PDA

View Full Version : June 22nd Birmingham results have been posted.

Matt Harris
06-27-2003, 12:00 AM
I was pretty pleased with the performance of my 70 (more likely 60) horsepower hatch. :D

http://www.alscca.org/solo2/2003/0622/Summary.htm

I'm in 'hs'. I ran close to or better times than the likes of E36 M3's, boxter's, 911's, WRX's, S2000's, etc. Just goes to show that the driver really is more important than the machine. :wink:

This was a real horsepower track, very long (a minute and a half + laptimes) and some areas to get up to good speed, but it also had plenty of tight and technical spots. A little bit of everything. Thanks to the length there were a lot of DNF's for a while there, because it was so hard to remember the whole course.

It was also cool watching the F-SAE guys run, they set FTD, naturally. Jeff (Quattro) also rode along with me on my last two runs, adding an extra 150 pounds to my torque monster. :P I think he was shocked by the way that little civic hugged the corners. I'm telling you, as much as I love my Audi, it's hard to beat the toss-ability and quick weight transfer of a 1900 pound car! She was a beast in the slalom sections.

All in all it was a lot of fun, hopefully more of you guys will be able to make it in August.
Frosty_DUB
06-27-2003, 12:13 AM
I dont think that it matters much if you have a passenger or not. Brock had me ride with him one run and set his best time of the day.

Weight matters, but it just depends.
ActiveAero
06-27-2003, 12:19 AM
I dont think that it matters much if you have a passenger or not. Brock had me ride with him one run and set his best time of the day.

Weight matters, but it just depends.

Sometimes depending on the camber of the corners a counter weight can be useful, but all things being equal less weight is better.

Good job on the times.
Matt Harris
06-27-2003, 12:34 AM
The difference was noticeable with a passenger. Not so much in terms of speed (although it may have made a difference, it was just difficult to tell), but as far as weight transfer. On the longer and faster slalom section I could feel the car pitch and roll more the further into it I went rather than settling quickly as it did on the earlier runs. In a car with as little power as the civic I don't doubt it had an effect on speed as well, but I did have my best runs with him in the car. The reason for that was simply increasing confidence in the course and in my car/tires. I'm not knocing having a passenger, I enjoyed having him ride along and am happy with the performance of my car. I was just making a note of it.
CPMaverick
06-27-2003, 01:17 AM
Yeah it was fun. The FSAE car is set up for a totally different course,a course that is very tight. As a result, our setup caused tons of yaw on turn-in. I think it is mostly due to ackerman. Anyway, my first two runs the car was undrivably loose. We put some toe in into the car to negat ethe ackerman, and it helped a lot. But it made the car very twitchy in the slaloms. Anyway, I only got one clean run. Our other Driver (Clay) did a great job after me and set FTD.
Matt Harris
06-27-2003, 01:19 AM
Yeah, your first couple of runs looked pretty wild, but it was fun to watch the spins. :lol:
ActiveAero
06-27-2003, 04:15 PM
Yeah it was fun. The FSAE car is set up for a totally different course,a course that is very tight. As a result, our setup caused tons of yaw on turn-in. I think it is mostly due to ackerman. Anyway, my first two runs the car was undrivably loose. We put some toe in into the car to negat ethe ackerman, and it helped a lot. But it made the car very twitchy in the slaloms. Anyway, I only got one clean run. Our other Driver (Clay) did a great job after me and set FTD.

Could you explain what an ackerman is? I've never heard of that term before.
CPMaverick
06-27-2003, 07:46 PM
It's a term for the different steering angle between the two front tires. Since the inside tire follows a shorter path, sometimes it's desirable to have it turn more than the outside. Sometimes its not, depending on the situation. More Ackerman means the inside tire turns more. So you can see changing toe would change Ackerman but fuck with straight line handling. That's not the best way to change Ackerman, but it does an OK job in a pinch or in testing. Do a search for a better explanation.