Yesterday I was at welding school and got a text from my wife: "want to go to the TNT/event in Lincoln on April 27/28?". I couldn't type "YES" fast enough. 10 minutes later we were registered and hotel room was booked. I have the best wife!! This was much sooner than I had expected to drive the car. My VP Race gas supplier has none of my preferred flavor so I had to track some down from another source. The car is ready to go but I will still double check everything, do an alignment and corner balance check. I have new front tires on it and hopefully the understeer is banished forever. I'm excited to see what the loss of 110 lbs and added downforce will do to the car.
With the surprise first event coming in a week, I needed to tie up some loose ends and do a few laps of the kart track. Something happened
Episode 237-I lost my bonnet
Just as a heads up on the SCCA scales. We did both legs of the west coast swing of the Pro Solo at Crows and Fontana. Yes it was with my sons FJA kart and our bogie is 310 for the kart and driver, but we experienced fluctuations from morning and afternoon on Saturday. I added extra gas for Sunday, both weekends.
It ended at 317 for Crows, in Fontana with the same residual gas it was 310. We were lucky, I'm not that good.
David
In reply to jr02518 :
I have the “permanent “ ballast that puts me at 1755 lbs then I have a bunch of 2.5 lb lead pucks that can be quickly bolted in if required. I will not try to get too close to minimum because I’m not risking a DSQ for being a pound under
I am lucky enough to be friends with a Holley engineer and he is using the Pink Panther to beta test the new Holley model 686 digital dash. The dash has all the features of the 12.3" Pro dash but is in a 6.86" package. It has accelerometers, GPS, plugs into the OBDII port and displays any parameter that the computer is recording, as well as having inputs for almost any other sensor you can come up with. This is the only Model 686 in existence and I am thrilled to have it in the car. I can display anything in bar graph or analog but chose to display rpm, g forces, afr, gps speed, coolant temp and fuel pressure. I also have shift warning lights, over temp warning lights and low fuel pressure warning lights.
In reply to loosecannon :
Awesome!
nocones
UltraDork
4/25/19 10:08 a.m.
That's pretty cool. Good luck at the autox!
What a glorious weekend of testing and racing (except for the bitterly cold weather and wind that actually blew the car around). The car has always been tight (understeery) and everything we could do would make the wheelspin problem worse. But, for the first time ever, the car was loose and that is a characteristic that I can deal with. I did some minor adjustments to the shocks but most of the suspension tuning was just lowering the rear roll center. We didn't get it dialed in in time for the Sunday event and you can see in the video that the car was still loose but I know we will get there. The car had no problems and maybe I have finally broken my odd numbered year curse? Episode 238 First drive of 2019
It was great to see both of you have smiles and some serious optimism for this season! And I look forward to seeing how you guys end up dialing out the oversteer.
Odd, though, about that link that got loose... Now that you have a warm place to look at it- any ideas why that happened or thoughts on how to prevent it?
Being an engine guy, it reminds me of the old saying that +90% of carb problems are due to the ignition....
In reply to alfadriver :
The loose heim just needs a dab of loctite. There are two of these heim joints behind the steering wheel and they hold the steering shaft tight and one of them just rattled loose, it's an easy fix. I am genuinely optimistic about this season. Our problem of wheelspin last year seemed un-solveable but now I think we have all the pieces needed to have a winning car. However, I am now the weak link. We watched a CSP Miata going through the course and set FTD and his driving was on another level from mine. I can hold my own on a kart track but on the autocross course, I need work. I used to be much better weaving through the cones but so much time has been spent tuning the car instead of my driving that I have become really rusty.
In reply to loosecannon :
I hope the improved reliability can get the two of you the seat time you need.
I welded on a new Panhard Bar mount, changed rear spring rate and made a skirt for the car then took it to a local event and kicked a$$. I hope you all enjoy the latest video It works, it really works
In reply to loosecannon :
Have you checked your rear axle housing for straightness? Every time I weld on a housing I have to restraighten the housing. Otherwise the axle housing is got toe in/ out, or chamber change. Or some of each.
I just empty the housing, pull the pumpkin, and put a straight bar with a pair of aluminum pucks in to see what side I need to weld on in order to straighten it back out.
