Your car looks so good that my kid started making race car noises when you pushed it out of the trailer.
Your car looks so good that my kid started making race car noises when you pushed it out of the trailer.
I have to say that is the best it's looked since you started this project. Engine sorted, suspension sorted, aero sorted, paint sorted. I'd say you're good to go.
loosecannon said:I put it all back together after the fresh paint It's beautiful!
Poster Perfect!
Thanks guys, your approval means a lot. I have two more local events before Nationals and think I'll cover the troublesome areas with painters tape to keep it looking good for Nationals.
The dog days of summer.
The party begins next week.....all systems go???? I've not checked the weather, clear skies or deluge? Go and kill it you two!!!!
Lookin' good! The sun really hates that paint though doesn't it? Maybe add a layer of UV-resistant clear coat to one panel as an experiment?
I have a couple of suggestions - first I think the car would look better with some more black/pink contrast. I think doing the edges of the headlight aero covers and some of the middle panels, like maybe the "dash" panel and/or the IC cover panel, would look good. I could do mockups of it if you like to see how it would look before actually doing it.
Next, looking at how much aero work you've done, I've been looking at what else could be improved. Carving some aero fairings for the roll hoop and driver's seat out of foam would reduce drag and improve rear downforce, and would look good too!
759NRNG said:The party begins next week.....all systems go???? I've not checked the weather, clear skies or deluge? Go and kill it you two!!!!
Everything is great. I just put the car in the garage so we can swap tires and do a few other things before Nationals next week. The forecast is for rain and I'm happy about that, I have confidence in my rain driving but not so much in the dry. We signed up for the Evolution Driving school so hopefully I can improve my driving
Way kool brah, you two will do just fine regardless of the weather 
In reply to GameboyRMH :
We put the highest rated UV protectant clear on the car and it still fades ;( I agree about the black/pink contrast. If you look at last years Nationals, it was all pink across the front but this year we have a black grill and it looks better. I'm pretty sure aero shapped foam is grounds for protest so I can't do that. Compared to even Springnats, I have filled a ton of holes in the floor (creating more vacuum), smoothed out and reduced body panel gaps and have increased the angle of attack of the rear spoiler so the aero is a little better. I recently taped off the high impact area behind the front tires with painters tape so the new paint wouldn't get damaged by rocks at a local event. I landed up not going to the local event so I pealed off the painters tape and the paint came off with it. Needless to say, Briget was NOT happy about this. We are going to cover it with black vinyl. Here's a pic of the destruction.
Let me be the first to congratulate you both for a job well done.....trophy for you and sixth for Briget.....have no idea what it is that JK has in his arsenal other than seat time??? Safe trip home eh....
759NRNG said:Let me be the first to congratulate you both for a job well done.....trophy for you and sixth for Briget.....have no idea what it is that JK has in his arsenal other than seat time??? Safe trip home eh....
I think that's just day one so far- they run again today for the second heat.
Still- clearly the work done on the car has been really effective, and early congratulations are well in order. You have had a great day, and have spend a quite a bit of seat time in it. Bridget has also had a great day, without as much seat time. So I'll be interested in hearing her comments- IIRC, her favorite car to date was a Boxter, and early drives in this updated version reminded her of that car.
BTW, it must be noted that somehow, Bridget is driving a fully enclosed version of your car- since she's apparently driving a MG GT according to sololive.... Maybe if you take the roof off for her. 
Now it's official- 3rd and 7th. .6 from 2nd, but a massive 5.5 seconds from 1st.
Well done, Mark! I look forward to hearing your and Bridget's report on the car.
alfadriver said:Now it's official- 3rd and 7th. .6 from 2nd, but a massive 5.5 seconds from 1st.
Well done, Mark! I look forward to hearing your and Bridget's report on the car.
Even better News!!!!!! New to this, when is the course layout made public to the participants?
Ok, I am finally back home and can give a full report. As some of you know, I have felt that I had an odd year curse. Things just went wrong on odd numbered years. This year we kicked the curse. All year the car has gone well with great power and predictable handling. On the test track, I tested out a new tune that was supposed to result in increased engine braking. The car seemed to fall flat at times so I assumed it was the tune and immediately changed it. This did not result in a change to the power. I made another tune change (to a reduced boost tune) and the car was better and I was matching he-who-shall-not-be-named times on the test course, so that was good. Briget took the car out and the power just went off completely in right hand turns. I realized we had a fuel starvation issue so we filled the tank right up and the problem seemed to clear up as well. We changed to a new pair of Hoosiers and prepared for day 1 of competition.
Since the power problem was fuel starvation, we went to Speedway Motors, bought some fuel cell foam and came back and filled the fuel tank up with foam. I also changed the tune back to a higher boost tune. Briget went out on her first run and said the power felt fine. I went out and the power wasn't what it should be but I dealt with it and finished day 1 in 4th but was only 2/10's off 2nd place. Briget was driving well and on day 1 was actually quicker than SMK, who was leading EML. I knew I left a lot on the table so I was optimistic for day 2 and felt 2nd place was well within my grasp. The car sitting in 2nd place actually broke off a front suspension mount and I was called upon to weld it back on using a $100 HF welder and 3500 watt generator. I have never seen, let alone used such a crappy welding set up but this was an emergency and had to do what I could. Well, the flux core weld spattered all over but the welds looked really good and the owner of the welder couldn't believe his welder was capable of that. And they held through day 2 of competition with 2 drivers trying to tear them off. While driving the car into the trailer, I literally drove the car into the trailer and mangled the front splitter. I pulled it off, hammered it straight and put it back on. I wish I had pictures but I was too traumatized. BTW my new GoPro Session overheated and quit so I do not have much video from the event.
