Wilmington ProSolo

We arrived at Wilmington Thursday night so we could take it easy and not feel rushed like almost every other race weekend. The temperature was a bit on the cool side which was a nice break from the recent heat but we were mostly concerned with the weather forecast for the weekend.

Wilmington, OH - 7/24/2014

We got on site on Friday to register and to get tech inspection out of the way. This time I decided to forego the practice launches as I was already resolved to launching at redline and didn't want the added stress of additional launches potentially breaking anything on the car before the race. We noticed that paddock was a good half mile to grid so rather than waste time walking back and forth, we went to the local Walmart and picked up a cheap BMX bike that was quickly modded to be what we shall now call "Bumblebike". Walking the course, I knew I was up for another uphill battle. The course this time was much more balanced than Toledo but the distance out of the line was longer than usual and I would be at a disadvantage from the launch being the least powerful car of the group. 

Bumblebike - Wilmington, OH - 7/25/2014

Day 1 kicked off and we got our morning runs in the dry. The grip in Wilmington was very comparable to Toledo but more consistent all around. I was happy that we were able to light up the rear tires again at redline and thankfully I think the 10mm spacers worked and no more crumpling of the fenders occurred. There was a chance of rain in the afternoon so I inflated the Hoosier H20s in preparation of having to switch over to rain tires. I didn't expect to go faster on the wets but I've been wanting to do some testing since I've never run Bumblestook on Hoosier wets before.

Hoosier H20 - 245/45/17 - 7/26/2014

Somehow the rain skirted the airfield and we got dry afternoon runs as well. I was able to move up a few spots but was still too far off pace compared to other BSP cars running in SPA. I knew I was leaving a lot of time out there so I had to drive more aggressively and trust the grip level more. Overnight, the forecast was calling for severe thunderstorms. I had fully expected to have to run in a torrential downpour but again, we were saved and not only did we get to run in the dry but the sun even found its way through the clouds.

Getting ready to run Day 2 - 7/27/2014

I found nearly a full second between the left and right courses and was happy with the raw times but I coned away the fast left side run which would've left me in the trophies. Bumblestook's feeling really good right now though and I'm looking forward to the coming weekend for the Wilmington Championship Tour. The only minor issue is that we blew sound this weekend, getting logged as high as 101.3dB going flat out through the slalom so we'll have to find a way to quiet her down a few dB before this weekend so we don't get disqualified. However I think the position of the sound station, the low clouds and the strong winds contributed to this. Still, better to not take any chances.

Bumblestook at the Wilmington ProSolo

Wilmington, OH - 7/27/2014

Overall I think it was a successful weekend despite not finishing where we wanted. She's running great and handles exactly the way I want and didn't break anything. Being out of the points running, we're going to skip the ProSolo Finale this year and just go to the National Championship to save her from any further brutal launches until next season.

Packed up and ready to battle again next week - 7/27/2014

Wilmington Prep

With back to back races in Wilmington, Ohio coming up, it was time to go over Bumblestook yet again to make sure everything was still ok after surviving the brutal Toledo ProSolo. First up though was having my trailer modified by Steve at SJF Performance so I can carry an extra set of wheels with me. The Touareg is a fine towing vehicle but it's impossible to fit a set of rain tires, an extra set of race wheels and spares and supplies for such a long trip. Steve welded on removable threaded poles to the trailer tongue make let me bring extra race tires on the trailer instead. He did an excellent job and I can now operate the trailer in either configuration (with or without the extra wheels) without too much trouble.

Mount for removable wheel poles added - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Poles installed and wheels mounted - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Secured wheels - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Trailer loaded with extra wheels up front - 7/20/2014

We then put her back on the alignment rack to see if anything had shifted after running on the grippy concrete and sure enough the right rear toe had moved quite a bit with a significant amount of toe in. We suspect this could happen due to the wonky bolt but it also turns out that the forces back there had somehow also slightly bent the little tabs the alignment washers push up against. Steve hammered them back into place so everything is nice and tight and we replaced all the camber and toe bolts in the rear to restore my alignment back to what it was before Toledo except this time I could actually get the rear toe to 1/16" toe in. Steve's new machine can also take additional measurements of the car so we noted those down too for future reference in case anything ever shifts.

