Lotus 7 D mod. - Page 5 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

97 SL320 · #61 05-17-2015, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

One thing I worried about on the car is my back. Other seven replicas I have driven seemed to make my back sore, and my FF did as well.

After 20 runs on Friday my back did not hurt at all. I do still have some sore muscles though and I found a sore muscle on my left leg which must be from left foot braking...

Shoulder belt mount vertical location has a huge influence on back pain after racing. Shoulder belts should pull you rearward not downward, having the mount ~ 2" below shoulder height is about right from what I recall.

Making a seat insert from 2 part expanding foam and a garbage bag works wonders as well.

t walgamuth · #62 05-17-2015, 10:26 PM

Just got back from Gary. We got 8 runs four in the early session and four in the later session. I suffered when the tires were cold. The track is old asphalt and is pretty slippery and sandy. Some rough places too. I nearly spun right past the start line on my first run, then on the second did half spin off the line on one of the turns. Settled down and got a couple decent runs in that session, then in the later session again struggled on cold tires and came back at the end to get a good time on the last run. There were a couple shifter karts and an F mod car. The Karts beat my best time by over a second and the F mod car had a lot of mechanical problems and never actually got to run. I suspect I may have been quickest of the actual cars on raw time.

I was one of 12 cars running in a class which was uncontested. They timed us on PAX and I was fourth on pax of that group.

I experimented with tire pressures, lowering them a bit when traction was the most missing. It seemed to help. By my last run I seemed to get the hang of running the course.

The Mrs came along and took the truck out and went to the mall to shop. After the races we went to our fav restaurant in Chesterton and had a meal that could not be beat before heading home.

A good day.

97 SL320 · #63 05-18-2015, 06:07 PM

"" I suffered when the tires were cold. The track is old asphalt and is pretty slippery and sandy. ""

Do you scrape off rubber pickup between weekends? When road racing I used a propane torch / heat gun and a putty knife to remove rubber that sticks back on the tires after a run. Heat the surface up just enough to allow balled up rubber to be scraped off. Overheating will effectively give the tires another heat cycle so stop / move to another tire frequently.

Pickup is less of an issue in Autox but still can occur.

t walgamuth · #64 05-18-2015, 08:50 PM

Yesterday I was lucky to get enough heat in them to pick up pebbles. The pebbles were a real problem yesterday. I could do a mini burn out and clean the rears but the front end was like on snow the first three gates or so. Maybe I should take along a scraper and clean them in the staging lane. (Don't know if its allowed or not)...prolly not.

t walgamuth · #65 05-19-2015, 03:23 PM

Today I am looking at aero stuff. This red 7 was built by the same guy who did the YC-3. (my car).

97 SL320 · #66 05-19-2015, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

Yesterday I was lucky to get enough heat in them to pick up pebbles. The pebbles were a real problem yesterday. I could do a mini burn out and clean the rears but the front end was like on snow the first three gates or so. Maybe I should take along a scraper and clean them in the staging lane. (Don't know if its allowed or not)...prolly not.

I don't know of any rules prohibiting tire cleaning that does not disrupt the flow of traffic. ( and the stones are not left in the path of the competitor behind you. ) I've seen helpers wipe tires just as the car is ready to stage.

For small stones, heavy leather gloves work faster.

t walgamuth · #67 05-19-2015, 09:02 PM

Yeah, I should probably start using leather gloves for that.

t walgamuth · #68 05-19-2015, 11:17 PM

The results are out now. I was the fastest barring the shifter kart. He beat me by 2 seconds. He and I were classified in a catch all pax class for folks running unopposed in their classes. We finished fourth and fifth there with him nipping me again.

t walgamuth · #69 05-29-2015, 10:25 AM

Prepping the car for running tomorrow and Sunday at Grissom.

DieselPaul · #70 05-29-2015, 11:11 AM

Take some more pictures!

Our first autocross was last weekend, I'll have to post some pictures, ran the 190E as the M3 is still getting some work done.

Sounds like the car is very fast, congrats on the pseudo win. Catching a shifter kart would be tough in anything.

t walgamuth · #71 05-29-2015, 02:51 PM

My camera is working again.

Catching a shifter kart with a real car is impossible unless the kart is run by a novice or a very slow experienced driver.

97 SL320 · #72 05-29-2015, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

My camera is working again.

Catching a shifter kart with a real car is impossible unless the kart is run by a novice or a very slow experienced driver.

While I'm OK with karts running, I don't even consider them part of the real results as they are much narrower making the course,in effect, 2x wider .

t walgamuth · #73 05-29-2015, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 97 SL320

While I'm OK with karts running, I don't even consider them part of the real results as they are much narrower making the course,in effect, 2x wider .

Exactly.

t walgamuth · #74 05-30-2015, 07:40 PM

We ran at Grissom today. A South Bend region event. There were two sessions. Morning session we ran right after a big rain and there were a lot of place with standing water and streams across the pavement. I hydroplaned and spun on the first three runs and got through the fourth run without spinning but hit a cone. I was announced as having fast time of the day after that session but my competitor actually turned a faster time, though he forgot to change the number on the car and it was credited to his wife. Heh heh. OH yeah, I got splashed completely across the chest and face every run in the morning and was soaked to the skin. In the afternoon my clothes mostly dried but my shoes did not. Felt like each foot was five pounds.

Afternoon session was completely dry for the first four runs. I was getting beat by him the first three runs. I thought I was all in after my third run but my fourth run improved by nearly 2 seconds....(what?).....unfortunately I was credited with a cone (I swear I didn't hit any!

.

So he got the win.

It rained so hard on the way home I reduced my speed on the highway to as little as 20 mph because of visibility.

We're running tomorrow at the Indianapolis fair grounds on the parking lot in the infield of the horse track (where they used to run sprint cars and USAC stockers). I'll be facing the same competition tomorrow with another fellow added into the mix.

I decided that part of the allure of autocrossing is when I am racing I feel the same as I did when I was much younger. Unfortunately getting in or out of the low slung race car reminds me of my true age.

t walgamuth · #75 05-31-2015, 07:08 PM

The course today was a good one. It had lots of steady corners with nothing tricky. Unfortunately there was one corner which I spun on twice....the second time it felt like my best run yet.

It misted most of the morning but by the time my group ran (3rd) it had dried out.

First run the car acted up....probably some water in the wiring from yesterday's Noah's Ark event. It acted as if the rev limiter was set on 4000 rpm instead of 9000. So I putted around the course as an aquainter. Went to the line to wait for the next run and pulled the deck first and checked the fuel.....full. Then I pulled the hood and touched all the control wiring I could find to see if any were obviously loose or sitting in a puddle of water....nothing. Then I spotted a little dial. Un-labeled as to its function it said High and low and there was a white mark where it was set. I thought about randomly moving it high or low but settled on swirling it back and fourth in case there was a speck of corrosion, then reinstalled the hood. when it came time to run I fired it up and it ran like usual... fast and smooth!

Second run I spun at the corner the announcer was calling the trophy corner. third run I got a 39.6...ok but I knew I could do better. Next run I got a 40.5....drat! Last run was feeling good til I hit the trophy corner, there I came fast and found the rear end coming out. At first I thought oh, I can hold this...but then it swung on around again...drat! So only got in two spin free runs. My nemesis got a 37 something on his last run.

The track was slippery and had a surprising amount of elevation change for being what looked like a flat parking lot.

Now I'll have to check the pressure in the shocks and install the best used Hoosiers I have on hand....and clean the car up after consecutive runs where it rained on us.

Oh, I think I figured out why he was calling it the trophy corner.....you cannot tropy if you cannot take the corner right!