Good job, Dave. I found that course to be a bit of a puzzler in a number of spots and the start really took away a lot of our usual advantage off the line. My car sure felt better a lot better than the Cobalts and Vettes of the day before though

 

Thanks guys. It wasn't an easy course with most of the course elements entry points being off camber.

 

Then how many real, nationals-type launches do you get out of 'em?

d

 

If by tire budget he means "how many sets per year" then I would guess that it's a clutch on every set of tires....

you could get as good as a rally team changing that clutch.

 

You could probably go indefinitely on just regular Solo launches. I got 19K out of one with multiple 2 driver ProSolos. I did burn one out doing 6 back-back ProSolo practices starts with no waiting in line.

You have to let it cool down between runs or the organic material melts. I don't do more than 2 practice starts now. Dieman also helped to find an emergency source to do a clutch job out in Kansas, just in case.

 

You know, I was kind of thinking the same thing because I'm approaching 40k on the stocker. That's 200+ runs, not counting all caliper darkening I do at the track. I only launch hard about 1 out of 10 times for regional events though. I thought the pedal was getting high, but maybe it just needs an adjustment...

Tomorrow is my co-drivers first day of real practice with the semi-final setup. I figure by the afternoon I'll be on the phone with a parts dept.


d

 

Tell Wiggy the track rental fee is $200.

 

I haven't come across much talk about increasing caster except for one fellow mentioning it as a way to make the steering heavier on the track. Has anybody increased it much? I just glanced at my alignment sheets and my M3 has 6.8deg of caster whereas my Evo has only 3.5deg.

A very neat trick I learned at the SLC ProSolo was to clock the camber plates at a 45deg angle to achieve both camber and caster adjustment. It may be old news to some, but I thought it was pretty slick for a camber-only plate.

-Jon

 

Did you re-measure your caster after the plates were rotated?

Dave

 

I have 4.4 degrees of caster with my Ground Control top-mount plates.

Dave Mac

 

I know Rick and I are running less, like 2.4 deg of caster on each of our cars. That was the best adjustment alignment wise I've done to the car.

As for clutches, I'm at 31K on the original clutch, three autoX seasons but no pros. I am looking at replacing it this offseason, just for piece of mind basically.

 

Do you find that less caster is better Russ? I know the steering feel is heavier and can make the car seem less light on its feet. I've had 4.4 since I've had the coilovers on my car so I've never ran it without the caster adjusted to max.

 

I have not personally tried it but figured I would at some point in the near future.

-Jon

 

Just for the record, I'm sitting @ 47K miles, numerous auto-x launches and track days and still running strong (knock on wood). By numerous, I mean numerous, I attend as many auto-x related event around my area as I can. Events, schools, divisional, you name it ...

So far, the clutch has only smoked 3 times total due to poor launches by myself and an instructor ... I'm acutally amazed at its durability! Ofcourse I never launch above 5K rpms, preload the transmission and slip the clutch everytime I launch ... I keep a spare stock clutch just incase the day comes ....

russjnco: Why reduce caster?

 

I liked it a lot, it made the front end a little more "alive" which really helps the '03's anyway. More caster usually means more stability and since the front is already very stable, less caster gets it a little more on edge. Not too sure how it would be with the front LSD though. The steering is already light to begin with so adding a little more resistance isn't necessarily a bad thing. So far this season there has only been one instance where I would have liked to have had more caster and that was in a really awkward feature down in Colorado Springs. It was hard right hand turn and immediately after that was a slalom entering on the right so it took a lot of effort to get the car transitioned to going left again. It felt really sluggish and I know I was giving up gobs of time because of it. Other than that time the car has been great!