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Dave_W

Cones - not just for ice cream
984
1,277
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Connecticut
Would it be a problem that it's used for competition?
There is an exception for "racing, off-road, or other driving competition."

Personally, if I'm driving the car to/from autocrosses and maybe some regular street driving, I'd say the car is a street vehicle. If I'm trailering to events, then I'd consider it a racing/competition vehicle. It's a personal judgement call.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,519
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
There is an exception for "racing, off-road, or other driving competition."

Personally, if I'm driving the car to/from autocrosses and maybe some regular street driving, I'd say the car is a street vehicle. If I'm trailering to events, then I'd consider it a racing/competition vehicle. It's a personal judgement call.
If it has a licence plate and/or has less than a full cage it is not a race car.
To me autocross is basically spirited parking lot driving, I wouldn't view it as "Racing" per se'.
At least that's how I view it, and if it gets him free shocks, who cares? ;)

I mean, how much harder are you on the shocks in a 1:30 run through pylons than you would be carving through canyons for an hour?
I'm not saying Autocross isn't competitive, just that the amount of stress on the parts isn't as severe.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,519
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
Koni approved my warranty claim for the strut that was leaking. I just need to ship it to them but unfortunately I need to put it back on the car for a couple weeks until the new ones come in. I'm curious now if I could warranty my old rear shocks but I don't know what exactly to put on the claim. When they are compressed they don't return, I assume the gas has leaked out of them. Any ideas on those?
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
I got the new Bridgestones mounted this morning. The stack of Bridgestones next to the the stack of mounted Yoks was considerably taller but once mounted they are near identical. The Bridgestones look like they have a little more wheel protection. The Yoks have a noticeably more square profile as apposed to the the Bridgestones which are more round like a motorcycle tire. Very interesting, I could see how the 'stones might not need as much camber.
IMG_7958.JPG
IMG_7971.JPG
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PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
I got the old struts put back on yesterday. I went ahead and put on the new 450lb springs and did a quick corner weight. I'm gonna have to do it all over again when the new struts get here so I didn't get real involved.

This is total weight without me in the car. 3117lbs.
IMG_7976.JPG

This is with me in the car. This also has the nitrous bottle which is usually out for going around corners. I'm not sure if there is anyway to get some more weight on the right rear corner. The battery and nitrous bottle are both back there. As soon as I can get over to my dad's shop I'm going to double check the front camber and toe also. I might back the camber off just a touch and try a hair of toe out. It should be at 0 toe and about -4 camber right now but I need to confirm.
IMG_7977.JPG

corner weight.JPG
 

Dave_W

Cones - not just for ice cream
984
1,277
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Connecticut
Can you take any weight out of the car from the front left? If I'm thinking correctly (and I've been up all night watching Le Mans, so that's not guaranteed), that would lighten the LF-RR cross weight, and then you can re-adjust the spring perches to jack weight from the RF-LR diagonal over to the LF-RR until your cross weights are equal again.
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
The only weight to be saved on the LF is if I moved the Accusump or radiator overflow somewhere else. I put off installing the Accusump for months because I couldn't figure out where to put it, lol.

IMG_7700.jpg

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PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
My dad's shop is full of crap so I had to check out the alignment in the driveway which is far less than perfect. The camber was pretty jacked up side to side for some reason. You can see in the picture in my last post that both sides were nearly maxed out in the same direction. I was at -2.8° on the LF and -3.8°on the RF. I set them both to -3.2°. I didn't need to make any toe adjustments, it was still sitting at 1/8" toe out.
IMG_7982.JPG
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City Event #4 this weekend. Saturday was a school but also a test and tune for the instructors. This was my first time ever instructing and it was pretty fun. My student was a lady in her 50's driving a 350Z. She had a few track days under her belt but only a couple autocrosses. She was very coachable which definitely helped me. Over the course of the day she dropped 4.5 seconds on a mid 40 second course. You could really see things starting to click for her and put it all together. It was pretty rewarding.

Luckily we got some test and tune time because my car was undriveable. When I put the new springs on the front (425 > 450) I also put the rear sway bar in the firmest hole (4 of 4). I also started playing with the knobs on the Koni's for the first time to see if I could actually get them tuned in a little better. I started out with them at full soft. These were all terrible mistakes. The car was undriveable. Through the slalom the back end got more and more out of control after every cone to the point of nearly spinning out. I dropped the rear sway bar back down to hole 3 of 4 where it was before and this helped a ton. Then I started adding rebound on the back 1/2 turn at a time. This got the car back to normal and feeling pretty good on the 275 Kumhos. The front is still completely soft on the rebound damping but it feels really good. No more of the mid-corner to corner exit push that it normally has.

Sunday I swapped on the 295 RE71RS's for the first time and I love how they feel. They seem much more precise than the Yoks. I'm still playing with tire pressures to see what they like but ended up at 29 hot. I think I'll still try to drop them down another psi or two next time out. For reference I've been running 27F/28R on the Yoks.

I finished 1st in CAM-T out of 4. 7th RAW and 5th of 103 in PAX.
event 4 class.JPG
Event 4 pax.JPG
Event 4 raw.JPG

I've developed this terrible habit of driving with one hand, I don't know why. I'll work on it.
 
