Went the Northstar Speed Summit last weekend. Previously MAP Proving Grounds at Brainerd International Raceway. Same event, different name.
Started out Friday with Autocross as usual. Long but tight course, fun to drive, not my car's strong suit. Was 57th overall out of 113 or so.
Saturday kicked of bright and early as TTS (Triple Track Showdown) moved the Autocross portion to the morning. Much more open and flowy course. Finished 31st overall and 4th in my TTS class. Soon at that was finished up I had to convert the car over to drag specs. Remove aero, drop rear tire pressure, adjust the shocks. Went out and made 3 passes within a tenth of each other with a best of 12.81. Needed to go put gas in and tried two more passes after that.....at which point the pin for the 3rd/4th gear shift fork shattered and 3rd was no longer an option....But it still sometimes would shift into 3rd??? so I didn't know that yet.
Sunday I go out on the road course after converting the car back over to that setup. No 3rd and then the splitter violently comes off the car around 80mph....WTF....That was unexpected and exciting!
Pack it up an come home. Tear the transmission out AGAIN this year and find the shattered pin. Decide to swap a couple other parts from the other transmission so I take it apart and 2nd gear has all the teeth....which is interesting because I assumed they were all gone. Upon closer inspection of that transmission it also broke the shift pin but for 1/2.....What The HECK.....thats 3 transmission failures this year that were all the shift fork pins.
So now I have all the better parts in one transmission and the shift forks have bolts in them that jam tight and full of lock-tite. It's worked on the 3/4 in the original transmission for a few years now so they all will be getting it.
Car is now back together. Cruise tomorrow night, then strait into the trailer for Gridlife at Autobahn this weekend
Last weekend with Gridlife at Autobahn was exactly what i needed.
After thrashing two transmissions into one useable one just to get it back together I had a full weekend of zero problems. First session out I was within .7 of my PB. There was ride alongs happening for veterans on Saturday so i volunteered to give rides and get the free extra track time. Did 5 sessions on Saturday and easily the most fun was giving ride alongs. Finished out the day picking up a tenth, but really I'd found 1.3 seconds in the afternoon heat.
Tried to maximize on Sunday morning with a light fuel load and had almost a second and half in the bag over lap one on lap 2....which would have been a new pd if I hadn't got fuel starve 2/3 of the way though the lap....oh well. The car working, the speed os there and it was great to just put laps in without problems.
Yesterday was the season ending autocross at Black River Motorsports Park. Got up early and drove the car the 125 miles up to Superior, WI. During the drive up I realized that the car is much, much nicer to drive than it was when I did Autocross Week last year.
Only problem all day was the O2 sensor failing but I caught it right away and turned the learn and closed loop off to save the tune from getting ruined.
More importantly everything was working and felt great. Course layout this time was more technical than usual but with the car sorted and driving the best I have in a while I was able to manage 3rd fastest of the day in the first 6 runs and last of the fun runs I got another .3 faster too.
Waumandee Hill Climb is this coming weekend and I'm looking forward to it.
Waumandee Hill Climb this weekend!
New PB by nearly 7 seconds! Conditions were perfect this year after two years of rain. Average of 60mph up this narrow country road!!!!
Wow, epic run. The motor sounds awesome as well. I'll have to try to make it to that event eventually.
That looked like fun. Hopefully next year I get a chance to make it
Thanks guys,
It is a super fun event and I highly recommend it! Also second thanks about the driving, I feel like I've been doing some of my best the last couple events...which is super disappointing that the season is ending as Waumandee was my last planned event for the year. Maybe something will pop up that works out.
This video is a little different than normal. Less talk, Focus on the video and music, Candid moments. Didn't have enough video of any one event over the last 6 weeks to do a proper event recap so here's a montage of what I did have. I had fun with this one.
The details are: 6 weeks, 5 events, over 1000 street miles driven (to and from 3 of those events), and a lot of fun.
Was 5th fastest while super sick at Black River Rally (drove to this one)
Northstar Speed Summit was hit and miss. Friday autocross was not a course for my car but fun none the less. Corded tires. Fresh ones Saturday morning and better course as TTS started, did as expected. Drags was right on the number running within a tenth of PB. Then shift pin failed and 3rd gear was maybe/maybe not so had to throw in the towel before road course.
