressures to work them down. A quick drive to the nearby gas station should have cured that issue but their air hose was mysteriously gone so I had to deal with the tire pressures which were at 31 PSI front and 27 PSI rear.
One of the things I wanted to do was to dial out some of the oversteer I was having at the Midwest Divisional Championship that made the car so hard to put power down with so I wanted to mess with swaybar settings. It was plenty hot out, plenty humid out, and well, I only tested one other swaybar setting. The front bar got moved to full stiff and I dropped nearly a half second of time on the course and the rear end was glued enough to the ground to put power down but not so much that the car wouldn't rotate.
At this point I was basically done testing and tuning the car and Neal Tovsen and I flipped rides. I ran about .75 seconds off his fastest time in his BMW and he ran .6 seconds off his fastest time in his BMW in MY Mustang!!!!!!!!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? His data showed that he was leaving time on course in his BMW to the tune of about .4 of a second so Project Tilty being 1 second off a BMW with a good driver was still a bit of a shock but a reasonably good sign? More importantly was that he felt the car was very well balanced and he was shocked that it had as much grip as it had. He felt the cars had something to show an Evo in STU.
After what seemed like 15 runs, I called it quits and drove home so I could flip the tires front to rear, fill them up with air again (but maintained that same 4 PSI split) and come back the next morning for the actual event.
Solo Points #5:
Sunday was starting out to be a good day with a good nights sleep, reasonable morning temps (which didn't hold through the day), and a co-drive to look forward to! Dave Whitworth would be meeting me in Lincoln to suffer an agonizing day of co-driving with the most spaztastic and uninteresting person in Lincoln (me :P) and hopefully between the two of us we could learn something new. I know I got some pretty good tips of things I've been feeling since the start of the season in terms of spring rates and the likes.
The course would be a most of the Test'n'Tune course run backwards with the finish changed up. The course had a lot of critical braking points in it that if you got on the brakes too early or too late you'd lose time so this was GREAT practice for braking correctly. I think I'm starting to get a feel for the car's grip level and there are some "got ya!" course design elements I'm getting more comfortable with that are really separating my times from those who are faster when done wrong.
The course itself was designed, in a hurry, by one of our top drivers who just so happens to be driving a Miata so the course had a decent amount of Miata friendly elements (like the 4 slaloms) and some digs to give the power guys a place to use the power to pull them out of the corner. I'll get the map up later and update this post.
Run #1: After moving the swaybar to full stiff, I expected the car to be pretty well balanced but in reality the car was pushy, big time pushy. I did my best to drive around it and cracked out a 63.356 but snagged a cone in the second major turn around (greater than 90º left hand turn) which pulled the time to a 65.356.
Dave's run #1: Dave basically confirmed what I had observed. The swaybar change added way too much to the rear end of the car and it was plowing like a dump truck. We tried some tire pressure changes, bringing the fronts down and letting the rears climb for my next run. His time was a 65.283 but he clipped a cone for a 67.283.
Run #2: The tire pressure change made a substantial difference in the balance but it was still pushing in the high speed stuff. We would change the front tire pressure down again and let the rears continue to climb. The pressures started at 35/30 and were now at 31/32. I managed to make this a clean run and came in with a 63.355 (pretty dang consistent time wise, a theme for the whole day believe it or not).
Dave's run #2: Dave came in with a 63.414 but dirty again, this time with two cones for a 67.414. He tried explaining a little to me about how the car in the slaloms felt like he had to wait for the fronts to do all the work and that the rear was just too planted. He continued on saying that the car would slalom just fine but the corner after the fronts were hot enough that they would be just a touch greasy and the wouldn't have the same grip as it did in the slalom. We stabilized the pressures at 31 front, 33 rear and upped the rear rebound a quarter turn.
Run #3: The car felt better again, the combination of a touch more rear rebound and the slightly higher rear PSI helped balance the car out some but it was still just a touch pushy. The car pulled in with a 63.341 (see, I told you I was consistent!) clean but it wasn't enough to hold me in third place. Shawn in a Hype Argh came in just a little faster on his third run with a 63.196 and kicked me back to fourth.
Dave's run #3: Dave confirmed that the car was getting closer to where it needed to be but it still required making the front do all the work and it was most noticeable in the slaloms. We upped the rear rebound another quarter turn and bled the fronts down to 31 PSI and the rears stabilized at 33 PSI and didn't climb from there. This run came in with a 63.367.
Run #4: The final run, with the changes we had made before this run, the goal was to go out and get a solid fast time. Neal Tovsen drove the car the day before and ran a pretty solid time that wasn't far off his own time so I know the car can be faster. While in the line waiting to go I recapped the places where I felt like I was losing time and set forth to correct those issues. About the time I got done with the second slalom the fronts were getting hot again and I entered the fast left hand sweeper just a touch fast, started to push and mid corner lifted. Well, in hindsight I should have just stayed in the throttle because when I lifted the fronts grabbed traction and I lunched the apex cone. I pulled into the finish with a 62.555 but had managed to find another cone somewhere on course. The run went down as a 66.555 with those two cones.
