A college buddy would always buy a button from a higher option car and use that.
So his mid level wrx would have a fog light button that was wired to the injectors.
unless you knew to press the fogs on, injectors would not fire and a theif could spend hours trying to start the car.
He left the key in the ignition and never locked the doors. Lived in a sketchy part of town (and came from Albuquerque, nm) never lost a car that way.
I've considered this when I was thinking of building a Locost. My thought was a capacitance level sensor behind a flat piece of sheet metal that would 'sense' when you would hold your hand over the correct spot. Put that in series with the starter relay and you have a two step process to start the car. Turn the key while holding your hand/knee/elbow on your 'secret' spot.
I believe the Jeep guys have lots of these type of tricks using a hidden kill switch. Basically a hidden switch under the carpet or somewhere and you have to have your finger on the push button while turning the starter.
I like the fog light switch idea. Of course your kart doesn't have switches or carpet so you are more limited.
the kart is operationally ready for its first autocross.
its sunday. of course.
feverishly fabricating a hood. feverishly bit led to me inadvertently dropping a 4' section of 3"x"3 x .25" steel angle on my right foot. i had it on the edge of a table and was bending the aluminum sheet for the hood over it when gravity took over. its swelled up real good and i cant put any pressure on the ball of my foot. can still drive!
here is the hood progress. its sub 8lbs.
now that i am largely done with the hood, E1 has been moved to saturday due forecast...
first autocross event is in the books. here is the synopsis:
Did you break something?
I suspect that one of those front wheels are not following ackerman's rules...
hmmm... hood's gone, tire's askew. Hoping it didn't flip up and cause some momentary blindness... and an interception with a hard object?
Hope its an easy fix!!
nothing broke (didnt need the hood since we switched dates, noting its currently raining as i type, when the event was scheduled initially for). first run, tires were cold. and pressures way too high. and driver has really only ever autocrossed E46es...
here are some more pics. video at some point...
john deere award winner:
actaully looking sporty:
acheron64 said:I suspect that one of those front wheels are not following ackerman's rules...
LOL. optical illusion.
that's good this is the only car I have ever really wanted :)
grass seems a good choice, bitumen is annoying slows cars down.
Well event 1 is in the books. Course was unusually open and fast. Needless to say I found piloting this to be drastically different than the BMW E46s.
I started off with tire pressures similar to what I ran in the ZHP, which for the kart were way to high. and on cold, over inflated tires, I went way off course on the first run. like 100 yards off the tarmac.
Dropped pressures to 15-20psi and things improved somewhat. The front grips amazing. the rear, not so much. I knew it would be stupid loose on throttle, but I was not expecting it to be super loose upon turn in. My offs were from turning into a corner and the rear not sticking, at all.
going to make some easy changes NOW. then look seriously at moving some of the harder changes up in the timeline. this week I will add ~3/8" total rear toe in and remove the rear sway bar. long term, probably in this order: wing, move radiator to rear, move battery to rear.
Regarding the video, crank the volume, thing sounds amazing. my OBDII plugin didn't send data to my phone for unknown reasons, so no tachometer.
Photos were taken by Buck G, yep, excellent welder, fine photographer, not a bad driver!!
In reply to Go_Gators :
In my lightened c4 had same oversteer problem. Disconnected rear sway bar and problem solved.
That looked like a lot of fun! Where was this auto-x held?
Ovid_and_Flem said:In reply to Go_Gators :
In my lightened c4 had same oversteer problem. Disconnected rear sway bar and problem solved.
surely hope it helps! the price is right.
edwardh80 said:That looked like a lot of fun! Where was this auto-x held?
amelia island florida. city of fernandina beach has an airport with a decommissioned runway. surface is a tad abrasive, but its the largest available surface around.
Go_Gators said:edwardh80 said:That looked like a lot of fun! Where was this auto-x held?
amelia island florida. city of fernandina beach has an airport with a decommissioned runway. surface is a tad abrasive, but its the largest available surface around.
My cousin lives there. Maybe sometime when I visit I will see this thing running around. I will have to tell her to keep an eye out for you, her kids would love this.
Go_Gators said:Ovid_and_Flem said:In reply to Go_Gators :
In my lightened c4 had same oversteer problem. Disconnected rear sway bar and problem solved.
surely hope it helps! the price is right.
Of course you cold go with a heavier front sway bar and leave stock rear but imho with car so light stock front is probably stiff enough especially for AX. YMMV
yea, absolutely, anyone in the amelia island area, check SCCA buccaneer region / jax solo schedule. we run about once a month, ride alongs are free!
i think the stock bar is probably plenty... if not too much.. its hard to say at this point bc the rear grip in corners was so bad that i didnt stress the front.
made an el-cheapo throttle pedal extension. makes ball of foot on brake, outside of foot roll onto gas much easier... very happy with how it came out and functions.
I really like that throttle pedal extension. I've thought about something like that for my Jeep but now I have inspiration.
A long time SCCA racer I know advocates no rear sway on cars with street tires. I plan to try out his advice when I get back to working on our car.
In reply to buzzboy :
Especially cars with IRS.
True, but he currently races a 3rd Gen F-Body
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