I decided to start a new thread to talk about my adventures.
Yesterday I went to Fort Wayne Indiana for an autocross. I got up at 530 to make the 9 am sign in and made it with two minutes to spare.
On the way I did not have a clue as to what to expect. The last event I went to in South Bend only had 22 entrys so it was a bit sparse. I thought maybe the Fort Wayne event might be similar.
WRONG DOGGIEBREATH!
There was a massive turnout of 114 entrys. I was working the gate and ran out of release forms required for spectators after signing in probably nearly a hundred. Biggest event by far that I have attended.
there were five other ESP entrys, and I never figured out what three of them were but there were two very fast mustangs that were running close to me.
It was a very long course that took me over 76 seconds to run. The good guys were under 70.....depressing. I had trouble again shifting to second and finally figured out the reason....wear in the shifter (hey it only has 300K some miles on it in a 240d!) made it easy to hit the reverse gate unless you exert absolutely no side pressure on it.
I also was running 30 mm spacers (front only) for the first time and it rubbed on the LF, slicing off narrow ribbons right down by the last portion of wearing surface on the sidewall top, so I loaded up after only four runs, not wanting to ruin a substantially expensiver slick and having no chance for any trophies with the serious competition in attendance.
In checking out what they have that I don't I found some things...more horsepower, more suspension parts available, and very very big tires. The fellow behind me was running 275/45 r 17s. My 225/50r 14s looked pretty puny by comparison. Of course he has a bit more weight too.
I am going to move my slicks over to my 6.5 inch rims from the 5.5s they are currently on. That won't make too much difference I don't imagine but for lack of other possibilities that will be done.
There is a meet at Grissom next saturday (my favorite venue) so I'll get it done before then.
My limited slip seems to be working pretty well. Under some circumstances I can get the inside tire spinning but mostly it hooks pretty well. It is enough to push the front end under some circumstances too.
I am pretty close to 50 50 weight dist, front to rear now, and I could help that a bit by running a bigger battery in the rear. The car with me in it is heavy by 100 to 150# on the left side. If I could just lose 150# it would be about perfect!
Tom W