Things learned at the $20xx Challenge?

One of the things that overwhelmed me at the Challenge this year was all of the things I learned. I should have kept a notebook with me as it was a constant stream of ideas, most of which I've forgotten. I was hoping we could use this thread to write down what we learned, both positive and negative. 

1. The Challenge budget is it's own game. There is a HUGE difference between $2018 in parts sitting in front of you, and actually spending $2018 in the process of building a car. From a budget standpoint it's probably better to start with one car for the shell and sell of parts and another for the drivetrain and sell off parts than start with a running car. I'm not sure what the total ratio of swapped cars was, but you had to go down to 7th to find the first one.

2. Testing is important. The fast cars were fast before they got there. Along with that, the Wreck Racing kids barely pulled off a victory and one of the reasons for that was their ability to do pass after pass on the drag strip until they figured out how to get their time down. They started at maybe a mid 15 and it wasn't until at least their 20th pass that they finally got it down to 13.6. I don't think anyone made more passes than them.

3. Concourse is it's own event and advancing the communities knowledge of what's possible plays well with the judges. The Insight was ugly, but there was a lot of engineering done right that they could explain. The 9.5 second Nelson car pushed us a bit further in our idea of what's possible. Calvin Nelson showed us all an injector trick that he could have kept to himself. The AMC guys showed us all how to make flares from t-shirt material and bondo. They didn't show us how to make them pretty, but they're working on it. The Infinity truck showed us that the old tricks are the best tricks and we should all leave nitrous money in our budget.

4. Stampie reminded me that someone should bring a shop vac because vacuuming rocks out of your car is easier than picking them out by hand while hanging from the cage.

5. The pro drivers are good at what they do. And friendly. And tell hilarious stories in the stands while watching the drags.

6. Bump stops make acceptable springs.

7. Like all racing, it's a tire war. There's probably a LOT of discussion that could be had about this, but in the end, the fast AX cars had Hoosiers, the fast drag cars had drag slicks. This reinforces my thoughts that racing is nothing more than finding the most efficient way to make a set of tires go fast.

What did everyone else learn? Both from a holistic "this is the Challenge" standpoint and a technical standpoint.

Personal lessons:

hoosiers are like cocaine, and i got my first taste

listen to yourself and don't go all out on your first drag pass after the track got peed on by a windowed block

if someone has the concours formula figured out, LISTEN TO THEM when they break down the rule set at 1am

maybe nitrous WOT switches actually are a good idea and i've been hard headed the last 20 years of spraying

if you have fat sticky hoosiers, a spool, and manual steering, by all means let a pro drive your car. Your arms will love you for it.

Judging is hard. 

I've learned that no matter what you drag to Gainesville for this event nobody is dismissive or condescending of your effort.

Moral:  If you're remotely interested in participating in the Challenge, start off with a simple build and enjoy  yourself.  Worry about where you finish the following year.

We need large name tags with out real and screen names so I could have met Mazdeuce  (or maybe I did and don't know it.)

mazdeuce said:

6. Bump stops make acceptable springs.

I learned this this weekend, too. In fact, I learned that on some cars bumpstops alone work better than springs.

I learned to check my grounds...

In reply to SVreX :

Nah, judging is EASY. Judging fairly and thoughtfully is hard ;)

And we thank all the judges for "doing it right" and you for explaining it better than I understood before this weekend. 

In reply to spin_out :

Agree. I totally missed out on meeting the builder of the Grosh :(

Robbie said:

I learned to check my grounds...

Was that the failure? If so, i feel the need to apologize for not finding the time to help diagnostics. 

I learned that no matter how prepared i think i am, every race is a thrash to keep it going. 

Robbie said:

I learned to check my grounds...

 

Ewww. I think I said something that the problem was wiring related vs broken parts while in line for bbq.

I learned bunch of things. 

I like torque. I dislike torqueless Miatas. Autocross is fun but not my cup of tea. I still would rather drag race. I am  but not glad I took the 12 pts for concours.

I know I have more to say but sometimers is kicking in.

I learned how to ruin a perfectly good truck 

Robbie said:

I learned to check my grounds...

NO, really? Was that it? I was wondering.

spin_out said:

We need large name tags with out real and screen names so I could have met Mazdeuce  (or maybe I did and don't know it.)

 

Any names I met I have totally purged already.  If no name tags, then next time I'm wearing an Abarth hat at least.

And to add to the thread, I too learned washers and bump stops would make an awesome 1/2 Challenge budget entry on an MR2.

GSmith said:

In reply to spin_out :

Agree. I totally missed out on meeting the builder of the Grosh :(

This was selfish on my part and was a mistake. I was trying to sit back and watch and learn. I ended up helping and talking and engaging constantly over the weekend anyway, so I should have let more people know I was coming and worn a nametag.

Jerry said:

spin_out said:

We need large name tags with out real and screen names so I could have met Mazdeuce  (or maybe I did and don't know it.)

 

Any names I met I have totally purged already.  If no name tags, then next time I'm wearing an Abarth hat at least.

And to add to the thread, I too learned washers and bump stops would make an awesome 1/2 Challenge budget entry on an MR2.

Thinking about distributing something like this at next year's event.

I know what Ed looks like now from watching the live feeds :D

Duster, Ranger, Hobie,

Yes, I am 99.8% sure the problem was a bad ground by the tail light - I will confirm as soon as I get a new fuel filter on the car, I cracked the current one troubleshooting in anger at the challenge. Apparently, under the tail lights is where the fuel pump grounds. And unfortunately it was still kinda connected, because when we checked for voltage at the fuel pump we got a solid number. Had we checked for resistance on the ground line however, we would have seen the real story.

We were also VERY thrown off by a red herring. There was a whooshing sound under the hood that sounds like a massive vac leak, and since the FUEL PUMP grounds to the SAME POINT as the BRAKE LIGHTS, when idling we could push the brake pedal and kill the engine almost every time. We thought that the brake booster was a big vacuum leak, but in reality it was that activating the brake lights would apply +12V to the ground side of the fuel pump, turning it off. We are also pretty sure the whooshing sound is the normal sound of air through the intake air control valve.

In reply to java230 :

When was I on the live feed?

In reply to Robbie :

FUDGE!

I learned you can Have Fun at a Race, I learned that I still need to work on my Personality.  and last but not least What a great bunch of people.

I learned not to put your helmet on a cone in grid or it will get run over....

I also learned that bumpstops as a spring on the street is a poor idea, my kidneys  still hurt from the short drive home on saturday lol

Robbie said:

I learned to check my grounds...

I just threw up a little in my mouth 

 

I'm not sure what the total ratio of swapped cars was, but you had to go down to 7th to find the first one.

Are you excluding the first place finisher?  Wasn't there, but I thought I saw an LS under the hood of the black SN95, but I may be wrong.

Ed Higginbotham said:

Jerry said:

spin_out said:

We need large name tags with out real and screen names so I could have met Mazdeuce  (or maybe I did and don't know it.)

 

Any names I met I have totally purged already.  If no name tags, then next time I'm wearing an Abarth hat at least.

And to add to the thread, I too learned washers and bump stops would make an awesome 1/2 Challenge budget entry on an MR2.

Thinking about distributing something like this at next year's event.

Ummm.  My name is patrick.  You know me as patrick