• The 20x8 GY is slightly narrower than the 20x7.5 Hoosier (verified on their websites)
• A good combination can be R35 on the outside tires, and R25 on the inner
• Depending on your car's balance, perhaps even R35 on the outside front, and R25 elsewhere

• A new front splitter setup
• new tire sizes & compounds
• rerouted brake bias cable line
• new APR Performance rear wing elements

·Experiment #1: Wooden front splitter
This was a huge success. No loss of straightaway speed relative to the Radical fiberglass splitter. Had several "offs" and it emerged 100% unscathed. I have some slight rubbing on the bottom, but even at 1 7/8" front ride height (the Goodyears are shorter than the Hoosiers, no wear to speak of. I'm stoked. Length is 24" from bulkhead to front of the car, with a small angle cut out for tire clearance, width is 60". Three "jiggle strip" brackets of .090 aluminum to hold the nose down. Weight is about 13# per, and cost including brackets is about $50 apeice. This is good value.

Some details of the construction: I used 5/8" plywood, and for the shape, traced the profile of the existing Radical splitter. The length from the front of the tub to the end of the splitter is 24", which I chose because that means I can get 2 splitters per sheet of 4x8 plywood. The splitter is fastened to the bottom of the crushbox with countersunk socket-head bolts, with tinnerman washers (from Aircraft Spruce) to spread the load. The jiggle strips holding the nose down are .090 aluminum, bent in a "Z" with about 3/8" rise, and 2" in width. The center one is 10" long, and the two sides are 5" long. Two Dzus fasteners hold the corner of the nose in. A can of black spraypaint finished the job.

Many pictures of its construction are Here.

·Experiment #2: Larger front tires
Also a big success, back-to-backing 20x7x13 Hoosier withthe 20x7.5x13 Hoosier. The car was immediately faster, by approx 1.0 sec with the larger front tires. Difference was in corner entry and mid-corner speeds, according to the data, I could really haul ass into the corner, crank it down to the apex, and then go nuts with the throttle on corner exit. Big difference.

·Experiment #3: Goodyear vs Hoosier At least between these sets of tires, the Goodyear R160's were clearly faster than the R35 Hoosier was. Higher corner speeds everywhere, and they were wearing better for me as well. Tire temps were about ~20-30* warmer with the goodyears, but everything was still cool enough to indicate I might even be able to get away with R25's, even though it was nearly 90* outside. Further testing to determine, but for now, the GY's were definitely quicker.

·Experiment #4: APR Performance wing elements
A qualified success. Significant additional drag, but significant additional grip. Net laptime gain of approx .5 to .75s on a pretty straight track. I continued to reduce wing angle throughout the weekend, and picked up a few of the lost MPH on the straight. Traces under the suction side of the wing (courtesy of somebody with an oil or water leak ahead of me) show airflow separating on the odd "flat" portion of the APR main element profile, so I may try one of their normal "non-cambered" wings that has a more traditional shape to it, and perhaps that will be more efficient, while still providing the additional grip. Corner speeds were way up from a month ago - 5-6mph in 80-100mph corners. The elements I'm using are their 7.5" and 5.5" elements, with a small bracket to mount to the existing Radical uprights.

Many pictures of the wing, endplates, etc, are here.

·Misc Other Tidbits

• I ran the car low on fuel for the first time, and experienced fuel starvation with a significant amount of fuel left in the tank (i.e. at least 2 gallons). This is with a Fuel Safe collector in a ~8 gallon fuel cell. I'll eventually move to the "fuel pot" method that others have used to correct this, but for now, will just continue running the car tipped up with fuel.
• Put some hi-temp paint on the rotors. Burned the 800* paint, but not the 1200* paint. Anybody else ever tried this?
• As mentioned above, I ran the car the last day at 1 7/8" F, 2.3/8" rear ride heights, with no ill effects, on 450/650# springs. Was surprised to find this when arriving home, but it worked quite well, so I'm leaving the car where it is for now. Mild rubbing on the bottom of the front ~1" of the splitter underside, but that's it.
• I relocated the brake bias cable with the Tilton 90* fitting, to prevent the cable from binding on the clutch. This IMMEDIATELY improved brake feel, so that had to have been causing problems. I was able to brake later and deeper at IMI, and all weekend at La Junta. Once I had the bias set, the car feels great on the brakes.
• The Digi-Gear is still unreliable, so I am going to go to absolute basics and power/ground it directly off the battery and see if it will work then.

• I installed the new graphics for the car 5's and "CSR"'s for the noses and sidepods. I also installed the TCE and Built-By-Bones stickers that were missing from the right-hand side of the car all year. I'm happy to be #5 again, it's been my number for sports since I was 8 years old. Reason? If you look at #5 on a telephone, it's my initials .
  Find-The-Differences Noses Picture.
  
  
• I finished installation of the new test brain box and paddles from Paradigm Motorsports. This is rev 2 of the system, which includes a new box to do timing on the shift cuts, and various other niceties. The new harnesses and connectors are really, really nice.
  
  This is going to be a really great system when we have it finalized. The new hall effect sensor for the shift-lever position detection ought to work much better than my previous jury-rigged setup with the switch and relays, so I am very excited to try this out. I found a leak at the regulator gauge, that probably explains why the system was bleeding down before, when I forgot to disconnect the air supply.
  Paddles Wiring 1, Paddles Wiring 2, Paddles Wiring 3
  
  
• Bill Lamkin has been nice enough to loan me one of the recorders he uses for in-car video in his car. I mounted that right next to the Paradigm box, and the spacing/install of everything worked out *perfectly*. I ran power/ground for the mic and camera through the "cockpit power blocks" - visible with their silver caps in the pictures.
  
