Dover Event Last Weekend
 

I wish I could have been at the meet last weekend to add more Hot Lava to the rainbow, but I had other stuff... I know Brady @Pure Automotive was busy prepping for his meet, but I have to give props for getting my car ready last week for the SCCA Dover National Tour. We had to make some unfortunate last minute adjustments in the paddock before the weekend began, but my co-driver and I ended up 2nd & 4th in RTR against some tough competition. I can come up with all kinds of excuses for why we didn’t do better, but the car still managed to trophy at a National event. We both PAX’d about mid-pack, so there’s work to be done. I’ll be tinkering with the setup all season, but it was nice to get a baseline against some very tough competition.


I actually have video of my best runs for once:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccVe42ax_rQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccVe42ax_rQ[/ame]

Hope to see you all out at an event sometime this year!

Your hot lava addition to the rainbow was missed, let me tell you.

Also, one of my friends was co-driving a miata at Dover. Looked like a blast.

@Biggins I think we should collaborate. Our cars are set up pretty similarly at the moment and your video seems to have a fair amount of understeering squall, which I also have experienced recently. I think we're both on a larger front sway, and I would be curious to chat with you about your experiences with the changes that it has made.

At FedEx earlier in April, the larger bar made things much better, but at CDC in Bowie two weeks ago, I had a terrible time with understeer. It could of course just have been me driving too fast, but I want to see if you have any similiar experiences after your sway bar change.

You gonna be at CDC in Bowie tomorrow?

I'm always willing to share/help out... the biggest issue I've found is that I'm still trying to drive it like an STX/DSP E36. I'm so used to that, it's tough to dial it out of my mind.

80% of the understeer you see in the videos is from OVERdriving. I honestly think the other 20% is because the course was really dusty and we just couldn't get heat in the tires running first heat at 8:30am both days. I don't think moving the sway to the stiffer setting or firmer front shocks would have helped. I just overdrove. I did learn a lot from last weekend, but I'm more confused as to which tire is the best. It's definitely either the Dunlop, BFG, or Hankook.

I really think I just need about 10-15 runs back-to-back in a test-and-tune setting to get used to the car. It's wider and lighter than what I'm accustomed. I DEFINITELY need a real alignment: as much front camber as possible with probably 0 toe front, perhaps 1/8 or 1/16 toe-in in the rear. I haven't decided yet on that. I'm also going to make the car louder soon for super cheap. :)

My co-driver at Dover ran/runs with CDC in his Civic, but their events never seem to fit my schedule. I can't do Saturday, May is not a great month for me; I think the only event I have for May is BMW at Bowie on 18th. I'll be at all the FedEx events, all BMW events, hopefully the DC Pro if I get off the waitlist, most AI, a couple Cumberland weekends, some Susq SCCA, and PERHAPS Nationals. I'll see if I can squeeze a CDC or Corvette event in there too. We'll see how things progress and how I feel about the car. I might end up back in an STX E36 by season's end.