This weekend was my first sprint race. After the enduro at Kershaw, I improved my camber as well as I could, as well as my toe. I also followed the conventional wisdom to remove my front sway bar.

At Summit, the qualifying sessions went ok, except that I was 2 seconds slower than I had been at the school this spring. On 225 Hoosiers, R3S04s. At the school I ran toyos, and a mix of s04s and S03s. Frustrating. The car just didn't seem to want to turn. it is porbably me, as in my driving style, since so many people seem to get faster without a front sway, not slower.
Anyway, I qualified 13th in ITA out of 17 and finished 11th out of 14. There was a big crash on the start, and another ITA guy pulled in (mechanical issues?).
I spent the race playing with the ITB folks. It was enjoyable, but FRUSTRATING.

Anybody got an HF front sway for sale?

First vid: False Start http://www.we-todd-did-racing....DE%3D
Second vid: Real Start - watch on left for the crash http://www.we-todd-did-racing....DE%3D
Third vid: my bone headed move for the weekend. http://www.we-todd-did-racing....DE%3D

enjoy.
S.

 

Congrats on the regional license.

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Third vid: my bone headed move for the weekend. http://www.we-todd-did-racing....DE%3D
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I think you did a pretty good job of staying ahead of the rotation with the corrections. It's really hard not to over correct in those situations. A lot of newer drivers (including myself) probably would have just spun it. I imagine after the initial correction kicked me back the other direction, I probably would have just locked them up and rode it out.

 

&lt;best motoring voice&gt;taaaanka slaparruuuuu!

 

Nice save, and congrats. You almost looked like this guy:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1272525

 

There must be something wrong with the setup on that car seabass. The formula for that car is well written and proven, and it should be pretty good as you just ran it.

I thought the car was fairly awful at CMP (I was really no faster in it than I am in my ITC car) but I thought it was the alignment and front sway.
If the car is still awful, you need to start looking for something that might be broken/torn/binding in the front suspension.
As I told you at CMP, the rear of the car felt pretty good, the front was fairly unresponsive to inputs (especially rights) unless I drastically yanked it around. If its still doing that with no front bar and correct alignment, something ain't right.

 

Congrats! Now onto the real question. HOw the hell was that brand new tow beast of yours?

I am sure amazing!!

 

actually, my plan is to take the whole front end apart and look closely at all the parts. the car actually pulls to the right a fair bit. I tried to let go of the wheel on the front straight (coming out of the pits, not at speed ) and the car pulls quite a bit.
I wonder if there is something bent in there. What kind of mis-alignment would make a car pull to one side?

I know of at least 2 fast people who run a small front sway bar. And then the rest of the world runs without... So, I am going to get a small front sway and leave it unconnected. First, I'll try to fix the alignment issues and go to a test day. Maybe I can con a hot shoe into coming with me to get it right.

In other news, 225-45/15 Hoosiers do NOT fit on an EF. Mine rubbed on both the control arm, AND the fender. My rear tires are pretty much trashed. And the fronts rubbed on the fenders.
hmm, I wonder how wide the 225-45/15 Toyos really are? If they're like Hoosiers 205s, I may get a set until I get the car sorted out. No reason to waste good expensive rubber on an ill-handling car.

Oh, and the truck tows well. I did need to downshift to 5th up the big hill coming back from summit, but that's only because I wanted to stay above 65mph. I got a Quad box coming next week...
Otherwise, once at speed, I forget the car is there until I look in the mirror...

 

Heat + Humidity = Slower car (but not 2 seconds slower)

The track records at Summit are almost always set in early Spring or late Fall.

I'm with Catch - sounds like something is bent.

Does your car have those radius rod things? Did you install the solid bushings on them? I know Lt. Dan had issues with the solid bushings he was using on the front end of the radius rods (Street Mod CRX), but I don't recall the details.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crack Monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Heat + Humidity = Slower car (but not 2 seconds slower)
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I dunno, I was about 2 seconds off my previous pace at summit during hyperfest... the heat/humidity made the engine feel like it had no *****, and took the same toll on me and my concentration.

 

well, there were still people running 1:28s and 29s in ITA, so I don't think the weather had so much to do with it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What kind of mis-alignment would make a car pull to one side?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Toe? Caster problem? Also...dragging caliper? Failing wheel bearing? I'm with Scott. Something's bent or otherwise fundamentally wrong.

Regardless, congrats on the license. Still need to turn mine in.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...I spent the race playing with the ITB folks. It was enjoyable, but FRUSTRATING...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Congrats on finishing your second race.

... oh you mean I would have had someone to "race" if I actually showed up.

Seriously though, good luck sorting out the car.