  I scored a used 480-line chasecam off of eBay for $75, along with a partial EZ20 mount, so when that arrives (assuming all is well...), I will mount the camera, and finish running the various wires. the A/V cable is also run in the conduit with the power and ground cables.
  Cockpit Wiring 1, Cockpit Wiring 2
  
  
• The wiring is now completely done, I think. On the car, every system is loomed separately, so when I'm debugging, it should be easy to isolate any wires I need to work with, since the main car harness, ECU harness, GI-Pro, paddle harness, Stack harness, and "accessories" harnesses are all separate. I then ran them in the same conduits for cleanliness.
  
  The silver-covered boxes are the power and ground blocks for all of the in-cockpit accessories. I thought having access to these without taking off the sidepod would be nice, and they'll give non-switched expansion ports for future additions, should there be any. The power comes straight from the sidepod-housed +12 distribution block, including the +12 that now powers the coils, through the Paradigm brain box. Pretty clean, IMO.
  
  After reading the same things several times on various forums over the past year, for most of the connections I made in this recent project, I used crimps and heatshrink, rather than solder joints. Evidently, solder joints will get brittle and can break, although I re-did any non-heatshrink covered solder joints this winter too, so that should provide good reliability on both types of joints. We'll see if I have any wiring failures this year.
  Dash Wiring 1, Dash Wiring 2

• Falicon - $160 - Seems to be the most commonly used, the same as the TTS and Powertec parts sold by Radical. Available from Schnitz Racing, among others. One fellow told me they can be prone to cracking in a certain spot, so they should be inspected at the end of each season, apparently.
• Downs Engineering - $135 - Available as part of his wet-sump pan/baffle kit. Link...
• Rilltech Racing - $??? - Available separately or with Rilltech's wet sump oil pan (below). Link...

• Koenig - $440 - A billet pan with a "swivel" pickup for the 'busa. Saves height, and adds oil capacity over stock. Available from Schnitz Racing and Hayabusa Zone.
• Downs Engineering - $395 - Sheetmetal fabbed pan - little on the ugly side but probably works quite well. Requies that you mod your own oil pickup. Link...
• RCS - $375 - Don't know anything about this one, other than finding it in my searches. By RCS Performance
• Rilltech - $925(?) - Billet pan with a custom pickup and baffle. Includes 3 flappy doors, similar to a fuel cell collector, for keeping the oil right at the pickup. Available from Rilltech Racing.

·Shock Changes
I'm going to send the shocks down to Leary's Shock Shop again, and have him shorten them up another 1/4", to 12", to allow me to reduce my ride height a bit more. As well, this should pull the bellcranks out a bit, and give me more clearance to run the adjustable swaybar, thus permitting zero droop more easily.

As well, I'm going to have him lengthen the lines and install a small grommet that I give him, so that I can run the canisters into the tub, so the lines aren't being pinched by the bodywork. This may also make it possible to make bump adjustments without pulling the front body, which would be excellent.

·New Fasteners + Bushings
I've replaced all the fasteners and bushings on the front and rear suspensions. The rear lower bushings were pretty tired and nearly fell out, so it's good that I replaced those. The upper front control arms I couldn't replace at all, since I couldn't get the old bushings out - I guess they're still just fine! It appears that the front swaybar might have come loose with a bolt falling out, since I can't remember removing that particular fastener, so it's good that I'm replacing all those nylocks now!

·Trailer Updates
I managed to scrimp and score a toolchest for the trailer, so I won't have to rummage around on the ground anymore for my tools when I work on the car at the track. We're going to bolt it to the front of the trailer where the old bin lived, and shuffle everything else around a bit - should be a nice arrangement. Now I am jonesing for a ~12 gallon Craftsman air compressor to mount under the cabinet, but not for a while, I don't think...

• Replaced riveted airbox air nipples with AN bulkhead fittings and nipples. One was only being held on by the hose itself!
• Re-wired Oil Pressure sensor that was shorting and causing 0 or -99 readings
• Re-mounted LHS sidepod with FM channel brackets since my sidepod "tabs" had broken off
• Rewired alternator with a Hayabusa Rectifier/Regulator (blue wires instead of white now!)

·Brakes:
My one-off custom brakes from Todd/TCE arrived, along with the front uprights with the new, longer length lugs. (Lugs to get more thread engagement on my old/thick-face Kodiaks). They look great, will take about 13# off of the car, and Todd even included a nifty hollow centerbolt for the front wheel bearing support thingie. Pretty cool!

We are putting together a "group buy" to get custom hats made for other Radical owners, so hopefully these better/light parts wil be available for other owners to enjoy!

I have successfully drilled the Kodiaks to fit the larger diameter lug, and have short 1/2-20 lugs (Gorilla) that when in place, I *should* be able to install my wheel chocks and still have some thread to tighten them down on. That would be a great solution! Going to have to get some larger holes drilled in the wheel chocks...

·Axles/CV's
I talked with Doug @ Fast Forward Components on Friday, and he says he'll be able to build a complete replacement axle with "normal" race car parts. Weight savings will be about 8#, the axles are guaranteed for life, and the CV's will be cheaper and easier to replace, if I ever have to do so.

