skivittlerjimb
New member
- Joined
- May 10, 2011
- Location
- California
It was supremely satisfying to finally win one. 
The only mod we did between Barber and CMP was add GT style triangulation braces. That's it. The car handled about the same as it always has, which is to say very decently but maybe not awesomely. The front shocks are starting to go south, so might be time to do the home brew coil overs on the front.
We ran a "perfect" race, meaning no unplanned stops, no contact, no black flags, no mechanical issues except for one that we "fixed" during the 11-noon quiet hour on Sunday. Even with this we still needed the much faster Hard Parkers Mustang team (with four Improved Touring hotshoe drivers) to have a power steering hose failure on Saturday (10 minutes?), one black flag on Sunday (2 minutes?), and to have to do a splash and go with 8 minutes left in the race (4 minutes?). So if they had also run a perfect race we would have lost by at least 7 laps. That's endurance racing. We did well but also got lucky. If this race had been at Sonoma or NJMP we would likely have been in 4th or 5th place at best.
On Saturday when we came off the track three of the four tires were completely bald and one was corded. I drove the last stint on Saturday and it was downright scary just being so skaty/greasy/unstable mid-corner and under power with the used up tires. It was fun but not fast. I managed to stay off the dirt and still pass just about everyone except the fastest 4 or 5 cars there, and the reduced traction meant I actually saved fuel and stretched the sting to 2.5 hours, reducing our total stop count for the weekend by one. I started sputtering with four or five laps to go before the end of the day.
As for the dual rear sways vs. stiff rear springs debate, I dunno... I'd like to drive both set ups back to back to see which one I like more, but that will probably never happen. All four of our drivers seem to be able to handle the slightly snappy nature of dual rear sways. Sometimes you definitely have to lift or brake mid-corner in Lemons when things happen in front of you, and things always happen in front of you. You just catch the oversteer, modulate throttle, and keep going. Having driven both power levels I will say that 110hp vs. 200-ish hp does make for different part and full throttle handing characteristics, given the same handling set up. You have to be more ginger with your right foot and can't nail the gas mid-corner the way you can in a 110hp 240 or Miata.
Now that we're likely going to get five penalty laps at each subsequent race we enter, we're not quite sure what our goals are for the car, but we do know we'd like to go faster. (Duh!) At east coast and west coast races we're usually only in the top 20 for fastest lap times, in the middle of the country races were more like top 10. It's time to hunt down the big boys if we can. Cutting a bit more weight and an LSD are likely the next mods, oh, and fixing the broken stuff. Like the broken driver's side motor mount we fixed with ratchets straps and zip ties on Sunday morning, FTW.
The only mod we did between Barber and CMP was add GT style triangulation braces. That's it. The car handled about the same as it always has, which is to say very decently but maybe not awesomely. The front shocks are starting to go south, so might be time to do the home brew coil overs on the front.
We ran a "perfect" race, meaning no unplanned stops, no contact, no black flags, no mechanical issues except for one that we "fixed" during the 11-noon quiet hour on Sunday. Even with this we still needed the much faster Hard Parkers Mustang team (with four Improved Touring hotshoe drivers) to have a power steering hose failure on Saturday (10 minutes?), one black flag on Sunday (2 minutes?), and to have to do a splash and go with 8 minutes left in the race (4 minutes?). So if they had also run a perfect race we would have lost by at least 7 laps. That's endurance racing. We did well but also got lucky. If this race had been at Sonoma or NJMP we would likely have been in 4th or 5th place at best.
On Saturday when we came off the track three of the four tires were completely bald and one was corded. I drove the last stint on Saturday and it was downright scary just being so skaty/greasy/unstable mid-corner and under power with the used up tires. It was fun but not fast. I managed to stay off the dirt and still pass just about everyone except the fastest 4 or 5 cars there, and the reduced traction meant I actually saved fuel and stretched the sting to 2.5 hours, reducing our total stop count for the weekend by one. I started sputtering with four or five laps to go before the end of the day.
As for the dual rear sways vs. stiff rear springs debate, I dunno... I'd like to drive both set ups back to back to see which one I like more, but that will probably never happen. All four of our drivers seem to be able to handle the slightly snappy nature of dual rear sways. Sometimes you definitely have to lift or brake mid-corner in Lemons when things happen in front of you, and things always happen in front of you. You just catch the oversteer, modulate throttle, and keep going. Having driven both power levels I will say that 110hp vs. 200-ish hp does make for different part and full throttle handing characteristics, given the same handling set up. You have to be more ginger with your right foot and can't nail the gas mid-corner the way you can in a 110hp 240 or Miata.
Now that we're likely going to get five penalty laps at each subsequent race we enter, we're not quite sure what our goals are for the car, but we do know we'd like to go faster. (Duh!) At east coast and west coast races we're usually only in the top 20 for fastest lap times, in the middle of the country races were more like top 10. It's time to hunt down the big boys if we can. Cutting a bit more weight and an LSD are likely the next mods, oh, and fixing the broken stuff. Like the broken driver's side motor mount we fixed with ratchets straps and zip ties on Sunday morning, FTW.
