Oversteer help

[UMI Sales]

Any tuning plans for this week? What does your car need?

ramey

We are not allowed to run vortec heads unless the car came with a vortec engine, in which case, we can run the fuel injection as well, hell.. we can run an LS1 or a ford 4.6 mod, if we build a car that came with the engine, which is what I am currently hunting, a Camaro with an LS1, or a Lincoln mark VII with a DOHC v8

anyway, had another eventful night of racing, started pole in my heat race, fell back into second since I didn't have the motor to pull with the cheater next to me, about 4 laps in someone starts trying to knock my back bumper off and finally turns me, this was not bumping either, this was driving into the turn and slamming, same dirty driver that put my buddy into the wall the very first race of the season, they sent him to the rear and put me back in second

2-3 laps into the race start someone turns me again but I held it fell in behind the same dirty driver, coming down into turn 3 I drove into him and turned him, they black flagged me and sent me to the pits, I didn't mind too much since the fence was lined with people cheering for me cause I stood up to him, not to mention he was escorted from the racetrack by the police after the first heat, for fighting in the pits with another guy he took out, I ended up finishing 7th in the feature, the car was doing ok but I had some bad luck, I am third in points though 😀

as for tire temps, I still don't have any, I am such a procrastinator with this car, it seems to be working really well now so I have not touched it in 2 weeks, other than maintenance type stuff and tire pressures, I am running 40 right side, 30 left and that seems to do pretty well, gotta keep enough air in these tires so they do not roll over, 40 is about what I have been running on the right, but my left side was rolling it turns out, so I bumped it up and it has helped the car turn

the front tires are not screaming through the turns now, I just get a chattering in the right front coming out of the turns but no push, I guess that is just the limits of adhesion for these crappy street tires

 

[ReQ]

Ran Saturday night without too much trouble in the heat, got shuffled back on the start and finished fourth without incident

the feature is where the problems began, started 7th place and about half the race I was stuck behind a slower car who was running 4th, coning out of the turn I fired and for some reason he did not, wasn't straight or just slipped up somehow and I tapped him, not very hard just enough to break him loose, so I took the opening going down the front straight he just turns me right towards the wall at the other end, managed to save it and keep off the wall.. so what do they do? SEND ME TO THE REAR...

I must be making some fans however, another drivers group that runs in my class went to the corner marshal and used some colorful language, they put me back behind the guy who spun me before dropping the green, but did not send the other guy to the rear oh well I guess

with about 4 laps to go, the guy who turned me was getting together with another car, so I went under them down the back straight, he got knocked down and my right front met his left front, I was on 2 wheels heading for the infield, right rear spring fell out of the top perch and and the car slammed back down onto the track, big gouge out of the track where the frame hit, also broke one of ears off mt right front shock, tore my new fender off etc.

drove it back on the trailer again though, got a week off so we have 2 weeks to get it ready this time, nothing really wrong with it though, frame and suspension seem straight so far, more checking and double checking to do


BUT, I do have a spare car now I am starting to build, a 1992 Crown Victoria with the "handling & performance package", one owner with only 88k on the clock, family member owned it and shes too old to drive herself anymore, so she gave it to me :lol: I just wonder if a stock 4.6 sohc 2v will hold up against the old school sbc, I know very little about the modular v8s.. guess I'll find out soon enough


also, as for my car and how its preforming, everything seems to be working well, only 2 cars give me problems and they are very illegal, my poor stock 350 just can't complete with the nasties they are running, one of the two has a sb400 :shock: they pull along side me down the straights, but they have to back out before I do, so they only way they get around me is to beat their way through, which they do every chance they get

 

[pontiacgp]

sounds like an eventful nite. It's good your car didn't get torn up too bad. I hope you painted the frame so if it does get tweaked the paint will chip and let you know where it's tweaked. You can tie the rear end so it can't drop far enough for the spring to move. For the ford you don't see that model on the track very often and there is a reason for that, the wheelbase is 114.4 in and there is nothing you can do to get it around a corner fast enough to be competitive...

