Post autocross pics and race-keeper data

[m3kerry]

Big wheels... Why do people like these things? They are hell to buy race rubber for.

[m3kerry]

Quick thoughts,

The car and I ran RAW times of mid pack STR drivers, which is not good. It was a small lot and I could not get power down with Hoosier 295 A6's. This is only my 5 pass in the car and my 3rd autocross in 1.5 years, so I lot of it being slow is me right now.

I am headed to dixie Thursday to race on a big course with places for the to stretch its legs a little.

[MDORPHN]

Originally Posted by m3kerry

Quick thoughts,

The car and I ran RAW times of mid pack STR drivers, which is not good. It was a small lot and I could not get power down with Hoosier 295 A6's. This is only my 5 pass in the car and my 3rd autocross in 1.5 years, so I lot of it being slow is me right now.

I am headed to dixie Thursday to race on a big course with places for the to stretch its legs a little.

Any chance the 295s were just too much rubber to adequately heat up on a short course?

Also, did that much stagger (265/295) create greater understeer?

Thanks.

Neil

[m3kerry]

Car never understeered and I never got any real heat in the tires.

The rear felt ready to slide out in the sweeper. I was runn 36 psi in the rear. I would go lower next time. I could not really hammer it coming off of the turns.

I never hit a cone or spun the car, which means I never really found the edge. I did not run the last 3 runs of the day. I had to go but I think I would have pushed until I spun the car to find the edge.

The long layoff and the lack of time in the car leads to me picking up half a second or better a pass, which is bad. I also ran national STR guy mid packers RAW times, which is off pace too.

If the car was going to be an overdog in A Stock it would win from the start even without a complete build at a local event. The Shelby Mustang in 2007 that I had allowed me and my co-driver to go 1 and 2 at the local events with just tires.

This car may take a little more prep.

[bdaddylo]

What's making the all the clunking sounds in the video?

[m3kerry]

Keys in the arm rest.

[Texas F1]

Good luck at the Dixie Tour this weekend! Looks like this is going to be a huge event. There are three A-stock entries for the Texas Tour the weekend of March 17-18. Have you thought about entering that event? The site at A&M is a huge concrete airfield and will likely be a long course. I won't have my 1M at the event, but I'd like to see one run.

[m3kerry]

Originally Posted by Texas F1

Good luck at the Dixie Tour this weekend! Looks like this is going to be a huge event. There are three A-stock entries for the Texas Tour the weekend of March 17-18. Have you thought about entering that event? The site at A&M is a huge concrete airfield and will likely be a long course. I won't have my 1M at the event, but I'd like to see one run.

I was going to run with Mark but the dixie tour looks like easy tires vs bumping heads with last year's national champion car (not the driver but the car) and another driver car that trophied.

I still only have about 5 passes and just a set of tires on the car. So, while a little pu$$)fied, I am going for the tires and looking at pax to see where the car stands.

If we win tires at dixie, i picked up Hixson BMW as a sponsor for a couple of tires, that gives me a free 2nd set. It also provides the data and time to figure out sway bar and shocks.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by MDORPHN

Any chance the 295s were just too much rubber to adequately heat up on a short course?

Also, did that much stagger (265/295) create greater understeer?

Thanks.

Neil

I highly doubt it... I ran this weekend and also finished midpack... Wasn't able to put the power down without wheelspin... I needed more than the 275/35/18 Continentals..

Originally Posted by m3kerry

Car never understeered and I never got any real heat in the tires.

The rear felt ready to slide out in the sweeper. I was runn 36 psi in the rear. I would go lower next time. I could not really hammer it coming off of the turns.

I had the same issues... The course we had was a ton of offsets... pretty much a course FULL of sweepers at Mineral Wells. I could not get the power down coming out of several of the sweepers and even while transitioning through them, the rear end was threatening to break loose.. I had to give the car a little bit of power and then once it was in a straight line I could goose it more... Anything else and it was wheelspin o rama, like your video at 7 seconds. A friend of mine had the same feeliing with R tires and he got quicker by going from his BFG R1s to Direzzas. I may break down and get some true autocross tires. Strongly considering finding out what RS3s will fit on the 18 x 10s or on stock wheels.

[m3kerry]

Mark are you still running the stock alignment?

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by m3kerry

Mark ate you still running the stock alignment?

yep... Corded the outside of two contintals.. need camber plates badly! Message sent to Terry Fair last night.
Message received and condition noted!

[evoiii90]

Originally Posted by m3kerry

Quick thoughts,

The car and I ran RAW times of mid pack STR drivers, which is not good. It was a small lot and I could not get power down with Hoosier 295 A6's. This is only my 5 pass in the car and my 3rd autocross in 1.5 years, so I lot of it being slow is me right now.

I am headed to dixie Thursday to race on a big course with places for the to stretch its legs a little.

So where were you in the A stock times ??, you mention mid pack compared to STR but I'm curious about where in the field against the other A stock cars...

I haven't done an SCCA event yet but I might soon...

[evoiii90]

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

yep... Corded the outside of two contintals.. need camber plates badly! Message sent to Terry Fair last night.
Message received and condition noted!

Corded already ?? stop showing off by drifting all over the place

I have 4 auto-x and 2 DEs on the StarSpecs 18s I'm using and they're still fine, ie, not corded. How many events do you have on the Conti's ??

[Bimmer-Bob]

Don't want to take this too far OT, but how'd you get the course overlay and that other stuff to show up on video? Looks pretty cool.

[Pete_vB]

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

I could not get the power down coming out of several of the sweepers and even while transitioning through them, the rear end was threatening to break loose.. I had to give the car a little bit of power and then once it was in a straight line I could goose it more... Anything else and it was wheelspin o rama, like your video at 7 seconds.

Yea, the car does suck at putting power down. Not sure how to improve that within rules. Run a full tank of gas, the right tires, maybe toe-in the rear more? Reduce front rebound and rear compression if you've got shocks, more front bar... Not a ton of options? The Nationals pavement is sticky enough that A6s might do OK there...

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

A friend of mine had the same feeliing with R tires and he got quicker by going from his BFG R1s to Direzzas.

In my experience R1s suck for autocross- I'm not surprised.

[m3kerry]

Originally Posted by evoiii90

So where were you in the A stock times ??, you mention mid pack compared to STR but I'm curious about where in the field against the other A stock cars...

I haven't done an SCCA event yet but I might soon...

No other A Stock cars there, just pax racing. The field of 80 i paxed 11th. The field had several national trophy winners in it. I beat some and lost to some that will never sniff the trophies at nationals. So, no real read on the car.

The 1st event i ran in the car i raw timed the field and won pax with a dirty stretch time. So, the car has it in it to be good and i just hard some bad advise on starting psi.

I am going to move the psi down and see what happens, plus an alignment on thursday.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by evoiii90

Corded already ?? stop showing off by drifting all over the place

I have 4 auto-x and 2 DEs on the StarSpecs 18s I'm using and they're still fine, ie, not corded. How many events do you have on the Conti's ??

Well... remember that they are takeoffs... so they are used.

I also found that my air pressure gauge appears to be reading about 4 lbs higher than actual... (compared to a friend's digital guage this past weekend, and also a third analog guage) so... i have likely been running them with too low a pressure by going with the gauge.

At any rate... A few weekends in sub optimal tems (one day was temps in the 30s to 40s) probably didnt help. They tires are not corded on the tread.. but on the EDGE of the tire where they have been rolling over..

[m3kerry]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Don't want to take this too far OT, but how'd you get the course overlay and that other stuff to show up on video? Looks pretty cool.

I sell race-keeper data loggers. It will do gps overlay and show you the parking lot while looking at the split times on the runs. It is a power tool when used with a co-driver.

I co-drive with one of the best autocross drivers in the nation. When we started i was a full 2 seconds off of him on a 60 second course. We started using a data logger and i started learning.

My co-driver was beating me at the starting line onto the course by .3 to .5 seconds was the 1st thing we saw with the data logger. He carried 1st gear out longer and i was short shifting.

The next thing was he drove more total distance a lot of times compared to me. This gave him more speed on the straights.

He was faster in about 2 corners than me on most courses. I learned to move my lines and picked up another second.

Slaloms we were about even. He uses a jerking throttle patting style vs my tight distance management style with a set throttle entry and a steady squeeze of the throttle to the end.

I went from being mid pack to being able to see the last couple of trophy spots all with the use of the race-keeper.

Pm me for pricing and a free camera with purchase.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by m3kerry

Mark ate you still running the stock alignment?

car is still bone stock, yes.

[m3kerry]

Got the car aligned today. About -1.2 for camber in the front and -2 in the rear. Total toe in the rear was 3/8 stock but it was not even. We corrected it.

We will see after dixie.

[mattm]

Did you search for any TSBs where you can knock out the alignment pin for the strut tops? Any toe out in the front?

[Mr_M]

Off topic: Is that an app to record the video with the gauges?