Dave's run #4: Dave's final run ran with the same settings that I had on my final run and once again, he confirmed that the car felt better but just simply had too much rear grip. He hypothesized that the torque arm rear setup was working a touch too well. He suggested running some stiffer springs in the rear to help compensate and was pretty adamant about not adding any more bar (I do have a Strano/Hellwigg 25mm rear adjustable bar I could throw on) but spring instead. The car as a whole could use some stiffer spring rates so I will be looking into that for next season. This run he came in with a 63.498 and didn't improve. He would finish fifth and I finished fourth of 6 in STX.
Recap: At the test'n'tune I moved the front swaybar to the stiffest setting which I think contributed to the rather planted ass end feel that the car had. Neal managed to ring in a pretty good time in my car compared to his own and hypothesized the car was only a second and change off pace but the car was balanced. He also had some encouraging words about the cars in STU.
At the actual event, the car was pushy, and pushy in places it wasn't pushy at the test'n'tune. The overal conditions were similar both days, hot, humid and in general not a very nice day to autocross. Dave and I finished fifth and fourth (respectively) in STX and nineteenth and eighteenth overall of 74. Neal Tovsen took first in PAX and first in class. The split between myself and Neal was a little over 3 seconds.
What's next? What's next is Nationals and for Nationals I have moved the front bar back to the middle position. The front bar at full stiff did not make the tires work any better, did not decrease body roll significantly and added a ton of push to the car. I would rather work around the throttle oversteer (which probably wont be present at Nationals, who knows since the car itself isn't consistent between events) than deal with terminal push. Loose is faster than push, supposedly. I'm not changing anything else before Nationals. I'm supposed to be scheduled for the Evo T'n'T on Sunday so hopefully I can get some valuable seat time as well as a little bit of instruction if any of those guys are willing to help me out!
For next year, I plan on investigating stiffer springs, not just stiffer in the rear, but stiffer all around. The car on 265/40/18 RS3's has plenty of body roll. I'm thinking about 525 front, and 250 or 275 rear and I hope that the valving currently on the GC valved dampers can handle those spring rates. I also hope those spring rates strike a reasonable compromise between ride comfort and flatter cornering. Next year the plan is wheels/tires (again...) for STU, diff, harness bar and harnesses and if the budget permits, seats. Basically in that order. I don't want to add power to the car just yet. I want power to basically be the last thing the car gets and I'm willing to bet that if I get the diff in next year it will be a good year. The wheels will be the 18x10.5 Enkei PF01 (can't mess with a good looking car! :P) that Sam sells that fit square. I just hope they fit well enough that I can drive to and from the events with them on. The tires will probably be 285 wide RS3's unless a better tire is found between now and then. The ZII's don't have a 285/35/18 tire and only a 285/30/18 which is TOO SHORT. Heck, a 285/35/18 is still too short but it's at least workable. The diff is still a Torsen T2R as planned.
Videos: (Sorry Dave, I forgot to tell you how to operate the cell phone for video =\)
Run #1:
Run #2:
Run #3:
Run #4:
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Project Tilty Update time! The Midwest Divisional Championship at LAP-N
Yup, it's that time again! The nice thing is that this is a two day event with TONS of photos and videos to watch!
Project Tilty remains largely unchanged but someone managed to torque my arm into buying a torque arm for this car... well... ok, that someone was ME. Soooooooooo that said, the only things that changed were a freshly rebuilt Traction-Lok with the Carbon Fiber clutch packs, a Ford Racing finned differential cover (!!!!!!!!!!!GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!) and a Cortex Racing Torque arm.
Why the Torque Arm? Weelllllllll..... lets get into some more tech talk. In SCCA's Street Touring and Street Prepared class, there are things live axle cars can't do, like, say, relocation brackets for the rear lower control arms or relocate the chassis side of the UCA. Add in lowering the car to get to a sane ride height for autocross (IE: Not 4x4) and you tend to lose a lot of forward bite. This is a product of the change in antisquat which comes with a number of negatives. One of the things we CAN do is add a torque arm. Basically a torque arm is an arm that is rigidly mounted at the axle end and in a sliding bushing at the chassis end. Basically it's constrained in the vertical direction and lateral direction but free to plunge and extend in the longitudinal direction. The way the torque arm geometry works, the instant center (huge in finding your % antisquat [%AS]) is located in the vertical plane that is perpendicular to the torque arm, at the arm's chassis mounting point. The torque arm does one other fun thing with the force of the pinion gear trying to climb the ring gear in the differential. In the stock 3 link setup, when you step on the gas, the bottom of the differential moves forward because of the insanely soft bushings in the control arms allowing it to tuck under as a reaction to the pinion gear trying to climb the ring gear. With the torque arm, that same action can't occur since the torque arm constrains that reaction. When you step on the gas, that action pushes the chassis end of the torque arm up into the chassis and thanks to Mr. Newton's laws, the opposite has to happen at the axle end, it gets planted into the ground.
To crunch the numbers, the stock Mustang has between 32%-35% antisquat from Ford. Lowering my car the 2.3" in the rear for autocross competition resulted in about 18.60% AS. Adding the torque arm brought it back up to 30.97% which is basically back to stock. The kicker is that it does it without impacting the roll steer characteristics that are associated with relocation brackets. Hopefully this would translate to earlier throttle application and better power down.
