Far North Racing Website Overhaul in Progress

[DG-FNR]

Hey guys,

I've got some time on my hands before my next callout so I'm (finally) overhauling the Far North Racing website to bring it screaming and kicking into 2010.

Most of this is behind the scenes stuff; I'm converting to a site management system I wrote that allows sitewide template updates so the whole site can be updated at once - separating content from presentation.

But in the process - because I'm extracting the content from the old-style table pages - I get an opportunity to update the content as well.

And I still see a LOT of questions around here that the site still answers in great detail.

Eventually I'll be working through Autocross to Win and autocross.dsm.org too, but for the moment I'm chewing though Far North Racing - Home

So if you haven't read through it in a while - or you have no idea what I'm talking about - feel free to drop by and have a look.

Comments and feedback are also welcome.

Enjoy!

DG

 

[Scott McIntyre]

Awesome! Looking forward to the content updates. Thanks for sharing.

 

[pboglio]

Cool, cool, cool.

 

[DG-FNR]

I couldn't help myself - I built the new template for Autocross to Win.

Here's a sneak peek: Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - Caveat Lector!

DG

 

[snowborder714]

Looks awesome!

 

[eclipsh]

Any chance you'll post up the diagrams on 2g suspensions you made? Arm lengths/angles etc?

 

[DSMunknown]

Keep us updated, Dennis.

 

[DG-FNR]

Two more pages updated. I'm adding content as I go, which makes things a little slower, but makes for better results:

Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - The Driver
Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - The Goal

DG

Hrm, it seems that Todd's redirect server for autocross.dsm.org has exploded.

If you want to reach http://autocross.dsm.org until he fixes it, the base URL is Autocross.dsm.org

DG

 

[DG-FNR]

Some more updates in.

DG

Massive update to the Suspension page....

Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - Suspension

DG

 

[endeffect0]

I learned a great deal from reading the information on your site when i first found it a year or so ago. I just want to say Thanks for taking the time to give back to our little community and to distribute your hard earned knowledge.

-Cheers!

 

[DG-FNR]

MASSIVE update to the Shocks section. Now four full pages of shocking goodness!

Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - Shocks

DG

 

[D_Eclipse9916]

You are amazing DG, you helped me a lot during my DSM funtime (ill be back I know it), and I still read your stuff intently as an m3 owner (shocks are shocks and lots of the lessons apply).

 

[DG-FNR]

Some final tweaks and edits, and ATW is fully updated! (For now)

Tomorrow, back to the rest of Far North Racing.

DG

 

[mschlanglv]

Love sending folks to your page after they start explaining the awesomeness of their 21-way adjustable shocks.

Thanks again for bringin the tech!

 

[DG-FNR]

Just the Diary section to do.

Say, does anybody know how to get their hands on a tarball or zip file of the Talon Digest Archives?

DG

 

[eclipsh]

Yeah, I've got them on my DSM Maunaul CD. It came with all that stuff. PM me an email address and I'll send it all your way.

 

[Dallas J]

While I may or may not be slightly drunk, I gotta say YOU ROCK!!

In the world of racing everything people find out is kept so secret squirrel, non so much as in the evo world it seems. Its hard to get ahead and find real information on what we should be looking at without spending some serious coin out of pocket to do the testing ourselves.

Just wanted to say thanks, and without someone helping us along our way most of us would still be on 550/450 springs wondering why we get such bad snap oversteer and understeer the rest of the time..

 

[laggin3]

Wow.

If Dallas hadn't posted a reply, I would have glazed over all this. After reading your site, I agree with the whole "black magic" statement. I am ignorant when it comes to suspension, so I never really paid any attention to it. An immense thank you for putting that site together and explaining things correctly and in laymans terms.

Just, wow.

 

[DG-FNR]

I was going to work on the Diary stuff today, but I got sidetracked into mucking with the CSS and layout.

It's a little cleaner now.