He said he could also machine replacement hubs for about $200, out of nicer metal than what Radical uses, so that is another good thing. As I replace other hubs on the car, I will have to go with Doug's solution instead. Finally, he measured the I.D the same as a Swift DB-5 bearing, and that the existing uprights could be easily "sleeved" to fit the normal style bearing. So, possibilities are all there!

At any rate, he's going to build me a set of halfshafts to start, and that'll get me going for now. I can use my old axles/CV's as spares, and put 'em in the trailer, should I ever need them.

Finally, he's got all my rear hubs, so I'm hoping he can press the new hub into the "empty" upright and send everything back, so I can start getting the car all together. I am starting to feel like I'm on the back-end of projects that are requiring the car to be "down", time to get some winter testing in!

·Oil Cooler/Radiator swap
I wrapped the oil lines with a product called "Thermo-Flex" that I thought was pretty nifty. This should help even further with keeping temps down, since the lines won't be getting radiant heat from the headers. I changed the hose out that is "plugging" the oil cooler outlet, so hopefully that will cure the small drip I am seeing. Still seeing some sort of oil leakage from the pan as I have since late summer - not quite sure what the offending piece is.

·Steering Wheel Stuff
I have a Momo 27c on order from Brian Richardson/BLR. When that arrives, I will send that and the steering column to the Fergusons to make me a nice button plate to mount buttons to. Am going to need to do some research to make sure the bolt pattern is the same as the SPA hub, which I am also hoping is the same as the Proshift paddles for shifting.

·Misc
I found a cheap Tripod to mount my laptimer beacon on, so no more balancing a $250 part on a tire or a rock to try and get it to trip laptimes!

·Rerouted Coolant System
Part of moving to a traditional oil-cooler on the RH side of the car was reconfiguring the coolant system for only one radiator. I moved the hoses around, and moved the swirlpot to the LHS of the car. I was able to get the necessary curves using NAPA hose #7432 at both ends, so that will be good for spares. Hopefully there will be no issue getting the system bled, but I think it's looking pretty good!

·Baffling Baffle
After a lot of questions about any needed modifications to install the Jim Rawson built R1 Baffle, I've finally got that in place. It took drilling & tapping the block for two small support bolts, and some other bits, but now it's in, and hopefully that should help keep my motor in one piece for some time to come.

·Rebuilt Calipers, Lightweight Brakes
My calipers are at TCE being rebuilt, and Todd is also working on some lightweight replacement rotors. He's spacing out hte calipers and hats to give identical front/rear rotors. Initial estimates are for about 18# of rotor, versus 36# previously - 16# and 50% weight savings!

·Trailer Updates
I have spent some time in the trailer, too. I added two hangers to keep clothes up off the ground, a caddy for the spare-tire thing, reorganized some of my containers, and installed some brackets so I can carry a third Tuff-Bin, which will contain spares. Also added were a broom and trash can. Pictures... Ultimately, I would like to add a small ~12" shelf to be able to put things on, but that may have to wait a little while...

·Axles/Halfshafts
My axles & halfshafts are at Doug at Fast Forward Components, to see if compatible parts can be built for a.) less than Radical's and b.) lighter than their 26# combined weight. From talking to Lee Stohr, it appears that about 10# weight savings should be possible. ·Bits...
The Girling MC extensions are installed, and look like they'll be a nice part. Longer wheel studs are here, 1/2-20, .563 Knurl Moroso's. Am waiting for install until the new brakes arrive, since it looks like some slight drilling may be required for those. Am investigating the failed laptimer beacon - appears to be the IR receiver, with David Ferguson of Veracity Data.

So the 2005 season has come and gone, taking with it the last races for Second Creek Raceway.

Even without having explicitly defined any goals for 2005, like I did at the start of 2004, it is easy to say that this year has been an unqualified success. The car was wonderfully reliable, tremendous fun, and above all, far cheaper than the Corvette to own and race. It was a scary proposition, to be OK with selling a car I really loved, but this has been even better. Never have I had more fun than going right to the edge at Second Creek, looking for those next few tenths of a second.

Season-wise, I got to do my first ever competitive road-course racing, and got to do a huge amount of driving relative to years past. I find myself moving a bit away from autocross, and more towards track racing, since the opportunity exists for so much more seat time! We'll see how that pans out with the local track closures (PPIR, also).

I'd have to say, the Radical has been a complete success, I'm happy with the chassis I chose, and I am thrilled to have taken the risk! Onward to 2006!

The last time trials event of the season was this past weekend, and that also marked the final SCCA sanctioned event to run at Second Creek Raceway. *sigh* - such a fun track.

After a season's worth of driving and car development, I was able to get into the 1:08's at SCR, which is, in my book, high enough to be considered respectable. Said time was set on a hot, slippy track, so mayhap I drove even better than the time would leave me to believe. Whatever. Race report will soon be in the racing section, as always.

At long last, the car felt like it handled juuuuust about right, so I'll be taking a winter set-down list, which I imagine I'll post up above with the next entry. Things like shock settings, valving, springs, heights, etc - a nice complete setup for somebody looking to get close more easily than I was able to!

Well, now that the season's over, why, that means that the projects I put off during the year can start up! Lots of things planned for the winter, although how many of them get done will depend largely on budgetary constraints. Here's a brief list of projects:

• Rebuild/Replace calipers, rebuild master cylinders
• longer lug studs for too-thick Kodiaks
• Redesign dash with Stack in center w/ 270mm cutoff wheel for visibility
• replace chain, check CV's
• Install engine oil baffle, fix leaks
• Prepare light bodywork for use
• Measure/Install HANS device
• Install front crushbox/splitter/diffuser

That's about it, more or less. Should be plenty to keep me amused this winter!