Sounds great! What are the disadvantages? There are a few... the most commonly talked about is brake hop. Brake hop in a torque arm is the exact opposite reaction to what happens when you step on the gas. The torque from the brakes (and engine braking) try to rotate the top of the diff forward, but because of the constraints of the torque arm, it tries to lift the axle up. That action can lead to brake hop if the arm is extremely short or you run lots of antisquat through relocation brackets (see drag racing).
The other disadvantage is weight and NVH. While NVH doesn't matter for a race car, it does for people looking at street cars. Terry Fair has yet to find an UCA except stock that doesn't make a lot of noise and the Torque Arm setup I have certainly isn't an option either. I'm not complaining, I knew it would happen! The weight disadvantage isn't huge, but there is one. Basically a torque arm is heavier than the UCA setup. How much so, I forgot to weigh, but it weighs less than the complete Fays2 Watts link (29lbs). If I had to guess, I would say the mount, the diff cover, and the arm probably total up to 30lbs of weight as an extreme estimate.
Of course, because I like to hassle the STAC/SEB, I decided to write a letter asking for an allowance for rear control arm relocation brackets and the ability to replace the rear lower control arms. Here is that letter #12063:
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"Dear STAC/SEB, before I begin the rest of the letter I would like to quote the Street Touring description in the 2013 rule book as I will be refering back to it quite frequently in this letter:
"The Street Touring® category of vehicle modifications is meant to fit between the current Stock and Street Prepared categories. This category provides a natural competition outlet for auto enthusiasts using affordable sports cars and sedans equipped with common suspension and engine modifications compatible with street use."
Next I want to congratulate the STAC and SEB and hopefully the BOD soon on helping destroy a perception issue with pony cars in ST. While none of us are expecting to win in STU, the removal of the 9" wheel width and 265 wide tires has already made a reasonably profound impact on future ST participation. I'm in conversation with about 4 people in the pony car world who are jumping to STU for a Nationals oriented car and about 4 other "serious locals" who are either staying in ST (from STX) or are stopping in STU on the way up to ESP. You've not only reduced that perception but you've reduced the cost barrier associated with ditching the narrow wheels and buying wider ones going to ESP by allowing us to get those wheels and run in STU! Thank you again for that!
While we have that momentum though, there are two modifications in the live axle world that I personally think would go far in attracting and retaining people who drive live axles cars that are extremely common and inexpensive to add. Those modifications are the rear lower control arms and rear lower control arm relocation brackets for the axle side pickup points. Let me explain why I think these modifications deserve to become allowances in ST and SP:
1.) Commonality: If you go to any Mustang or Camaro forum and ask what your first suspension modification should be, near the top of that list is going to be lower control arms and relocation brackets, ESPECIALLY if you decide to lower your car. There are a number of reasons for that ranging from a cure for wheel hop to better forward bite from lowering which I will cover shortly, but the amount of times I see it recommended is very high. It's high enough on the list of "first mods" that on one of the Mustang forums I am a member of, we get a few threads a week asking if they are "truly" necessary and the discussion almost always involves explaining how they aren't truly necessary right away but are strongly recommended later in the cars life.
These modifications are common enough that classing first timers coming from outside the SCCA becomes a massive headache in explaining why these mods that they have land them in C-PREPARED despite being one of the least expensive and most common modifications to a Mustang or Camaro. Of course we could explain how they could also play in Street Modified with a dozen other STI's, Evo's, narrow BMWs and high HP GT-R monsters however the perception there will definitely keep them from coming back.
2.) Price: I'm using one suspension parts supplier (BMR) for this demonstration because they happen to have both third and fourth generation Camaro and S197 chassis lower control arms and relocation brackets that they sell. The cost for the S197 (05-14 years) Mustang lower control arms ranges from $139.95 for a simple poly bushing, boxed DOM, control arms all the way up to $349.95 for CNC machined 6061 T6 aluminum control arms. The first is by far the most commonly sold one. Their S197 relocation brackets cost $149.95 and are 100% bolt on, no welding required. The no welding required includes sub 10 second quarter mile time S197's weighing in at 3500+ (their GT500 ran 9.XXX on these bolted in on drag slicks).
For the fourth generation F-Body Camaros and Trans Ams the control arms range from $149.95 all the way up to $289.95 and the relocation brackets cost $109.95 for a complete bolt in set of brackets.
As you can see, these are not expensive parts in the grand scheme of things and yet they have such a profound impact on live axle handling that they are common first modifications to cars.
3.) Performance: While it is no doubt that the commonality of lower control arms and relocation brackets has to do with the popularity of the pony cars in drag racing, there are some distinct advantages that come from these modifications in the autocross world. First and foremost, axle hop caused by soft factory bushings which are designed to allow the rear axle to articulate without too much bind (ignoring all Fox Body and SN95 Mustangs of course! ;) ) is cured or mitigated with replacing the lower control arms. The upper control arm on S197 cars and the Torque Arm on the third and fourth gen Camaros is already free to be replaced and is the other axle hop mitigating allowance.