DG

 

[DG-FNR]

IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

All the old pages have been backported to the new content management system. Every single stinking page.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I can start scraping my old Race Reports out of the Talon Digest Archives and fill in the missing Diary pages.

DG

 

[turbosax2]

REALLY appreciate the effort, DG! Now that it's all updated I'll have to go back and reread the whole thing again

 

[DG-FNR]

1997 is done.

Far North Racing - Race Diary

DG

Up to early 2000...

DG

 

[Scott McIntyre]

From: Far North Racing Diary - 2001 Oscoda ProSolo

I did a shock travel test, and discovered that the silastos I had on there (the bump rubbers) were about a quarter inch too short to actually do anything - the tire would contact the wheelwell long before the silasto would come into play. Carrol Smith (in his books) recommends using a progressive (and tunable) silasto in the last half inch or so of suspension travel. If I did the same, I might be able to lower the car some, and let the extra spring rate of the silasto keep the tire off the wheelwell.

So I got ahold of a pair of nice and soft conical silastos, long enough to actually do something, and put them in along with the new shocks right before Peru.

< snip >

Interestingly enough, the car is pushing on BOTH sides of the track, turning in each direction. what the blue hell is going on here?

So I jack up the car, and check the shock travel indicator - it is JAMMED hard up against the base of the silasto. Aha! Eureka! Off comes the shocks, off come the silastos, put it back together and 30 min later I have a silasto-less car.

< snip >

My first run is on the right, and I pull a full 1.2 seconds out of my time with a 30.6. The obscene push is fixed.

Ironically, I'm going through this myself right now. I discovered over winter that my tire (275 on 17x10 +12) makes contact with the wheelwell long before my cut OEM bumpstop comes into play. My plan is/was to switch to a longer bumpstop that will reside in the last 0.5" of suspension travel, yielding ~375 lbs compression force before tire contact. However, now having read your results I'm second guessing myself...

What resolution did you come to regarding your bumpstops (silastos)? Did you continue to run the car without them?

Thanks.

 

[DG-FNR]

You want to be *really* careful about conclusions I arrive at prior to about 2003 or so. There's a lot of "the seven blind men and the elephant" going on where I'm seeing just a small portion of the real problem yet I think I've got a handle on the whole picture.

The end of the 2002 season is when I really got a grip on just how out to lunch I was, and where I really start learning the truth about a lot of stuff.

I find the diary stuff fascinating, because you can watch the transformation from cocky know-it-all to real engineer play right out in front of you. The author of those diary entries is not the same guy who wrote Autocross to Win.

That being said, there are very real reasons why silastos don't work. I threw them out and never looked back.

DG

 

[DG-FNR]

2000 is now done - which means I'm very close to being completely finished, as in 2001 I was updating the FNR website concurrently with posting to the Talon Digest.

Interesting some of the omissions... I promised (but never delivered) a Part 3 to my report on Nationals 2000 - meaning that there is an entry for the ProEFI install and the Pro Finale, but not Nationals proper. Weird.

I expect to have all the entries up probably by the end of tomorrow. And I'll be adding pictures where I have them.

My final, long-term plan is to add the class results from every race to each entry page, but that will take a bunch of research first and is secondary to adding more content to ATW.

DG

Diary section is pretty much done for now.

I have some pictures I want to add, and I want to add results, and I'm seriously considering uploading all the data files from each event too... but I'm leaving for my next callout soon and this is good enough for now.

I'm bringing an archive of the website with me and on weekend/evenings I may get a chance to do some more writing, ATW is the focus for the next little while.

Remember - clicking on an occasional ad helps pay the bandwidth bills, and the Tire Rack referral link pays well if it leads to a sale. If ATW or any of the tech articles on FNR have helped you at all and if you are going to make a Tire Rack order anyway, please consider using the link on ATW to get you to their site. It'll put a couple of $ in my pocket and costs you nothing.

DG