The 2005 season looks to be winding down just a bit, here in mid-September. Solo2 Nationals has just finished (with your truly absent for this year...), and SCCA Runoffs for the club racers will be happening next week.

For my own part, the Development Year (TM) has continued, and I'm learning how to get the Radical set up better than ever!

After thinking about the problem for quite a while, it finally occurred to me that the "right" way to zero-droop the Radical would be by making the pushrod adjustable length on the Nik-Link front suspension. So, with the help of Grant Barclay, I now have an adjustable front pushrod on the car, and that's letting me experiment with zero-droop.

We built the pushrod using left-and-right hand thread rod ends, so I can adjust them easily on the car. We shot for a max length of about 9.625", which translates to about a 2.75" max ride height, and with about an inch of adjustability on the pushrod (which has about a .45/1 ratio with the wheel/ride height) that gives you enough adjustment to run with just 1" of ride height, which is *plenty* of adjustment.

I haven't had a huge amount of time to play with the various configurations yet, but with a 400# front, even just zero-droop with no preload seems to have improved front-end response. Adding 200# of preload, as at the BMW event, imroved things still further. More testing will figure out where the balance between turn-in and bump-compliance will lie.

As always, I've been racing in between upgrades ;-). Two BMW events at Coors field (blast from the past) and a too-brief teset day at IMI. Getting closer to what feels like a good setup - the short version is 400/600# springrates, and a zero-drooped front with a bit of preload. The steady-state balance is finally getting there!

Detailed Writeups of the most 3 recent events in the racing section.

Lots of racing since the last update - Time Trials #2 and #3, a Denver National tour, and a test day. All of those are in the Racing section, as always.

A couple interesting notes from the past 6-7 weeks of development:

• Eureka! - The car's push is finally going away. The big moment was discovering that the motion ratios on my car are not 1.1/1.1 as Radical had told me, but about 1.1/0.70! That explains the push - the car needs a lot more rear spring than I had thought!
• Big Springs - Hey, it worked for the 'vette! After doing some testing, Jeff and I moved up from 300/400 to 350/350, and then even further to 400/550. The front still feels good, so the limit may be rear-end bump-handling. Car is better than ever!
• Good Tour Results - along with the spring changes and a friendly tire-pressure tip from my competitors, the car was good enough for a 2.5-seconds-distant 3rd place finish the first day of B-mod competition at the tour. Excellent!
• New Bests - at Trials #2, on reasonably fresh tires, I was able to set a 1:09.70 as my new personal best. Here's to even better!
• Even Better - just to make that look shabby, Steve took the same car and did a 1:07.8, and later, on new tires and a new setup, did a 1:07.2 going CCW - Yike! Going to have to see what I can do with the new setup!

With the 6th regional event now in the books, it's about time to take a step back and see how this development year is going. So far...OK. At least I am learning a lot about what may work and what will not work, so, trying lots of things is good.

As the car gets steadily better, so is the driver. Points and finishing percentage are getting steadily better, even if the car still has the same (mostly) diabolical understeer I've been fighting all year. So, I think I must just be driving it better.

There have been some incremental improvements, so with luck, the car will soon have the speed and balance I am hoping it will. Steady state neutrality, transitional stability...let's hope!

Reliability-wise, there have been some teething problems. The odd autocrossing fuel-overflow bug seems to still be cropping up despite my efforts to figure out what is causing it. Still no ideas. Next attempt is going to be trying the stock Mikuni carburetors to see how they behave, once I can get the necessary parts to fix them. The rear toe-link seems to be a worrisome item as well, as I've now broken two of them. It's time to see what a proper toe-link is from Radical, I'd say.

Time-wise, I need to make up around 2-3 seconds before I'm at the top of the index in PAX, which means I would be competitive at a national level. We'll see if I can find that time through driving, development, and parts! It's a long way to go, that's for sure!

Race #6 of the season is over and done with. The writeup is, as usual, in the racing section. This time, Steve Ott co-drove the car with me, and we're going to spend some time tuning the Radical when he's not off on other projects, so it'll be fun to get some feedback from time-to-time on how the car feels, from a fellow familiar with how a quick DSR should feel.

This weekend was a 2-day regional solo2 at PPIR over Memorial day. On Saturday, I was able to get my first ever victory in the Radical, by outrunning Evan finally by a few hundredths of a second. Hooray!

So, why am I writing about it on Sunday, since I should be racing? Carburetor problems continue, as the car flooded after my third run and wouldn't restart. *sigh* As always, the writeup is in the racing log.

Ro and I did another very short test day at the IMI Kart track on Thursday to test a theory of mine on what the front of the car needs. Wrote up my notes etc in the racing log...

Going to try and get another IMI test-day in over the next week before PPIR. Going to make sure that the 50T rear sprocket is going to behave properly with the chain, and also going to try 300/350 vs 400/350, and see if the additional front springrate in front helps fight the car's understeering tendencies. For Road racing, I'll see if the 450# rear spring keeps the car's total balance about right (especially when I start comparing the 20x7.5's solo'ing vs 20x7 for road racing)

After each race, I always go through and re-check everything on the car, and make any changes for next time. Short list this time:

• Test-fitted 50T rear sprocket with 15T front - with a little grinding, I think it'll fit.
• Dropped the car 2 turns back to the 2.0/2.5" height level.
• checked to see how badly "matte" Kodiaks were rubbing - I'm going to call Kodiak about getting a spacer made
• Moved brake bias 2 more turns towards the rear - still getting lockup at front way before rear.
• Reinstalled R25A's for IMI testing and upcoming Solo's

After years of wanting to do some competitive track racing, I finally felt safe and equipped to do it. Writeup in the racing section. *This* is what racing is all about!

Spring is in full swing here in Northern Colorado, and the warm weather is making me restless to get out on track. I'm having a lot of fun learning about this car, and seeing what I can do to make it faster. Some of this means fiddling with the springrates on the car, which I did a lot of down at IMI this past Thursday. Writeup in the racing section.

Lot to learn about this carburetor stuff. The car only seemed to run "OK" with the idle screw 1 turn out, so I moved it to 2, and it got even better. Just for grins, I moved it all the way in (0), and it barely ran at all. At 3, it seems very happy now, but that indicates I need to step up on idle jet size (as the math indicated - to 48 instead of 45), but, I'll see what I get tomorrow at IMI.

Lawrence came over and we weighed the car. It was 1162 with me in it, and ~3 gallons of gas (so, 1140#). This is with the Radical bodywork (vs beasley), and ready to race. Without me, the car was 980 (960#). The corner weights were wayyyyy off, so we set them, and were able to reach the following numbers:

	Left	Right	Total
Front	241	253	494
Rear	326	341	667

That's 43% of the weight on the front axle. Radical's suggestions are 220/230/330/340, with a 40/60 split in a 1120lb car. Should be interesting to see how this changes with the light bodywork, and later on, with the fancy front splitter/crushbox. The bodywork is about 114 lbs, including the wing assembly - The nose making up about 40lbs of that.

I'm headed out to IMI again Thursday (5/5) for another test day. After the *dreadful* experience at the last solo, I'm going to see if I can get the carb tuning a bit closer to the ballpark. That's the first goal. Second goal is to get the R35's scrubbed and ready for Solo trials, and the third to get the brake bias set about where it needs to be.

Following those basics, I'm going to tinker with springrates some and see what I can learn about the car. I'm getting conflicting information on what the car probably needs to help the front get the grip it's lacking. Perhaps the front camber and reduced rear camber may help both grip and tire temps? One thing to remember is that solo'ing, I'll be using 20x7.5 fronts, so things may change a fair amount later with the larger front...

Some think the car is too stiff, at 350/400 and suggest going to the 250 or 300 front spring rate, others think that the stickier R25's like a 400 front, to help control the Radical's roll angle. I'm going to try both (250/400, then 250/400, then 400/500) and see what the difference is in feel, and on the clock. With luck, the super-stiff-bump shocks won't mask the steady-state features too much. RadicalSouth steadfastly runs 300/350 as sent from the factory.

One theory I'm working on is that I might need softer springs, as Joe Stimola suggests, and a big front Nik bar to control front roll. We'll see which direction I head. Joe Stimola's suggestions were a zero-droop front setup with soft fronts - 250 or 300, and soft rears - 300 to 350, with no rear bar (for traction), and a big front bar if necessary to combat roll understeer. (and attendant corner-exit oversteer). Should be interesting to see where testing & development takes me. His setup has worked well for Barry Ott solo'ing, and says that "about 1/3 softer" is prescribed for solo'ing, which would put me in the 250/300 range.

One thing to recall is that king in setups is to run the car as low as you can, since lowering the COG is the first priority. Then, you determine the springrates you need to stay off the ground at that height. Empirical evidence suggests that with 400# fronts, guys can run in the 2.0" range with the stock splitter. We'll see what that translates to with softer springs and solo'ing. At 250/300 front, Radical suggests 2.5" front ride heights, so I'll just go from there. Determining ride-height will be something I have to do before the zero-droop thing can be of any use.

All the adjustability is intimidating - so hopefully I can start learning a bit Thursday!

---

2005.04.27
·Small Notes

Not a huge amount going on, just made some of my planned changes, which I'll list here, since this is rather becoming my history/changelog:

• Started installing FPR, which I'll set to 3psi
• LF camber from ~0.75 to ~1.5, with 3 whole turns *in*
• RF camber from ~1.25 to ~1.5 with 1 whole turn *in*
• RR camber from ~0.75 to ~0.40 with 1 whole turn *out*
• LR camber from ~0.75 to ~0.30 with 1 whole turn *out*
• Front of car raised ~0.25" with 4 turns up on perches
• new NGK CR9E plugs at 0.030 installed (pulled out CR10EK's?)
• Verified not using all available bump travel F or R.
• Moved brake bias ~1.5 more turns towards rear

My plan is to do a complete ride height / alignment check soon, but fiddling with things tonight at least got the car closer to the numbers I'm shooting for currently, which are:

Height: 2.25F, 2.75 R
Camber: -1.5F, -0.5R
Toe: 1/32 out per wheel F, 1/32 in per wheel R

If I can get a bit more info on springrates from Joe Stimola, then I'll see if I can get to or approximate those rates, or at least the respective 'ratios', and see how the balance of the car feels. Soon it'll be time to get back out to IMI and do some more engine testing, some tire temperatures, and other basic testing stuff.

---

2005.04.26
·Shock News

Yes, I resisted the obvious pun...

I called Joe Stimola on Monday morning to ask about shock valving, after seeing that Jeff's Cheetah was running MUCH softer valving than my car - AA+/A versus my B-/C and B/C+ valving. Joe said the valving is *way* too stiff, (i.e. close to what might be seen on a Corvette!) and said that fixing that should immensely help the car's handling, and could be worth a second or two per lap...wow!