Alignment #5 - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Frame is nice and square - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Frame is nice and square - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

We pushed the damaged fender out a bit so it looked a bit better and to address this issue, I switched from 15mm spacers to 10mm spacers and now the top of the tire is well within the edge of the fender. As a quick check of the diff health, we drained the fluid and it came out nice and clear with nothing scary (metal or otherwise) coming out. Cheap insurance for the beating we're about to take again in Wilmington.

10mm spacers and new diff fluid - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Other miscellaneous fixes included adding some screws to the rear bumper cover so it stops flapping around after I broke the tabs off from contact. We also added a drop of loctite on the nuts holding the throttle cable in the bracket to address the throttle debacle from Toledo. Thankfully there isn't a lot of stuff we have to do for pre-big race prep anymore. Hopefully we can do better in Wilmington and at the very least get some good set up data before nationals.

Ready for Wilmington - SJF Performance - 7/20/2014

Toledo ProSolo...where 100% isn't enough.

It was finally time for the first big event on concrete for Bumblestook this season. All the testing, practice and prep the past few months would be put to the test at Toledo where all that grip would surface any issues around reliability and speed of the car. Practice starts went quite well on Friday. Despite going up to 315s in the rear this year, I was still able to get some wheel spin launching at redline (8600rpm) and overall Bumblestook felt strong and healthy.

Practice Start - SCCA ProSolo Round 7

Toledo, OH - 6/27/2014

Practice Start - SCCA ProSolo Round 7

Toledo, OH - 6/27/2014

Street Prepared Index A (SPA) Sat Morning Grid - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014

We finally got to walk the course and I knew I'd be in trouble. I counted only 4 actual corners where I'd have to lift and it was very likely the other cars in my class wouldn't have to lift either thanks to the massive grip of the concrete surface. It was clearly going to be a power course especially with a hair pin that shuts you down a lot and where torque would be crucial. Without driving the course yet, this was just purely speculation so we'd have to see on day 1 how bad the situation would be.

Grip - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014
Photo By: Perry Bennett - Autoxpix.com

Launch - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014
Photo By: Perry Bennett - Autoxpix.com

Sure enough on Saturday, it drove as predicted...flat out in all but 4 corners and riding the rev limiter all over the place. With my top speed in 2nd limited to about 62mph due to gearing, it would be cake walk for the Vettes that could go well over 70mph in 2nd. Shifting to third would be an option but it really didn't help too much. To make matters worse, the grip level allowed me to three wheel the car out of a corner putting more load in the front corner than I had ever tested and the result was carnage on the driver side front fender.

Moment of impact - Toledo ProSolo - 6/27/2014
Photo By: Perry Bennett - Autoxpix.com

Fender damage - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014

Quick Fix - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014
#BecauseRaceCar

I was able to fix it after the morning session and was ready to give it another shot in the afternoon. Unfortunately, my luck continued to run short. On my first launch, I suddenly lost throttle and the car was just stuck idling. I managed to use the momentum to roll off the course and found that the nuts holding the throttle cable in place had vibrated loose causing the cable to come off. I remounted the bracket but lost all my afternoon runs in the process.

Throttle cable off the bracket - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014

Throttle cable secured back onto bracket - Toledo ProSolo - 6/28/2014

Sunday would be my last chance to redeem myself. There was threat of rain in the horizon but luckily it just skirted around the venue and we were able to get runs in the dry. I managed to drop some significant time on both sides but simply coned away my fast right side runs. Either way, with the course laid out the way it was, even going 100% and not hitting cones still wouldn't be enough to come close to a final trophy spot. The dirty runs tumbled me down in position ending up the worst I had finished this year in 11th out of 15. To add insult to injury, my wheel had touched the fender again this time creating even bigger damage.

Final fender damage - Toledo ProSolo - 6/29/2014

Our fastest raw times - SCCA ProSolo Round 7

Toledo, OH - 6/29/2014

Despite all this, I still had a great time in Toledo. The grip is intoxicating! I verified that Bumblestook could handle the grip and felt well balanced on that surface with no changes to any settings on the car. If the course was designed to be more balanced, I think we would've had a fighting chance so I'm looking forward to the rematch in Wilmington next month where hopefully someone can design an autocross course and not a simple drag race.

