After the Devens National Tour, we were going to have a month of downtime. It was a good opportunity to do some post race analysis, fix anything that was broken and make some changes to make Bumblestook faster and more reliable. The first "mod" wasn't a mod at all but a much needed addition to the fleet. A support vehicle capable of towing Bumblestook to and from races so I picked up a Touareg TDI.
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| The support/tow vehicle - 5/4/2013 |
Now back to getting Bumblestook ready for the next race. First up was weight reduction in the form of a Shorai 4lb battery.
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| Shorai 4lb Battery - 5/6/2013 |
Since I didn't want to wait for the OSGiken replacement diff, I sent my other spare diff assembly to Karcepts where an ATS Spec III diff was installed.
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| ATS Spec III clutch type diff - 5/9/2013 |
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| ATS Spec III clutch type diff - 5/9/2013 |
It was shipped to Evans Tuning and the diff was installed shortly after.
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| ATS Spec III clutch type diff installed - 5/11/2013 |
Then it was back to SJF Performance for Alignment #3 of the season to adjust the alignment for the Hoosiers based on what I felt during the last two races. In the process we found that my caster bushing was torn again.
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| Alignment #3 - SJF Performance - 5/18/2013 |
I then went back to see JDV where we installed my new Saikou Michi dual catch can, Shorai battery and fixed the broken drain plug for the radiator that was leaking coolant.
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| Battery and catch can installed - 5/18/2013 |
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| Broken radiator drain plug - 5/18/2013 |
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| New radiator drain plug - 5/18/2013 |
After a month hiatus, I could finally take her back out to do some preliminary testing to see if everything was working right. She felt pretty good with the new diff. Really helped stabilize it...maybe a bit too much. It was a bit pushy now but when the rear wants to break loose, it's very predictable and super easy to catch. Definitely engages sooner than the OSGiken I had before. Really liking it so far. No drama unlike the stock diff.
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| NNJR SCCA Autox - Meadowlands, NJ - 5/26/2013 |
NNJR SCCA Autox - Meadowlands, NJ
5/26/2013
Since the caster bushing was torn and we were also having alignment issues, I figured it was time to just replace all the 11 year old bushings. Instead of replacing individual bushings, I just bought a whole set of new OEM controls arms for the her all around. JDV replaced all the control arms and put in new bolts while we were at it. We also reinstalled the Swift/Hyperco 1000lb springs all around (removing the 800/700lb Eibach springs that were on there) and lowered the car a smidge. Also, after constantly fighting with the Skunk2 TB, I gave up and switched to the Science of Speed big bore TB which is just a bored out stock TB. I probably lost a bit of power with this change since the SoS TB isn't true 70mm all the way through but it wasn't sticking and had very smooth operation.
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| New Control Arms - 5/27/2013 |
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| New Control Arms - 5/27/2013 |
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| 1000lb springs all around - 5/27/2013 |
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| Science of Speed big bore TB - 5/27/2013 |
Then it was straight back to SJF Performance for alignment #4 of the season. The latest settings:
1000 lb springs all around
Gendron giant front sway bar at full stiff
Gendron rear sway bar on 3rd hole
Front: -3.6, 0 toe, 5.9 caster
Rear: -2.4, 1/8" (0.12") total toe in
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| Alignment #4 - SJF Performance - 5/27/2013 |
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