The instant center adjustment provided by the relocation brackets allows lowered live axle cars to regain some forward bite caused from the control arm angle change reducing the amount of anti-squat available to the car. While high amounts of antisquat are not necessarily desireable from a handling perspective, retaining SOME antisquat helps these cars put down more power but more importantly it makes the car more FUN to drive because you don't turn your $1500 set of Hoosier A6's or $1300 set of RS3's into expensive smoke any time you look at your gas pedal. On my own car, the factory %AS number is around 34%. Just from lowering my ride height to the still-too-tall-to-be-an-ST-car ride height in the rear of my car I'm down to somewhere between 5%-8%. Under the current rules, due to floor pan constraints there is no way for me to pull that number up by relocating the axle side of the UCA and there is no legal allowance for changing the bracket that holds the UCA in place to lower the axle side (understandable considering that the 05-14 Mustangs are the only cars I know that have such a bracket separate from the Unibody). The only legal modification in which we can do is to exploit the Camaro's Torque Arm allowance and run a torque arm which gets me up to %28 antisquat but with that comes a weight disadvantage and the potential to introduce rear suspension murdering brake hop.
These modifications impact more than just third and fourth generation Camaros and Trans Ams and the 05-14 Mustangs, it also comes with something that makes racing an older Fox Body Mustang (or any fox body for that fact) and SN95 Mustang much more SIMPLE by reducing the cost of developing a weight jacker setup that sits on the rear lower control arm. For these guys, the rear springs are located on the rear lower control arms which in combination with the awful bindfest masqerading as a rear suspension in the car isn't the most ideal setup but under the current rules these guys are required to develope a weight jacker setup that sits on the lower control arms just to corner balance their cars. This requires some custom fabrication that adds to the cost of what is supposed to be your two least expensive class for modified cars. The aftermarket has dozens of weight jacker control arms that have adjustable built in spring perches that would allow for ride height and corner balancing changes to be made to the car without spending the money to develop a complex weight jacker setup to work on the stock control arms. These weight jacker arms are also far more safe than anything that sits on the stock control arm is.
So here is what I propose for the new allowance to say:
14.8.G.X: The lower arms may be removed, replaced, or modified and the pickup points on the rear axle housing may be relocated using bolted on or welded on brackets attached to the factory control arm mounting positions on the axle.
As you can see, the wording is pulled directly from the upper arms allowance (currently 14.8.G.4) with a part added on that should limit these brackets to the same plane (in front or rear view) as the factory mounting points. I can even see adding a provision that says that you can either relocate the upper control arm axle side or the lower control arm axle side but not both. This is not new as a similar statement is made for strut cars and replacing the lower control arm as being allowed so long as it is the only form of camber adjustment on the car.
I would like to thank you again for helping remove the perception barrier of Pony cars in ST with the move to STU and I hope that the move in combination with the above allowances will help the SCCA keep and retain a crowd that isn't interested in building their car as a dedicated SCCA autocross cars but something a little more "universal" that they can take to the drags on Friday nights and then come out to the autocross event on Sunday.
Ok, enough about the "changes" to the car, on to the actual event after action!
Midwest Divisional Championship Day 1
The Day 1 course was the west course from the 2012 Solo Nationals. This course was ran in reverse during Spring Nationals and we ran it after Nationals last year. It's a fun and fast course with lots of places to lose time if you don't do pay attention!
The class consisted of 4 total cars, myself in the Project Tilty 2009 Mustang GT, Doug Hitchcock's BMW E36, a Cobalt SS and an FRS. All of the cars in the class were prepped pretty well for STX, everyone was on good tires so it was good competition all around.
Course map:
To be honest, I don't remember the exact times but my fastest was like a 64.596 which to be perfectly honest, felt like a rather large disappointment. When we ran this course locally last year, I ran a 65.197... Considering 20mm of tire was added, coilovers with stiffer springs, camber, torque arm and less weight, I was expecting a bit more than basically half a second. Of course, caveat being that it's impossible to compare times from events that far apart, same course or not!
So how did the car drive? Well, it is a learning experience due to the changes but the car felt good while driving. The RS3's didn't like the cooler weather that much but once we got to the third runs they started to work fine. The torque arm itself felt almost exactly the same as the 3 link setup, at least initially. I tried applying power earlier, and it seemed to tolerate it better than the stock setup but it wasn't a huge life changing event to the suspension. More seat time will be good.
My fastest run would leave me in last place going into day 2 which sounds REALLY familiar! My fastest run was also slower than Dave W's RTR 2013 5.0L Mustang which is a lot backwards. Dave is a much better driver though and he was on 10mm wider tires! Excuses, I HAVE THEM!
Midwest Divisional Championship Day 2:
Day 2 would be the east course from the 2012 Solo Nationals but I think they changed the ring of fire some from Nationals and made it more oval than round.
Course Map:
If you were not fortunate enough to run this course at Nationals in 2012, let me tell you, you were missing out! Not only is this course a visually challenging course but it is an absolute HOOT to drive as well! I would say, so far, of any course I have driven, this ranks at the top of my favorite courses. That said, I didn't drive it all that well but I really set out to have fun and relearn the car more than win anything. My fastest time was in the 75 second range. This would put my "total" time at 140.xxxish and last in STX just a second behind the third place guy after two days. Supposedly everyone ran slower times than when they ran it last year for Nationals so who knows if that was a "course change" thing (I swear the ring of fire was more like an oval than a ring) or what it was but it was good for NOT DFL at Nationals Last year, if I was at Nationals last year, this past weekend! ;)
The results haven't been posted yet so I don't have the official times for either day.