Final Prep Before Toledo ProSolo 2014

After the successful testing we had two weeks ago despite the ITB failure, I dropped Bumblestook off at Evans Tuning to have the ITB issue sorted out before the Toledo ProSolo. While it was at the shop, Karcepts released new spherical upper shock mounts. I've been wanting to replace the modified Tein top hats on my Motons for some time now so this was perfect timing. I assumed that my Moton Triples were the same dimensions as the Moton Club Sports so Brian Karwan at Karcepts sent me spacers for those shocks but when Jeff DeVos (JDV) at Evans Tuning tried to install it, we found they wouldn't fit. It turns out the triples were slightly different but thankfully after getting the new dimensions to Brian, he quickly fabricated a new part and shipped it to the shop overnight for perfect fitment and we were back in business. The new top hats a bit narrower and lighter than my previous ones so replacing them actually dropped the car all around for a super hellaflush look (temporary). The ITBs were fixed and reset and TPS recalibrated.

Measuring Shocks - Evans Tuning - 6/17/2014

Shocks back together after new spacers arrived
Evans Tuning - 6/19/2014

New Karcepts upper shock mounts installed
Evans Tuning -  6/21/2014

Super hellaflush - Evans Tuning - 6/21/2014

After picking her up from the shop, I dropped her off at SJF Performance for suspension tuning. First Steve took care of the brake bolts that I lost at DC. Robert Thorne sent me new spacers and bolts so he put those in for me..the clearances are super tight on this kit!

Brake bolts replacement - SJF Performance - 6/21/2014

Being paranoid about ProSolos, I had Steve change the diff fluid again to handle the abuse I'm about to put her through next weekend.  We also put on the competition set of tires I'll be using for the weekend.

Fresh diff fluid - SJF Performance -  6/22/2014

Then it was on to some serious business. First up, with all the weight reduction the car underwent after the NJ Championship Tour and the new top hats, we had to reset the ride height and corner balance. Dave Corsaro is the man for this job and we got the car up to near stock height where I like the car to be (raising all corners around 0.5") and got the corner balance spot on for absolutely perfect cross weights in race trim. With the help of some static weight reduction and running a lot less fuel, Bumblestook dropped a solid 66lbs in race trim from when we won at the DC ProSolo two months ago. On top of that, I dropped 9lbs so in total Bumblestook is now a significant 75lbs lighter than in DC.

Pre-corner balancing, no driver weight - 2556lbs
SJF Performance - 6/22/2014

Absolutely spot on cross weights - SJF Performance - 6/22/2014

Dave Corsaro setting up the scales - SJF Performance - 6/22/2014

Corner balancing in progress - SJF Performance - 6/22/2014

Once corner balancing was completed, it was back on the alignment rack for the third alignment of the season. With the ride height slightly altered (rear is a tad lower than before) and the rake set to about 1/4", we got some more caster back in the car (maxed out at around 5 degrees) and a tiny bit more front camber. I asked Steve to compensate by adding another 0.1 degrees of negative camber in the rear and resetting the rear toe back to 1/16" total toe in. Unfortunately, there's some wear in the toe adjustment bolt so it didn't want to set at 0.3 per side, so we kept it at 0.4 which is a tiny bit more than 1/16" toe in. I have to make sure to order new bolts before we realign for Wilmington next month. As always, Steve painstakingly got all the alignment perfectly to spec...and damn, she really needs another wash :(

Alignment #3 - SJF Performance - 6/22/2014

Finally to help manage tire pressure build up in between ProSolo runs, all the tires had the air vacuumed out and replaced with Nitrogen.

Nitrogen fill in tires - 6/22/2014

It was a long weekend but I'm glad that the car is as perfect as she can be for Toledo. Everything was checked and re-checked for 100% performance so it's all up to me to not screw it up. There are no excuses! The concrete and a fairly stacked SPA class will be a true test of how fast Bumblestook and I really are nationally so we can make adjustments if needed before Nationals in 2 months.

ITB Failure, Testing and Winning

After a month off from racing I was excited to get back out there and test the changes we made last month. Softer rear springs, re-alignment and weight reduction. The weekend didn't start off too well though. On my very first run, I got to the first set of corners when suddenly I had no power even at full throttle. I was able to limp her back to grid to inspect what had happened. The throttle linkage for the ITBs had somehow worked its way loose. I thought it was game over. I pulled the return spring out behind it since I was afraid it would fall down and get lost but after closer inspection and with the help of Steve Farkas (SJF Performance), we managed to get the linkage reconnected, leaving the return spring out (not easy to reinstall on the spot). The other return springs were stiff enough that the throttle body performance seemed ok so I took her back out again for a test run and all seemed well. Not wanting to lose a day of testing, I just kept monitoring it after each run and it seemed to be work fine so I continued with testing as planned.