 

Karl: good suggestions for the sticking caliper. I didn't think of that, so I'll check it out. The front end is coming apart, even if that means that I have to miss the august race. I'm not turning my permit in until the end of the year (when my membership expires) no need to pay the fee twice.

Dave: actually, as slow as i was, you would have been racing up ahead of me, with the fast ITB guys.

 

What times were you turning? If you beat a 1:34, you can at least take solace in being faster than I ever was in the Spec RX-7.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crack Monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What times were you turning? If you beat a 1:34, you can at least take solace in being faster than I ever was in the Spec RX-7.</TD></TR></TABLE>

RX-7s are slow though... Congrats SR! Will you be racing at hyperfest? The H4 class is looking pretty good!

 

can't make it to hyperfizzy this year again. maybe next year? The only NASA event I can go to this year will the be the september race.

and yes, I did beat a 1:34, not by much. I was running best time in the low 1:33s yesterday, averaging 1:34s. At the school in spring, I was running 1:31s best, averaging high 1:32s, IIRC.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">and yes, I did beat a 1:34, not by much. I was running best time in the low 1:33s yesterday, averaging 1:34s. At the school in spring, I was running 1:31s best, averaging high 1:32s, IIRC.</TD></TR></TABLE>

1:31s on a novice permit and on Toyos? That's not bad at all.

Maybe you should ignore Catch and put it back how it was? How fast were you in the car the same weekend that Catch co-drove?

 

the weekend at CMP was kinda hard to judge, it was quite wet. however, Renee was significantly faster than either of us in the slow portion of the track in the ITC car...
The more I think about it, the more I think something is bent, so the plan is:

0- get a set of tires that will fit (not rub and be consistent) - likely shaved Toyos.
1- examine all front end components (comparing side to side, and with my spares)
2- fix/replace anything that could be broken/bent/bound
3- re-corner weigh the car (anybody got scales?)
4- get it aligned by a pro shop
5- install a small HF front bar
6- test with the bar connected and disconnected
7- keep the fastest setup.
8- race and work on the driver

 

At CMP the front end of the car was all goobered up, so about the only feedback I could give was... "Uhhh... Its all goobered up."
It somehow had about -5 camber on the RF and -2.5 on the LF. Since Seabass didn't set it that way on purpose I'm assuming it also had the gobs of toe-in that would come with such a massive camber addition.

But, as Seabass mentioned Renee was whipping us in the corners in my car, which is the EXACT same chassis (even year) with the EXACT same suspension set-up with the exception of the front bar (and goobered alignment).
She smoked me so badly in the carousel that I didn't catch back up to her until turn 8, where she smoked me again. I finally got by her in 11. All this and she was turning laps quite a bit slower than I typically do in my car.
So had the engine and tranny been equal, my car would have unmercifully smoked the froggy that weekend. It was THAT ugly.

My best guess is that something got bent or slipped at the Nelson school. Or maybe during the "drive off the trailer incident" if that in fact happened after the Summit school (I don't remember). But all evidence points to a suspension failure of some sort on the front of the car.

 

Sebastien, on the tires not fitting; looking at the Hoosiers, I'd be surprised if a 225 will fit on an Civic/CRX in either 14 OR 15 x 7. I know it will fit albeit snugly (and in my case w/ a little rub on the trailing arm and fender lip) on a 14x6 (would assume the same for a 15x6). You might want to see if you can mount those 225s on a 15x6 (if you haven't already tried) to see if that corrects your clearance issues.

Just a thought on CMP. I don't know when in the weather pattern you are talking about HOWEVER, overdriving the car for even a lap or two can send you down a very slippery slope. We did an ECR there a few years ago and I had a car that would not even make the T5 turn-in by lap 2. Not saying anything as fact but just noting that a car that is off the charts bad at CMP might not really be that bad elsewhere. Now if you are not able to turn in in the wet at Kershaw, I got no experience w/ that.

I'd be interested if the small front sway bar changes anything. If so, I'd wonder if you have something moving around that the swaybar was otherwise holding in place. Best of luck.

 

Sebastian:

I am going to be at the July 23-24 regional at the Glen, and plan on doing the test day Friday the 22. I will be doing some spring testing. If you can manage to get to that event or even to the test day on Friday I will be glad to try and help you out.

Besides I put up a little pot money for all you guys with my motors.

Tom Blaney

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The more I think about it, the more I think something is bent...
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Sebastien,

Yeah the more you think about, it the more I'm wondering if the off-course excursion at the DC school may have bent something.

Just a thought.

 

that's my thought as well.
The trailer incident that Scott speaks about only involved the rear end of the car (ahem, trying to unload the car but forgot the ramps ) and I have only gone off course once at the DC school prior to this last weekend at summit (3 off-courses, 2 of them my fault)

So, either I bent something when i landed sideways in the gravel trap, or there is something seriously loose with the car somewhere.