My video and data were front the Sunday session with a warmup and cool down lap only. Someone decided to rearrange sone tires and sheet metal on the first hot lap so it got shut down. We were running short of workers so I skipped my later session.
highlights from Saturday's session. Spin car on out lap. Apparently 32 rear was too much because I kept having to play a little catch up with the rear end a little. Dropping to 30 cured that. Best time out was a 2:58.2 or 8 seconds behind the next sundae cup car. Goal was sub-3 minutes and I achieved that. Second goal was dont crash. Did that too.
Sunday I was running with the back marker fits. It was awesome. I think I would have had a low 2:50's which for a stock car on older tires is completely acceptable for me.
gearing isn't as bad with the 205/50/15's. I did need 2nd gear and unlike all my older Korean cars this one readily hopped down abs was ready to roll. I'm amazed at the amount of 1.1-1.3g corners this car was doing. I had a peak of 1.5 out of 1B but that was because I hopped the curb, on two wheels and then it gripped and away we went. It was a little butt puckery there for a moment.
brakes were more than adequate for this car. I wouldn't want to do an enduro on these pads but I won't complain. They were confident, nice firm and consistent pedal and good bite.
the multi-year old rivals were showing their age. There was more grip but they are old and tireed..... get it? Cant wait to get a new set of tires on it.
going down I got 36mpg calculated running 80-85 following friends so there was a lot of WOT to keep up in traffic. Track use showed me 24mpg and running hon 74-76 netted me 38. Makes a cheap car for fuel.
so 600 miles on it this weekend. 28 minutes of track time. Fun was had.
Bob did a good thing with this car.
Been hyper-milking this thing since Weds last week. At one point I was at 42.6. I was running behind Sat morning and took the interstate. That killed me.... down to 40.9. Then my folks wanted to meet for lunch and that took 3 short trips. Down to 40.5. At least I'm back on schedule and its back to showing 41 indicated. Hope to have that up to 41.5 by the time I get home.
On a less happy note, the left front suspension has developed a rattly clunk. I'm guessing strut mount or end link currently. I really need to get cracking on the truck so I can order some coilovers.
The car started developing a thunk and clunk from the front end. Go worse as the week carried on. Mostly left front. Got some play in the upper strut mount and can get a light noise with the jack at a certain lift point on the arm. Looks like the upper strut mount is probably dried out and rusty. Struts are pretty nasty as well and I have noticed a little more bounce. Well, I'll need mounts, bearings, struts/shocks and springs. That's $800. BC Coilovers for the car are $995 and I can actually get more camber. No brainer.
While inspecting everything, the right front knuckle has just a hair of play. I have a feeling all the effort I put into that axle is coming back to haunt me. Looking at the driver side, the axle is actually trying to rust in two. Looks like something scratched it in a spot and the cleveland winters/salt took hold. Fine... a pair of axled for a manual rio are $220. well that was a quick $1200 spent. so in a few weeks, she'll be on BC coilovers and new axles.
So I was looking around for decent shocks the other day for the Soul and I noticed that on this platform, everything has a max of around 4" of travel (!). Are there any solutions to A) correct that or B) maintain bump travel when lowering?
In reply to ProDarwin :
Well, Kinetic motorsports used drop spring pockets with lower shock mounting points on their Forte race cars. But no, there's not much rear suspension travel on these.
EDIT: this shortcoming is for bth generations of the Forte, the Veloster, The Elantra from 2011-up and the accent/rio -12 and up. I'm guessing Soul as well but I havent' looked into it that much
Do you have any pics of that setup?
In reply to ProDarwin :
I found one one time. It wasn't exactly easy. I'll see if I can find it a gain when I have some free time. They basically built a new beam and lowered the spring pocket about 2" (guessing from a single photo) which lowered the lower shock mount as well.
Gotcha. So raising the hub end of the beam would effectively do the same thing. Not worth the effort for most.
let's play guess that cause. cYL 4, 2, 3, 1 IN ORDER
bobzilla said:
let's play guess that cause. cYL 4, 2, 3, 1 IN ORDER
Spark knock? Those are some funky cracks in the porcelain.
In reply to kevinatfms :
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/nanobeavers-or-something-else-eating-these-plugs/183877/page1/
bobzilla said:
In reply to kevinatfms :
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/nanobeavers-or-something-else-eating-these-plugs/183877/page1/
That is a bummer. It insane that fake spark plugs are even a thought these days.
So the car has now seen 3 tracks this year for at least one session. NCM, Blackhawk and now Gingerman. Coilovers have a expected delivery date now for 6/30, but they expect it'll be before that date. I ordered on May 2.
The tires that came with my plethora of wheels are just about done. I'm not upset. That's 5 sessions on 5 year old Rivals that had already seen time on a crapcan civic rear. The deal was 7 wheels and with tires that ended up being 4 sparco ff1's, 1 team dynamics 15x7 +30 offset and 2 15x7.5 unknown brand. One tire had been flat spotted and was pretty much trashed. One is starting to see the early rival delamination at the seam and the others were decent.
Hopefully Putnam on the 26th for a session will put me at 4.
In reply to bobzilla :
Do you plan to run it in Gridlife Sundae Cup in 2022? Any further changes planned beyond the coilovers and tires? How did it do at Gingerman?
In reply to fusion66 :
Yes. Not really other than an axle back for the sweet sweet sounds of an uncorked gamma. It was fine, I suck. first time there, best was a 2.08. Car pulls a constant .9-1.0g in corners. Highest peak g cornering was a 1.24 (on that fast lap), consistantly peaks 1.17-1.19. On stock, 92k mile Cleveland wintered suspension and 5 year old rival take offs.
In reply to bobzilla :
I am leaning towards Sundae Cup as well. Originally I was thinking B-Spec but W2W expenses look to add up pretty quick. Cornering forces look good for worn suspension and old rivals. Is the Rio a five or six speed and how was the gearing for Gingerman? With my Fiesta, I stopped downshifting to 2nd in turns as I was typically able to maintain a minimum speed of 47-50 in the tighter turns and with a max speed of 53 mph in second it wasn't helping my lap times. Ended up only shifting once per lap to fourth on the longest straight. Gaining speed on that slight uphill is a sloooow process.
Gearing on stock sized tires is idiotic. 2nd runs out at 58, 3rd at 95 with the 205/45/17 tire (24.3" OD). With the 205/50/15 (23.1") it brings it down to 90. I shifted to 4th from 10 to 11 just to be nice to the engine, short shifting at 5k. Still hit 85 on that back straight. everything else was 3rd gear never really below 45mph which is fine for it.
AFTER 6 WEEKS, MY COILOVERS FINALLY SHIPPED! Delivery showing Thursday.
Coilovers in. All pics of coilovers and descriptions are a little fake. No camber plates on thesebecause they went full honda. No room for them. I ordered new upper mounts with bearings. I do have my old Forte plates and may eventually find a way to make these work.
Got to work Saturday and sunday is fathers day.... hope to getthese and the new axles in sometime in there.
bc coilovers installed. Not a lot lower but it looks much better. Only issue I had was the right sway bar link will ruby the brake line in left turns. So I need to find a thinner option. Front sway bar is currently not hooked up.
also had a cel pop up coming hone from Sam's club. P0326 knock sensor code. Cylinder 3 is lean. All the others look normal. Tick is still present so whatever it is is likely on that cylinder.
reinstalled the stock airbox minus the resonator as a test. We will see what happens.
I don't care if the engine is trying to eat itself or the nanobeavers are not going away. It still makes me stop and look back. Even filthy.