 

[ReQ]

We did paint the frame, does not appear to be bent anywhere, seems like it held up ok but it was not a vary hard hit, more like driving up a ramp, the suspension took most of the shock when it came back down, was not fun looking out my window net and seeing the track and then grass

the rear was tied down, chains bolted to the frame and rear end, welded grade 8 bolts so it would be removable, but the right rear chain broke loose at the top, pulled the bolt right out of the frame

as for the wheelbase, for some reason people love longer wheelbase cars on this track, the track champion runs a 76 Monte, which is the long wheelbase a-body, half the field are long wheelbase cars, and a friend of mine built a 95 or 96 Caprice "police interceptor" and ran it for a year, longer wheelbase cars work on this track at least, not as twitchy as the shorter metric cars maybe?

not sure what the Ford will do really, I do like the suspension a LOT more than the g-body setup, I HATE the factory g-body suspension, and since we can't fix it there is not much we can do but try to compensate elsewhere, but handling aside, my main worry will be with the small V8 keeping pace, and the transmission holding up.. never dealt with anything Ford except the 2300 4cylinder and T5 trans, but that "little" 4.6 is HUGE even under the hood of that big boat of a car :shock: wide as a big block

 

[pontiacgp]

I'm surprised the longer wheelbase works at your track...at our 1/2 mile track guys have tried the caprice and fords in the enduros but they lose out in the corners. No one in the SS division run anything longer than the 108 wheelbase and they check to make sure we havn't shortened it. I wonder what makes them work at your track...

 

[ReQ]

I am not sure why exactly, I have not driven a longer wheelbase car around this or any track, but I can say from just watching the big cars go around the track, they look so composed and effortless, meanwhile you watch the metric cars and they look spectacular going around the track, which is fun to watch, not drive

I have not mentioned it before, but I had a moment of realization about these cars a while ago, after swapping cars with a friend who also has a very fast car, watching it I assumed it was handling better than mine, but when I got in it and did some warmup laps, it felt like a pig on ice, he drove mine and said he could not believe how well it handled, I was quite confused by this until someone explained I was over driving my car, I thought it should do better than it was, so I pushed it beyond the limits of the tires

and thats the biggest problem, the tires they make us run are worthless for this task, without heavy modifications to the g-body suspension, to stop the bumpsteer and weight transfer, it will overcome the limits of adhesion with street tires way too early, once I got the front end to stop pushing before the limits of the tire, and the rear axle fixed the car was much better.. but there is a moment when the tires will just let go, and that moment comes sooner and much more abruptly the shorter the wheelbase, longer wheelbase cars do not turn as quickly, this may be counter productive when your going racing, but under the right circumstances it can be desirable I suppose, smooth and uneventful is fast

its mainly a quality of life issue, the shorter wheelbase may be faster when all conditions are right and you get it in and out of the turn just right, but on a track full of maniacs that is next to impossible, so a more forgiving car that is easier to drive quickly under non-ideal conditions is better in a, whats suppose to be a beater type class anyway

Edit: almost forgot, this is the only class that run the longer wheelbase on this track, the street-stocks are nearly all Camaros here, the rest are g-bodies which get hung out to dry by the Camaros, grooved goodyears make a pretty big difference compared to street tires though

 

[ReQ]

Well the break is over, going racing again tomorrow but I have a newly developed problem with my brakes

I have too much right front brake it would seem, replaced pads/calipers/lines/rotors with all new factory parts, my front pads were pretty shot, now I my right front locks up way too easily, even just up and down the road if I get on the brakes the right front locks up, tried swapping calipers and checked all the lines but its still way too much right front brake

any way to fix this? not allowed to run any kind of adjustable parts.. unless we hide it

I need some way to get less pressure to the right front I assume?

 

[pontiacgp]

try a different set of pads and break them in

 

[ReQ]

I found the problem with my front brakes, the brand new caliper I put on the left front, does not work, the piston is locked up inside of it for some reason, cannot push it in with a clamp, and with the caliper off, pressing the brake pedal will not move it either

guess its just defective, going to replace it again and see if it works, getting fluid too the caliper, but it has no where to go.. so I guess that puts too much pressure on the right front brake? that is what someone told me anyway


as for the race this past weekend, I started outside pole in the heat race and ran off with the heat, about half way through the welds in the rearend broke and it started to wheel hop and I lost it exiting the turn, they sent me to the rear for spinning on my own and bringing out a caution -.- still finished 5th with a terrible wheel hop

feature was eventful with a lot of wrecks, so many in fact that they cut our race short because it was taking so long, it was a good night though, not really dirty driving.. it was just a very slippery night due to the rain over the weekend, track was very slick

also, I may have some incar footage soon, the guy that started behind me in the feature had a gopro cam, going to talk to him about getting whatever it recorded, not sure how long he stayed behind me lol

 

[pontiacgp]

what welds in the rear end broke? Sounds like your car is nicely set up for the track though. Where did you end up in the feature?