Man you are HUSTLIN that thing! Very cool, and inspiring to see both it and you progressing.

Seeing your tire temp sheet led me to put a version of my own together as we move forward with tuning. I attempted to log everything between runs last weekend, but being by myself and dealing with pretty fast turnarounds between runs, I only managed to get the first one put down.

Keep up the good work!

Looks like I haven't updated this thread since the CAM East event. While there I learned some more about the setup and more importantly learned some more about how to drive it to get the most out of it.

Been to a local SCCA event as well since then and am getting better, but the driver still needs more practice to get back to being as good as the car currently is. I'm concentrating on finding ways to allow the car to carry as much speed as possible in the turns, different types of turns require different strategies and I'm still figuring all that out. Car is VERY repeatable, very stable, and pretty easy to drive letting the driver concentrate on getting better without having to worry about having to try to save the car all of the time.

I have been having an issue with the cap head screws holding the swing arms onto the centerpiece of my sway bar coming loose. Had this same issue with my old center piece and I solved it by a dab of blue locktite on them. When it came time to swap out the bar though, I liked to have never got them loose. Heat, penetrant, more heat, more penetrant and a large dose of patience let me finally get the bolts loose to do the swap. The problem is the back side of the bracket where the bolts thread into is open allowing moisture to get into the thread and rust them up. So I didn't use locktite when I put it back together this time...and have been tightening them up after every third autocross run or so or day of driving on the street.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/c0...=w1378-h775-no

Today I pulled each bolt out, thoroughly cleaned the bolt and threads...then filled the backside of the threaded hole with clear RTV, put a dab of blue locktite on the bolt, then tightened down once again. The excess RTV squeezed out the back side of the bracket which I wiped off. Hopefully the RTV seals the threads from moisture preventing rust and also acts as adhesive to help the dab of blue locktite to hold the bolts tight now.

That and a good bath are my only jobs to do to get the car ready to head to the CAM Invitational and then the SCCA Nationals in Lincoln, NE next weekend. Well, that and try to be a better driver to get the most out of the car while there...

Hey Lance,
Just a thought on the bolts: not sure what size they are, but what about going to a stud and nut configuration? I'm sure ARP has something that would work. You could put red loctite on the stud then.

If those are button heads, yeah, they suck in general. Usually, they are hard to remove, plus they have a smaller hex socket than a cap screw limiting torque in the first place.

Glad to hear you get so much seat time and the car is doing awesome!

I wanted to get longer cap head bolts and nut the back side of them but clearance between the back of the bracket and the frame is pretty tight already. Didn't think about studs, but that may be the answer if they start to come loose again...I think there is room there on the outside for a nut. Thanks for the idea...

Thanks Ben, have you got to try out those new shoes on your ride yet?

Barney
 

Lance,
who's bar is it you have?? Ridetech?
It looks like a Nascar setup
I know Ron told you what to get
Saving my pennies so I can get things
going in the right direction

Cool stuff and great you are running the
hell out of the car.. good luck at the Nationals
Maier and I think his wife are going as she was
running the nasty Stagnero car both days a
few weeks back

Bob

Yeah Bob, it's a Ridetech Musclebar...but this one is not an off the shelf bar.

Their stock center piece is a 1.5" dia 0.120" wall tube, I ran that for a while, then upgraded to a 0.250" wall tube and now have a 0.375" wall tube center piece on the car.

Each upgrade was substantial and completely changed the way the car handled to the better. I am still not used to how well the car turns in now, it's very Mini Cooper like. :D

^ Yeah that... :D

Just for reference, these are the rear spring rates I ran with each front bar I've put on the car to maintain the balanced handling:

36mm F-body front sway bar - 165# rear spring
1.5" 0.120" Wall Tube Front Bar - 182# rear spring
1.5" 0.250" Wall Tube Front Bar - 200# rear spring
1.5" 0.375" Wall Tube Front Bar - 250# rear spring

I've had 600# springs on the front ever since I put the coilovers on the car.

The rear sway bar has been the 1" solid lower control arm mounted bar that I've run forever.

I'm certain every car is different and by no means say that if you put these parts on your car, it'll handle like mine...but I've raced this car a lot with each of these setups and they have all worked great for me. They just keep getting better and better as we've upped the size of the front bar (and rear springs to match).