MrAWD

The way it looks like to me is that you are letting the weight go off too quickly from the front of the car, after you have finished with the braking. You can definitely help it with extra springs in the rear, but if you let go off of the brakes and hit the throttle too quickly, you will get back to this position again.
Instead, try to keep that weight at the front end a bit longer and move it to the rear in a smoother way.

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

So, here's what the car looked like at the practice event:


This was a run from the morning, with some minor shock adjustments from how I ran the car at Marina a few weeks prior to the practice event - car was extremely bouncy and too loose (snappy even, depending on how aggressive you were with your inputs). Tried to soften the bar to start with but the aluminum rod I used in my custom endlinks was too long to articulate to the softest bar setting, so I had to make due with softening rear compression some more


Softening the rear compression helped very little, as the car was still twitchy and somewhat unpredictable, very slidey as well. Very hard to trust it this way. After that event, I ordered some shorter aluminum rods and was able to put the RSB on full soft before last weekend's event:


Much better now with the rear bar on full soft - feels like most of the hopping went away (though there weren't any of the long sweepers from the previous weekend) and the car was a lot more predictable, plus the car still rotates pretty well for my taste. Trying to get more comfortable with the car before the upcoming National events, hopefully these changes have made the car faster but it'll be for nothing if I don't start driving better. Next experiment is to try some softer springs in the rear and see how it does.

MrAWD

Congrats on Pro win man!! Looking forward to more details!!

Murph

iTrader: (4)

Great job Jimmy! Also looking for details when you get around to it.

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

Thanks guys! I figure I should start from before the Pro

We had a local event weekend right before the Pro, so for this event I swapped in a set of softer rear springs (700 lb/in) to see if I could get rid of the sudden oversteer and bouncing that I've been getting. On Saturday, at some point my homemade endlink broke and disconnected (not sure if it was on the way there or if it happened during my first 2-3 runs) my rear swaybar:


It didn't feel all that bad, I noticed that the rear bar was disconnected after my third run. It was rotating a bit and wasn't bouncing from what I could tell. After morning runs, I headed to the permanent practice course that AAS uses and took 20+ runs dialing in the shocks. On Sunday, I had the bar reconnected and the car felt like it was more willing to rotate (though a little bouncing came back):


I was fairly happy with the car at that point, so I figured I was mostly ready for the Pro at that point

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

For this year's Crows Landing Pro, there was some tough competition to be had in STU - Doug and Tasha Mikko, Chris Mayfield, and Matt Ales were all signed up. Bryan Heitkotter and Teddie Alexandrova's old STU 350z was also there with it's new owner Steve McLaughlin. After Saturday morning, I was in 2nd place with dirty right side runs (would've been up by 0.5s if the faster one was clean). Before Saturday afternoon runs, I made a slight shock adjustment and took the lead by 1.7 seconds - definitely was not expecting that. Most of the other contenders in the class had picked up a little time, but I dropped 0.9s on the left and 2.6s on the right (0.6 if you compare scratch times). Thankfully I had a big lead for Sunday morning, as I wasn't able to find any time (drove too hard on 2 runs, hit cones, improved some spots but gave it back in others), but I was able to come out with my first official National event win! I had previously won the 2017 San Diego Match Tour in STU, but there were only 2 of us in class.



For the left side, there was a little time to gain by not bombing into the sweeper (I came in too hot on my fastest run, probably could've been in the high-35 second range if I had gotten that right). My 60fts weren't great either so I could knock at least a tenth off each side if I was getting 1.9s. I think I was 11th or 12th in overall PAX after Saturday, not bad at all I think

BigT

iTrader: (8)

Congrats again, bud. Are you doing any more Pro's before the finale?

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

Thanks Talha! I'll be at the Fontana Pro this weekend, trying to get 40 points for the Finale

Originally I wasn't planning on doing the Finale this year, I was telling friends (jokingly) that I would sign up for Fontana if I won the Crows Pro....figured that a chance to win a ProSolo championship doesn't come around every year . Last year I qualified for the Finale but didn't have enough points to even remotely challenge for the championship due to my clutch giving out at Fontana last year (and not driving all that well during the Finale). Are you still running STU for this year?

Murph

iTrader: (4)

Jimmy getting it done again!