He also knew of the roll understeer issue I've been feeling with the Radical, and the solution to that they've used is the zero-droop suspension idea I first heard of from Mike Sirianni. When I can, I'll be pulling these shocks off to send to Joe for rebuilding, hopefully it should be quite a difference in the car's handling. It certainly was reassuring to hear him describe all the car's handling vices without being prompted - good to know the problems are all known, and fixable issues.

·Tuning Fixes

After such awful experiences on Sunday with the engine's tuning, I spent some time messing with the carbs tonight.

	idle jet	idle screw	main jet	needle pos
Before:	50	full in	185	4th
After:	45	1 turn out	178	3rd (one up)

I'm still trying to figure out if fuel pressure is too high, and I pulled the plugs, since folks said it sounded like they may have been 'fouled'. I took some pictures tonight while working - we'll see what folks say. Near as I could measure, float heights all seemed to be about 9mm.

·Racing Updates

Some days are diamonds...some days are stones. A great Saturday and a miserable Sunday on the 23rd and 24th...*sigh*. Read all about it.

---

2005.04.17
·Testing, testing...

With as many things are changed on the car, and with as troublesome as the carb-bogging has been, I decided it was time to take a test day. So, Ro and I packed up, and headed out to IMI today, and had a delightfully successful test day, and also a bunch of fun with the car. Great stuff! Read all about it in the racing log.

---

2005.04.17
·Continuing Car Preparation

In response to the notes from the below-mentioned racing, I've continued to tinker with the car a bit. The nose came down another 1/8", roughly, so it's now getting close to the 2.25/2.75 setting. If things continue well, I'll drop the car another 1/8" or so front/rear and see how that works.

As well, I've played with the carburetors - just a bit - to see if I can try and tune-out that horrid launching bog. I'm going to try and do some testing this coming week before the BMW autocross to see if I can truly get rid of it. Some replacement jets are on the way from Sudco - both pilot and mains.

I checked the alignment on the car with a homemade strings setup - it wasn't too far off, surprisingly. It was at 6/32 toe out front, and about 3/32 toe in on the rear, although 2/32 of that toe is on the LR. I adjusted it to 1/32 per wheel out in front, and left the rear where it was - adjusting it seems to be a chore on the Radical.

Most important of all, the rear R25's arrived from John Berget and are mounted on the 10's from Kodiak, and the new 20x7.0 fronts will be here from John Robinson soon, and those will go on the 8's. Those should really make getting some good runs in a lot easier, and I'm hoping the stick is higher too!

I am still having John Berget keep an eye out for some 20x7.5's to try on some 8" wheels in front, since I think that might be the final balance change the car needs to really be effective on the autocross course. Not sure if that will be the case for road racing, but front grip is king for soloing, so we'll see...

·Racing Update

The Rocky Mountain region had its first summmer autocross of the year on April 9th, out out our great DIA Location. I was able to sneak into the 930's, and second place in B-Mod, with a nice, fast last run. This is already much higher than I had thought I'd be at the first event of the year - I was planning on 900's being hard to break for quite some time! As a reference, my first even last year was a measley 894 points. Anyway, the writeup is in the Racing log, as always.

---

2005.04.02
·Small Updates

Just a few small notes from working on the car the past few days:

• Springs - (again). I swapped in the new 6" springs used from Margaf racing. Upon removing my rears, which I thought were 400's, (comparing to the 400's out of the car), I was surprised to find that they are 450's! So, I've been running 350/450, unbeknownst to me. Since Margaf didn't have any 450's, I didn't get any, so I'm on the 350/400 setup now, that I thought I had had all along!
  
  We'll see how it goes - I am worried about increased understeer, with an already understeer-y car, but perhaps with the ability to properly rake the car, that won't be an issue. Plus, I am hopeful that the softer spring in the rear will help with the bounciness problem I had last time solo'ing - we'll see if things are any better. Of course, all of this is going out the window when the R25's arrive, I'm sure...
  
  On the upside, the new springs save about 2lbs per corner, for about 8lbs total weight savings on the car. This furthers the small weight reduction from the new FuelSafe cell versus the Radical cell, which I'd estimate at about 10 pounds savings.
  
  I set the ride heights tonight with Rolando to 2 3/8 F, 2 3/4 rear. This is a bit higher than other folks suggested settings, but I have concerns about the combination of my relatively soft front springs, and the bumpiness of the solo2 lots. We'll see if it proves a decent combination for handling and for staying off of the ground...
• No-Lift-Shifter - Finally tracked this down, to I think a loose power wire. Seems to be doing it's job now!
• Speed Sensor - tracked this malfunction too - the sensor was mounted much too far away from the lugs to sense the speed, so that should be operational now. Things keep getting better...

