:. Racing .:. 2005/05/28 - Autocross
Results: Here
The Taste Of Victory...is Gasoline?
Time for RMSolo event #3 of 2005. The PPIR event is always a bit of a special one for me, since it was one of my first autocrosses with Rolando back in the day. I can still remember helping Ro change tires on the Subaru, and being dubbed "Bitch Boy" by Mark Gerrard. Ah...memories.
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This year, it was just a 2-day regional event for us, not a divisional as it has been in years past. Having briefly fallen back into the "must win!" mentality, which usually leads to discouragement and not having *quite* as much fun, I told myself I would do two things: Drive for *me*, and try to improve for my own self-edification, and a technique reminder: try to be slow in, fast out and see if that mitigated understeer in the car (driver problem!?)
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If you've been following the racing log, you know it's been a fair amount of time (and changes) between this autocross and last, so I was very eager to see how the changes I have made with the car have affected things.
the PPIR lot we use is a wide open, asphalt lot. There is usually a lot of dust on it, and the various "yumps" around the lot make the design a little...interesting. This time was no exception. There was definitely an overall lack of grip relative to the DIA lot we enjoy. Especially off the "main" line that folks had used, there was dust and marbles everyhwere, which was sure to make you slide around (caught me out once). The humps didn't turn out to even be noticable in the Radical, and I had no rubbing/bottoming problems all day.
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Like last time, Mike was co-driving with me, so he got to be the ol' tire warmer. He came back after the initial run, saying there was hardly any grip. I went out for my first run, and had to agree - it sure seemed a little slippery out there! For the first time, I had a bit of trouble picking up my markers on the course. Unfortunately, that continued for the rest of the day, as I never really did get my looking ahead right, and never did feel like my lines were all that exemplary. First run time was a 59.0, good enough to lead for a while.
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After Mike's second run (his first recorded due to getting a rerun on his first), the tires started to get their heat up a little bit, so on my second run, things were much improved by feel, but oddly enough, I went much slower - 59.7, plus a cone turning left just before the end turnaround complex. Odd. My belief is that I "took it easy" in the sweepers and lost time there.
By the third run, I'd figured out where I could make up some time, and knew I could come into the end slalom MUCH faster. I also did a better job of slow-in-fast-out-ing the sharp left-right before the end turnaround, and ended up coming through there quite nicely, and got a good exit. I stayed on the gas, and just barely touched the revlimiter at the first cone of the slalom before braking slightly to get around the problem third cone. With a nice little slide to finish at the exit, the time was a 57.894! I had told myself that a 57 would be *great*, because then I'd be just about at Barry's level, whom I have never gotten even close to before.
Unfortunately, that was the last good news for the weekend. Rolling through the grid after the run, I noticed the car hardly wanted to rev, and was feeling very boggy. Sure enough, the fuel pressure problem had returned. Gas flooded out of the vents when I disconnected them, and the car was basically done. After letting it sit for an hour, the car started and rev'd perfectly. So, once again, I get to chase carburetor demons. Yay.
Driving Impressions
It's hard to glean a whole lot from 3 solo runs, so I'm definitely going to leave the car where it is for a little while to see if I can get some more thoughts on the setup. Overall balance at low speeds and high was still of just a hair of understeer, although as always, a bit of throttle lift can get the car to tighten its line pretty well.
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The same feeling of "muscling" the car through the slalom was still there when I took it fast enough - time will tell if the 250# is stiff enough for the kind of transitioning needed for solo. Could be also the zero-droop configuration will help that turn-in/response issue. We'll see. Brake bias was a hair too much to the rear, but braking was better than ever before. Will have to move it just a hair back towards the front.
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The car certainly was not "slidy" like before, and was very confidence-inspiring/easy to drive relative to previously (which wasn't that bad either). Only large amounts of throttle got it to slide around, it certainly has fun corner-exit behavior, although that may still be due to a bit too much rear bump damping.
For now, the car is good enough to leave alone and play with a little bit, and see if I come up with any additional impressions as I drive it. I'd like to get familiar with this one current configuration for a little while, as the next change will be the new, softer valving in the shocks. We'll see how that goes - hopefully it will be "close" enough to allow good information on the benefits of the wider front tires, when a set of those does come along...
Cheetah Driving
One upside to the car dying was an opportunity to get back in Jeff's Cheetah. I got to drive it late last season a few times, and he has done a lot of good development to the car - clearly! After having gotten a pretty good deal of seat time now in my Radical, comparing things was interesting.
The first thing I noticed was the driving position - it is much more upright, and it's a lot easier to see out. Made finding my way around course much easier. I still had issues with my feet on the pedals - whatever angles I use just seem to get in the way of the various bars and things down there.
After turning the first corner, I was reminded again of the first time I drove the car; it really has the right now telepathic turn-in feeling that the Radical does not have - especially not now with its soft front springs. The steering is not just steering, it's just an extension of where you want the car to be. Very, very immediate & responsive.
This seems to come at the cost of some "feel" though, at least to my butt-ometer. I had a hard time "feeling" when the fronts where at their limit, and had a brief oversteer "moment" in the large sweeper that I didn't have a lot of warning for. Given Evan's speed, perhaps the car awards smoothness that I haven't had to apply with the Radical quite yet? Could also be that the car is a bit too stiff overall, or just needs to be lowered a bit for the given springrates?
Similarly, I spun in the slalom with (what I felt was) no warning or "feel" at all. Could just be poor driving/driver inexperinece too. Turned in, and the car was gone. Overall, front-grip seemed to be higher than in my car, although I'd say the rear doesn't seem to have as much, relatively. (want to trade some of each?). As a last observation, the my '03 R1 has a ton more horsepower than their older Honda motor - especially as they seem to have a high-end miss that's costing the car the last 1000 RPM of its rev range.
Results
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The end result was the best I've had in this car. First was a victory - my first in the car! Also encouraging was that I outran Evan Brauch for the first time, even if only just. I almost caught Barry in the FF as well. That of itself isn't a super accomplishment, as by PAX, we're supposed to be about 3.5% faster than he is - at least 2 seconds on this course. However, it's a lot closer than the 4 seconds it was at the beginning of the year. Finishing spot was 33rd, or at the 17% level, also new bests for the car. Time to find two more with driving, and with car development! Here's to a few more victories in the car before it's all said and done...
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NEW CHANGES:
- 250/350# springs
- 1.5* front camber (more), 0.5* rear (less)
- 1/16 toe front/rear
- 50T rear sprocket
- 2.0/2.50 heights (finally)
Media:
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