What now? Well, every event with serious competition has really, really tweaked the urge to just buy A6's and do the ESP build and deal with the softer spring rates and "weight" disadvantage. I'm "clued in" on buying used A6's for regional events and having a set of nicer ones for the National Tours. I'm going to continue to hold off until things settle down financially. The cost of Nationals, the Midwest Divisional, the Test'n'Tunes and the solo event with the house I just bought, the Torque Arm, the replacement parts for parts I have etc are a bit steep for my taste.
STU sounds like fun but I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle of buying new wheels/tires to run in a class where the car wont be competitive either. I supported the move because I WANT a place to play in ST for Mustangs and this is the safest way to hopefully have the STAC add tire width without the risk of upsetting a class. That said, I have to satisfy my competitive itch TOO and I think the car will do better in ESP now until the cars get some help in ST. The decision is kind of painful to be honest...
That said, what is really next is the Nebraska Region Pre-Nationals Test'n'Tune where stiffer swaybar setting up front, no swaybar out back and a combo of both will be tested. The seat time gained will hopefully prepare me well for Nationals. After that is our regular autocross solo points event in which Dave W has offered to co-drive (how could I refuse? He did raw time me this weekend in a STOCK Mustang on street tires!) of which I have agreed to. After that, Evo Test'n'Tune where hopefully I can get some good seat time as well as some instruction (hopefully?) and then Nationals!
To think the car is "this ready" for Nationals after having just bought a house, moved into said house, added what parts I have to it, and so on is mind boggling. When this is over, there will be a collective sigh of relief! :)
Yesterday I signed for my house so I started ordering some of the parts I need to get ready for Nationals. So far I have ordered:
-Prothane Rear lower control arm Poly Bushings (going to be modified for less bind)
-Hellwig/Strano 25mm rear bar bushing replacement kit (replaced for free by Hellwig!)
-Fays2 rebuild kit (4 new rod ends and O-rings)
On the docket to be ordered tomorrow:
-Ford Racing Diff Cover M-4033-K (this is the finned diff cover on Boss 302/Track Pack/SVTPP cars)
-Cortex Racing torque Arm
Filip at Cortex Racing was NOT comfortable designing a Torque Arm that mounts to the stamped steel diff cover. Why is beyond me as I'm having a hard time understanding what additional forces would be going through the diff cover that the stamped steel one wouldn't deal with. The rotational forces are transmitted through the bolts on an axis shared with the axle shafts which would be a push/pull force and not really a torsional force. Part of the axle rotation force is carried by the differential housing as the other mounting points for the Cortex Arm are bolted to the cast diff housing. At any rate, the diff cover will be legal next year, so if the Torque Arm turns my car into a BMW/RX8/Fresh Breeze/Integra eating monster, I'll just DQ my runs. The chances are SLIM.
You'll notice the Torsen T2R is missing. There are going to be a few people screaming at their screen "NO WHISKEY! YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! BAD WHISKEY!" but hear me out. The bushings in the control arms are SHOT. Literally done. Unfortunately due to having to add a few appliances to the house, the money isn't there for a T2R this year... once again... Instead, my buddy has offered to rebuild the Traction Lok, again, under powertrain warranty, for free. I owe this guy kegs of beer at this point. He is going to try and put the GT500 Carbon Fiber plates in instead of the organics so that will hopefully help make things last longer back there. I will also have him look at the whine I'm getting as well as the "drivetrain" slop and see if it's bushing related (soon to be cured via Poly bushings in the LCA's and the Torque Arm) or the driveshaft is fubar and in need of replacement.
All that said, priorities being what they are, the Torque Arm/Poly Bushing route is a bit of a necessity to keep from further damaging the rear end of the car and the rebuild seems to fit the budget a lot better (it costs me time, but nothing else).
The good news is that all of this should hopefully be here before the Midwest Divisional Championship the 16-18th of August. The Midwest Divisional Championship starts basically 4 straight weekends of events:
August 16-18th - Midwest Divisional Championship at LAP-N
August 24th - Pre-Nationals Test'n'Tune at LAP-N
August 25th - Solo Points event at LAP-N
September 1st - Evolution School Test'n'Tune at LAP-N
September 5th and 6th - STX Solo Nationals Run days at LAP-N
After that, there is a whole month long breather in the Nebraska Region events to get a cool down from a month solid of events.
I would like to point out that in the middle of all this nonsense I have to put all the new parts on AND move from my apartment from the house while juggling the full time job TOO. Holy crap, this month is a bit stressful but now that I've signed for the house, it can be less stressful! :)
The SEB has released the minutes from the August FasTrack call and it contains some very important information pertaining to this car build. For those who don't know, several of us S197 autocrossers have been writing to move these cars to STU where the wider wheels/tires will help the cars out tremendously. Of course, with that move comes added competition. STU is a faster class by a fairly large margin so it will take MORE for these cars to be competitive. Will 285's fill that gap? I doubt it but we will try anyway. Anyway, the SEB has agreed to move us from STX to STU so we are now out of the frying pan and into the fire in regards to classing. That takes effect January 1, 2014.
Also, a clarification was issued pertaining to the live axle rule that allows replacement of the upper control arm (UCA) for the rear suspension that says that spherical bearings are good to go on the arm ONLY and not the differential bushing. How this is acceptable in a class claiming to have the most streetable cars outside of stock is beyond me but it's good news for those who wish to go that route as a poly/poly setup is bad news in regards to suspension bind.