Linkage back in - NNJR SCCA Autox - 6/7/2014

Aside from adjusting the suspension for balance with the new rear springs, I wanted to see how low she could go on fuel without fuel starve to save more weight. We started the event at 6 bars and ended on 3 bars, well under quarter tank and did not get any fuel starve. Surprisingly I didn't need to make too many changes from my previous setup. As expected, the 10% softer rear spring helped add some mechanical grip back there to make her more stable and easier to drive under throttle. I only had to pull some rear rebound and the balance was back to what I wanted and she could be driven hard under throttle in every corner for rotation without much drama. Despite the early mishap, I was able to get 5th in PAX out of 148 drivers and 6th fastest time overall. The new exhaust is definitely louder than before and sounds more "bee"-like but should be within the sound limits for the SCCA.

Low fuel testing - NNJR SCCA Autox - 6/7/2014

NNJR SCCA Autox

Meadowlands, NJ - 6/7/2014

Day 2 testing continued with MSNE in Lot J at the Meadowlands. It's a wavier lot with a bit less grip but there were a lot of good elements to do more testing with including some very fast high-G sweepers to continue my low fuel testing. Ran a quarter tank the entire time with no fuel starve. No changes were made to her settings from the previous day and she was absolutely a blast to drive once I figured out the bad parts of the lot to avoid which unfortunately forced me to take a less than ideal line. At the end of the day, I managed to put down Fastest Time of Day (FTD) overall out of 124 drivers resulting in me getting this ridiculously oversized trophy that I have no place for but more than anything I'm just super stoked that Bumblestook is feeling in prime shape before Toledo.

Bumblestook and I take FTD at MSNE Autox - 6/8/2014
Photo Credit: Jose Lozano

MSNE Autox - FTD

Meadowlands, NJ - 6/8/2014

She now has to go back to Evans Tuning this weekend to sort out the ITB issue, new top hats for the Motons I got from Karcepts have to get installed and new corner balance and alignment with the new reduced weight. She'll be ready for the Toledo ProSolo where I'll try to keep the momentum going and hopefully put up a solid fight against the 14 other drivers in SPA - Street Prepared Index A. It'll be our first event on concrete with the current setup and I hope we can keep it together and do well.

Weight Reduction and Rear Suspension Changes

It's been three weeks off from racing so far and I'm starting to get the itch again (that's a good thing). I've been taking advantage of the down time to get some adjustments made to her before Toledo. While she was at the shop the past few weeks, we also finally got a chance to show off all the incredible amount of work put into the car during the Evans Tuning 2014 S2000 Meet. There were 70 S2000s and over 100 people in attendance.We put her on the dyno without an exhaust (since that hadn't been completed yet) for show just because she sounds so mean.

Evans Tuning 2014 S2000 Meet - Mt Bethel, PA

Video By: Steguis (Me) for Evans Tuning

While she was at the shop, she underwent some weight reduction. They found we still left over a gallon of washer fluid in the car (argh) so that got drained. They pulled out the head unit and speakers and lastly, the last half of the exhaust was removed and replaced with a simple Vibrant resonator and downturn terminating behind the driver to the maximum specifications of the rules. She's definitely louder now but I think still within the sound limits of the SCCA. In total, I'd approximate about 22-25lbs of unsprung weight was removed. Lastly, I also asked to add a simple battery kill switch just to prevent parasitic drain on the battery when I'm towing her long distances or leaving her in paddock overnight.

Previous exhaust section - 5/24/2014

New shorter exhaust section - 5/24/2014

Battery kill switch - 5/24/2014

I also asked Jeff to retune her just to make sure everything was still perfect with the shorter exhaust as well as with the higher ambient temps this time of year. Nothing really major changed with the power. It's still the very awesome, wide, smooth, usable power band it was before with incredible throttle response.

Retune for new exhaust - 5/23/2014
Sooooo many farting unicorns!

On the suspension side of things. The rear springs were replaced with the Hypercoil 900lb springs I brought with the car when I dropped her off. The bumpy trailer ride from the shop to SJF performance would be a good way to get he springs to settle (they had already been on the car for well over a week at this point) for alignment #2 for the season. 

Hypercoil 900lb rear springs installed - 5/24/2014

We hadn't touched the caster during the first alignment since Steve wasn't really trusting the caster numbers from the new machine but now he does so he made sure they were both nice and even. Unclear why I can't get as much caster as I want but the left side is basically maxed out and the right side was brought down to match. Steve thinks its due to the forward rake of the car. Either way, the alignment is dead on perfect again thanks to Steve's meticulous work. Steve never settles for "good enough", those numbers are precise.

