I guess this was my 4th track day experience with this car. First was a SCCA PDX at Heartland Park Topeka, then a 2 day NASA HPDE at Heartland Park, last summer I did the USCA event at Gateway in St Louis then this USCA event at National Corvette Museum Motorsports park.
HPT is big, fast, has a couple of difficult corners depending on the configuration you are running but is basically a fun course to run that eats tires like crazy.
I loved Gateway, could run the whole course with basically only two braking points, was very easy on the car, didn't eat tires and the driver could really make a car work on that course once they learned it. Part of that course, maybe even half...is on the NASCAR oval and is basically just straight line fast while the rest is fast turns easily handling if setup properly.
NCM was a whole 'nuther beast... It's basically all technical turns with little runoff and large K-rail barriers everywhere and several elevation changes that create some blind corners. The surface is fantastic, butter smooth and very grippy, tire wear was next to none for me which really shocked me considering how hot it was there. I couldn't imagine learning this track on my own, I took advantage of an instructor even on the beginning lead follow laps and am glad I did. This is not a track to mess around with, there is almost zero chance to breath or relax on a lap. I spent session one learning what corner was coming up next, 8-9 laps maybe...and began picking up a little speed...not really worrying about outpacing other cars or anything, just learning the track. I had my fastest lap on lap one at speed of session 2 then our session was cut short after about 3 laps because of an incident. I was just getting to where I didn't have to think about which corner was coming up next at this point.
I did session 3 on my own as my instructor was in another car and started working on bettering my line, getting my brake and turn in points down and trying to find the best shift points. I let other cars by twice as I was thinking I was holding them up but really we were all running about the same times overall. This is NOT a track to be worrying about the car behind you running you down, it will bite you in an instant and you need to be concentrating on what is coming up in front of you...so I didn't really get into "racing" any of the other cars I was around. Self preservation was the key here at least for me anyway. It was just starting to get "fun" for me, I was learning the track and where and what to do with my car to get around the corners carrying more speed...I never really started to push the car hard in the corners or brake points. Then it was over... I heard the wheel bearing just as soon as I let off when I saw the checkered flag and knew immediately my day was done.
I would go back to NCM for sure. I would just be a bit more prepared, a bit more knowledgeable about the track and ready to run some faster laps right out of the box.
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Lance
1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car
Pretty good day in the garage today. I started in the front and swapped out my 0.250" wall front sway bar for my 0.375" wall MonsterBar...
Install was pretty painless, the only fight I had was getting the 3 cap head bolts out of the swing arms. Ended up using a combination of heat, penetrant and patience. When I first put this bar in, these kept coming loose...so I put a dab of blue loctite on them to help keep them snug. Problem is the back side of the hole they go in is open and rust built up in there and made removal somewhat difficult. I put a liberal coat of antiseize on them before reinstall but I assume they'll start coming loose again after use. I'll just keep an eye on them for now while trying to come up with a better solution. No issues with the frame holes at all thankfully.
I then tried to install these trick front wheel bearing spacers from AllStar.
They are adjustable in length and let you preload the inner and outer bearing races so you can snug the spindle nut up tight while letting the rotor still turn freely.
AllStar has been wanting me to try these for a while so I figured since I had to replace the wheel bearings anyway, this was a good time.
Unfortunately, my rotors (which are still in fantastic shape) have too small of an ID near the outer bearing and the spacers won't work in them. I guess I could put these rotors on a lathe and trim out the inside of the rotor a bit, but with a race coming up next Sunday I need to get this thing back on the ground for now. This upgrade will have to be postponed for now, but I'll figure out a way to make them work eventually.
My last project for the front was to press out the old stock length wheel studs and replace them with 2.5" ARP wheel studs. This is where I got stalled as I need some different plates for my press to be able to get the last 4 studs in. I know I could run them in with a lugnut and if I was in a pinch I would, but I have the plates I need at work and will pick them up tonight, finish these up and pack the outer bearings and reinstall the rotors.
I had a rebuilt TracLoc installed into my third member and this fixed the backlash issue. Just a quick reinstall of the third member, then the axles..and lastly swap 250# springs in the rear for the 200# springs to match the rear roll resistance with the new stiffer front sway bar and the rear is just about tidied up as well.
