I'd hold off - I have some video for today which should be much more instructive

 

Event 24: Autocrossers Inc @ Waldorf, 10-23-2011

Setup (new stuff in bold):
Moton Clubsports
front: 3/7 compression, 3/7 rebound
rear: 3/6 compression, 3/7 rebound
600/800 springs
-3 / -1, 0 toe
245-40-17 Dunlop Z1s on 17x9 SSR Type C RS, 15mm spacers in the front
35/35 psi
WORKS 24mm rear swaybar on full soft
Factory rear differential rebuild
Conditions: 60s and nice

Having knocked the rear bar to the soft setting I was hoping to be less scared of the car

Due to the somewhat constraining lot layout at Waldorf, the course was straightforward as usual. Mostly sweepers and offsets, very little on the slalom side.

I took a passenger for my first run (novice taxi). I launched like normal, and almost spun the car right out of the gate! Cold tires + reshuffled diff = whee.


You can really see at :02, :18 and :24 the power oversteer poking its head out. Thanks for writing a killer factory manual, Mitsubishi!

Run 2 - let's get a clean one in. More careful at the start, more patient in the sweepers. Definitely late turning out of the huge straight into the finish. Not awful, 42.9.


Run 3 - someone who was making an autox video asked if they could a) stick a camera on the car and b) ride along. Sure... it started okay, but I had a fairly cataclysmic spin in the big fast lefthand sweeper, just gave it a bit too much gas+steering. Courseworkers allegedly called in asking for new pants...


Run 4 - definitely no passengers this time! I clean up some parts, but botch the pin turn and am still late coming out of the hard braking zone. Also did not have a very good finish.


Ended up good for 1st in STU (out of 6 I think) and 12th in PAX. Not sure where that would have landed me in Pro class.

edit: would have been 8th/17 in Pro on a 42.5. A 41.8 would have left me 4th in Pro, 5th in PAX.

Datalogger breakdown

This compares run 2 (clean but mistakey) to run 4 (cleaner but still mistakey)



sector 1: Decent launches both, but pushed too far out on run 4. Only 1 mph difference in top speed, but run 4 added a bit more distance. I got back on the gas sooner in the hard sweeper on run 4, hitting a min of 26 mph rather than 24 mph. At the end of sector 1, run 4 is about two tenths faster, and carrying a lot more speed into the lefthander - 39 mph versus 33 mph.

sector 2: two different lines that end up the same place. Run 2 uses a little less steering and distance, run 4 carries a little more speed. At the braking zone, the two runs are even (in this sector). However, run 4 doesn't give it up enough here, and pushes out, adding distance and forcing a delay getting back on the gas. This gives run 2 a much better shot through the fast section. Run two pulls ahead here and enters sector three up by almost five tenths - huge difference!

sector 3: much like the beginning of S2, two different lines that end in the same place. Run 4 had slowed too soon for the braking zone, but did drop in a little better. In the final two turns, run 4 drops into the finish much better than run 2. Going across the line, run 4 peaks at 32 mph - run 2 peaks at 25 mph. Yikes. Run 4 finishes four tenths quicker.

So in the woulda-coulda-shoulda department - if you take S1 and S3 from run 4, and S2 from run 2, you'd end up with something like a 41.8. Not sure where that would have PAXd me, but definitely higher than 12th... oh well. I believe top PAX ended up being Jr Johnson in the ASP vette, and AJ was very high up there with a 41.9 in his ST car (yes, ST!). Who let him drive a real Civic anyways?

Despite the conclusion, I walked away pretty psyched at how much more capable the car was. Quite simply, it's now a lot easier to get on the gas earlier without just pushing out. The car is really good steady state, the best it's been all year. The question for next year will be whether the current bar/spring/shock/alignment settings still make sense and I just need to get used to them, or whether I need to do a little tweaking to tighten things up. I'll probably add just a shade more negative camber all the way around, like .2 or .3, get fresh tires and go from there.

 

The offseason begins

I was hoping to do CDC @ Frederick on 11-19 and NASA @ VMP 11-20 but ended up bailing for various reasons. So, turns out that was my last event.

Goal #1 is to start troubleshooting and fixing the fuel/spark problem I have, whatever it is.

So far, I've:
* Installed new OEM plug wires and coil boots
* Installed lightly used IX coil packs
* Cleaned the MAF

Two of the coil boots that were on the car (the two with the red tips) were mayyybe a little cracked. This is the worse of the two:



The MAF was ZOMG dirty:



There seems to be conflicting information out there as to what effect cleaning it is going to have - I used the CRC MAF cleaner stuff even though it says "don't use this on Mitsubishis" based on the positive feedback on here. Hopefully it turns out okay.