---

2005.03.30
·Debug();

It seems now, that the car is firmly into the "Debugging" stage of its life cycle. After not having been raced seriously for quite a long time, there are a lot of detail things to look into, especially for somebody who likes to tinker with a car. Let the debugging/development year begin! Some notes of things I've been dealing with:

• Springs - it appears the springs on this car are too long, at 8", to get the car much lower than around 2 3/4" front and rear ride heights. I am replacing these with some 6" springs that should give the car the required adjustability. I found a guy on the S2 forum selling several sets for $40/per, so I bought some 350, 400, 500, and 550's, for the sake of testing later. The lower ride heights will help with aero and mechanical grip, as well as help eliminate some of the push due to the complete lack of rake angle.
• Sprockets - After the last trip to SCR, I've installed a 15T front sprocket in lieu of the 16T one, since I'm not using all six gears on the track. This should help acceleration a bit, which should help lower times.
• Leaky Caps - the caps of the Girling master cylinders are quite leaky, so I'm going to see if I can't stick a sock on them or something, to at least keep the fluid spray under control.
• No-Lift No-Work - the No-lift shift assistance dealie doesn't seem to be working, so I'm going to be playing with that...
• Shock Rebound Adjusters - With Penske shocks on a Radical, with the rebound adjustment in the standard position, you can't adjust the shocks with them on the car. However, it appears that Penske makes a 90* eyelet that moves the adjustment window 90* around the shock, so that should enable me to change rebound with the shocks on the car. Fairly cheap too, at only $180 for the pair of eyelets, complete with spherical bearings. Anita at Penske Shocks in Indy was more than helpful getting me sorted out on these - 317-381-6924.
• Throttle Adjustment - The pedals had been set up with the gas pedal much too high, so that heel-toeing was nearly impossible. When on the brakes, the pedal would be about 3" below the throttle, making it impossible to reach with the side of my foot. I've adjusted the brake out as far as it will go, and moved the throttle down a bit, so that should help. I also added a few rivets to the throttle stop plate, since it was bending a bit under loading from the cable.

·SCR Day #2

I was able to get back out to SCR last week for some fun with Jeff Brauch. I was able to lower my personal best by another second to 1:10.53. Track record is low 1:06's - I've quite a ways to go!. read all about it...

---

2005.03.18
·Stir Crazy

Since my last update, I've been able to race the car three times - woohoo! Initial impressions: Wow!

Race/Driving writeups are in the racing section, as always, with some really snazzy pictures of the first day out, courtesy of my padres and Cliff Lawson.

The last outing was relatively damaging - a splitter and a rear wing support. While waiting for those to be repaired, I checked various things on the car, to make sure the baseline was where I thought it should be. As it turns out - far from it! The gas pressure, rebound, ride heights, and alignment were all pretty badly out of whack, so I've re-set all of those to some reasonable baselines, with the help of many Radical-friendly folks around the DSR community.

So now, with the car repaired and the baselines set, I am absolutely going stir crazy to get back out on track to see how the car feels!

---

2005.02.13
·No Fairness...

*sigh*

after a week of trying to get a chance to take the car out for a drive - Thursday , Friday, (waiting for the firesuit) etc, I thought that I was going to for sure do it today. Jeff Brauch was going to meet me at the track, the trailer was all loaded and ready...except for 2 2x12's. I worked my butt off getting the car into the trailer on Saturday, so my back muscles must have just about had it. When I picked up my ramps today, something in my back just SPLIT, and I had to crawl back into the house it hurt so bad. Turns out the weather was perfect, and Jeff cut a second off of his best time in the Cheetah. Boy would it have been great to be there...*sob*.

As I write this, there's a foot of snow on the ground, and no sign of it warming up anytime soon. I wonder if the Feb 19 event will still happen? Maybe I'll get to do some track time during the week next week...

---

2005.02.11
·Flamesuit

My G-Force fire gear finally arrived, after nearly 2-weeks of UPS limbo. The upside is that the firesuit fits almost as if it were custom-made for me, which is wonderful! It's a black, medium GF-545 suit, and I bought size large nomex undies - the lowers might actually be too small, which is odd. (big legs). The gloves seem fine, and the socks seem to breathe well, which will help keep me cool. Along with the shoes which I've had for a while, I'm so far, very happy with my G-Force gear. We'll see how well it holds up over the year, and hopefully, I won't have to test its fire suitability...

---

2005.02.06
·Done!

And that, my friends, is that! I am now considering myself done with the rebuild of my 2000 Radical Prosport, Chassis #86. I think it's about time to change the top image from Radical's shot to one of my own, wouldn't you agree? It's time to get some pictures of this guy in action!

Done!

---

2005.02.05
·Final Details

Only a few details are left towards getting the car ready for its first race. My goal all along has been the Feb 19 winter autocross event, but with a little luck, I might be able to make a test/shakedown event before that, if things keep coming together so well.

Tonight's effort was getting the diffuser in place with the new hardware I bought from CD Fasteners. It took a bit of "hole enlarging" to get everything to line up, but it seems to be mostly OK now.

I also stuck some heat shielding on the small hose that runs so very close to the #4 header tube, to see if that will help it live a bit longer than I fear it would without that help...

Dutiful pictures...

---

2005.02.04
·Chain Misery

Back at it again tonight - with the end in sight, I'm working as hard as I can. Main focus for the night was to get the new chain (which is one link longer than the old, oddly enough) installed with a new master rivet. After much head-scratching, swearing, and tinkering, the new link is in place, and even seems to be pretty nice

---

2005.02.03
·Almost Done...

With the fuel cell installed, tonight was a night of final reassembly. The bulkhead went back in, I re-riveted all of the fire lines and the beacon laptime sensor, installed the seat, and the like. For the first time in 2 months, the car is back on the ground. I noticed a small leak from the somewhat-problematic RHS lower radiator hose, and tightened that up again.

Enjoy what are my first shots of the car completely assembled, and on the ground.

---

2005.02.01
·It's here!

After nearly two months of waiting, the fuel cell has finally arrived from Fuel Safe! It's much lighter than I expected, and black, rather than the yellowish color of the old Radical cell that got cooked. It looks like it'll be a bit of a tight fit with the shift linkage, so I may have to move the fuel pump a little bit. Once this is done, I'm going to be able to put the car back together!

