For those interested, this will be a pretty long post and If any of you have suggestions please post:

I ran the car again at "SOWS" The Streets of Willow Springs this weekend sponsored by Speed Trial USA. This was the first time I ran with this group, and SASKINS joined me for a short period of time.

Unfortunately it wasn't much fun because the weather was terrible in the desert on Saturday. The wind was blowing 30kts at least, and it was chilly for us California wimps at 50f.

I went out there mostly for testing and some additional track time and learned some more things about the set-up of my Crossfire.

The SOWS track is a VERY tight road course with a few off cambered turns and a VERY short straight 1000'. (I will post a map in my photos) High speed on the straight in my Crossfire is barely 100mph before breaking for turn 1.

There were appx. 50-60 cars running in three different run groups and most if not all were modified RICERS with some serious mods. Some were Formula D cars "Drifters". And most competitors were of that ilk.

My Crossfire has the following MINOR mods. (eibach/koni/porterfield pads/K&N/magnaflow) and running with the stock Conti all weather tires until I run them down and can replace them with a more track worthy tire. I have more than 20 years experience on this type of track and earned my SCCA ticket on the big track at Willow when I was 19 running Formula Vee. My Crossfire is a 6spd manual with less than 10k miles.

MY CROSSFIRE PROS & CONS

SUSPENSION
First notable problem with my suspension set-up for this track is that the front left tire rubs very hard inside the wheel well on the tight right hand cambered turns (#3 #5) but the line I can hold is substantially tighter than SASKINS stock suspension, as well as most of the RICERS who were with me.

The car told me that I could definately push it harder through those turns without breaking it loose, if I didn't have the really bad RUB which was making me crazy and literally slowing me down like a brake.

The front body roll in those tight turns was about 5 - 7 degrees more than I would like. And about 2 degrees more on the other "SWEEPERS".

TIRES CONTI ALL WEATHER
Well that goes without saying, but I'm trying to eat them up so I can justify buying some new ones. They held OK considering it was fairly cold, but on turn 8 coming out of the last "sweeper" into the "straight" I ended up doing a routine drift or "throttle steer" at a much lower speed (60mph) than I would have expected from a good sticky race tire.

BRAKING
The brakes seem to be OK at this point, but I never had the chance to really work them since the car would not reach the speeds where they became critical into the corners. I never experienced any brake fade, but did have the ABS screw me up in a couple of late braking (driver error) turns. I wish I could turn off the ABS like I turn off the other useless anti-slip computer.

POWER
Absolutely embarrasing !!! My Crossfire can definately hold its own in the "twisties" with a suspension tweak or two, but the power is PURELY inadequate. In the current configuration I can take turn 8 in a nicely controlled drift into the straight at about 60mph +/- in third gear, then pop 4th after the apex and stomp on it. About halfway down the straight I reach 5900 rpm and drop into 5th. That is 500 feet before I hit a shift point from 4th to 5th. That is WAY TOO LONG !!!

By this time I have had a BUNCH OF RICERS who were behind me all the the way thru the turns, pass me at 10+ mph. NOT GOOD !!!

FIXES
Considering I was running with a bunch of seriously modded ricers, many of them were SC'd + TC'd, I know the engine mods I will need to do to make the car more competetive for power. Either that, or buy the SRT6 I have on order.

SUSPENSION (YOUR COMMENTS WELCOME)
To prevent the front tire rub, should I have a tighter custom (tortion / sway) bar made to eliminate the front body roll, or should I install a bit thicker spring spacer ? Or both ?

If anyone knows of a AM tighter tortion bar for the front of the car let me know. The rear is perfect for the weight and current HP. I know where to find the spring spacers if needed.

BRAKES
I let BREMBO use my car as a prototype to measure for their AM breaking system a few months ago, but they said they would not mfg. it unless they had quite a few orders. even then, it would run $3k +. And currently the speeds on the small track at Willow do not require a beefed-up braking system.

EXHAUST
I really didn't notice a difference, except for the personal satisfaction that the car now sounds like a sports car. I ran the track a few times before the upgrade and my lap times were pretty much the same.


ATTN SPONSORS:
RENNTECH, BRABUS, STARTECH ETC, WANT TO TRICK OUT MY CROSSFIRE FOR FREE SO I CAN BEAT THESE DAMN RICERS ? I'LL RUN ALL THE EVENTS AT (LAGUNA SECA, BUTTON WILLOW, WILLOW SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY, INFINEON, ETC) AND I'LL HAVE MY CAMERA CREWS COVER EACH EVENT IN PANAVISION HIGH DEFINITION FOR YOUR PROMOTION AND COMMERCIALS.

Video and photos to follow in later posts...