Alignment #2 - 5/24/2014 - SJF Performance

The final alignment settings are:

Front:
-3.3 Camber
4.6 Caster
0 Toe

Rear:
-2.4 Camber
1/16" (0.06) total toe in

Another two more weeks of downtime and it'll be back to back testing days again at the meadowlands with NNJR SCCA and MSNE to make adjustments for the new suspension setup. I expect to have more rear grip due to the softer rear springs and I'll be able to increase the rear sway bar stiffness and shock settings up from full soft to have some room for adjustment again. I'll also be doing some low fuel testing. Fuel in her is now below half a tank and I'm going to probably run it until she hits E or until I hit fuel starve. I'm hoping to be able to run with a quarter tank of fuel shaving off another 6 gallons of E85 weight off the car from when she was last corner balanced. Now I just have to convince Perry to put in a giant slalom with a long left hand sweeper at the next event's course to be able to test for the worst case fuel starve scenario.

Prepping for Toledo

With the first two big events of the season out of the way, it's a whole 2 months before we head out to the ProSolo in Toledo, OH. I'm taking a month off from racing to recover but that doesn't mean prep work for the next race can't start now. First on the list is to take care of a one minor annoyance. The tiny 3lb Shorai battery simply can't crank her up when it's cold and on Ethanol. It was fine last year but I supposed the ITBs have something to do with this. Not a big deal, she starts up just fine on a regular battery or when the small battery is fully charged but if she drops in charge a bit (like leaving it overnight or towing long distances), she often requires a jump to get her going. Best way to fix this is a battery with higher CCA so I went to the slighly heavier 5lb battery which is exactly the same size but has 540CCAs instead of 406CCAs. She fires up a lot easier now.

Switched to the Shorai LFX36A3-B12 - 5/8/2014

Next on the list was to make some suspension changes. While I was generally happy with the balance of the car at the past events, the rear is cranked down as soft as it can and I have no more room for adjustment on both the sway bars and shocks. I don't really like that so I'm dropping the rear rates down from 1000lbs to 900lbs. Went with Hypercoil springs 6" x 2.5" ID springs for this for their known consistency. A bit pricier than Eibach but well worth it.

Hypercoil 6" x 2.5" ID 900lb springs for the rear - 5/8/2014

Since Bumblestook is going to be displayed at the big Evans Tuning S2000 meet next week anyway so they can showcase some of the excellent work put into the car, I figured I'd drop her off a week early so they can do some work on her. Mostly just nut and bolting everything now that everything's settled, install the new rear springs, and see if we can shave even more weight off the car from wherever we didn't last time like simplifying the exhaust and removing the radio and speakers and other miscellaneous little items that we left in. At the next event I'm going to be doing some fuel level testing as I haven't had my car fuel starve yet even under half a tank with some crazy left hand sweepers and I'm wondering if I can get away with as low as a quarter tank of fuel in race trim. Between that and any other weight savings we can find, I think we can get her to around 2550lbs without driver. Once I settle on the final weight, she'll get corner balanced again for sure.

Dropped her off at Evans Tuning - 5/10/2014

It was then off to SJF Performance to sort out tires. I picked up Robert Thorne's 6 run Hoosiers which I'm going to use as my race tires for Toledo. It came free with lots of Lincoln OPR so I may run these at an event in early June to scrub it off at the Meadowlands the lazy way (doing a bunch of runs with them on). It'll add some heat cycles but they're still better than my other set which were used for both the DC ProSolo and the NJ Champ Tour (which are now relegated to my practice / local event set). Steve Farkas made quick work of mounting these bad boys using his excellent touchless tire mounting machine.

Tire Mounting - SJF Performance - 5/10/2014

Thorne's 6-run Hoosiers with Lincoln OPR - 5/10/2014

Steve also picked up a Nitrogen machine recently. Nitrogen has a more consistent rate of expansion than regular air so this should help keep the tires pressures more manageable during ProSolos. I'd definitely recommend this if you get a chance to do so.

SJF Performance Nitrogen machine - 5/10/2014

Lastly, I had the two tires I won from Hoosier from winning SPA at the DC ProSolo shipped there so I took them home today since these won't go on until Nationals.

Nothing like winning race tires! - 315 Hoosiers FTW - 5/10/2014