Finished my race car & it's on the truck to Phillip Island

[edo]

1. It's maxed
2. They are wound back the whole way to 0
3. Would be good there I reckon, but not at QR or MP with loads of bumps
4. Back bar does dick. Yet to play with front bar settings

I really believe it was mainly a pressure issue. It was much cooler on Saturday and in the afternoon the car felt really good. We ran the same pressures on Sunday and obviously couldn't change them in the pit stop. They got too hot and as a result the car started sliding. When it started to slide it compounded the problem and the pressures went up further. As they went up so did the lap times and chance of an off. I was really fighting the thing by the end and just trying to be as smooth as possible to bring it home.

Cal.

Bugger your email Im doing it here!

Ok, wind on some more static negative camber at the front (I dont believe you need more on the rear.) It will be a compromise & might be a little less good under brakes but you dont brake that hard in a 5 anyway.

I reckon your shocks need revalving, if you think its harsh then my bet is that its the shock crashing not the lack of spring compression. You need to get less bump in the shocks.

Spring rates need to go up, definately. What you were describing with the under then oversteer together with what I could see & the fact that you were only using the outside inch of both front & rear tyres screams out that the springs are too soft. Basically its falling over on the tyre, hard to describe but as you go into a corner you tip it in, the body loads up & fully compresses the spring, then the wheel (front or back depending on where you are) sort of tucks in underneath the guard at a big +ve camber angle.
I bet its a bitch when it comes to mid corner bumps too. Im going to suggest spring rates of something like 300lbs all round.

Bars wise, there is every chance that with the bigger springs the existing bars might be ok & you can adjust them to suit different tracks etc. But, what they arent doing at the moment (especially the rear by the sounds of it) is stopping it from falling over in the corners.

My suggestion, get kings to wind you up a set of 300lb springs, bung them in & dont change anything else. I reckon you will find it better everywhere, the rest is just fine tuning really but until youve got the springs right the fine tuning wont do dick...as you said.

Oh, 300lbs is assuming a 1:1 wheel rate or close to it...cant picture a 5 good enough to know if thats right. What rate are in there now, I can give you an idea based on that too I reckon.

[Cal]

My mate Scott Fleming co-drove both the Pretty Cobra and the Ballard Supra - unfortunately the Cobra didn't have a good run but the Supra was flying !!

I've actually even considered an MX-5 and just do track days, hillclimbs, supersprints etc as i don't know if i can justify the expense of building another dedicated track car. And we already have the hairsalon...

That Cobra always has a drama. Bloody fast when it goes though. That Supra is rapid.

It will not cost you anything like what your RX7 did.

I can't believe we won all three enduros and yet were beaten by a pair of MX5's in the final points tally!!

Really, who? Not the 2 race car rental cars from up here?

Effort equals results , Well done Cal !
Might see you at Morgan Park some day in it ,
Cheers Cam

We plan to do a bit of racing out there next year. Look forward to seeing that crazy thing of yours sideways again.

Well done Cal. Very impressive indeed. A piece of advice: Just imagine Fr. Sharwood is driving behind you... ...Watch the lap times drop.

Ewwww

Cal.

[Cal]

Edo, the springs in it are 350lbs fronts and 250lbs rears.

Cal.

[edo]

Well they arent 1:1 then!

Rears are more too soft than fronts (hence bar doesnt do dick).

Try 400 all round...maybe even 450 in the front

[Cal]

Once it's home, I want to have a good look at the tyres and see what happened to them down there. Then I want to drive it as is at Morgan Park to see what it does there. Not much point me setting the car up for Phillip Island. A lot of the guys take the rear swaybar off altogether. We have many many things to try. We basically set it up the same as Neil's car with 50lbs lighter springs in the front. We came 2nd in class in his car at the Eastern Creek 1hr and figured it was a decent platform to work from.

Cal.

[edo]

yep, but it will fall over the tyres everywhere, you will really only need to fiddle with bars between tracks.

It might do it less at MP because the surface isnt as sticky as PI.

[EfiOz]

Really, who? Not the 2 race car rental cars from up here?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's two of them. We thought the Race Car Rentals dude was messing with us at first. I think he was more confused than we were.

It turns out to be a loop hole in the regs that no one has ever anticipated. Due to the Ferrari being one of the few Class A cars to compete, it didn't score many points, even for an outright win. Whereas the MX5's winning their class (even though it might be 15th outright) scores as many or even more points.

Apparently it'll be fixed for next year.

We're pretty happy with our three enduro wins and three lap records. It's also a lot of fun compared to the GT Championship.

[Cal]

So an MX5 FTW over a Ferrari?

It's a lot less serious, so I'm not surprised you find it more fun.

Cal.

[CT]

The points are calculated so that a class with 2 cars in it gets less points than a class with 15 cars - thus representing the proportionate performance in class. That way, people with enormous budgets don't necessarily win like in most classes of motorsport. Being monetarily challenged, I personally think the system is OK. It's more about performance in class than wallet size which gives us all a chance at the $30 trophy.

[edo]

Im just bloody stunned at how fast the little faggy cars can get around there...for an hour. Cals car is seriously capable of 1.52/53 with him driving only as good as he was on the weekend...thats bloody fantastic.

[CT]

PLACE 6 + CARS 4 – 5 CARS 1 – 3 CARS
1st 14 points 12 points 8 points
2nd 12 points 10 points 6 points
3rd 10 points 8 points 4 points
4th 8 points 6 points
5th 7 points 5 points
6th 6 points
7th 5 points
8th 4 points
9th 3 points
10th 2 points

Cal - spring rates around F400 R~275 appear to be "in the zone" for an NA

[Cal]

Im just bloody stunned at how fast the little faggy cars can get around there...for an hour. Cals car is seriously capable of 1.52/53 with him driving only as good as he was on the weekend...thats bloody fantastic.

Now you know why I've been crapping on so much about their bang for buck. You knew how good they were standard, but perhaps you didn't realise how much performance could be achieved with a couple of the right mods. Queenslanders are certainly onto it. The grid here next year is going to be massive. Bring on Lakeside.

I was planning to try 400's in the front Chris. That's why we put them in Neil's and 350lbs in this, so we could compare.

Cal.

[morerevsm3]

The points are calculated so that a class with 2 cars in it gets less points than a class with 15 cars - thus representing the proportionate performance in class. That way, people with enormous budgets don't necessarily win like in most classes of motorsport. Being monetarily challenged, I personally think the system is OK. It's more about performance in class than wallet size which gives us all a chance at the $30 trophy.

I have exactly same problem in BMW club sprint series, not enough entrants to get proper points in modified M class, so even winning 3 of 5 rounds outright, and still at the pointy end at the other 2, I can't win series, sucks really, but I only do it for fun anyway.
incidently my best lap at the island in the 40 or so that I have done there is only 1:55.29, so those MX5's are going bloody hard (or I am the fastest of an incredibly slow bunch of BMW drivers)


:sandyvag:

[260BC]

Morgan Park, the track of corners, should be ideal for a MX5. From what Edo is saying the improvements he is suggesting would really pay off there, assuming they don't upset the transitional handling, which seems unlikely.

[CT]

I was planning to try 400's in the front Chris. That's why we put them in Neil's and 350lbs in this, so we could compare.
Cal.

You're all over it then -no more advice for you guys then. Your car was awesome midcorner in my mirrors - lucky I had a blower - shame I had no fuel.:knock: