Looked like an awesome run!!!

:lmao:

After we got home from Good Guys, our friend Amanda Hitt sent me these pictures she took during the event.

https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-Good...SC_0255-X2.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-Good...SC_0928-X2.jpg

Yesterday I ran back up to the storage unit just to see if one of the front sway bar end links was broken or a front bushing mount was loose again. The last time Barney leaned like this in a corner was when the front bar was unhooked. Everything seemed to be in order...

I guess it is just a testament of how much more force is put on the suspension on this type of course. Now I really wish I would have run Solostorm for at least a couple runs just to see what kind of G forces were going on.

Top speeds for me were around 50 mph right up until the brakes were slammed on and two turns of the steering wheel were thrown at the car to get it turned around. There was nothing smooth about it what so ever, this is what was needed to get around the course fast.

https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-Good...SC_0760-X2.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-Good...SC_0762-X2.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-Good...SC_0744-X2.jpg



One has to wonder just how much faster the car would have been had it not been riding on the rockers mid turn? :D

Funny, I was thinking your car looked like it was rolling quite a bit when I saw the first picture.
Time to call Ron for a bmf sway bar to swap out for short courses?

Spring rate or Bar rate? :sieg:

I would say bar rate. Lance already found he disliked the stiffer front springs. Just for starters, spring change affects front end dive before turn in and forward bite out of the turn, changing the entire handling. A bar change won't affect percentages on the scales, straight line dive, or ride heights, but the rear bar would have to be adjusted to match the front change to maintain neutral handling.
Sorry, Lance I'm done with the hijack!:topic:

I'd second the bar rate. My last Falcon suspension setup went for higher-rate springs, and I hated what it did to the ride. The Corvette setup is staying with the lightest (stock) springs (and best adjustable shocks) I can get away with. Just upping the front bar size made a considerable difference, and the thing still rides unreasonably well. It helps to have a tire that can take the bar, as plowing blows . . .

Wow, Lance, looks like that course gave you, and the car, a real workout!

Thought some of you might find this pretty interesting. Terri took 100 pics in burst mode of Barney in a turn during the challenge at Good Guys last weekend and I made a movie of them. I so need to do more of this when testing a new setup.

Sometimes we talk about "rotation" --- or --- getting the arse end around..... In drift school (DirtFish) we simply apply a bit of Hoon handle and around she comes..... LOL

I wonder - if a guy was so inclined - if that 180 could be done with another technique - "a pendulum turn" in conjunction with late braking - and then a bit O'Throttle and get 'er to come 'round..... But oh boy --- if ya mess it up it's going to be costly points wise. LOL

Fun in the dirt and gravel when nobody is counting.....

I've found with the street tires we run, it's better to not ever induce slippage. It seems that once they start sliding, you are waiting for them to grip before you go fast again. Other tires and other surfaces are different I'm certain.

Oh --- trust me --- I was laughing when I was posting that..... It wouldn't be very controllable and would most likely just end up flipping cones all over the place - but damn it would be fun!!! LOL

Man I had the same thought- that's a wicked turn there. Do you have a specific driving philosophy for that Lance? Looked like you went a little wide then nice and smooth around in a large arc.

I wondered about hugging that pivot cone a little closer too with some harder braking and tighter turn in but maybe that throws off the balance when you transition from brake to throttle? And of course the risk of braking loose and sliding the rear comes into play. When I lived back east my first ride in a P-T car on an autocross was with Eric Wracker in his Duster. That was his philosophy,. slide the butt around. Man! That was some fun rides, he drove like a maniac and I was ear to ear grins!

Thanks for sharing, that was neat to watch.

The philosophy is...get around it as fast as you can! In whatever manner works for you. :D

This was taken during a shootout run where hitting a cone would have been deadly, so I was a bit more careful about allowing room around them. On faster runs I was tighter to the cones on left during entry and tighter to the inside pin cone. Being a bit wider on this turn got the front tires out into the marbles, which made it push just a bit, which ended up making the turn even wider. This run was about a half second off my fastest time of the weekend and I could have very well lost it all in just that turn.

I have found that 'playing it safe' usually just ends up losing time. If your previous runs thru there were clean, just keep doing the same thing. Changing your approach will usually just cost you time.

Have faith that you will continue to do it cleanly! :)

I'd venture a guess that about a third of my total runs that weekend had at least one cone. A course design like this kind of makes that inevitable I believe.

My fastest time of the weekend (47.638) had a tickled cone that negated it. My cleanest fast time was a 47.909. My first shootout run was a 48.2xx but had a cone. Thankfully ( :D ) I got a rerun on it due to a timing computer error and ran another low 48.xxx but still wasn't fast enough to advance.

The whole shootout format takes everything up another notch over a normal autocross and I'm still pretty new to it. It is interesting to watch those that are very good at it in how they are maybe a bit cautious on their first few runs then let it all hang out when it gets down to the final 4. It is not uncommon for even them to hit a cone and take themselves out.

What makes this even more difficult than say an SCCA challenge is the competitor that gets to go second...knows if the car they are running against hit a cone or not before they run because there is only one car on the course at a time.

Well, that didn't go as planned...

This happened as I was trying to back it off the trailer to race this morning.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._065858-X2.jpg

Clutch master cylinder failed as I was letting the clutch out to help it down the ramps.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._065722-X2.jpg

While I'm bummed I didn't get to race today, I'm happy that I don't have to pull the transmission out to fix it.

I've seen people do it here at the Pleasanton GG auto-x events, granted, they are not loosing traction (much), looks good and seems to work.

the Cones are tightly packed, i equate to jogging in a closet. But it beats mowing the lawn....

This is supposed to be fun right?


https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont...SC_7995-XL.jpg


:D

These were taken by Cole Reynolds...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont...lds-015-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont...lds-332-XL.jpg

nice pictures, looks like allot of fun!

Clutch culprit found...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._092911-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._092939-XL.jpg

And the cure...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._093617-XL.jpg

Hopefully that is the last repair done in here...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._094810-XL.jpg

We close on the new house later this week. Woot!!!

hahaha!

I had the same problem in my WS6. I thought it was just me.


I remembered you saying you were closing this month but wasn't sure when. Congrats, the place looks awesome!

By the way, we had bitter cold Friday (was supposed to be a swap meet) and snow again last Sunday. Grrrr. You guys made the right decision.

I know money is already spent....

I run a mcloed 1400 series HYD throw-out center on mine..
I see they have added some stuff I need to spend money on since I swapped to manual 15 years ago....
https://www.mcleodracing.com/index.p...cylinders.html

I have had better luck with 4th gen F body MC vs 3rd gen MCs


nice catching up on barney

Just went through your whole thread this past week; couldn't stop. Best documentation and quantity of mods I've seen. Proof positive of what Ron says in his suspension threads, for sure! Car looks fantastic in the latest vids. Good to hear you're in the new place, too.

Are you keeping the tapered roller bearings in the rear axle? Are new axles required to do these? My 9" has Currie axles and I plan on putting different housing ends (has small Mustang ends on it now) to more easily accommodate bigger bearings and newer style brakes, but may go the full floater route. In the pics I saw the taper bearing isn't sealed on the inside, so I assume you don't use the internal axle seals with them? As for the locker, my best friend from high school and his little brother had Shelby's, a '69 GT-500 and a '68 GT-350 repectively, and both had Detroits and we never had a push problem in autoX. Noisy sometimes and you had to be careful on wet roads, but never had a maintenance problem. I rebuilt the Eaton posi in my Chevelle 3 times in 2.5 years.

Thanks for the kind words Ric, it's been a journey for sure...

The tapered bearings in the rear axle have done their job well, much better alternative than the sealed bearing setup. And you are correct, no inner seals and the diff gear oil lubes the bearings. They do take a different axle than the sealed bearings as the ID of the bearings is just a tad bit larger on these.

I've had no pad knockback issues even after installing the fixed calipers so for now I'm staying with the rear axle setup currently on the car. If and when I ever get around to doing some sort of 3 link setup I'll consider going to a floater bearing setup as well, but it's not a crucial upgrade for me at this time.

Was it under warranty ? And are you going to think of reinforce the new one so it won`t happen again.?

I assume you are referring to the clutch master push rod? It was over 5 years old so I'm sure it was not under any warranty. At this time I just replaced it with another, it was a $90 part that is available at just about any auto parts store and not that hard to replace if it happens again. If it does happen again, maybe I'll be in a better place or time where I can modify or upgrade to better solution. For now, I'm just gonna send it... :D

Not really a Barney update but one that will make doing Barney updates a lot easier once again once finished....

Picked this up about noon today. It's a 9000 XLT 4 post drive on lift with 2 manual rolling jacks.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._114100-X2.jpg

In the Air Conditioned shop ready to unload.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._123001-X2.jpg

Most likely not OSHA approved method of lifting the 400# jacks off the trailer, but it worked...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._133610-X2.jpg

Getting the lift itself off was not bad. I put a car dolly under the front of it when loading it on trailer so all I did was lift the back of lift with engine hoist and drive the trailer out from under it. Once the dolly was near the end of the trailer I set the back end down on another dolly, lifted the front up with hoist then drove the trailer the rest of the way out. Here it is partially unpacked.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._142303-X2.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._142313-X2.jpg

About 2 hours total got me this far.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._150805-X2.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._150815-X2.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._150822-X2.jpg.

I've recruited the neighbors kid to help me stand up the ends tomorrow then putting the rest of it together shouldn't be that big of a deal. Can't wait to be able to work on cars and trucks once again without laying on the ground...

great idea to put that dolly under it beforehand

This will be a nice "tool" to have, looking forward to seeing it in use

No way I'd roll around on a floor like that!!!


LOL


Getting there buddy!

Very nice. The place is coming together well. :)

Every now and then a chicken stumbles up on a June Bug... :D





IT is getting there Greg...you can tell by how much DIRT is on that floor!!!




Thanks, we've made a ton of progress...hopefully we can start to just kick back and enjoy it soon...

Time for lunch now...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._112006-XL.jpg

Nice addition for a beautiful work space. Someday ..........

So, Barney fits on the lift...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._095451-XL.jpg

The rolling jack fits under the lower control arms but I do have to put the little jack pad extensions under pads so they contact the frame before the jack itself hits the exhaust. With the extension in place, they will not go past the lower control arms. Not a big deal...

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._095435-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._103132-XL.jpg

There is plenty of room on the wall side of the lift. Here is Barney's door opened all the way up.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._070419-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._070426-XL.jpg

I am going to hang my nut and bolt bins and steel peg board for all of my hanging tools and supplies along the wall in between the posts. They'll be 6-8" out from the wall so it seems like a perfect place to me.

Pretty much all of this on the worlds most expensive workbench will be hanging on the wall next to it in a day or so.

https://photos.smugmug.com/1985-Mont..._075152-XL.jpg

Looks great, wish I had the ceiling height to have something like that. Get that thing anchored to your slab before you get too settled in; just a few years ago there was a 4.1 earthquake not to far from PHX.

Thanks... I can't anchor it to this post tension floor so I'll have to take my chances I guess. It's damn solid though, doesn't budge a bit even with a car lifted pretty high on it.