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

Thanks Kevin! Fontana was a tough battle, in the end I got a little lucky that Matt coned his last run (would've been his fastest right side by 6 tenths or so). Struggled with the courses and setup of the car, as the site has a lot less grip than Crows Landing and the courses were fairly tight. I stiffened the rear bar a bit after Saturday morning and that seemed to help some, just wish I tried some other tweaks. One of the things about the site is that the locals say you need full tread tires (or as close as possible), I brought my half-worn set of Bridgestones and I'm not sure if it hurt but the car felt very lazy and it took awhile to take a set IMO.



Though I won the class, I finished way further back in PAX compared to the previous weekend, which reinforces my belief that I left a decent chunk of time on the table. SoloStorm said I goofed on my 4th right side run (overshot the entry into the turnaround) and cost myself 8 tenths there - however I couldn't come close to the theoretical 32.0 right side run all weekend. Either way, still things to work on in terms of driving and setup. Next big event is the Crows Champ Tour, looking forward to it

BigT

iTrader: (8)

Unfortunately, no. I sold the Evo and my DSP car will more than likely not be finalized until 2020.

I still plan on coming to Nationals. Hopefully I can find a seat. Got one for sale?

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

Just saw this...we'll have to talk :P . It'll probably depend on how I plan to get to Lincoln (either towing or flying out and putting the car on a transporter), but I've had a few other people inquire about co-drives for Nationals as well.


Anyhoo, the Crows Landing Champ Tour was this past weekend, I managed to have the lead after Day 1 until Chris Mayfield in an DCT E92 M3 laid down some smoking runs on Sunday to take the class win. I ended up finishing second, not a bad result since I wasn't all that happy with my driving. Day 1 had some small mistakes on my fastest run, that I felt could've been easily fixed. Day 2, I don't think I could've gotten to Chris' 64.9 - not shifting probably hurt me more than I realized at the time (was focused on getting the slow hairpin turn correct as I botched it my first 2 runs and didn't want to throw in a shift/downshift into the equation).

Saturday:



Sunday:



As for the car, it felt great all weekend - didn't touch a knob or swaybar and only bled pressures after runs. I think the car can be very competitive at the top, as-is, but will be tweaking a little more to see if I can extract some more speed out of it before Nats . However, it definitely wasn't the car slowing me down this weekend, it was me not driving at my best (and stubbornly refusing to shift, especially on Day 2). Need to work on adapting more quickly to a course (especially if it drives differently from how it walked), as well as work on laying down better first runs. With 3 runs at Champ Tours (and Nats), it's definitely not ideal to have your first run essentially be a throwaway - gotta be able to throw down something respectable off the bat.

Dallas J

iTrader: (1)

Nice runs Jimmy, car is looks great on course.

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

Thanks! The car feels tons better since all of the changes, thanks again for all of your advice and input during the winter

Jim3142

iTrader: (2)

Quick rewind - my clutch took a crap about a month ago during an event. I think one of the springs popped out of the disc and broke some of the fingers on the pressure plate, I was unable to get the car into gear after stopping for my time slip after a run, so we had to push it off to the side and eventually onto a friend's trailer. It was an Exedy OEM replacement clutch, decided not to take any chances this time and went back to an OEM Mitsubishi clutch. I guess the silver lining is that I'll have a fresh clutch for the Pro Finale

Also picked up a co-driver for Nats - my friend Eileen Blando is hopping into the car. Previously, she's finished second in CSL (2015) and second in DSL (2017) at Nationals. After only a few events, she's made fast progress and has gotten within 0.5s of me at the last 3 events, we're looking forward to seeing what happens the rest of this season and at Lincoln

Some videos:



First video was the faster scratch due to the successful 2-3 shift out of the middle turnaround and carrying that into the final turnaround, second video had far cleaner downshifts and looked better after the fast left-hander, going towards the final turnaround. Matt Ales ran a clean 51.7 at this event which would've been tough to beat, but I think cleaner downshifts and a slightly better run to the final turnaround would've gotten me there.


With the exception of the left-hander at 0:11 and the final left-hander going into the finish, I thought this was a pretty strong run. The run after this, I improved both of those sections as well as going flat into the right-handed sweeping section after the final turn-around (was on the limiter for a decent amount of time heading to the finish so 3rd gear might have been a good option here) but gave it back and then some in 2 spots (exit of final turnaround and entrance into first slalom) - ended up .2 slower but it was clean. Unfortunately, the clutch gave out and I wasn't able to take my 5th run (still wonder if top PAX was out there if I put it together, oh well )