--

As it happens, I did have to move the fuel pump down, and mostly horizontal. I'll need to finish up with a few different fittings tomorrow, but everything is looking good. I locked the cell in place with some angle aluminum riveted to the aluminum baseplate, so it shouldn't be going anywhere. There were a few difficulties with the AN fittings coming off the cell, but I used some 6AN and 8AN hose fittings Hasty gave me to run some hose from Worked great - especially the slick 120* angle one I found in the hoses box. VERY handy!

I also found the answer to a few vacuum line routing issues I had, and hooked those up. Also, installed the heatshielding I bought from Pegasus so help keep me cooler from the heat of the headers.

Looking good!

Pics.

---

2005.01.25
·Runs!

I finally couldn't wait anymore, and poured some gas into a small dish, and started the car. It cranked for quite some time before I got some oil pressure, but it seems to be just fine - 60+ psi oil pressure at a cold idle, which drops rapidly to low teens when it gets up to temperature. After two months, to hear the car making its own noises is truly fantastic!

---

2005.01.18
·How many pictures can you take of hydraulics, anyways?

Since the wiring is completed and working right, I re-ran the replacement hydraulics today. I'm fairly proud of the good routing and such, and the nice wrapping of the lines where they might rub or chafe on eachother.

That said, I suppose it's possible to be *too* proud of one's work - I caught some flack from my uncle for taking just oooone to many pictures.

As it happens, one of my ancestors apparently invented the hyrdraulic press. So there.

Pics.

---

2005.01.18
·How many pictures can you take of hydraulics, anyways?

Since the wiring is completed and working right, I re-ran the replacement hydraulics today. I'm fairly proud of the good routing and such, and the nice wrapping of the lines where they might rub or chafe on eachother.

That said, I suppose it's possible to be *too* proud of one's work - I caught some flack from my uncle for taking just oooone to many pictures.

As it happens, one of my ancestors apparently invented the hyrdraulic press. So there.

Pics.

---

2005.01.16
·It lives!

I finished up the wiring, and wrapped it up with a bunch of conduit today. With the clean new motor, and the nicely done wiring, the car is starting to look pretty darn cool! I'm very proud of the work so far.

And, for the first time, I hooked up the car's battery and turned it on....and it works! Everything seems to work exactly as it should - so far there aren't any issues I can see. I've not yet been brave enough to try starting it (without a gas tank to try it with, regardless), but we're starting to see the end of this.

The garage just gets cleaner and cleaner as more and more parts go back onto the car. It's getting closer!

---

2005.01.14
·First Update of 2005!

The wiring harness arrived from Prince/Jeremy the other day, so I spent the evening installing it. The install was almost entirely uneventful, other than it appears the connectors are mismatched for the alternator. I'll see if I can get Jeremy to send me a different style connector.

not much to look at, but Here are the pictures...

---

2005.01.14
·Let the rebuild begin...

December 14...my 25th birthday. Not a bad way to spend it, working on something you love, and are excited about.

With the car stripped down to hardly anything, the time has come to start putting it back together.

It appears that the cause of the fire was the destruction of the #1 rod - it tossed itself through the block, as these R1 motors seem to like to do.

So, I have swapped in the "spare" motor that Hasty gave me along with the package, and I disassembled the old one to keep such goodies as the head, the slipper clutch, and a few spare bolts, oil pan, and such. The car is now basically clean as can be, since I polished all of the header pipes with a wire wisk wheel with my new die grinder (purchased along with an air rachet and an impact wrench. Yay!

Here are the first shots of the car going back together...

---

2004.12.23
·One Month In...

One month into the project, it seems to be going quite well. The first step was a massive teardown to get all of the damaged parts sent off for repair and replacement.

The fuel cell has been sent off and will hopefully arrive in late January. Turns out, it was burned beyond use. Jeremy @ Prince Race Car has the wiring harness, and says he has it partially back together, and hopes to have it to me the first week in January. Radical South has a small order of body parts that should arrive the first week in January as well. Finally, a bunch of rivets and fuel system parts from Pegasus has arrived, and I'll be slowly installing those as well.

I've been doing small detail work to get the car back together while I wait for the more important stuff, so hopefully when the big things arrive, that will just about be the last things I'll have to do.

I finally determined the cause of the car fire - the #4 rod gave up the ghost and went through the block, so the resulting oil spray is what did it, I'd say. Phil Creighton of Philip Creighton Motorsports is going to make me a small oil shield to prevent the same from happening again.

Just for grins, here are a few more shots of the project as it's going so far.

---

2004.11.22
·The project starts!

·After a whirlwind 4-day trip to Virginia to pick up the car, my new Radical is finally home, with all of its associated goodies. Everything arrived dry and safe thanks to Mitch Beranek letting me borrow his trailer for the trip. I took pictures of the garage before getting to organize everything - there's a lot!

---

2004.10.24
·Another new Start...

·With the sale of the Corvette nearly complete, that means that I can start turning an eye towards the new project, which is a 2000 Radical Prosport DSR. Lots more info and pictures to come in the next month or so, but suffice to say this will be a very fun frame-up rebuild project on a car that has the potential to be very fast, and a huge boatload of fun. I'll be detailing the buildup with info and pictures here on the site, so it should be a pretty good resource for folks looking at finding more about the nuts and bolts of getting started with a DSR, just as I will be. Stay Tuned...

---