It looks like the Watts link diff cover clarification from earlier this year that made the likes of Whiteline, Cortex and Griggs Racing watts links illegal has been turned into a rule that allows replacement of the differential cover. While this doesn't effect those of us with frame mounted Watts linkages, it's good news for those wishing to run those company's watts linkages.
It also has an added side effect of allowing me to attach a torque arm to the correct differential cover. What I mean is that the Cortex Racing Torque Arm setup that I am looking into having for Nationals this year will not have to have a custom differential attachment made for it. Filip was kind enough to offer, but he stated that without proper testing, he wasn't confident in higher HP cars using that diff cover for mounting a torque arm. That is out the window, at least for next year. What does this mean for Nationals this year? Well, it means I'm going to run with the diff cover which technically isn't legal until 2014 under a full disclosure policy. I highly doubt I'll be pecking at trophies (although I'm going to try my damndest to not be dead last!) for it to matter but it will be public knowledge for those who chose to protest. Should a protest be filed, I will forfeit my runs voluntarily.
Finally, there are some other cars being thrown into STU to "breathe life into a dying class" but it seems more to kill off the class. Two cars of concern come up: the Nissan 350Z (and I'm assuming the heavier and more powerful 370Z will be following it shortly) and the C5 Corvette (non FRC/Z06). The Vette makes no sense and has the potential to be a clear overdog in the class. The 350Z and the 370Z enjoy a lighter chassis, better suspension and similar power to the current pony cars. A 350Z currently running in STR on 255 wide tires and 9" wide wheels is currently beating some very capable cars there and his times are almost fast enough to raw time STU with 30mm less tire per corner and a non-ideal wheel width. What will these cars be like with 285's and wider wheels that they can easily fit? I imagine they will be pretty damn fast!
This weekend was a two day weekend for
autocross joy. Saturday was our "Nebraskhana" event which
is a lot like Mirrorkhana or "Amerikhana" (Not allowed to
use that name since it's supposedly trade marked by the Kansas region
or Salina or, I don't know)... The second day was a regular solo
event.
Car setup got changed a touch, the rear
end of the car was dropped down a touch over a half inch to level out
the car. Basically at autocross weight the car sits level (it's an
eighth of an inch higher in the rear with no driver) now as apposed
to the massive rake I had before. I will be the first to admit that
with NO rebound dialed into the shocks/struts the car feels stupid
weird. Daily driving it had this weird rubber band like effect but
with everything turned up it was not noticed anywhere except a little
more reluctance to slaloming (a touch more rear rebound helped here)
and a near complete removal of wheel HOP on launch but still copious
amounts of wheel SPIN. A 2000 RPM launch without a good feather
resulted in instant spinning of the tires...
Anyway, the event recaps:
13 July 2013 -
Nebraskhana
If you are not familiar with the
Mirrorkhana concept, you basically set up one course with two start
lines in it. Imagine having two start lines on a roadcourse but in
an autocross size. The goal is to get back to your start line before
the other guy does. There are NO timers for two cars running head to
head on course, just a line judge. Thankfully all of the decision
making process was pretty straight forward. The cars that were the
closest usually had some "error" that made one win. Such
is the challenge of Mirrorkhana! When/if a two driver car ends up
facing each other the victor is determined by times. Our Nebraskhana
was a double elimination bracket style. If you lose you fight your
way up from the losers bracket and if you win you go through that
bracket. There were also practice runs the morning of and the
competition happens in the afternoon. The other crazy thing is that
you were allowed 3 free cones but if you hit a fourth or had a course
error DNF, you DNFed your run. Of course it is possible that both
drivers could DNF, then it was "they who had DNFed less bad".
The course ran clockwise from either of the two starting locations and had plenty of places to hit cones. 1 is a two cone wallom 2 is just the apex to a 360º turn around (well it turns and comes back onto itself, no loop around the cones) 3 is the chicane before the start 2 straight 4 is a 3 cone slalom start with eyebrows following it 5 is the chicane before the start 1 straight STX had like 4 cars IIRC. An E30 BMW
(not prepped to the limits, yet) an Integra Type R (prepped to the
rules but in need of wider tires), myself, and my co-driver. That's
right, someone was actually stupid enough to volunteer to co-drive my
car. My Co-Driver is a local instructor and obviously no slouch as a
driver. He's been to Nationals several times and is currently
running a SN95 Cobra (mid 90's, with the live axle but with the 4.6L
4V) in ESP with that car's owner. He was upper mid pack at Spring
Nationals this year in that car and is no stranger to Mustangs.
Run #1 I was up against the E30 BMW.
Why is beyond me since the Integra Type R and I are ALWAYS back and
fourth on times. By virtue of tires alone I had to really screw up
to not win. The driver is a nice enough guy but I'm not sure he was
all that up to snuff on driving that car (used to Miatas) and it
isn't very far along in the STX prep level. He's getting there and I
look forward to his competition at a later date but the end of this
first match up was "obvious" to everyone. I won by about 6
car lengths.
