RebekahsZ

Just yank the thing out and take a look inside. You will get good at this after about the fifth time!

Every term you listed above assumes that you are DRIVING correctly. Brake at the wrong time or stomp it (gas) at the wrong time and NONE of that stuff matters. At your next autocross, ask the guys in the timing trailer to point out the fastest driver in the club. Those guys are usually fast in ANY CAR. ( I hope you know the caps are for friendly emphasis-not yelling). Have the fastest drive drive your car a couple times on the track-heck, pay extra for him to be your co-driver-and you will probably find that your car is faster and more neutral than you think it is. All for tonight. Taking 15 year old daughter to a Tire Rack sponsored defensive driving school tomorrow with instruction given by the fast guys at the local SCCA. I'm gonna sit in and glean whatever I can. Dry and wet skid pads!! Yippee!

How much time and money do you want to spend? PM me if you want and we can have a low profile discussion out of public scrutiny. You are discussing a very open ended subject and you will get overloaded with suggestions. If your town (police) and autocross club are anything like mine, you will get somewhere between 3 and 6 minutes of practice and testing time a month: not a lot of opportunity for trial and error. Johnc's alignment recommendations have been spot on for me (he did the testing for us-thanks John!). Those specs have created a neutral car with even tire wear across each tire and from front to rear, left to right on both a road course and monthly autocross. I haven't graduated to tire temp testing (I have a probe pyrometer) but you really start needing a dedicated crew chief for all this because as the novice driver (that's me-and perhaps you) you will be mentally exhausted just trying to remember the course and figure out the fastest line, etc. if you are like me, you will be fully consumed just trying to keep the front of the car pointing forward-and that is with a neutral car! It is important to know that the driver can make a neutral car push (under steer) all day long if you screw up entry speed and weight transfer. I'm just getting to the point of sort of knowing what these terms mean.

Onion-Are you road racing, autocrossing or just thinking about it?

Hey Onion, what's the background behind starting this thread? I should have asked before posting my thoughts.

That list is correct, but who has time for all that? How to correct understeer: 1. Brake early and slow down entry speed into turns and accelerate out. 2. Camber plates (more camber in front).

And get ready to go faster-Hoosiers ROCK! When I get back from the track, I clean my wheels/tires with soap and water. After good snd dry, I put them in black trash bags then store them in a climate controlled storage garage next to my grandmothers prize winning quilt collection and the urn with my fathers ashes. They have a production date of '09 and they are still soft.

Oaklandjester-what pads were you runing for that race? Same SET of pads for three days of racing? Are your brakes ducted?

MiKelly-I concur. The blacks would be track pads?

Fhptom sent me a spec of 14.5" needed inside the rim at the hub. My 15x4 front runners are borderline but my 15x3.5s look good, perhaps even without a spacer. The rear 15x7 and 15x8s look problematic. Gonna do some research on Wilwood to see if a little smaller rotor is available for the rears since that caliper bracket looks pretty simple to duplicate.

Expect to let air out as tires heat up. Mine gain as much as 10psi as race day temps warm up.

Consider yourself requested. Gotta do the research and get it on the calendar. Just switched to slicks for Friday night.

Drill holes and zip tie them! Call it a race car.

How does the danger factor at Barber compare to RA and AMP (I probably don't have the gonads for RA)? I will probably try to join you for this year's Z-fest at Barber, and perhaps another AMP trip in the fall. Will be on same brake system although I will use track compound pads and take more rest periods for cooling down. Source of sudden brake failure has been repaired: a threaded rod has been welded solid.

Fast track-I bet mistakes are costly!

Shucks! Next time you are in Alabama I'll give you $50.

$50 says dirty fuel tank. Check your filters and banjo fittings for sludge or chunks. If they are clean, blow some compressed air thru the hard lines back toward the tank.

Studied video: that car has such a CLEAN interior, you've really done a great job on an aspect of the car that I just can't find time or energy for. You look very relaxed lounging in your office. Sucks that if a bottle is present it is always assumed to be open. Based on ColtGt45's input, I screwed my slicks from the get go. The tire shake was clear on the video-well shot! Could that just be an out of balance condition from the tire slipping on the rim? -it sometimes takes a lot of weight to balance my slicks. I have to admit I don't know much about tire shake. What psi were you inflated to? I've only seen videos of tire shake at the slow end of the track-again, more to learn. The guys who think drag racing is simple have just never tried to do it well! Obviously your estimate for a cage is accurate, as it will have to fit like a glove to satisfy you. I'm hoping to spank a 7.20 1/8-mile SBC/T350 280z this Friday at Lawrenceburg, TN-dude had a $200 mild steel rollbar made locally, eager to see the quality, but it will depend on getting some repairs done-him no front brake pressure and me a new noise in the rear suspension. I'm expecting $2-3k as I'm gonna be taking it to a place in Birmingham that specializes in IT cars (Kirk Racing). Like you, I wanna do it right and do it once, then move on to making power and traction.

Spinning like mad! Saw your Shatokans for sale: going to 10"(or more) slicks? Feeling like testing those CVs with some DRs?

You might get away with just a sissy bar like mine?? These AutoPower style rollbars would be super easy to replicate for a couple hundred. It is just the idea of doing a 30% solution that is bugging me. I'm holding out till winter then going for the full roll cage just to be done with it. I'm gonna do full door bars (keeping them pretty low) just because I have enough to do to get the car ready for the track just changing tires and loading up.

You've been run off several times...any plans for at least a 6-pt rollbar? I can't wait for you to get the green light and lay down some new times. Kind of sucks you are held back by a couple pounds of non-moveable steel bars! Kind of like having a date with a real hottie; you buy dinner, suffer thru a chick flick, then you get the old "I have a headache!" And you are driving how far to get to the track? But I'm really happy for you that the axles are good to go. I'm so ready for you to post a timeslip in the 9s.

Looks like a big traffic jam! Lots of opportunities to swap paint-you still all red-white-blue?

'Bout damn time you got that car in the road'. Congrats. Please report on how the smaller MC changes required pedal effort.

CrayZ-same here.

CrayZ-was that front or rear gland nuts?