Recent race

[MaxGdsm]

I had my first autoCross race this last weekend and I didnt think I did all that bad. Well it turns out I got first in my class! below is a vid I put together real quick of one of my runs.

YouTube - UBC winterwarmup

 

[cardot33]

awesome, how did you mount the camera? its a pretty good vid! nice car btw.

 

[my dreamt dsm]

Looked fun. How did the gtr do?

 

[Dallas J]

Not bad, Looks like your car has quite a bit of under steer though.

 

[MaxGdsm]

I have a mount that I bought a while ago and my car is stripped out so I bolted into the passenger door through a pre-existing hole with a mount. Sticky Pod - Car Camera Mount

THe gtr did okay, hes a friend of mine and this was his first motorsports event, hes only had the car for 4 months. i think I was about 3 seconds faster than him, but he has some learning to do.

Dallas, Ide have to watch the video again but the car has neutral to some understeer tendencies as with any AWD with our torque split and layout. This was my first race with the car so I had to take a blind guess at alignment, tire pressures and shock settings and my setup isnt anything special to begin with. In addition it is a 1g, not the best for this sort of thing, but I mostly want to have fun.

But if anyone has any suggestions on setup please advise, there is VERY little support or advice for 1g road racing setups.

Otherwise Ill do my best to stay at the head of the pack and represent DSM's out there

 

[Phil1320]

Looks like alot of fun! Nice job! In all my years of toying around with cars I have not autocrossed once. Been to plenty to spectate, that's it. I think I'm missing out! Good luck in the future!

 

[rEclipserGST]

Great in-car video, nice car, good job pulling first in your class. You did great for your first race. And understeer?? How can you even tell from this video angle??? The squeling of tires?? Your car has very little mods, I dont expect you to be pro. You did great, keep it up and the only person who can give you tips would be people who have auto-x MULTIPLE TIMES.

Keep it going man, show those new car's that even the oldies (that can use historical plates) can still hang.

 

[Dallas J]

And understeer?? How can you even tell from this video angle??? The squeling of tires?? Your car has very little mods, I dont expect you to be pro. You did great, keep it up and the only person who can give you tips would be people who have auto-x MULTIPLE TIMES.

From what I can tell, and pretty much all 1gs, its understeering more than Id like. But, it doesnt really matter since he's just doing it for fun. I can hear when the tires are squealing vs when the car starts to rotate.

Im not saying anything bad, you just asked what we think and thats what I see.

If you want to get faster Id definately get some camber plates, bigger bars, and more spring rate.

 

[MaxGdsm]

squealing doesn't necessarily mean significant loss of traction. But i have a suspension setup that is pretty decent for what it cost. camber caster plates up front and adjustable control arm out back. I have 550lb springs front, 650 rear, 2.25 degrees neg camber front, -1 rear. neutral toe all the way around. bar in rear is stock but adequate. what i need is new bushings all the way around and the active toe eliminators in rear then the attitude of the car will change for the better.

but all informed advice is welcome.

 

[Phil1320]

ok, first off, even understeering you can still be fast. Faster than alot of people think. With that spring rate up front I'd just pull your front swaybar off and that will help for sure.
Many of the FWD guys that run at our local track days don't run a front sway once coilovers are in place. That's my quick and easy step to help that concern, if YOU feel you are experiencing something that is slowing you down or you don't like by the way of handling. I've had several different FWD and AWD platforms. Generally I leave the stock front swaybar/bushings, and go with the largest rear sway/poly bushings I can. The cars still exhibit some understeer, but the rear end is easier to manuever with the throttle.

I would definitely get the rear end set up with the toe eliminators and rear sub bushings etc. It HELPS dramatically.

I spoke with a guy in Daytona Florida that used to set up 1G DSMs in the early 90's for road race, one of his tips was to space the front wheels a bit, same size wheels and tires all around, but he claims that helped with rotation and I would not argue that. He also mentioned that NO MATTER WHAT you do for a set up, you will always have to MUSCLE the AWD cars around the track. We are not driving finesse cars and subtle inputs and such will not bring the best out of the car.

You could introduce a steering quickener to our 15.8:1 steering ratio.....

That's about all I can think of at this time and I would hope that it would help your autocrossing as well. Because of some of the tight turns in autocross, removal of the front sway may not help, but if it is understeering badly I can't see how it wouldn't.

 

[MaxGdsm]

no it doesn't experience alot of understeer thats why that comment surprised me. I raced a fwd Vw for 1.5 seasons and Im used to that, so its actually taking some getting used to having the advantages of AWD.

I graduated with a vehicle engineering degree so I do know some stuff about suspension dynamics/kinematics and i realize my platform isnt the best. That being said I learned alot of theory and prefer first hand knowledge to accompany that theory. I also know being in the northwest the AWD will make up for the cars lopsided balance and strut suspension downfalls in the wet.

Im going to keep the front ARB as I like the response and minimal sway, and I know that a large part of having a fast car is having a car the driver feels confident with. But any suggestions/links to a good rear sway bar would be much appreciated.

I could not throttle-on oversteer that day. But it was very neutral otherwise, i also am only runing 9lbs of boost at the moment. I would love to get the rear toe eliminators, budget willing, in the near future. In addition I have to find all the bushings i need as I want to replace any and all that are available. Any suggested links would help but I found summit has a lot of bushing kits for our cars. That is my next big project along with clutch/flywheel as Im slipping in 4th and 5th now

In short the car is fun in its half finished state. But advice and information on how to set up this car for turns is limited and if any of you have friends with experience doing that with 1gs please let me know. Im not going to put 15K into this car getting it ready right now but I would love the knowledge to help guide my project otherwise.


Wish list:
rear toe elim, all bushings, dsm link or safc, injectors, clutch, flywheel, (adj?) rear sway bar, & wisdom

 

[Dallas J]

I'm one of the faster NW SM guys, got another Oregon regional season win this year.

If you run with the SCCA guys ever you should come out to some packwood events and I can see what I feel riding shotgun. My co-driver has been at it and still for about as long as you and still about 3sec slower on a 60sec course.

This year I've got the car set up just right (for me) and really got to concentrate on driving and found tons of time on course. Really working on pushing the cones, smooth arcs, late apexing, pre-spooling the turbo, and learning courses quicker. I've really jumped ahead of the rest of my class this year and next only expect to get faster.