Here's the videos from the December 6, 2020 "Hangover Event". In most years, there's an awards banquet on Saturday night, people drink, then race the next day. So they call it the "Hangover Event". No banquet this year, obviously, but still had the for-funsies event.
I was telling my friend Jack, one of the guys riding me with me on a couple runs, that I was struggling in the front section with letting off the gas and coasting to the next turn, versus tapping the brake and jumping back on the gas again. My cousin, Mike, was using his left foot to tap the brake and go around some of those elements, and he consistently turns better times. Not sure how much that section is really worth though. I think in my day to day driving I'll start practicing control with the left foot. My cousin just lifts the gas ever so slightly and taps the brake at the same time, that way his foot is perfectly in place to jump back on the gas, without having to find the pedal and time it so carefully.
I also had an issue on Run 6 where the front bolt holding the seat to the track came out. It scared the crap out of me and ruined that run. But I was still able to put it out of my mind and turn some decent runs.
The car as a whole did feel more composed with the majority of the hard parts now installed. We adjusted the Watts Link back down to the neutral position beforehand. We didn't have a lot of front end grip. I might experiment with taking off the front sway bar, since that is what Jack Hidley from Maximum Motorsports predicted would happen anyway. But, the tires look like slightly corded slicks now, it was pretty cold, etc. so it's hard to want to make major changes based on this event. In the afternoon we dropped the pressures down from 32, which was faster on the old setup, to 27 out of the gate (truthfully, our trusty air tank leaked all our air out...no way to air back up since I didn't have the cigarette lighter pump). We had much more grip in the 27-30 range than we did at 34 or 32.
Now I have my work cut out for me in the offseason. Some things I want to get handled over the winter:
-Install the torque arm.
Hoping to knock that out this week. Things keep coming up and getting in the way.
-Modify the strut tower brace to fit. Also hoping to have this done this week.
-Pull the engine to:
--Fix oil leaks. It's leaking at the rear of the oil pan and on the harmonic balancer. And maybe at the PCV valve. Basically it leaves a couple nice puddles anywhere you stop it.
--Install the oil dipstick. I don't have a dipstick in the engine currently because the one they sent with the oil pan doesn't clear the headers. When I pull it out, I'm gonna mock up the header and then modify the oil tube as needed to make it fit. Having to drain the oil to check the level is a real PITA, but necessary because of the oil leaks.
--Install the AC delete pulley and remove the compressor. Maybe do some, er...
customization (ok, fine, "grinding") to the stock bracketry before painting them up or having them powdercoated. I decided to hold off on the Race Doctor brackets for now, they're nice, but that money is better spent elsewhere, like safety stuff and money for the trip to Circuit of the Americas in April. Polishing/painting/grinding some weight off/etc will be better for now.
--Run the oil gauge and coolant lines through the firewall.
--Clean up all the engine bay wiring and relocate the factory fuse box to behind the fender. The fuel pump and engine ECU are controlled with toggle switches inside the car. So I need to reroute the wiring for those.
--Detail the engine. I kind of rushed the 351w swap, and I'm not very satisfied with how the engine bay looks. I'm a tad embarrassed to pop the hood. Wires everywhere, dirty, oily, etc. Time to clean it up and be proud of popping the hood.
--Install the mechanical gauge cluster. I have a gauge cluster that fits into the factory location, with Equus mech gauges. I just haven't installed it because it's hard to get it in a good location and run all the wiring and things with the engine in the way. So it's a good chance to install that. Finally having an oil pressure gauge will be nice lol.
--Check cam out for excess wear, relash valves, etc.
--Stuff like that
-Weight loss wise:
--Trying to lose some pounds myself. I probably have the biggest impact on the weight of the car.
--Remove any of the smog stuff that's left.
--Remove the ABS block and install proportioning valve.
-Get the fuel line situation resolved. A couple years ago, I switched from EFI to carb. Since I had an Aeromotive A1000 fuel system flowing a ton of fuel, I had to install a much larger return line than the -6AL. I used some rubber hose that's 5/8". It's just running underneath the car right now, which I don't care for. It could be a real mess on track if it rubs something and get's punctured or something.
I want to focus this winter on getting the parts that are just sitting around installed vs buying more/different stuff. And fixing the basic issues like oil leaks and things. We fixed enough of the main issues the car had with the expensive hard parts, so it's time to fix the basic maintenance issues and get all the installs finished.
My cousin, Mike, and I are gonna split the cost of new tires right out of the gate, so we're currently looking at:
Falken Azenis RT615K+ $195.00 4 $780.00
Falken Azenis RT660 $238.82 4 $955.28
Dunlop Direzza ZIII $262.11 4 $1,048.44
Bridgestone Potenza RE71R $276.57 4 $1,106.28
BFGoodrich G Force Rival S 1.5 $329.22 4 $1,316.88
All in 275/35/18. Mike really liked the BFGs on the T/A, but he was more limited on options with the 315s. He also thought the Falkens were really good this season, too. So it'll be a tough decision with some arguing back and forth lol. We did get about 120 runs out of these. The event where we understeered all over the place did the most damage to the fronts. The rears still have tread, the fronts are gone.
The car has really gotten a lot better, and me along with it. In the first half of the season, even after we got the new tires, I was lucky to go a
day without spinning out, much less a whole weekend. I haven't spun out the car since probably....August? Before all the new parts, so it was definitely me getting better, but it's gotten even more controllable and composed
with the new parts.
