101s was the one i felt. You can see it cuts rpm as spk: launch timing kicks in

 

I see status 2 goes to 12 and then 8 so its shown launch control being active. I bet your switch or wiring is janky and making it complete the circuit when moving around.

 

Would lean towards the switch over the wiring. I figured the switch was fine since the plunger bit follows the clutch arm like it should. But will take it out and inspect.

 

I always wanted an ND.

 

You should tether that so when the mounts rip out of the tombstone it doesn't hit a course worker.

 

Hmm, I'd be surprised if it ripped out of the tombstone. But will find a way to tether it. Tablet is going to get rubber bands around the case because I don't completely trust that.

 

I wasn't serious about the tether. But those tombstones are all so brittle and you've got a good bit of mass with a decent length lever arm that's going to be flopping back and forth at 2g.

 

This one is at least new ("new" - ordered from Mazda like a year ago). So it's not 30 year old sun baked plastic at least. Surprisingly there's 0 lateral movement with more force than the tablet can probably impart on it. Some front to back movement though.

 

Kind of another let down of an event. Weather was crap - cold in the morning, then wet for first run in the afternoon and still cold. Course was not at all fun (highest speed in an SSM car was 61mph past the finish lights).

Takeaways:
- Brakes are still not working right. At this point, probably need to look into replacing parts. Pedal is really inconsistent still. It feels fine for the first tap off the brakes, but then feels like it loses all assist. I stalled it loading it on the trailer, and it lost all boost instantly.
- Handling is great. Definitely the easiest it has been to drive. And it's seems fast.
- Wideband sensor broke (I guess it lived a good 4 years). Meant I got no useful logs, though.
- CM car had me by a second (and outpaxed me). But I was 2nd raw with almost 1.5s on everyone else. Downside. Finished 16th in pax.

Grumbles.

 

Finally an even where things pretty much worked.

Ran the morning on the older tires, and put the sticker A7's on for the afternoon. Oh boy. That was a difference. Had the raw pace to maybe put a few tenths on Billy in raw time, but he got me on clean runs. I'm okay with this. There was no where on that course the extra power really helped.

Brakes are still an issue. The ABS works for sure, though. I had Billy take a run in it to confirm something was wrong since they have the same hardware on their car. Still vacuum issues. He suggested going with a vacuum pump. Ordered one from a Volvo XC90 which I'll put in before finger lakes. Upside is the brakes work better. Downside is the they don't work any worse.

Was able to log it cutting out randomly. It felt like fuel starve, but fuel didn't fix it at previous events. Finally had every run being datalogged, so captured it happening. "Lost sync reason 2" which is apparently missing tooth at the wrong spot. Hmm. Not really sure how to deal with that. Log file with issue is attached.

Video
Fastest raw: (imagine the cone was in the opening slalom - you can also see it "die" going into the finish)

Clean:

 

You need to carry a spare OEM crank trigger. They seem to fail by starting to show sync issues.

 

Missing tooth in the wrong spot randomly just means the ECU didn't get a high signal from.

I'm not sure what's wrong with your brakes you shouldn't need a vac pump. Maybe the booster got damaged from seeing boost or your master cylinder is scored and not sealing well against the piston.

 

I'm using a 36-2 trigger wheel. Need to confirm nothing is bent/damaged at least. It only did it once yesterday.

I put in a new used booster/master for this weekend and a new check valve. When the assist is there it's great. It's just super inconsistent/delayed.

 

Ryan, how many runs did you have on the old A7's and what would you say was the time delta between new and old?

I'm on 95 run A7's and they still feel great but I know they can't last much longer before cords start to show or performance starts dropping off sharply. I'm finally starting to compete for top PAX locally and wonder how much I might be giving up. I wouldn't be asking this question if I weren't such a mediocre driver but since I am I have no way of judging half the adjustments I make to the car.

 

So, I'll start by saying this was the first time my car has seen tires with < 50 runs on them.

Last year, I got top pax a couple times (when Billy wasn't there) on tires with ~150+ runs on them. Those tires corded with around 180 runs (finished them off this year at the test n tune).

The tires I ran in the morning probably have 70 runs on them.

The new tires did everything better. Stopping. Turning. And immediately noticeable, putting power down. But, I don't think the old tires did that significantly worse, the edge is just wayyyyy narrower.

But, I feel like it's probably fair to say I would have been ~half a second slower if I swapped back to the old ones again. Without going back to them again, it's hard to say. Surface temperatures were so much higher in the afternoon, which made a huge difference.

 

Thanks for the reply. This is the first time we have had A7's get to 95 runs without cording. We were cording them with about 80 runs due to rubbing on the shock tower but have been making slight adjustments to the car to make it stop doing that. I think most noticeably was a tire pressure (thanks to Tovsen) adjustment and spring rate raise all around.

Obviously we can't really compare since we live in drastically different weather and a great deal of the runs on the tires is on rather sticky concrete. And as mentioned the skill level in driving is not in the same league. I really need to wake my butt up. I can get the same raw time on the Ft. Myers practice course with 20 run A7's on 15x11's or 80 run A7's on 15x10. I need to get to the point where I can drive a faster car faster as opposed to driving the more comfortable feeling car faster.

And sorry to hear about your brake issues. Have you considered using the SSM allowances to make it a dual master "racecar" set-up?

 

What do you run for pressures? Have been running 26 front, 25 rear on both 15x10's and 15x11's. Actually, that reminds me. The old tires are on 10's, the new ones on 11's. I'm not sure I can tell a difference in feel between them.

Brakes: that would fall into the money category. But I also don't totally even hate how they feel right now. Hoping can just make them work consistently.

 

Was using 25.5F, 23.5R on the 11's and maybe a pound or two more on the 10's. Now at 26F, 28R for 11's and same extra pressure for 10's. Typical upper-tier CSP car stuff other than the upper-tier driving.

On the brakes, if you do your own fabrication, the only real cost should be on the master cylinders and they are not what I would consider expensive. But I can see how you would like to stick with what you got instead of re-inventing the wheel when you are close to getting what you want.

 

@navalhawkeye , sorry if I've missed it in this thread, but I'm wondering if you run a rear bar at all? Your car looks well composed through those slaloms.

 

I am trying a stock NA rear bar right now, and don't really expect to take it off. Really enjoying the handling with it. Was surprised it didn't seem to hurt slaloming any, but helped steady state a lot.

Full setup:
- Xidas with 1000lb front, 600lb rear. Helpers all around
- Small fortune racing speedway front bar, set to a little stiffer than the big racing beat one
- Stock NA rear bar
- -3.7* camber front, 5* caster, 1/8* toe out
- -3.0* camber rear, 0 toe
- Slightly less than a 1/4" of rake, I believe