Thread: Ultimate Performance Alignment **specs inside**
View Single Post
Old Sep 16, 2013 | 04:48 PM
  #5 (permalink)  
boostmonkey's Avatar
boostmonkey
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 528
Likes: 0
Default Re: Ultimate Performance Alignment **specs inside**
The adjustments are only so precise. The readings on the screen would vary 0.1 degrees without touching it. Furthermore, adjusting one item, affects the others.

My car is not lowered. Stock springs and shocks.

The autocross yesterday was a blast!

I learned several things. One: The outdated 280-treadwear Continental Contisportcontact 2 front tires I have could not compete with the 140 treadwear tires the rest of the STR class was running, and were ultimately, I think, a limiting factor. What I would do is fly into a corner, push the front tires past their limit and they would push wide, at the apex I would use the throttle to rotate the rear of the car around and get lined up exiting the corner. I drifted out of more corners than not, which was QUITE fun, but probably not the fastest way around the course. By the way: you CAN steer the car with the throttle, and it is awesome. I have 200 treadwear Dunlop Star Specs on the rear and they felt better suited for the task.

I was very pleased with the driveabillity of the car. I could push it around between understeer, slight oversteer, and wild oversteer without it doing anything unexpected. I could power out of a corner holding just a few degrees of oversteer without it acting like it wanted to swap ends, which was great. I never hit a single cone, at least not hard enough to knock it over. I may have kissed a few. I never spun either. I came close once - I went into a downhill 90* corner way too fast, and was pushing through it and headed to hit the outside cones on the exit. I punched the gas to rotate the car - which did the trick - and just missed the cones, with the back bumper, instead of the front fender. I got all kinds of sideways, but didn't want to bail so I kept working the gas and seesawed left-right-left. Amazingly I got around the next corner(a gentle left kink), sideways, and got it under control just in time for corner # 3 in this sequence (another tight right-hander), without hitting any cones anywhere!

The only place the car was loose was on the slalom. They had a long slalom that you entered slowly and had to build your speed in the slalom. If I got going to fast by the end I would be pitching the car back and forth and the rear would get loose. It felt like I would throw it to one side, counter-steer to catch it, and throw it to the other side. If I kept the speed lower, the slalom was perfect.

I talked alignments with the Honda S2000 guys which comprised the majority of my class. I could not compete with their times. But they were all seasoned regulars and their cars were prepped specifically for the class. They run crazy alignment specs: -3 degrees of camber all around, and a good bit of front toe OUT. That would shred the inside edge of your tires going down the highway.

Those S2000 engines are so weak though. They were dropping the clutch at 6000 RPMs to get a good launch and not bog. I told them that I was spinning the launch no matter how lightly I touched the throttle (horrible surface). One of them said to me: "You probably need to lower your RPMs. What RPM are you launching at?" I said "1200" and he looked at me like I had three eyes.

Overall I had a great time and was happy with the alignment. For my mixed use, I am going to leave it right where it is at.





 
Reply
0