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

2nd Place BSP - SCCA Championship Tour - NJ

Not even a week after the DC Pro, we were back at home turf for the SCCA Championship Tour at the Meadowlands in NJ. While she performed superbly at the DC Pro, the conditions at DC were very unique so it would be very interesting to see how she'd perform on long course on high grip asphalt like the Meadowlands. It would also be the first time this year where I could go up against Mike Lane's BSP 350Z. Mike's consistently fast and would be a very good benchmark on how Bumblestook and I would stand this year. Before all this though, I had to address the temporary caliper bolt so it was off to SJF Performance to have my brakes sorted out.

Early morning getting the brakes fixed before practice
SJF Performance - 5/2/2014

Then it was off to the Meadowlands for Friday practice. With the settings from DC she was undrivable and incredible loose everywhere. Took some drastic shock changes but proper balance was achieved so she could be driven hard under throttle and stay perfectly neutral. It would also be a good time for my codriver for this event, Jeremy Prati, to get some seat time so he could get used to the car. Unfortunately he was only able to get 3 runs in before the session completed but it was valuable nonetheless since nothing can really prepare you for her turn in speed.

Practice runs complete - SCCA Champ Tour
Meadowlands, NJ - 5/2/2014

Day 1 of competition and Mike put down a solid fast time on his first run, I was well over a second slower but I was just getting used to her at full speed on grippy surface. On run 2, Mike dropped another full second and it was time to push her to the limit. I put in a flyer and was only 0.008 seconds off Mike's time. On the last run, Mike found some additional time but I lost enough time with a bobble coming into the slalom that I ended up going slower and we ended day 1 just 0.15 seconds apart. On such a long fast course, I was expecting not to be able to keep up to Mike's car. Surprisingly not only was I able to put up a fight but we had RAW timed SSR, something I had never been able to do before.

Sun setting on the Meadowlands after day 1 - 5/3/2014

Day 2 the temps were at least 15 degrees cooler than the day before. Overcast, extremely cold winds and a slight drizzle made for uncertain conditions. Mike put down a solid time on cold tires yet again and I followed suit just 0.1 seconds off his time, I was now trailing by 0.2 seconds. On second run, Mike put down another flyer. I pushed a lot harder but made some significant mistakes but went faster. Now we were separated by 0.4 seconds. On his last run, I watched Mike put down an incredible run and extended his lead to 0.8 seconds. It was now or never. I knew Bumblestook had the pace but I had to make a flawless yet aggressive run. I gambled in the early half of the course and got greedy with some of the corners, losing much needed time. I picked up the pace in the second half to try and make up for the early mistakes but it was too little too late and I couldn't improve on my time. Mike took the win and I ended up second with a comfortable margin to Lee in third. Unfortunately for Jeremy, he coned all his runs on day 1 and wasn't able to make it up on day 2 so he ended up 4th but overall I think he had a good time. Congratulations to Mike for the win. It was well deserved and I was simple outdriven.

2nd place BSP - SCCA Championship Tour

Meadowlands, NJ - 5/3-4/2014

(Video caption is wrong, I'm #129 BSP for this event)

Overall, while we couldn't get the win, I'm still extremely happy. This is only the fourth event for Bumblestook in her current trim and she's already showing excellent pace. Now all that's left for me to do is to figure out how to consistently drive her quickly. I'm still awe struck at how quickly she corners and changes direction. In fact the adrenaline rush is so high from driving her that I am physically shaking after each run. I need to get used to that speed so the adrenaline doesn't hamper my ability to drive smoothly and accurately.

2nd Place BSP - SCCA Championship Tour
Meadowlands, NJ - 5/4/2014

It'll be another two months before our next big race at the ProSolo in Toledo, Ohio. I'm going to get some much needed rest after two weeks of intense action and get some minor tweaks and maintenance done so she's ready to do battle again. Hopefully we'll have her ready to do some local events for practice before then.