Road Race Build - SCCA T4

[pgranberg11]

Originally Posted by Totemo_Hayai

Thanks! I'll plan on adjusting the exposure to expose the track properly, a clear picture of the car's interior doesn't matter much.


Here's a video from Saturday on the same weekend. Exposure is still messed up but the racing is pretty good.

connect the gopro and use the app on your phone. Set it to manual exposure and set to -2. It remembers the setting so it's a set it and forget it. You can start the recording from your phone too...

[Totemo_Hayai]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Turn on spot metering, and position the camera slightly higher, and you'll be good!

If you want to capture footwork and shifting/steering, get a second dedicated camera for in-car only

Originally Posted by pgranberg11

connect the gopro and use the app on your phone. Set it to manual exposure and set to -2. It remembers the setting so it's a set it and forget it. You can start the recording from your phone too...

I adjusted the position of the camera and went with setting the exposure to -2. On Saturday I attempted to move the camera back which didn't work well at all. Sunday I moved the camera forward and up a bit. Here is the result:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vk6CQoJdWs[/ame]


Some notes from the weekend:
During Saturday qualifying/practice I missed a shift at the end of the back straight. When I released the clutch into 2nd gear at 80mph the car immediately spun and I went off track. Fortunately I managed to avoid the wall and didn't shoot back across the track so other cars were able to avoid me. This was the first of three events that nearly wrecked the car. After this event I drove through the hot pits and got back on track for a flyer. This happened to be the fastest time we've been able to achieve in a T4 FRS at 1:30.49 on the original set of Hoosier R7s I started the season on.


Unfortunately, I could not replicate this lap for the rest of the weekend which was really frustrating. My fastest times have typically been set during races. I think there are two issues that caused this (1) I haven't had enough practice time to figure out how to drive this car and (2) my brakes don't feel so great which makes it difficult to drive in a precise manner. I still don't have brake cooling and my pad setup is a mashup of Reybestos ST47 front and Cobalt XR2 in the rear with no brake ducting. I will probably try to run all of next season and XR1 front and rear. I'm hesitant to try the ST45s that Rice_Classic uses because I could not get them to work at all on my Integra.


The 2nd incident where the car almost got wrecked was towards the end of the video where I drive off track in the chicane chasing a pesky BMW. This is due to fatigue and because I couldn't see the track through the BMW so I missed my marks.



Third incident is when my wife was driving. A bunch of cars got piled up in the Chicane. She made the right reaction and moved to the side though it would be preferred if she went in there more prepared because the initial wreck can be seen in the video. It all happened very quickly and the car behind her smashed into the others so she did quite well. Applying brakes will never work in this situation because the cars behind will smash into you. Very sad to see all those cars wrecked. Video of that race start is here:


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhNosppmM4U[/ame]


Happily, despite my antics the car is still dent free and hopefully it will stay this week at our final race of the season this weekend.



Looking forward to trying the stiff front bar with the Eibach rear bar set to soft this weekend. Even more exciting is the prospect of better tires and brakes next season.

[CrowsFeast]

Granted I make no claims of being ready for wheel-to-wheel but to give your wife a little more credit; I had to watch the twice to see the initial incident.

Also; that red Miata seemed to spin on what I thought was no more than a less-than-straight rather than a corner. Any idea what happened there?

[rice_classic]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

Granted I make no claims of being ready for wheel-to-wheel but to give your wife a little more credit; I had to watch the twice to see the initial incident.

Also; that red Miata seemed to spin on what I thought was no more than a less-than-straight rather than a corner. Any idea what happened there?

The wrecked cars that were still able to move under their own power drove on that part of the track before they could get behind the wall. So the exit of the chicane became a fluid covered “ice rink”. After a few laps it was drivable again.

[Totemo_Hayai]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

Granted I make no claims of being ready for wheel-to-wheel but to give your wife a little more credit; I had to watch the twice to see the initial incident.

She reacted really well. You have to be hyper-vigilant there during race starts because people mess it up all the time. Even the Indy Cars last year screwed it up royally. In club racing the first priority should be to form two lines and get through there without contact. Some people get overly concerned with gaining an advantage and forget that it doesn't really matter who's technically at fault.

[Totemo_Hayai]

Some quick notes for those contemplating a set of shocks for a T4 build or track car. Keep in mind that T4 is limited to non-adjustable shocks. There are some specialized non-adjustable shocks available from MCS and others for lots of money. My car came with Bilstein B8s installed so I decided to retain them and see how they work out.


The important parts are:
1) The Bilstein B8s still drive fine and the car is competitive with rice_classic's now MCS equipped car. Both of us are setting lap records this year. I was worried that I would also have to buy MCS shocks in order to keep up, but that apparently isn't necessary. B8/B14 will probably be sufficient for most people. I still plan on upgrading at some point, hopefully after adjustable shocks are allowed in T4. The non-adjustable shock rule has good intentions behind it, but was poorly implemented.


2) Corner balancing can be achieved from the use of two camber bolt sets. Only the front preload can be adjusted, but it is able to provide a meaningful impact on cross weights. It's not as good as having a threaded body, but it is better than nothing and it's cheap. B14s have a threaded body so this method doesn't apply to them.


Weights before and after adjustment of the camber bolts are on the left and right respectively.

I use the silver mark across the strut and knuckle to get an idea of how much the preload has changed.

So if you're setting up a car for track use don't get hung up on having to spend thousands on a shock setup. Do read the rulebook and try to target mods for a low prep class like T4. This will encourage sensible spending, make it easier to possibly switch to racing in the future, and provide a good benchmark for lap times. Lots of people like the idea of STL, but STL cars literally are an order of magnitude more expensive to make competitive.

[Turfer]

New build thread so I can go play with Totemo_Hayai and rice-classic. We all used to race Hondas/Acuras in ITA and H4. Now we can play in T4.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...57#post3393257