Alright, that was a long weekend. It is pretty rare for me to say, but I actually had a ton of fun - everyone I met was super nice and helpful, the track was absolutely insane, and the weather was polar opposite from Arizona. I got out of my truck yesterday to unload and I was like why tf do I live in Arizona?
I can't thank Abe, Pat, and Patrick M enough for their help on getting the track figured out. Suggestions like turn into the corkscrew when the pylon comes across the A pillar, the weird curbing change in turn 11, short shifting to 4th up 7, staying in 5th through 4, etc were all really a lot of help.
Track map for context:
On my end of things, I made a lot of mistakes.
I figured out that with my wheels, camber choice, and tires I need to run a small spacer to prevent rubbing on the spring. Fortunately, I had 5mm ones in my track box but I'll find some 3mm for the future.
The car felt fantastic on entry but was mildly pushy mid corner, on throttle, and exit. I didn't realize how bad it was until I noticed I basically corded the outside front in six 30 minute sessions on Friday (plus 4 prior HC from a previous event). The car would not rotate anywhere no matter what, but it also didn't have terminal understeer so I kind of left everything alone while I figured out the track. Tire wear on the other 3 was perfect.
Mistake.
I had to swap to the second set of new RC1s I'd brought with me for Sat/Sun.
On Saturday I threw everything I possibly could at the car to loosen it up. I realized I hadn't paid attention to the actual Perrin bar and that there had been a revision or something so I'd accidentally set it to full stiff into full soft as I'd expected.
Note soft hole alignment with bar in instruction image versus actual bar. This is on me for not taking two seconds to think with my own brain.
Set the front bar to full soft, rear bar to full stiff, wacked in all the camber, raised the rear of the car a few turns, took all of the wing out, and rotated the front tires side to side every two sessions for the rest of the weekend but it was still pushy in the same corners but I was out of options.
Context:
TT5 lap record - 1:59.3
86Cup Unlimited record - 2:01.996
I think there were 8 or 10? cars in class both days
On Saturday the quickest I went was 2:04:365. I think I finished 4th in TT5, there are no official results posted and I don't know everyones name to sort it all out.
Sunday I got help from Pat and Abe and was able to follow Patrick in his TT4 FRS on Hoosiers, dropped down to a 2:03:226 but based on how it was trending I should have been able to run a 2:02 without dumb mistakes or if I ran the 3rd session properly.
Instead of running session 3 like normal, I ended up taking the wing off the car for science / to see how it'd change the balance. I noticed it most in turn 1, tiptoed through 4 to not die just in case, felt it in 5, felt less push in 7, and felt the car be a bit more loose through 10. I went 2:03:6 without a wing.
I think I finished 4th on Sunday too, missed third by 0.01.
Anyway, here is a video of my quickest lap. Other than almost dying in turn 7 I see a few spots to carry more speed (1, 4, 10). It also has my quickest no wing lap, always happy to take input or more hints for figuring this place out.
All in all, I'd hoped to be a bit more competitive lap time wise but that is just how it goes. It is actually kinda rare to drive with cars closely locally so I actually had an absolute blast being around a pack of similar pace cars. I'll for sure be back for the event next year.
Where does that leave me for fixing the balance?
Another major factor that I hadn't mentioned yet was that I got the front ride height horribly wrong. My front pinch welds are too mangled to measure so I guestimated based on how I thought pinch weld height correlated to hub center to fender. Turns out I was running the front way too low so a lot of the push was probably coming from hammering the bump stops.
I'm going to be adjusting the spring rates, currently working out what those rates will be right now. It was my mistake as far as getting these things wrong, fortunately it is an easy fix.
I leave you with a weeee picture and a congratulations to Justin for winning TT4 and getting his 1:59. Also a congratulations to my other region friend, Cameron with the LS RX8, who won TT3.