 

Re the tire rub and needing a tighter suspension. It would seem to me that a stiffer front stabilizer bar would do the trick. I don't think I would play with the spring spacer. I am assuming that you don't believe the spring is too weak relative to the right side. You didn't mention the right side and I guess the track characteristics didn't put as much demand on the left turns. I would look for a stiffer front stabilizer but sorry I can't help you re the source for one.

Being a short track. it sounds like the Xfire rear end gear ratio is too low. Those ricers probably have very high ratios just suited for the short tracks. Put them on a long track and it would probably be a different story. Does anyone know if the rear differential gears can be changed to suit the shorter track. I just had a look on the DC site to see if they showed the rear gear ratio specs and of course they don't. My very rough estimate is that the ratio is somewhere between 250:1 to 300:1. If that is the case, a ratio of around 350:1 would be more suitable. You'd be cooking in 5th and probably seeing 6th down the straight. With all this said, it's very unlikely that DC has optional gears for the rear-end but you might want to check with the MERC SLK320 people to see what they have.

Hope this is of some help. I would have loved to have been there with you.

 

I love it when I see good detailed threads like this posted. We need more road tests like this.
Have you considered changing your springs to something not quite so low, like the stock config?

 

MBEPIC: Thanks for the pointers. I agree with your assesment about the tighter front tortion bar. Oddly enough the right side just barely rubs during my runs, however, I took my GF out for a few laps during our lunch break and the minute I had her in the car, the right side rubbed much worse on the same corners. Her added weight of 110 lbs in the passenger seat brought the right side down just far enough to create the rub on that side. You can see that the tolerance is really close. I will search for a AM tortion bar which should resolve the problem.

As far as the gear ratio, I again agree with your assesment. Most of the other cars were set-up as drifters with very high gear ratios, as was obvious by the apparent sound of their engines running high RPM even in their lowest gears down the straightaway. I think I'm SOL in finding different gears for that rearend. Although I may know where to have some made here in So. Cal. I have the current gear ratios somewhere, but can't seem to find them right now...

Thanks Again

 

Glad to help. If you find those current gear ratio specs, let me know.

 

MBEPIC:

I knew I had all the specs somewhere, This was a post I made a few months ago comparing the SRT6 to our car. It lists all the gear ratios etc. Rear ratio on our car is 3.270

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ead.php?t=5653

 

I'm surprised it is that high; like I said before, I would have thought somewhere below 3.00.
What is the gear ratio with the SRT6? I'm sure it is different for the simple reason, it would be an automatic tranny.

 

Take a look at the link in my last post it compares everything between the two cars

 

Thanks, no point in going with the RT6 gears. I wonder how the RT6 shocks & springs compare with the set-up that your running.

 

No idea what changes they made specifically with the SRT6 suspension, but I read that the springs were tighter to handle the additional front-end weight. Not sure if they changed the dampers and tortion bar, but that would be a good thing to check.

PS: I had a few phone calls with Eibach regarding the adaptability of the SLK anti-roll bar kit. They do not know if the system is interchangable between our cars. I offered mine as a test bed, but they declined because they believe there is not a large enough market for them to spend the time and energy... They said that they heard the car was going to be discontinued !!!

The only thing they suggested is that I buy the kit and see if it fits. And if not, they will take it back. They also recommended that I contact a Mercedes tuner in the LA area who may have some experience with the Crossfire... YEAH RIGHT !!!

I'll keep you posted...

 

According to the specs you referred me to, the shock damper is different between the standard and the RT6. The RT6 uses a combo gas/oil damper.

 

MBEPIC:

Information from the dealers and DC is limited at best... I have spent the better part of the day, in between my regular job contacting everyone regarding the sway bar... To no avail...

I did find out that the part # for the sway bars for both the standard Crossfire and the SRT6 are the same, which tells me that they did not change that part between the two cars. However, the rear sway bar part # for the roadster is different from the coupe'.

I ordered the Eibach anti-roll bar kit for the SLK320, product #255232 for $473.00, to see if it fits my car. If it doesn't, I'm out the $$$ but I would like to know... Perhaps I can modify it to fit... If not, you'll see it on e-bay in about a week...

I'll keep you posted

 

MBEPIC: Perhaps we should move this thread to the suspension part of the forum !!!

 

I'll be waiting for those pics & vids man. Anyways, in my case I use to have a stiffer front stabilizer. My uncle taught that to me & works pretty fine.

 

Dude... that post was back in 2004. If you're looking for his racing vids, it's on youtube. YouTube - HDDP's Channel

He used to have others on his own website but i just checked and looks like he removed them.

 

Yes, but he's searching and finding things. Good job on the search.

Les

 

search wasnt the problem... just bringing attention to the fact that he might be needlessly be waiting for Derek to update a post on something going back 6yrs ago.. hehe

 

That could be a long wait I guess. I always comb through the old racing posts myself.

Les