Wins: 1, Losses: 0
Run #2 I ran against an STR S2000 on
Star Specs. The only mods I'm aware of that he had were swaybars and
I think CAI/Exhaust/Tune. This was a little more concerning to me as
the S2000 is a pretty capable car in stock form and being that the
driver was no slouch and the car is very capable he represented the
first true competitor I had to face. If there was one thing going
for me it was that there was a rather long 200' straight mid way
through the course and another 100' long straight at the start and
finish. I will admit that this was far closer than I was comfortable
so it took some solid driving to prevail. After talking with him
after the run was over he said he had some mistakes that really
caught him up. I don't remember having too many mistakes. I ended
up crossing the line about 3 car lengths ahead of him which was
plenty close for comfort!!!
Wins: 2, Losses: 0
Sadly, no run #2 video... I forgot to
turn it on...
Run #3 I ran against the Integra Type R
with whom I have gone back and fourth all year with. The driver had
fought his way up from the losers bracket (losing to my co-driver
then beating the E30) to face me in the winners bracket. This was
going to be a serious challenge that could have NO errors on my part.
Coming through the halfway point (his start/finish line) we were
neck and neck at the start of our respective straights. Coming
through the second part of the course though he made a grievous error
and scrubbed off a ton of speed in the most critical corner for him
right before the straight. I managed to win by 2 car lengths...
About half way through this run though the "50 miles till empty
warning" came up on the display and by the end of the run it was
at 45 miles till empty.
Wins: 3, Losses: 0
Sadly, no run #3 video... the GoPro
shut off shortly after starting for this run... no idea why? Enjoy a
pretty picture instead:
Run #4 complicated things. Having come
from 3 solid victories and having a co-driver who also came from 3
solid victories meant that we were facing off against the clock. At
this point the other positions had been filled and the STX lineup
hinged on my co-driver and I competing for 2nd and 1st. This run
would be a bit of an eye opener for me as my co-driver laid down a
SMOKING run. My run was 1 full second off his pace, a 58.8XX IIRC).
By the time we were done the fuel warning came down to 32 miles till
empty.
Wins: 3, Losses: 1
Sadly, no run #4 video. At this point
we were hot lapping the car so video took a back seat to swapping
drivers.
Run #5 was the "do or die"
run as failure to win on this round meant I was done for the day and
would get second place in STX. I wasn't about to let my co-driver
get the best of me so I ran out there and really hammered out a solid
run. I ended up running a very fast run. This run was 0.4 seconds
faster than my co-driver's previous run so I felt extremely pleased
with the time but fully expected to lose this round. Turns out my
co-driver didn't improve his time! I won this one but had to do it
again the next time to secure first place. 18 miles till empty...
Wins: 4, Losses: 1
The sixth and final run would determine
who was first and who was second and really meant working to earn the
spot! This is the type of competition I love as it makes for a good
challenge. I would run first, the co-driver would run second. I
came in with a run I felt was pretty good. 11 miles till empty... I
stood by and cheered my co-driver on in the spirit of competition and
listened for the cone calls, 1... then right at the end 2 and 3. As
he came in from the run the announcer proclaimed over the speakers
"And it looks like Chris has won STX!" <awkward pause>
"Ohh, looks like I was wrong, Jon (co-driver) took the win by,
it looks like six tenths of a second!" 5 miles till empty...
Wins: 4, Losses: 2...
Through a hard fought fight I managed
to get beat my Co-Driver in a close battle. Looking at the raw times
from our 6 runs against each other, my fastest raw time was actually
faster than his fastest raw time it's just the way the Nebraskhana
works I didn't beat him because he ran faster than me on his other
two runs... That was the reason for the confusion on who won STX.
While victory would have been nice
there are a few things that are important gleaned from this entire
experience:
First: Driver check. While it is easy
to "compare" myself through PAX to other top drivers it is
far clearer than to put someone fast in your own car. Either my car
is hard to drive fast (unlikely judging by what my co-driver was
saying to me), my co-driver isn't as fast as he seems, or I'm a
better driver than I originally thought. I don't like tooting my own
horn so I'll let the conclusions be drawn by others.
Second: Car setup check. This goes
hand in hand with the first point simply because it is difficult for
me to judge where the car is setup wise when I'm the only one driving
it. Jon was very straight forward with his response on the car
setup. The car is reasonably neutral. It will push if you gently
apply throttle but it will step out if you are more aggressive with
the throttle. Kinda how the car should be setup. He was very
adamant that the car was "too soft" and while I would agree
with him that it might need a bit more spring rate, I'm hesitant to
add spring rate to the car as the car is nearly out of rebound
adjustment on the dampers and I don't want to give up what
streetability is left on the car. Maybe when I have a second car and
this one can be a "dedicated" autocross car that only gets
driven to and from events, but right now, I'm not overly interested
in running some higher spring rates without a better set of dampers
to make the ride tolerable for daily driving. I would probably bump
the rates up to 550 front and 275 rear. That is up from 440 front
and 200 rear. He also mentioned that the shocks could probably use a
bit more compression as well.
The photos that I took of Jon driving
show that -3.0º of camber is pretty close to spot on. There is
still some negative camber fully loaded up in a corner but I'm
willing to bet that a touch more would really make the tires work
better.
The body roll is there but it's not
noticeable from the driver's seat, or at least from my perspective it
isn't noticeable or a detriment. Of course stiffer springs with
better dampers would guarantee a more aggressive direction changing.
I don't know... I could always take the front swaybar all the way
stiff... I think paired up with Sam's rear bar it would be possible
to keep the car balanced with a little more roll stiffness. I should
probably call Sam (finally... lol) and get replacement bushings so I
can reinstall it. The watts link can't go up any higher...