On day 2, I went out on my first run and te car had no power, I mean nothing at the start. I did what I could be dropped like a stone in the results. I loaded another tune and Briget went out and came back shaking her head, she had no power, either. I reverted back to the lower boost tune that seemed to work on the test course and went out for my second run. Power was reduced but I still had something so I managed to pull off a time good enough to get me up to 3rd. Then I loaded the tune we successfully used at Springnationals and Briget went out for her final run. The power seemed good but all this "will it go or won't it?" really messed with her head and she didn't get it together to put in a good time. For my final run, I left the tune but decided to put my Dakota Digital speedometer box into test mode, which tricks the engine into thinking I am always doing 69 mph, thus ignoring most of the torque map and just giving me all the boost any time I mash the throttle. The car ripped off the line and I was on a really good, flying lap. Then on the long back slalom, a large object went flying past my head and the car started vibrating and banging violently. I pulled off the course and hopped out to look at what happened. A bolt that holds the rear suspension in place had fallen out and the vibrating was the driveshaft being out of alignment. My day was over but I had done enough for 3rd place.
On the drive home, I thought about everything that happened and was happy with 3rd but knew that 2nd should have been an easy thing. When Briget took over driving for a couple of hours, I pulled out the laptop and analyzed the only run that I logged all week. It was then that it all became clear. Background: The ECM uses vehicle speed and throttle pedal position to determine how much torque it will allow you to have. If my torque map is done right, it gives the car a crude but affective form of traction control and makes it very easy to drive fast. To give the computer the proper speed signal, I have an Auto Meter digital speedo adapter attached to the cable speedo output of the transmission. That digital signal is converted to a signal that the ECM can read through a Dakota Digital box. Ok, at some point last year, the tiny square flexible shaft that goes from the trans to the speedo adapter was lost and I had to improvise a repair. Evidently, the repair stopped working properly this week because according to the log from the test course, the car speed went up to around 30 mph and just hovered around that for the whole run. I know that's impossible so I surmise that the improvised cable is engaging the speedo adapter until it gets up to a certain rpm when it starts slipping. If the computer thinks I am only doing 30 mph, it will not give me all 400 ft/lbs of torque. I bet when I pull it apart, I will find that improvised square shaft has gone round. It's bad timing for sure but it's been working for a long time and I had no reason to suspect it. I feel bad for Briget, she deserved a lot better than where she ended up. New parts have been ordered.
Episode 350 2019 Solo Nationals
Nicely done! Especially since you have found a couple of problems that do clearly effect the times. Fix both of those reliably, and things can just get better.
Don't feel bad we parked a car at the NHRA Division 6 finals because we thought the trans failed.
Turns out after removing and disassembling the trans, we found a loose wire on the trans brake switch on the removable steering wheel!
loosecannon said:The ECM uses vehicle speed and throttle pedal position to determine how much torque it will allow you to have. If my torque map is done right, it gives the car a crude but affective form of traction control and makes it very easy to drive fast.
Oh I like that. Writing this down for my EMod benchbuild.
So thinking about this a little, I'm going to change my thinking of the Odd Year Curse.
You did have it.
I'm reading two significant problems- one where the VSS was a problem, which caused some serious driveabilty issues. The second was the rear suspension coming apart.
Both lead to some time being lost- not sure how much, but no doubt time was lost.
And you STILL managed to finish 3rd and 7th.
SO just imagine that next year, the car is spot on, and has no problems and is driving exactly as expected. Both of you will certainly be considerably faster.
Just need to remember to see if there are any other lingering "issues" with the car.
AND......I'll ask this again, how far in advance are the course layouts available to the participants/general public?
I made an "Arab headdress" for my GoPro by covering the upper part of the outer housing with white electrical tape, I only had one possibly heat-related incident before and none since...I figure it should greatly reduce direct solar heating.
759NRNG said:AND......I'll ask this again, how far in advance are the course layouts available to the participants/general public?
Last year they released the maps 2 weeks before Nationals and one region copied the courses as close as possible so people from that region were able to pre-drive the courses (sort of) so now they don't release the maps until a few days before Nationals.
Today I inspected the car for damage from that bolt coming loose and I discovered that the AutoMeter vehicle speed sensor had broken in two pieces. Attached is a picture of the part as I found it and an arrow to where it is supposed to be attached. And a confession, I used the shortest bolt possible on the upper suspension mount to save weight and as a result, not enough threads of the bolt were in contact with the nylock part of the nut. A 1/4" longer bolt would not have come apart.
Y'alls' effort was exemplary......I ask about the course 'routing ' cuz i was thinking that a 'high' end guitar impresario was able to gain E/W track layout (+5.0).....thereby allowing an unfair advantage at some ....oh near to JK and all involved, there by allowing a practice 'piece' of pavement ....where one could perhaps 'improve' the "overalls" Y'ALL DID GOOD
In reply to 759NRNG :
There was a "private" tire test the day after Springnationals put on by a certain green EM competitor and no other drivers from EM were invited or welcome. It's not the first time and won't be the last. Practice and tuning on the Lincoln concrete is very important for performance and Briget and I can't get enough of it. We spent $500 on the test course one year but the test course is too small and on a different patch of concrete so it's not that much help.
In reply to loosecannon :
How far different is the concrete you run on in Canada vs. Lincoln?
Really- seeing how fast you are now, the seat time for the two of you is the most important, so you know where to make the last tweaks (which are the hardest to figure out) and gain that last bit of time. At least that's how I see it now.
The next long term development that will be interesting is how you tweak the set up, and then what tune you use to match it so that you get your virtual traction control. That's pretty darned cool.
Unless you have another off season plan like you did this last year. BTW, not sure if you noticed, but all of that effort over the off season sure seemed to work really well.... It's no a fluke when you take a mis-behaving car to 3rd like that.
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