267
283
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Virginia
Kansas City Event #4 this weekend. Saturday was a school but also a test and tune for the instructors. This was my first time ever instructing and it was pretty fun. My student was a lady in her 50's driving a 350Z. She had a few track days under her belt but only a couple autocrosses. She was very coachable which definitely helped me. Over the course of the day she dropped 4.5 seconds on a mid 40 second course. You could really see things starting to click for her and put it all together. It was pretty rewarding.
I never thought of myself as a teacher or that knowledgeable, but it can be quite fun and rewarding instructing a novice. I didn't realize how much I actually knew. Instructing isn't something I'll volunteer for, but when asked I have no problem helping out.
Sunday I swapped on the 295 RE71RS's for the first time and I love how they feel. They seem much more precise than the Yoks. I'm still playing with tire pressures to see what they like but ended up at 29 hot. I think I'll still try to drop them down another psi or two next time out. For reference I've been running 27F/28R on the Yoks.
I'm really liking the RE71RS' as well. I've never been on Yoks before though. Your tire pressures are interesting. I know setups are different but I'm currently running 33F/28R. I'm just starting to get some outside rollover at that point. Inside edge still looks new. Temperatures look ok with probe, but still learning.
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
I'm really liking the RE71RS' as well. I've never been on Yoks before though. Your tire pressures are interesting. I know setups are different but I'm currently running 33F/28R. I'm just starting to get some outside rollover at that point. Inside edge still looks new. Temperatures look ok with probe, but still learning.
That's interesting. I'm not even to the triangle on the edge of the tread yet, even on the back. I'm at -3.2° camber on the front. I know a couple of the really fast Corvette guys are down to 26psi.
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
I made a revision to my sway bar setup on the front. For the past couple years I've been using an endlink setup that I made. It utilized the factory bushing style setup on the sway bar side and a custom bracket and heim joint on the control arm side. I could be completely wrong but I feel like there is likely some binding going on. Not to mention it's a pain to adjust without getting some preload on one side or the other that end up affecting the corner weights. I wanted to get away from using the bushing completely and use a heim joint on both sides. It's tricky though because there isn't physically much space between the control and the sway bar (only 3.75"). There isn't enough room to do two heim joints.
Here's a picture.
IMG_2673 (2).JPG

This weekend I bought a bunch of heim joints and misc crap to play with and stare at until I finally came up with a solution. The first thing I tried was a heim joint mounted to the control arm and one to the sway bar and then bolted directly together. This seemed like a good idea at first until I starting putting much thought into it. With the heim joints bolted together it allowed too much movement and wouldn't actually act against the sway bar until there was enough movement to put the joint in a bind at the end of it's travel.
IMG_8078.JPG

Then it occurred to me to make more room between the sway bar and control arm so I could fit a longer endlink. I'm not sure why I never did this before. I just removed the giant spacer on the sway bar. Since I'm using a 25% underdrive crank pulley this didn't create any clearance issues and gave me another 2-3" of space to work with.
IMG_8080.JPG

Clearance after removal.
IMG_8092 (1).JPG

Now with all that space to work with I just needed to pick the right combination of hardware to make it fit. I kept the heim joint on the sway bar and then used my original bracket on the control arm side. Then I just used a male thread heim joint and a female thread end yoke and it all bolted right up. This will make adjustments MUCH easier as well as make the sway bar more efficient. No more wasted movement to compress the bushings. I'm really happy with how it turned out and wish I would have thought of it sooner.
IMG_8090.JPG

The angle of the picture makes it look close but there's still plenty of room around everything to travel.
IMG_8094.JPG
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
Event #2 on the Bridgestones went well. I broke into the top 10 in both PAX and RAW against some top notch drivers at the Wichita Divisional. I was able to pull out the win in CAM-T in a pretty large field of 10 cars. @Cobraaph also drove the car in CP and won by over 2 seconds beating me in my own car by .04!!
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I'm really liking the Bridgestones much better than the Yoks. They really don't seem to care about the heat at all. Al was driving second in the same heat as me and went faster than me all day without spraying. I ended up at 27F and 28R for tire pressure for our last heat and we both ran our fastest time of the day. The Yoks would have absolutely need to be sprayed and they would probably have still overheated and got greasy.
I'm sitting in 1st place in the Division for the year but unfortunately duty calls. I have drill the weekend of the Lincoln event so if Pat goes I'm sure he's going to pass me up to win the season. I'm really happy with where the car is at right now and I still have the new Koni's to put on the front when I get back home(currently in California for 3 weeks). With Al going faster than me it proves the car has more in it. He's incredibly more smooth than me. Still not going to be able to make nationals this year but I think with another year of tweaking my driving and the car I can make a solid appearance in 2024.
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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,352
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Sorry if the old Instructor is coming out of me, but you are fast and you could be even faster if you had both hands on the wheel. Especially with Autocrossing , you need the precision for quick response and one hand is never better than two. You would get the same critique if you were on a road course and this tiny tip will help you get more speed.

Congrats on the win!
 

PatientZero

@restless_performance
825
865
Exp. Type
Autocross
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Kansas City, Missouri
Sorry if the old Instructor is coming out of me, but you are fast and you could be even faster if you had both hands on the wheel. Especially with Autocrossing , you need the precision for quick response and one hand is never better than two. You would get the same critique if you were on a road course and this tiny tip will help you get more speed.

Congrats on the win!
I know Bill. It's a bad habit I didn't know I had until I started putting the camera in the car. I'll work on it.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,352
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Common habit for so many folks and it is actually even hard on the transmission ( constant weight on the shifter , which seems so light but can be tough on the gearbox ). I will guarantee you will gain time with both hands, and since when autocrossing , one can lose by a few tenths, this could be a major jump where you gain those tiny fragments of a second than often secure wins!
 
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