Still waiting on my new brake pads to show up, should be here on Monday. Then I can get this thing back down on the ground, bed the new pads in and spend some time getting used to the new Stage 4 Ron Sutton Race Technology high travel, lower roll setup before next weekend.
BTW,Check out this little blurb about the car from the guys at BangShift Apex that came out yesterday...
Lance, you can maybe run safety wired bolts on your sway bar to keep from having to use loctite. Just a thought. Car's looking good. Congrats on the write up.
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Trey
Current ride: 2001 BMW 540iT soon to be manual swapped.
Former rides: 1979 Trans Am WS6: LT1/T56, Kore 3 C5/6 brakes, BMW 18in rims
Thanks everyone... I made some small progress on Sunday, got the rest of studs pressed in and the front rotors reinstalled...and de-decaled most of the car for now.
The new brake pads will be here today, shouldn't take any time at all to get them in...bedded in...then get some seat time getting used to the new Stage 4 setup.
__________________
Lance
1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car
Good day at the track yesterday. It was my first attempt at driving on course after Stage 4 of the Ron Sutton Race Technology high travel low roll setup was installed. Stage 4 consisted of a major increase in the stiffness of the front sway bar matched by a slight increase in the rear spring rate. Along with those changes, I also had new brake pads front and rear, a new posi in the rear axle and was trying a new set of air pressures front and rear based off of what I learned at NCM couple of weeks ago...so yeah, a lot of changes really.
The course was great, we all had a blast on it. It was free flowing, no pinch points, visually great, it was FUN. The car was a bit loose in the early runs, not step out sideways unpredictable loose, just a oopsy...gotta catch that there a bit free. I backed out one click on rear shock rebound as it was lifting the inside rear tire on corner entry and started lowering the rear tire pressure a pound at a time. This was my tire sheet after my first run
I started out with 37 psi in fronts, 35 psi in the rears. For a long time, I've been starting at 33 in the front, 32 in the rear. Not sure if it's in combination with the new front sway bar or not, but 37 in the fronts works a LOT better. 35 in the rear was too much, I started my 4th run at 37F, 32R and it worked great. This was my tire sheet after my 3rd run, I didn't check them after my 4th when I ran with 32 PSI in the rear.
Here is a video of my 4th and best run, I already had a good time in the books and was really trying to let it all out. Pay attention to how flat the front stays in the slalom on the back, that is where I noticed the most improvement over stage 3.
Ron has made this car turn in really well ever since Stage 1, when the front suspension is compressed under braking, it just worked great. Where the front was lacking a bit would have been in the slalom or later in larger turns where the suspension wasn't compressed therefore hurting the front tire contact patch.
What this new MonsterBar does (and Ron will probably chime in here and correct the way I'm describing this) is on those longer turns or during the slalom where the front isn't compressed because of braking, when you turn the steering wheel, instead of the outside front dipping, rolling the car over too much and messing with the contact patch, the whole front of the car compresses and keep a better contact patch up front on both tires and more weight on the front as well. It is a HUGE difference in how the car handles and will take a bit more time on the driver's part learning how to take advantage of this new found front grip.
The best part is, this change up front did not make the rear any worse. Once I got the car dialed in, the rear is just a tick free on corner exit, just like it was before Stage 4. It is completely controllable though, not even close to being edgy. In the video you will notice two places where the rear was pretty free, but that was 100% course related. When you go from grooved concrete, to smooth asphalt, then back to grooved concrete all in one pretty fast turn, you are going to loose a bit of grip during the asphalt part of the turn. Also the last decreasing radius sweeper before the finish, the pavement is giving up pretty bad there and it's always a tiptoe through there at speed.
The timed results were encouraging, I finished 22nd in raw time out of 133 entrants and 2nd in class losing by just under a second to a 2015 Mustang with brand new 315mm Rival Ss on all four corners.
When looking at the raw times, you should note that the Heat 1 drivers had a mostly wet course due to rain. I think it was drying out pretty good for their 3 and 4th runs but there was still some pretty wet spots during the course walk between 1 and 2. Everyone else ran in the dry though.
Anyway, I can't wait to get back out on course and test the new setup some more. I'm thankful to Ron that it was basically fast off the trailer (or highway since I drove it to the track) and only needed some minor tweaking to dial it in. I'm sure as I push it more it'll need a bit more tweaking but so far...so good.
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Lance
1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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