continued from above
We loaded up and headed back after the event (then went to Fuzzy's Taco with the Maxcy's and to see JOHN CARTER OF MARS after eating). I am pretty happy with the results considering the tight course/tiny lot, the wet conditions, and the fact that I forgot to load the "soft throttle map". Amy liked the way the car handled after we made some tire and shock adjustments (after our first runs), but she said the throttle map was making it hard to accelerate. The new, full tread Hankooks worked admirably in the wet but we were definitely fighting serious wheel spin. After watching all 10 runs on video, I have also finally come to the conclusion that
I have been creating some braking problems all on my own. The "ice mode" ABS issue that I complain about on 4 of 5 of my runs only comes when I
stab the brakes
as the rear tires are still spinning, from my typical over-driving. Why didn't I noticed this before? The new video camera location made for better video and easier to turn it on/off, and I took video of more runs as a result - which made the ice mode situation obvious. I am an
idiot and have got to calm down and quit over-driving this car.
The
PAX results were also better than normal for this car, to date. 9th place in PAX for the big, heavy, over-powered and under-tired Mustang was pretty good considering the tight course and wet conditions. We'll see if that trend continues in this weekend's Texas National Tour event, where STX has a huge class.
New S197 Mustang Camber Plates + New Aero?
So I had an ad out there for a new draftsman (ended up hiring 2 folks), as I was needing some drafting help to help catch up on some camber plate revisions, new designs and other product development. Since I spend too much time on forums I can't get all of my design work done.
Got 40+ resumes but found the perfect guy to help out for the short term. He is a great SolidWorks guru and racer; he and I worked several late nights last week and got the drawings done for an all-new Mustang camber-caster plate.
This one is easier to adjust camber (loosen the 4 strut top nuts and slide the assembly in-out) than before, it has 3 caster settings (like our BMW E36 design), has a pointer and hash marks for camber setting reference, and is now using an aluminum main plate and an all-new bearing holder design. A lot of work but he did an excellent job.
I took those 3D files, output them in the proper format, uploaded them to a website that makes stereo lithography parts, and 36 hours later these Rapid Prototype nylon parts arrived. Woo! We tapped the holes, pressed in a spherical bearing, installed a snap ring, and assembled the new camber plate.
We just test fit this into the 2011's LF strut tower today and it adjusts perfectly, with more camber change than before and a lot more caster adjustment than the previous two revisions. So now we will have a production batch made and skip the normal machined prototypes we normally make. Should see these in 3-4 weeks. Woo! Right about when the AST 4150s arrive for this S197 Mustang chassis (and many other 4150 models).
FYI: The 25 sets of 18x10" D-Force/Vorshlag wheels for the Mustang and Subaru chassis are on the water. They should be here in 3-5 weeks. We've pre-sold over 20 sets of the 25 coming in, so if you are on the fence... ?
The aero part mentioned above... I am running out of time so I will make a post about that soon. Working with a composites expert, we now have a composite splitter to fit the 2010-2012 Mustang. Looks similar to the Leguna Seca Boss 302 part that we bought for our car, but instead of the 12 pounds of flimsy ABS plastic for the element, this one is 3 pounds of high density foam core wrapped in glass weave and structural resin. Much more rigid than the LS plastic piece, too. We still have some work to do before this goes to market, but we think it will have a significantly lower cost (with the mounting kit) when compared to the $750 price for the Leguna Seca splitter. I will show pictures and talk more about this in a future post. I am running TX2K with the Leguna Seca piece so hopefully it will have a bit more front bite on this (hopefully dry) track than before.
Loading Up
So before we head off to MSR-Houston for the TK2K event tomorrow I mentioned some noise form the Mustang's rear end. Howling on the right side, so Ryan popped the rear cover, pulled the C-clips, and took a look at the axles.
Everything looks fine - the outer bearings, the axle shafts, the ring and pinion, no metal or shavings int he fluid - weird. The fluid smelled a bit burnt so we'll see if the fresh fluid helps any. Maybe it is the inner bearings in the diff carrier - I'll order the Wacetrac LSD I wanted to try out and new bearings and we will get that installed soon.
Before we loaded up the car it was pushed outside, put up on jack stands, and the fender wells and underside got a much needed washing. It was nasty under there. We mounted up some 275/35/18 Hoosiers A6s to the 18x10s for TX2K, so maybe it will have some grip.
The National Tour is Fri-Sunday so its going to be a long weekend and a lot of towing across Texas. And there's more events the following weekend, so I might wait until that weekend is past before my next update.
We are running MSR-H's 2.4 mile course clockwise for TX2K12 tomorrow, supposedly
More soon,