Project Update for Nov 16, 2012: Wow, has it been a month since my last update to this build thread? We've been buried and posting on our other build threads, but I neglected this one. We had an autocross two weeks ago (last one of the year) and have a track event tomorrow that we're loading up for. And the
eBay auction on my 2001 BMW 330Ci is still going strong (ends Tuesday Nov 20th at noon!). Anyway - busy busy, so let's get caught up with a quick update.
SCCA Autocross, Crandall, Nov 4, 2012
Two weeks ago we had the last autocross for the year lined up. We had the 315/35/18 Kumho V710s still mounted to the Forgestar 18x11"/18x12" race wheels. Hmm, swap to the Hoosiers for this autocross or not? It was the last event of the year and I had the regional class championship wrapped up, so I blew off the extra work of swapping tires and had the guys here at Vorshlag leave those on the race wheels and the 315/30/18 Hoosier A6s stayed on the tire rack. If it was even remotely warm they would probably do all right, and I doubted Madarash would show up to two SCCA regional events in a row (my main ESP competition in this region - the reigning and 8 time ESP National Champion who is brutally fast every time).
Well, I was wrong... he did show up, but didn't run his car. Opie Viets brought his '84 3rd gen Camaro down from his region and ran with Madarash co-driving. And they ran Street Mod, in an earlier heat. Opie's car was similar to Mark's in many ways, and even had Madarsh's old double-adjustable Konis and some other parts of the set-up were the same. But it wasn't Mark's actual 3rd gen, and he told me this past week that it still needed some work. So yea, "I beat Madarash", technically, but it wasn't a real victory - it wasn't his car, running in the same class or heat. But.... I never get to say that much, so I gotta sneak it in whenever I can!
Strangely I did place 2nd out of 112 in PAX, which was a first for this car. It was frakkin working WELL on those Kumhos!?! So Amy and I drove together in ESP and ran in the last heat of the day. Temperatures were mild all day and there was water on two parts of the course for everyone's runs. It was there in the morning and kept seeping up through some cracks in the concrete pad, so we all had to deal with it. Oh well, could have been in worse spots.
The course was the same as two months ago for the first 1/4, then it had some tight turn-arounds with short acceleration zones coming out, with lots of tight TIGHT transitions. Walking the course I feared losing to street tired Miatas in STR or the narrow slalom buggies in STX, but luckily that didn't happen. Putting 2.5 seconds on STR and 4.5 seconds on STX was unusual for us, but it felt gooood. Even with a lot of tight stuff the big S197 did all right.
Everything seemed to work well that day, for once. The shocks worked brilliantly, as always, but so did the brakes. No "ice mode" or lack of power assist, like the last time we ran here (we put in the
2nd replacement brake booster vacuum hose grommet before the NASA event). The tires were pretty cool all day, but we finally got some heat in them after our 4th runs, which seemed to help. With the new stiffer spring rates we added after the Solo Nationals, and the stiffer swaybar settings that seemed to work best in our private test, the car corners flatter and transitions violently.
A nice surprise was Amy getting interviewed by a camera crew shooting for "Mobil1 The Grid". The interviewer even rode through with Amy and was all smiles after hopping out. They interviewed a half dozen racers so it might not "make the cut", but she put on some good runs and did great on camera, and the car looked and sounded great. She was a tenth off of Madarash's time, and a second quicker than the 3rd place ESP entrant, also a Solo Nationals veteran. The Mustang was just stinkin' FAST that day. So ... we will know if she made the cut when the show airs on Speed (or FoxSports1?) next March, I guess.
An old college buddy and my current engine builder (
HKRacing Engines), Erik Koenig, was in town delivering two LS1 engines to Vorshlag, so he stuck around and came to the autocross. We watched some of the event from atop the drag race bleachers then he rode through with me on three of my runs. He taught me most of what I know about autocrossing back from our TAMSCC college racing days, and was the first person I ever rode through with in an autocross run with on race tires - which totally
ruined me, and led me to go to college at Texas A&M University in the first place! He used to race well against Madarash in ESP in the early 1990s, so he got to talk to him again after being away from the sport for the past decade. It was good to see him out again and I hope he gets one of his Mustangs back into autocross worthy shape soon. Big shout out to my buddy Ed from Pirtek, who came out to "crew" for Amy's and my runs. When you're driving with two folks in a small heat, with numbers to change, tires to check, shocks to tweak, passengers on every run, and a TV crew shooting video of all of that, this really helps - so thanks!
Above is the in-car video from my fifth and best run. It had a huge mistake in one of the tight 180° turn-arounds, and I blew off the run after that. The right rear started spinning after that flub and I just matted the throttle, pissed off at my mistake, and just drove like an idiot to the finish. And dropped almost 9 tenths?! I am still scratching my head over that one. I guess all of my other runs were worse - and they all did have mistakes. I never claimed to be a good driver, but sometimes I luck into a good run. I didn't hit a cone all day and Amy was also pretty clean with only one cone, and we were stepping on cone bases. She managed 2nd in class and 11th in PAX, also a good placing for her.
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