Event #3

M

mmarshall

Member #053
Location
Florissant
First Name
Mike
Last Name
Marshall
What a beautiful day for racing!

I ran event 3 today and the car was better than it ever has been. I did a lot of mods over the winter and am very pleased they have paid off. The car was a tad softer and much easier to control than it ever has been. The fear of it jumping up and trying to kill you is gone. It will still get out of control but it now is so much easier to get back. The NT01's do not quite have the ultimate grip of my old R-comps, but now that I have found some balance I can really push the car to the limit without the fear of it biting me. What a cool feeling to have found the sweet spot.....finally!!!! Today was my 4th best pax finish ever. The other 3 were all on R-comps. Rear tires were rolling over pretty far and needed more air. I never touched them though as the car was so good....I did not want to ruin a good thing.

Here is my current setup: Springs 350F/250R, FFR Konis all set at min rebound, big front swaybar, no rear bar, NT01 275F/315R, 28 psi F / 25 psi R (set cold), LS1/T56 moved 3" forward of stock, 1/4 tank of gas, custom 3.5" exhaust (sounds awesome!).

Here is a video of my fastest run of the day. I still made a few mistakes and could have been faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRgIw4NMS80&feature=youtu.be
 
I still say that if you didn't drive like the car was twice as big wide as it actually is, you'd be beating me by 7 seconds instead of 5...
A little exaggeration. Looks like it's going to be fun learning how to aim for a spot inside of the turn and then hammer through the corner with the tire barely touching the skirt of the cone.

That thing has gotten ridiculously fast and it is very apparent that it is bringing you a lot more satisfaction. It sounds like you did the same thing as I had done: In seeking to improve the handling and precision, you wound the car so tightly that anything less than perfect driver input would send it sideways. Funny we're both backing both cars off the extremes and closer to streetable setups, as we get better driving. Well, you get better driving anyway, I keep wondering if they ought to demote me to pedestrian for lowering the value of the word "drive".

Sorry for the shakey video I shot for you on that little Vizio thing. Without telephoto zoom, it was like trying to track an ant. I should have shot with my video camera. Maybe if I stop trying so hard to chase your times, I can just stage on the opposite row as you and shoot you between runs. Or you could start running first or second heat on the colder pavement...

I am not sure if the pavement was warmer yesterday afternoon than at Event 2. It was a little more comfortable in jeans, but the pavement measured as much as 110 degrees when we were packing up. But Gateway was definitely better traction. I dropped my tire pressures down and stiffened the rear dampers. One big difference was that this was a flow course. Events 1 and 2 were braking courses, and more like drive full speed toward a wall, then slam on the brakes and turn close enough to scrape the side mirror on the wall.
I'm going to drop my front tire pressure down more. I am not sure what I am trying to save that last eighth of an inch of sidewall tread for.

I inched up a little. Probably not bad since we have not had a 85 degree event yet this year. If the back end suddenly sticks like glue when we do have a warm day, I will have to make big changes to stiffen the back back up again.
Fifth run was a little too exciting. Felt good, but every time I ran through a hard turn the fuel sloshed away from the pickup and the motor cut out. You said I got the tail out and teetered that apex cone on the sweeper, but at that moment I had the gas pedal on the floor and it felt like someone opened a parachute because the car ceased accelerating when it should have been. I drove straight from the course, out of the raceway, and over to the gas station across the street. Took two cycles to get through the light because I was not on the magnetic trigger to trip the signal. Then wait to prepay for a gallon of gas behind a herd of people buying big gulps. Back across and the gate guard wants to see my dang SCCA card (He saw me go past the other direction only minutes before!). And back to staging before missing my turn. Then I oversteered the sweeper and ate the last cone in the line of boxes, upshifted into third through the Peterson box, and and only managed to run a half second slower.
Next time driver harder and start with one more gallon of gas.
 
Looks good Mike and it sounds awesome. Hope to get out and do some runs with you guys. Hey do you know if I have to use my shouder straps to run auto x or can I just use seat belts, might get me out sooner.

Rick
 
33ratride said:
Looks good Mike and it sounds awesome. Hope to get out and do some runs with you guys. Hey do you know if I have to use my shouder straps to run auto x or can I just use seat belts, might get me out sooner.

Rick
Click to expand...

Rick I believe that some sort of shoulder strap is required. If that slows you down you are always welcome to drive mine as is Bill. I hope to see buttercup back in action soon.
 
Bill the video you shot of me was very well done. It was much steadier than when I was running the camera.

Here is the lap you shot which was the same one I crossed the finish sliding sideways. I ended up using the throttle to stop the oscillations. This video really shows how good the new exhaust sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csz0H_xqPEM

Your index has improved every event so far. You went from a 93% to 88% to 80% on index which is a nice progression. Keep it up! The drift you had on that 180 sweeper was great. Too bad you lost power right at the apex. I had never seen a cone prop up on another cone before. Very cool!

A couple of years ago I came really close to coning my way out of 1st place several times and walked away with some poor showings on index due to penalties. That is when I widened out my driving a bit and I am now having a hard time tightening it back up.
 
It's not that I don't have shouder strap it's that I can't have them across my shoulders where I have shingles, heck a t-shirt hurts enough. Video looks good Bill, Mike that does show howw good the car sounds. Need to get over to the track just to watch you guys, it's just been a bad year so far.

Rick:)
 
Rick, you got lucky on the belt:

3.3.1 Driver Restraints
Seat lap belts are required in all cars... ...Installation and use of shoulder belts or harness is highly recommended...
Then it gives a sentences about limiting stock class to factory belts unless it is an open car which allows, but does not require, supplemental aftermarket belts.

The video looked worse on the tiny screen with the sun glare off the plastic vizio. Could see more detail of the car if the body, wheels, and tires were not all black and the sun was on the wrong side. Maybe need some contrasting paint there... Or I need a bigger computer monitor...
I'll have to break out the video camera and shoot some from the staging lanes. But I don't get a chance to pay attention to the driving details while paying attention to following hte car and keeping it centered in the frame.

I swear I coned every single run yesterday. I was working hard to chase Mike, whatever effort I was making to pull the car tighter on the right and left sweepers seemed in vain and the view through the windshield was not looking tight where I wanted. I was just holding down the gas pedal and trying to miss the orange things that disappeared when they weren't supposed to and in places they weren't supposed to. Every time I was convinced I got over on top of one somewhere. Looks like I had two coned runs in the set of six.

I spent a little time yesterday figuring out how to build a narrow in-tank swirl pot / surge tank that would be the size of the oem fuel pump access hole, set the oem fuel pump at the bottom of the cylinder, and cantilever a lift pump parallel to the bottom of the tank cross ways.
Not sure, but the lift pump runs with zero back pressure, so even the smallest pump should move more volume than the OEM pump (42gph!). From diagrams I found, it looks like the return line usually goes into the surge tank, and the rest of the world is not worried about heat buildup. Not sure if I need the filter screen on the OEM pump if I can mount it on the lift pump, which would simplify the shape of the bottom of the cylinder.
 
Rick I was thinking you had it apart for a project, totally forgetting about your shoulders. Hopefully that gets better soon. I would be more comfortable wearing them very loose than not at all.

Bill I like the idea of a surge tank, but think it would work better if welded to the bottom of the tank.
 
I could wear the left side but I don't think the right would work. May be able to put it out of my mind while on course put might paid price when I stop. (OUCH). Mike if you get a chance give me a call. Or check your text messages.

Rick:)
 
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