tomiboy

iTrader: (3)

No offense taken! If I was afraid of a little constructive criticism I wouldn't have posted on MT! HAHA! It was not my first off. I've had about 3-4 others. I have more years than I care to mention off road racing motorcycles, but I'm a total newb at road racing cars(actually HPDE). I'm still nervous about the car sliding in turns, but I know some slip angle is the fast way around. In some turns I get a lot of tire squealing but not all of them. I have a long way to go, but not many years to get there HAHA. (62 years old)

As an aside...I am REALLY careful on a wet track since an off puts you in wet grass. For you southern California boys...wet grass is like greased lightning...once your in it, figure your going to hit the tire walls or the Armco or something!

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

Not to sidetrack the thread but the above is the reason why I don't drive my car anywhere but the street. It is my summer driver and I can't afford to lose it if I go off track and ball it up. I have heard though that some companies offer HPDE insurance. Has anyone heard of something like that? I was listening to a car related podcast and they were interviewing a guy who raced porsches and he said he paid a couple hundred dollars for insurance for the day (of HPDE). Now, a porsche is far more expensive than a Miata so I would think that the insurance price is a bit lower.

I know that if I had the option of paying $200 on top of the HPDE cost I would be much more comfortable driving the car hard.

tomiboy

iTrader: (3)

Yes it is available. If you don't pay for the HPDE insurance you have to be able to afford to lose your car. That is a choice all of us have made one way or the other. There are still some people I meet at track days that think their insurance will cover them. They rarely do, if at all, anymore

Seefo

iTrader: (5)

Actually its state dependent. Some states require "Driver's Education" events to be covered by insurance (although the insurance provider may opt to drop you afterwards). The key though is that it can't be a timed event. Some of that has changed recently, so you will want to read about it (and not take my word).

Yes there are a lot of companies that provide HPDE insurance. They even offer discounts for multiple events if you buy at once. Its not too expensive either. Most of the ones I see ask you to declare a value and give you the price.

Dunning Kruger Affect

NC and TX used to have no exclusions for things like HPDEs.

NC closed that loophole 2 years ago by rewording the language to basically say "if you're anywhere near a race track or other facility where people go fast in circles, you can get bent". I don't know off-hand about TX.

z31maniac

Lockton Affinity

But I believe they have a $5000 deductible, so if you wad it up, you're out at least that much more.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Time for a new thread on HPDE insurance

Neddy

Hi,

Where do most of you set your front bar? Soft or hard?

Set to hard currently, and car understeers quite a lot. I will try the soft setting, but thinking about 16mm adjustable rear bar.

Car specs:

Big Grip Kit
800/500 springs
basically full weight
4.5" front, 4.75" rear
Supermiata race alignment

Cheers.

joyrider

iTrader: (8)

Front full stiff but the swaybar must not bind (check first).. I had a binding bar and car was understeering. I did add washer to the bushings to have some movement and car came back to normal.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

They are adjustable for a reason. Some setup, tire and track combinations mifht require either. There is no conceivable combination that will ever require a 16mm rear bar. If it does, there is something seriously wrong in your set up.
May I ask, were you using fresh tires? What size wheel. offset, tire size and compound?

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

What's your aero? Understeer all the time, or just at high or low speed?

+1 on running washers between the sway bar bracket and mounting point to avoid pinching the bar.

With those spring rates, I would not hesitate to experiment with a softer front setting.

Lots of variables . . . .

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

Just try it on the softest setting, and see how that changes things. I ran my previous car on the front swaybar soft setting for most of its life. 2740# with driver, 700/400, big grip, either toyo RR or Maxxis RC1 225 on 9's. This costs you nothing, and only about 30 minutes of your time.