Spotted at Waterford Hills

Spotted some guy in a white GRM shirt today at Waterford Hills. Anyone on this forum?

I was 06 SN.

I have no answer to your question, but I see GRM shirts and stickers surprisingly often!!

The one that most surprised me was seeing a GRM sticker on some cars featured in the most recent copy of RACER magazine. Possibly the most expensive motorsports related magazine ever...

We were there Sunday, but not wearing GRM gear. As an aside Phil, your car seems really ,really oversteer prone through turns 6 and 7. Have you tried dialing a little of that out to see if it's quicker?

Reason for oversteer in 1, Big Bend, Hilltop, 6, 7....

This is the left rear tire.

You're supposed to stop using them a little before this situation arises.

DeadSkunk wrote: You're supposed to stop using them a little before this situation arises.

WHY!? That metal will hook into the surface, giving you TONS of grip. And making cool sparks at night.

No sparks visible from our vantage point, but there was a lot of tire smoke from the right rear every lap.

In reply to DeadSkunk:

Yeah, I'm still trying to track down that issue. It's costing me tires in a big way. I've modified brake pads, changed shock settings, and still locking that wheel up every time. Need to investigate anti-roll bar mounting, prop valve, and master cylinder.

I went through that when I raced a VW at Waterford. I ended up removing the link to the load compensating brake bias valve and manually turning the rear brake pressure down. By the time I stopped locking the right rear at turn 6 a set of rear pads was lasting 4 seasons ! I had to be using 90% front brakes I think.

DrBoost wrote:

DeadSkunk wrote: You're supposed to stop using them a little before this situation arises.

WHY!? That metal will hook into the surface, giving you TONS of grip. And making cool sparks at night.

No-No-No. The metal on the surface is for ice racing. You've got the traction spikes out a little too early.

Maybe you need a new crew member- they don't call me three wheel for nothing

CGLockRacer wrote: Reason for oversteer in 1, Big Bend, Hilltop, 6, 7.... This is the left rear tire.

Video from Sunday's feature race. Any FWD experts want to share some pointers?

Feature race video links:
Part 1 - http://youtu.be/QiPalb6phzs;
Part 2 - http://youtu.be/_HwuS3Z9p9I

Gearheadotaku wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

DeadSkunk wrote: You're supposed to stop using them a little before this situation arises.

WHY!? That metal will hook into the surface, giving you TONS of grip. And making cool sparks at night.

No-No-No. The metal on the surface is for ice racing. You've got the traction spikes out a little too early.

If you tried to race at night there. The people in the neighborhood surrounding it (built years and years after the track) would riot!!! They would probably find a way to burn down the concrete block control tower!!! Anyone, know the whole story about when that happened the last time???

View from my competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bykd6DB8FM&feature=youtu.be

CGLockRacer wrote: Video from Sunday's feature race. Any FWD experts want to share some pointers? Feature race video links: Part 1 - http://youtu.be/QiPalb6phzs; Part 2 - http://youtu.be/_HwuS3Z9p9I

Car is leaning too much.

Last time I was at WH, i don't recall it being that bumpy. The car is jumping an surging a lot in the corners.... Any thoughts about that? Perhaps the bushings are bouncing, which is throwing off your alingment?

The car is bouncing a lot in the turns. It has full poly bushings all the way around.

Front dampers are full stiff, rear are -1/2 turn from full stiff. Alignment is 1/8" toe out front, 1/2" toe out rear.

In my competitors video, the car doesn't seem to be bouncing as much, but his camera isn't helmet mounted either. Not sure if that is exaggerating the bouncing.

In reply to CGLockRacer:

I was more looking at your hands, and listening to the tires. Something seems amiss. It would be interesing if you could put a camera on that wheel and see what it's doing.

Are the dampers valved to match the spring rates you're using. My VW used to porpoise through a couple of spots at WH until I had stronger shocks and had them custom valved to match the springs I was using. My car would do the porpoising through the kink between 2 and 3. It got better through the esses,too.

CG first of all good job on getting to the front and staying there with Sean on you. I only watched the first part so far. I also raced Spec Neon at Waterford years ago so I am not up on changes to the class as the 15" wheels would indicate and I had an open diff so a 3rd place and mid to top 1/3rd of the class was as well as I did. So take my comments with a big grain of salt.

I agree with the comments on dampers and bumpiness. It just seems too stiff,under damped maybe at the front or possibly over damped at the rear with all the chop,bounce and hop. I also didn't have but stock bushings so no idea on the effect there either. What spring damper set up are you running? I ran Koni yellows with Mopar Hi rates as that was the only allowed other than non adj Arvins IIRC.

The car in part 1 didn't appear too oversteery to me and the steering inputs seemed good from a smoothness and amount standpoint. I didn't see a whole lot of correction for rotation either.

Some driving things I thought of while watching. You were turning into the first part of Swamp earlier than I did,do or would have thought. Not sure if you have a LSD and this works better for that, were driving defensively to prevent Sean from getting inside(seems like it as he gets closer you are earlier and earlier) or something else just an observation. Also it looks like you take a single apex in turn 1 and Sean seemed to make up ground there. I don't know if he double apexes there or it is just difference in car/set up but that seemed to be an area where you lost ground to him all the way to Hilltop.

Also at Hilltop I almost always got wheelspin coming off. Again I don't know if/how a LSD in SN affects that but in my LSD Civic I can get wheelspin still a month or two ago at a trackday with pretty good grip. Are you getting wheelspin there coming down ever or does your diff/set up not allow it?

Overall it looked really nice and to get P2 to start, take the lead and stay out front the whole time in part 1 you are doing a lot right driving and car set up wise Congrats. I'll watch the other videos and get back on it.

In reply to DeadSkunk:

I have no idea. They came with the car and are supposed to be the factory Koni's for the ACR. I'm still sorting this car out slowly.

iceracer wrote:

CGLockRacer wrote: Video from Sunday's feature race. Any FWD experts want to share some pointers? Feature race video links: Part 1 - http://youtu.be/QiPalb6phzs; Part 2 - http://youtu.be/_HwuS3Z9p9I

Car is leaning too much.

The body roll looks minimal to me. Or is that a joke about the camera work?

OK, after reading the rules again, it turns out I can use a prop valve provided it is a pressure limiting type. However, I am told the neon has a diagonal split system, meaning that the LF and RR brakes are on the same circuit and the RF, LR are on the other circuit. Is there any way to add a prop valve to this type of system?

WHRRI rules for SN say that SCCA GCR IT brake rules may be used. According to GCR 9.1.3.6d: Brake proportioning valves may be used provided that they are of the in‑line, pressure limiting type.

Most stock setups already have proportioning valves. Some on the master cylinder, some on the firewall. My SAAB 96 they were under the back seat. some are located elsewhere.

In reply to iceracer:

I want to add an adjustable one so I can reduce rear brake pressure.