March 30 Test and Tune at Gateway

M

Mike's Competition

At first thought, I was thinking a waste of money and tires, but then I remembered that my problems seem to be related to cold weather lack of rear traction, and that I adjusted the rear alignment last Fall to remedy that problem (and the rear brake bias problem)(halved the camber and reduced toe out to zero).
Probably going to be a good idea to go and get some driving and diagnostic time in.

No new parts so far.
I dropped an armload of metal and drawings off at the machine shop, and said "I need the stainless pieces for my own car, those are the priority, the titanium stuff is to sell and is not a rush.". So a couple days ago he calls up and says "I'm done with the titanium stuff.". A little farther into the conversation and he says "Oh, I thought you wanted the titanium first, the other machine I need to use for the stainless is tied up, and that won;t be done for a couple weeks...".
I talked to the SAE kids at the KC Auto Show and got some answers to some carbon fiber and nomex honeycomb questions. If I sort out a couple more details, I think I will be ready to try some pieces if I sort out a couple more details.
Rust holes became a serious issue over the winter in one of the other cars, so test driving the Weldmatic and purchasing one to use is going to be a serious concern.
 
This is no way to run a railroad.

I signed up for the test and tune thing like I usually do, close to the close of signup, mostly to make sure the car has not blown up. I had agreed to do setup last week.
Nothing out of the ordinary except they had the list of entrants turned off so I could not see who else was going to be there.
This evening I receive an em,ail informing me that I am on the waiting list with a snowballs chance in hell of getting a spot if enough people cancelled.

What?!?!

I looked at the receipt and it did in fact say waiting list. I had not noticed that, I was more focused on the line in bold text saying that the deadline for cancelling and getting a refund was two days before I had registered.

I went back to the signup page, and hidden down in the middle is a line about a limit to the number of entries. But there is no indication that all the available spots are filled and the page is still allowing people to sign up.

My vote is for bold text and underlining of some of the more important details of these things. That might qualify for all caps, brightly color text, italics, or even flashing text. Or a little cartoon character holding a sign that says "read this part right here".
 
Not sure how, but after setup, I was trying to flag down the roving tech guy to put an annual inspection sticker on my car, and they announced over the intercom that they had run through the four waiting list spots in front of me, and if I was still there (they didn't know) I could be in the test-and-tune.

I scrambled to change tires and started running.
I wanted to concentrate on getting the car and me adjusted to work on cold pavement with no grip, the conditions I was having so much trouble with spinning the car last year.
Lots more air pressure in the tires. No front toe out. Rear shocks turned all the way down. Rear brakes turned all the way down.
I got it working so it was not quite as bad as walking on egg shells and I could shove it across the pavement pretty hard. Just couldn't get it to turn a quick enough time.
They had a sharp and tight right and left after a long sweeper and straight, just before the finish. I was having a lot of trouble with that. Full brake lock front and rear, I could not turn the wheel until I let off the brake pedal, or the car would just slide through the cone wall just before swapping ends.

I probably need to get the larger rotors onto the front and take one step softer on the rear spring.
I should have Mike do a grip inspection on the tires to get the professional opinion on one year old V710s.
 
Mike:

I saw him walking around and managed to discover those also. There were three of the new muscle car class cars at the event, they were all really shiny show car quality cars, and they were all a couple seconds quicker than me. I can't understand why he would shoot any of an old, rough looking econo-box, much less two pretty good pictures. But he did manage to get none of the smooth side of the car. And he captured my Bermuda Triangle number nine, which apparently fell off on my first run and immediately disappeared through hole in the universe, because it was never to be found.

The photographer had to have shot more pictures than the few he posted, I would not drag myself out there without shooting 50+ photos, and probably a lot more than that if I had a digital camera like his. I will have to see what more he has and maybe I already have next year's Christmas card photo.

It finally dried out after the monsoon, and I was able to crawl under the car and measure my rear springs and perches. I did the math, and I think I can shim the spring seats by .05" on each end, instead of having new perches made that are .05" thicker. The difference between $4 (plastic sheet) and $100 (labor to cut new perches from the rest of the stick of material) above the price of the new springs. So I think I will have the rear spring rate dropped down 50 pounds by the first event, which will allow me to shove the car harder before it spins.
 
I was going to ask where all the dents came from in the rear wheel well area. I don't recall seeing those before. I thought maybe it was a mod to induce laminar flow for more straight line speed. I may have to check the rules to see if golfballizing your car is allowed in XP!:D
 
The dents in the left door and left rear quarter panel came with the car. The hood that came with it was pretty badly dented also. Somebody hit something with the front, so it came with the ripped lower bumper and the headlights were cross eyed.
I pulled out most of the radiator wall dent, but the metal is ripped. Replaced the hood and dropped that one on a wrench. The third hood has some waves.

I just don't usually take pictures of the left side of the car.

And it's the hail dents that dimple it all over like a golf ball, making it more aerodynamic.

I was calculating the load on the spring, and then the arm length for the actual load bore by each rear tire. I think my weight distribution is something absurd like 70/30. The small engine car was 60/40 and the big engine with full interior was 65/35. I had never really thought about all the interior being over the rear axle.
I need a big, ugly wing to hold the tail down.
 
Link:
http://drive.jalopnik.com/how-to-turn-a-mustang-gt-into-a-track-day-weapon-1560228698/+travis

This was an odd thing to stumble across. 99.9% of all the magazine/automotive journalist stuff out there is pretty much bull, but every once in a while something good surfaces.

Short synopsis: Guy takes stock Mustang to race track, reassures himself that it does in fact handle like a pig. Takes car to tuner, bolts on lots of stuff, car handles like a dream.

Important detail: Shop owner setting up the car knows his behind from a hole in the ground. Talks about the importance of balance.

Tie in: Talks about roll center correction (long lower ball joints), and some associated quirky handling like understeer during braking and some loose tail symptoms that are at least somewhat related. Reassures me that this is something that I need to do, and probably should have put earlier in the line of priorities.

Meanwhile, the heim joint cups are done, but probably won't be welded up and pressed in, in time for April 27.
 
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