Skidmarc said:

Where exactly on the body was the harness rubbing?

Click to expand...

On the passenger side front of the engine where the engine harness tucks under the valve cover.

Update on the Ram Concept 9.5 twin disc clutch and AL flywheel. With this setup you really need to remove the clutch pedal helper spring.

This clutch is noticeably lighter than stock and together with the stock helper spring, it was creating this problem where on the bottom half of the pedal travel, the pedal was slow to come back up, and then in the top half the pedal would spring back with more force than expected. Hard to modulate. Worse, on track at redline the clutch pedal was sticking on the floor for a moment and was slow to return upwards.

Removing the helper spring fixed these problems entirely and as of right now I’m loving this clutch with no spring at all. When you see how the spring is installed you can see the problem. It’s oriented so that the spring is most compressed in the middle of the clutch pedal travel, and extends at the top and bottom.

The 1500 rpm resonance of the AL flywheel continues to annoy me slightly. I thiiiiiiink to do it again I’d stay with the stock flywheel just for daily drivability but it’s a close call. At the track I love it. Downshifting is awesome and so much fun.

This sucker is surprisingly stiff, internet says 200lb/inch. It’s hard to compress.

The shocks were gone on my Cortex rear coilovers so I rebuilt them using standard Koni 30 dampers. I used the same part number that Cortex uses.

I bought these coilovers second hand so I didn’t feel comfortable bothering Cortex for too much tech support on new replacements. Plus I just wanted to fix them quickly and get back on the road. Cortex says they custom valve these dampers so I don’t know exactly how much different they are from the standard ones I bought from Koni. But the new ones work great imo.

I knew the old ones were done but I didn’t appreciate just how done until I got them out.

As I was getting all this little stuff sorted out I made it back out to our local track, Palmer, a couple of times recently. Between car problems and life getting in the way a bit, i hadn’t driven there in a couple seasons.

The first day back with the clutch pedal spring problem and the blown rear shocks and on some worn out 275 hankook rs4s, I was able to run about 1.56 minute laps. Handling was even worse than I expected with no rear shocks.

Day 2 with problems fixed and 305 3Rs, the car was amazing, fastest it’s ever been, 8 seconds faster than day before which wasn’t really surprising but also 3 seconds better than my prior best. Better yet the car just ran and handled great. Super fun and satisfying day as this car has been beating me up a bit. I feel like we made up and are in a better place going forward lol.

Cool shot of Palmer, hidden in there is a Mustang coming down off the mountain.

T1 at Palmer

Camber plates create wild looking angles with the inside front tire in corners. But somehow it all just works as everyone knows.

Off topic but my buddy’s very sweet Exige is always a hit at any car show or track day.

Was curious about your "lots of granite to hit". Went to the track website. That is one beautiful place but 100% intimidating place to learn. I don't know if id call it a track or a hill climb circuit.
Love the Saab Viggen also.