14 July 2013 – Regular Solo Event
This started off like any normal solo
event. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of car setup.. More fuel
obviously. I left everything as it was since it felt so good
on Saturday and that turned out to simplify things greatly.
The course was the same course as we
ran for the Nebraskhana but in reverse and with a few changes to
accomidate a dedicated start and finish line. The ending became
extremely tight and rather annoying considering how the rest of the
course felt but it was necessary to keep speeds down as the end ran
right in line with the start and we needed to be shut down to avoid
hitting cars coming on course. There was 6 STX drivers, the E30 and
the Type R from the Nebraskhana and myself obviously. There was also
an E36 BMW an E46 330i, and a Cobalt SS.
We received 4 runs and I will admit
that it was not as much fun this direction as it was the other
direction and the added tightness into the finish really ruined what
was otherwise a fun course. It was challenging and challenging is
GOOD in the long run. You'll never know how you'd do on these
"challenging" courses otherwise.
1 is a chicane
2 is the eyebrows (the 3 cone triangle near the top should be another eyebrow in this case, that was a change they made)
3 is a chicane
4 is that turn around
5 is the back wallom which has the line drawn through it the opposite of what it should be (lazyness FTW!)
My first run involved a bit of
"learning" the good ole hard way... it involved 3, very,
very ugly cones at the kink going into the finish that I... erm...
"hit on purpose" <cough*understeered into*cough>
thinking we got 3 for free... a 62.897 but with 3 cones it came out
to a 68.897. Somehow this was good for first place still. I don't
believe that was possible and I don't think my 3 cones got called in
despite clearly plowing them. It wouldn't be my fastest run anyway.
My second run involved cleaning up my
act. I ran a good and solid 62.XXX without much fuss. The car was
rotating beautifully under power and would just follow your commands
like a well trained dog. This was just fast enough to put me into
first place and keep me there.
The third run WAS going well up until
the final kink. Coming out of the slalom as I was setting up for the
turn around I noticed a corner working wearing a green shirt standing
at the three cones I plowed on my other runs. I mean litterally at
the edge of the course in a place where cars were known to go off.
He wasn't even a foot off those cones. I slammed on the brakes and
got stopped before running him down (I probably wouldn't have anyway
but just in case). He had a very perplexed look on his face and
after finishing up slowly I was given a re-run for managing to stop
before someone got KILLED. No red flag, NOTHING. Needless to say he
found a different place to stand after that incident and I hope he
learned his lesson. He was still in a bad spot but better than where
he was.
My fourth run was the re-run and to be
honest I don't think (or remember) I improved any on this run. I was
so close to a 61 second time that I was shooting for that but didn't
quite get it. I was still in first place after this run so the next
run needed to be faster or I needed to rely on luck to keep the
others from improving enough to kick me out of first! :)
My fifth and final run I decided to try
a little different tactic. It's quite easy to go out there and run
balls to the wall and really hammer out good runs but it's a little
more difficult to tighten the line up so I tried to do that while
still being fast. It was just enough to break into the 61 seconds
mark. It ended up being a 61.976 or just barely into the 61's. It
was enough to retain the lead as no one improved and it was enough to
accomplish my goal! I ended up taking first place again.
In terms of benchmarks, there was
really only one of my benchmarks there and he was the guy in the Type
R. In the last event he clobbered my times and that really peaked my
curiosity since I added wider wheels and tires which should have
turned our constant back and forth into a slam dunk win for me. Our
time differential this time was close to .8 seconds off from each
other which is about what I'd expect when adding 20mm of tire per
corner, half inch of wheel width and dropping 35lbs of unsprung (and
total) weight.
I did get to add another benchmark for
this event though. Doug Hitchcock's old E30 STX BMW was purchased by
a Nebraska Region member and resident ALIEN and was playing in the
STX Pro PAX. It's a damn good thing he was in the Pro Pax because he
completely destroyed my times. His fastest run was in the 58's...
Fifty fucking eights... He straight timed one of our local CP
drivers who is a mid packer in CP at Nationals... seriously, what...
the... hell... Anyway, OUCH! Time to find some time and channel my
inner alien and stop sucking!
Alright, what's next for Project Tilty?
Well, August 5 I sign for my house and can purcahse the new
differential (and all the associated material to completely rebuild
the rear end of the car except axles) which will be a Torsen T2R. I
will also be ordering the Torque Arm. With the exception of poly
bushings everywhere, that will complete the suspension components on
the car. The Watts link will need rebuilt (rod ends are loosening up
enough to cause some minor noise) but will otherwise remain unchanged
in its adjustment.
Aside from that the next event is the
Midwest Divisional Championship here in Lincoln. Two more days, 6
more runs to get some seat time. Hopefully the Torsen and Torque arm
will be in by then (if not we will have problems) to give me seat
time for Nats. We then have our solo event on the 25th.
There is a test'n'tune on the 24th that I can't go to
(well, am choosing not to go to) and then we have the Evo Test'n'Tune
during Nationals and then Nationals itself. The last 3 weeks of
August is a huge amount of runs and it will all hopefully be worth
it! :)
Anyway, I'll post any pictures I find
online as well as the results when they are officially posted.