I check my bar by rolling it on a piece of granite countertop I picked up at a site where they were throwing it out to change color.
In reply to frenchyd :
No, I haven't. Sounds like a whole lot of effort for little payback, and my axle is a Strange Engineering housing that has reinforcements almost all the way to the end bearings so I would be very surprised if it moved a measureable amount
In reply to loosecannon :
You can do a quick check just bolt a pair of bare wheels on. Hold a straight edge to the outside rim of both rims and measure the front and back of the straight edge.
You might be shocked at how much welding moves things around.
In reply to frenchyd :
That’s easy enough to do, good advice
Somebody asked to see a whole run start to finish without edit so I put all 4 runs in this video without edit and showed my lap time for each Raw video of 4 runs
In reply to loosecannon :
A couple of points,
Remove all oil from inside the rear end. The heat of welding will cook the oil and the resulting carbon will play heck with bearings, seals, and your ring gear contact patch.
I use my stick welder to quickly get heat in the area but if I over bend the housing I just run a shorter bead on the opposite side to pull it back.
NASCAR uses rear end steering to change handling. They do it by having one wheel toe out, one toe in. That induces under/ over steering. I’m not sure that will work as well on the tight radius corners used in Autocross but might be interesting. Finding out the trade offs between right and left basis.
Not only can you change toe in/out but also change chamber. More chamber will help with cornering, hurt with acceleration. That’s something else that can be adjusted to gain the optimum point between acceleration and cornering.
Tire temps should help you find the best settings.
I use a cheap infrared and aim it at the outside middle and inside, write them down and hurry on to the next tire.
A short video just before going to Springnationals for some real action. I get the car ready and talk a little about my odd year curse. A few more details about the curse I'm talking about:
2012: I won karting championship
2013: Another competitor crashed into me repeatedly, parts fell off, I finished 4th in championship
2014: Won karting championship
2015: Random DNF's, President of Karting Association tried to kick me off of Executive, failed and spent rest of year making my life miserable, I finished 3rd in Championship
2016: Won every kart race and the championship, started racing current version of Pink Panther and did over 200 runs without anything going wrong
2017: Blew up transmission, 2 engines and a differential, did most runs at Nationals with no boost because charge pipe kept popping off
2018: Everything worked well on the car, finished 3rd at Nationals
Episode 240 Is bad luck a thing?
We used to have a saying on our race team: "luck is where preparation meets opportunity. "
759NRNG
SuperDork
5/25/19 4:58 p.m.
loosecannon said:
I welded on a new Panhard Bar mount, changed rear spring rate and made a skirt for the car then took it to a local event and kicked a$$. I hope you all enjoy the latest video It works, it really works
Being the non vehicle/project contributor that I, am this shot pains me from an aesthetics aspect....as much as I admire all that you've been through and done.....the edge finish on the canards? (upper wheel well openingthingy'sY/N?) is not per your usual attention to detail....I guess, are there points for concurs in these 'cone slaying' events??..just wonderin'
We just got back from SpringNationals. It was great fun, the car worked awesome but we are still learning how to drive on bias ply slicks. They are VERY different from radials and require huge slip angles to get the most out of them. We finished 3rd and 4th in class and 55th and 60th in PAX out of 325 competitors. Briget is usually 2-3 seconds behind me but this weekend was matching my times and I'm proud of her. Episode 241 Rockin' in Lincoln
Have you ever had an opportunity to drive on of those CSP Miatas? It would be interesting to see how they are as fast as your car... driver, set up, tires- what is it?
I've been lurking for some time, quietly cheering you on from afar in hopes you walk away with the top ranking. Your fearlessness to tackle any and all obstacles is an example we should all take note of but more importantly, acknowledge and reward with our admiration and encouragement. This latest event is proof that hard work and determination will prevail even in the darkest hours.
Bridgett's driving performance (and painting expertise) has been an absolute delight to read about and then watch thanks to the many videos you post. Her smile said it all in the latest installment and she should absolutely be in front of the camera as a general course of action.
You now have the major components in place which should alow you to focus on your driving and less on the fixing. With a bit of fine tuning, and some serious seat time, I truly believe you can make a serious run for the top spot.
Congratulations on a great weekend and best of luck in the future.
