One of my co-drivers (video is hard) can you help with car setup?

https://www.facebook.com/100008107543460/videos/2795906437356247/

I know, I know, I'm just godawful at technology.  Sunday we had an autocross and I had 2 co-drivers for the Zoomboni.  My son in the PM running EMod with me and a friend (young talented kid) running AMod in the AM.  The camera died and ate most of the runs but this was his fastest, 36.3 seconds or so, my FTD winning run was a 35 flat (the difference between 1st and 12th).

The car has been aligned now and the handling is FAR more consistent.  But it's still a HUGE handful to drive.  Air pressure was 18 F/ 15 R in Avon A11s.  Tires are 10.5" wide, I'm considering going wider for next year on the 15x10" wheels.  Because of the weird trans/diff combination (5.0SBF/T-5/4.3 torsen diff) the car is launched in 2nd and the run is done in 3rd.  Weight is 1879 lbs without driver.

What car setup things pop out at you?  How to make it easier to drive/faster?  TIA

It's hard to tell from a video but I'll give it a go.

The throttle is not a switch. You have way too much HP to treat it as such. There are also several areas where throttle could be applied earlier as long as it was done gently. 

I couldn't see the steering wheel but that looked to be a little twitchy to me as well.

I bet that thing drives a lot like the Abomination.

My take is concentrate on smooth.

Nothing huge jumps out at me about the car setup. It's a 1900lb car with a v8... it's not going to be easy to drive. Is the surface bumpy? It's hard to tell from the video, but it seems like there's at least one place where the car gets unloaded enough over a bump to chirp the tires. Maybe could use some damper tuning to fix that, or higher ride height or something if it's bottoming out. I'm not super familiar with Avons, are those radial or bias ply?

Looks like the tires are a bias ply.

Site is fairly smooth but the whole thing is crowned so most corners are off camber.

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) (Forum Supporter) :

It's a Miata chassis, correct? What shocks & spring rates are on it? What's the alignment specs?

Can you lengthen the throttle pedal throw?

This would mean that the same 1 inch of pushing your foot down is actually less movement of the throttle. Might allow for easier control. 

Is there a dead pedal? I know you know this but if the driver is flopping around at all that does not lend for smooth inputs. 

Well the video makes it look fairly bumpy, maybe take that a sign about some part of the suspension setup...or maybe just the camera mount. Bias ply tires have kind of a mind of their own and are always going to be at least a little sloppy and imprecise feeling even at the best of times.

I have nothing useful to add, but that looks hella fun to drive. 

As others have indicated it's hard diagnose chassis characteristics from a video, particularly one that doesn't show the drivers hands so if you could be a little more specific about what's making it a handful that would be helpful.  From the video it looks and sounds like lack of rear grip is an issue.  If that's the case I'd be looking at softening the rear up a bit.  I don't know what you've got for adjustment but I'd start with less rear bar if that's an option.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

It's incredibly tight, I'm 5'9" amd 195 lbs and barely fit in the thing.  In fact, I had to remove my sweatshirt to make my runs and it's a toss up about whether my left elbow should be inside or outside the car on my runs.   tldr:  flopping around isn't happening

It feels like a fairly long throttle already but I'll look into your suggestion, it might help to have longer throw there.

In reply to Slowbird:

It absolutely is.  Completely hillarious to drive, if it was slow it'd still be a hoot but the bonus is that it's fast.

(Side whine however, while I had FTD raw time, my PAX finish was 28th of 65 drivers.  PAX is a bunch of crap)

In reply to dps214:

I think the camera makes it look bouncier than it is.  We went to Cinci last month and their course was ROUGH, our Lexington site is actually pretty good.  Just small.  Good to know about the tires, they certainly are weird.  I'm sure they aren't as sticky as they could be but they are certainly wearing better than I suspected they would.

In reply to APEowner:

Yeah, one of the first things I did was remove the rear bar.  It's got enough Miata in it that that old trick helped.

 

In reply to APEowner:

Yeah, one of the first things I did was remove the rear bar.  It's got enough Miata in it that that old trick helped.

 

Where in the corner is the car uncomfortable.  Is it just corner exit? 

In reply to APEowner :

Mostly.  It may just be the nature of the beast.  The front of the motor is a foot behind the centerline of the front wheels making it very "mid engine" and it tends to throttle oversteer pretty aggressively.  

The other day after an event in which I'd been struggling with the tail happiness I took a run in a decent little STS NA and was floored to remember how composed they are.  I simply couldn't get it to misbehave and everything felt planted the whole time.  OTOH the Miata was many seconds slower 

There's no doubt that high power to weight cars tend to throttle oversteer.  It doesn't look like it's happening in the video but one thing that can make that worse is if the car is understeering on entry and/or mid corner.  The classic tight/loose issue where you've got a bunch of wheel in it when the back end frees up.  If that's happening then everything you do to try and tighten up the car will make it worse. 

I'd try a little skid pad work or just pay attention in the sweepers to what happens if you try and tighten the line while just using maintenance throttle.  I'd also try and position the camera where you can see the steering wheel and put some tape or a zip tie at the top of the wheel so you can see what's happening when you make adjustments.