Going to drive it around a bit over the next few days to let the fuel trims settle and see if anything has changed. Hopefully it won't be dumping 10% more fuel in!

What's left for sure:
* Boost leak test
* Freshly cleaned OEM IX injectors
* Brandy new OEM wastegate actuator
* Possibly a lightly used OEM IX front O2 sensor

At some point after that, if things look better, I'll drop it off to get tuned and see what happens - including an "ASP" (full boost) tune for amusement between STU events.

Project 300-whp-on-a-Mustang continues!

Other plans for 2012

The car felt great at the last two events with the diff done. That was a pretty big change in how the car behaved and it's going to take me a little while to get my brain wrapped around a car doing something other than power-understeering.

Overall though, no big changes planned...

* Hopefully more than 256 whp
* Fresh Dunlops, possibly on 17x9.5 RPF1s
* New camber brackets for the Motons to eke out a little more in front, like -3.3
* Probably a hair more static camber in the rear, like -1.2
* Pads that aren't HP+
* 100 shot of nitrous

Looking forward to another season in STU! This car is such a blast

 

Keep us posted. I'm interested to see how this turns out. My MAF looks just like yours did in the 'before' picture.




The more I hear about this mod, the higher it moves on my to-do list.

Same tire/wheel combo I'm considering for 2012. Are you concerned at all about widening the front track with spacers so the 17x9.5 RPF1s will clear the Brembos?

I'm still torn on 17x9 vs 17x9.5. Do you think there is much difference there, or are you just heading straight for the limit as long as you're changing wheels anyway?

Wow, I would have thought -3 would be enough with high spring rates. Is this out of necessity or just for extra experimentation room?

I approve.

 

Great thread. Thanks for sharing and for your efforts

 

Worth it. Totally transformative, and even having a shop do it isn't very expensive.

Really great for doing 9/10ths on public roads
* this is a joke based on a thread in the tire/brake forum

I'm already running 15mm spacers for the SSRs, so I'm not really worried about possibly running a little more. I'm not sure the difference is huge, and the RPF1s would probably be slightly heavier than my SSRs, but 245 Dunlops aren't even really stretched on a 9" wheel (the lip is still protected from curbs, even!) so I could see there being a little benefit on a 9.5".

Also, it'd be nice to have two sets of aftermarket wheels rather than one aftermarket and one OEM, so I only need one set of lugs. Right now I'm using the OEM SE wheels with the open-end Toyota lugs on the street, and switching to the aftermarket lugs with the SSRs. With two sets of aftermarket wheels I could just run those lugs all the time... makes tire changes easier and those happen quite a lot.

Mostly experimentation. With all that weight in the front I could see a little extra static camber being useful.

 

Make sure you include tire temps in the experimental data . I'm curious what you find to be optimal on the starspecs with your setup. My suspension will be under the knife this winter, so I'm going to need to play with alignment again in the spring. Probably start at -3deg camber and go from there.

 

Are ACD reflashes legal in STU class? If so, I definitely suggest checking it out in conjunction with the rear diff (sig)

 

Sadly no. It's really too bad as the guy isn't even that far away.

How does that even work? Does all the reprogramming go through the OBD port or does anything have to come out of the car? Might be a fun "SCCA season is over" experiment...

 

they can't tell.........

lol sorry. Not sure how they do it, you just send them your ACD unit and they reprogram it's characteristics. I did the Gruppe-S, but I'm going to resend my ACD to ACD-Tuning - I think their maps are way more thorough, and have an auto-x specific map too, which is what I'm in (I run SM though, and not competitively anyway).

 

BD,

The amount of grip you would receive from one of our flashes is truly amazing. I know it's not legal but it is cough cough, recommended. I'm not sure if anyone could tell that it has been modded, but I'm not trying to get anybody Dq'd. Pm me if you have any questions and maybe we can discuss or work something out.

Matt

 

If I were willing to do invisible things to gain an advantage, there is all sorts of crap I could do, but that's not the point of this whole amateur motorsports thing. We're all competing for $5 trophies and it needs to be on a level playing ground.

If I ever bump classes to some place where this is legal I will definitely be in touch. One of these days I need to buy a turbo-AWD beastie that I *don't* autocross so I can do all this crazy crap that isn't legal for autox

"Wait, you want us to replace your stock turbo... with another stock turbo?"
"Wait, you can't touch the boost?"
etc etc...

 

Understood... I appreciate your honesty and class when it comes to racing.

 

Smokey wouldn't agree with that statement.

OP, run the Redline NS fluid. It certainly improves the function of the rear diff.

 

How annoying is it on the street?