Week later was Gridlife at Autobahn. Car was wonderful all weekend putting in the laps. Had a PB coming my way until fuel starve...oh well
Following weekend was back to BRMP for Autocross 4.0. Finished out there with a 3rd fastest and feeling like I did my best driving all year if ever.
Then cap off September with Waumandee Time Trials. New PB by nearly 7 seconds, 5th fastest....again....at least I'm consitant, lol.
In reply to Asphalt_Gundam :
This is gonna be good!
More progress this week. Stripped the old brackets off the rear end housing and got it lined up in place at ride height, with close to the correct pinion angle before tack welding it to the frame with some scrap tubes.
Then today I was able to get a few more welds done to the frame and remove a couple setup bars I had previously tracked in. Then spent a not small amount of time planning and designing what will be the torque boxes, axle side mounts and coilover perch. I'll be getting all that laser cut because it'll be do much nicer and more accurate in the end than if i make it all by hand.
Also found another set of wheels that will likely be for this car. 18x12 CCW...even came with Hoosiers!
Is the spring 3rd link going to be permanent? I haven't seen those used outside of dirt racing but i'm intrigued!
In reply to budget_bandit :
Not completely sure at this point but the plan is a decoupled 3 link. The key of them is two upper links, one for acceleration, one for braking. So i need the pull bar assembly on both for the slip effect to prevent binding since they'll be a different angles and desired arcs of movement.
In my mind I'm keeping the spring and will have one on the brake rod too for softening the torque peaks to the tire... reducing loss of traction/tire spin or lockup.
In reply to Asphalt_Gundam :
Sweet. Some of the 3rd gen F body guys run a decoupled torque arm for a similar reason, but i don't think they are sprung. I'm stoked to follow along!
Front frame rail section is now welded on. The left front and right rear straight sections need to be tweaked a little to bring them into alignment but the rest is all within a 1/16th.
And a whole bunch of the front suspension fab parts arrived too.
Progress so far this weekend. Probably 4 or 5 hrs of measuring and frustration yesterday before getting a solid plan.
Today I knocked out a front cross member and got the steering rack mount on, only to realize that a few decisions along the way mean that the engine will need to be moved back at least another couple inches for steering clearance. Oh well, even more of a mid engine car...
Aldo put the 85 away for the winter.... first time in 6 or 7 years that I won't be wrenching on it all winter.
Oh yeah...did I mention that the its going to be 2-1/2" wider per side???
I love what you've been doing so far, especially the low buck/minimal fixture attitude and going ahead and getting it done! Did you consider using IRS or any options that would let you use factory front and rear cradles with your tube frame? I ask because that's my plan with a future project G body; I would like to use C6 Corvette cradles and suspension. Yes, I know the track is wider; that's what GNX flares are for!
In reply to Kendall Frederick :
I did. I was looking at using S550 mustang stuff. The IRS is relatively cheap in general but the track spec ones with all the ideal features are expensive. I didn't want to go with Corvette stuff for the simple reason that there isn't a lot to be gained past simplicity of original build. The geometry isn't an advantage when I can build it how i want, the consumables are more expensive (especially bearings), and in the end I would still wind on making a lot of compromises vs just building what I want. I think what sealed the deal is a guy that runs a Corvette in endurance races flat out said he wouldn't do a Corvette IRS swap if a proper 3link setup was the other option. Really everything has its own compromises. I've chosen a more intense build in order to maximize performance at a low up front and consumables cost.
Thanks for posting the videos of your progress. I've enjoyed watching them. I hope to do a major project like this at some point (maybe after taking some welding lessons).
You make it looks easy but I'd bet there is a lot of thinking and figuring time spent off camera .
Keep up the good work.
In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :
Definitely a lot of thinking and figuring off camera... probably a good 5hrs alone last Friday and more Saturday and Sunday.
On the latest video I had over 20min of footage I didn't use simply because I was either "figuring" too much or just not explaining my reasons and thought process well enough to feel like it was productive for someone to watch
