Onward and outward

Ok so I've been lazy about posting here again. A quick recap and on to next year...

2015 was a sub-optimal year. At the start of the year the new LSD forced me to spend some time learning how to control my overly binary right foot. This is the sort of thing that was good for me but not good for my times. The best part of the year came right around the Evolution Performance Driving school, where I seemed to drive particularly well. I also did well at the Renegade Miata event mentioned in my last post. At SCCA events through out the year, I was having new co-drivers every event, and while all of them were excellent, nice helpful people, my own internal psychology left me self conscious, and there were some badly handled first runs, including one with the e-brake partly engaged. Generally, I calmed down by 2nd or 3rd run, but my times suffered since the first run or two didn't really give me a feel for the course.

Even worse, by the end of July and middle of August, the adhesive capsulitis of my shoulder that had started with an injury in March progressed to the point where it was interfered with my race prep and possibly my driving. By September, I could hardly lift my arm to 45 degrees to the side and I was getting cortisone shots instead of lap times. I had to miss my first SCCA event in 5 years. With several weeks off and the start of PT, I managed to come back for the Stirling Moss Finale event, and an NCR porsche event before parking it for the winter.

In the last couple events at the end of the year there were some rays of hope. I started softening up my front sway bar, and discovered that that helped greatly with turn in at high speed. At the Moss event I was relieved to be back racing and with the perspective of having missed some driving, I really just wanted to drive. As a result I finally didn't give a crap about what my co-driver might think, and I was really pleased to be able to post a faster official time and a faster raw (+1) time than my very skilled co driver who has many more years of experience (but no prior seat time in my car).

And so for next year...

I'll be moving outward... well my tires will be at least. Next year I will have 10.5" rims with 275 wide Hoosiers. These should be the last major non-power change to my car. For the previous seasons, I have been running 205 fronts on 6.5" rims and 245 rears on 7.5" rims. This is the setup that the super-stock elises use, which is limited by their inability to change the wheel width. The result is a fairly pinched setup, and 20% less rubber on the road than is allowable in SSM. I'm hoping that the new tires will make the car at least 1s faster... maybe more.

To offset weight gain from the wheels and stave off fuel starve I hope to add a lightweight Aluminum gas tank, sometime early in the season. Between the 9lbs savings there and fiberglass, mudflaps and fender liners that will disappear or be reduced with the new wheels, I hope to keep the weight close to what it was last year, perhaps even make progress if I find the time to install a rear-oil cooler setup (eliminating all the piping that runs from the front to the back and 2 heavy oil coolers (and the oil they hold). Most of the lotus community sees these oil coolers as an over-design by lotus, and some replace them because they are not happy with the low oil temperatures they cause.

There are a few more mods around the chassis, but not much significant after this. There is probably some tuning to do, and at some point it's likely I'll need new shocks which will be a big ticket item, but hopefully next year it will be time to start on adding power to the engine via head work and tuning. Since this is a minimum weight focused build, I feel the car should be nearing a competitive form in the class, and a trip to nationals or national events will be worthwhile. I wouldn't be expecting the car to win at nationals yet, but if me or my co driver can nab trophies that would be a nice start. I think a really top driver might threaten the podium in my car in the coming year, but that will probably take more talent than I am likely to show just yet.

The primary obstacle to this plan is transport since I don't have a trailer or tow vehicle. Therefore, any co-driver that can provide transport to national events, can drive for free at SCCA events (local and national) through the full 2016 season.

Competition

The worst thing in racing is to be the only person racing. Without competition, it's just not much fun to win. This year, I don't lack for competition. Practically everyone in the class (who has showed up for more than one day) has a season championship. I'm pretty much the only one without a local jacket, and just recently, Johnathan Leith (Leafy) made me the only regular driver in the class to not have a trophy at a national event outside NER. (Congratulations to him!!). There's a danger that come September he'll also make me the only regular competitor to not have a trophy at nationals.

I have a wealth of good competitors this year which is excellent. So far this season, I've been pretty lazy about updates here and I finally took some time to update my standings page. Not surprisingly, with the improved competition, my results are not as good at this point in the year as last year. That said, my times simply haven't been as good as last year either. I ended my streak of hot season starts, and this time I had pretty crappy days for my first few events.

Things are beginning to look up however, I fell short at our national tour, but I was in the hunt until the middle run of the second day, and in fun runs at the last Renegade Miata event I posted my first ever FTD (fastest time of the day). There is one really fast person (Grant Reeve) who didn't show up to that normally does, but I've had that opportunity at least half a dozen times in the last few years and not been able to take advantage. Next goal is to do it when Grant is there, and BEFORE fun runs :).

The other likely significant thing about the last event was that it was the 3rd weekend in a row, and 4th day Autocrossing in 14 day span. Seat time helps! So tomorrow, I'll be at the Evolution Performance Driving school challenge school to work on the seat time and get feedback from their excellent instructors. Lets hope that helps me take it up a notch. With this crowd I'll need it!

Like LSD man...

Ok sorry for the goofy title, I couldn't resist. So after doing all the work of pulling out the transmission, it became very clear that I want to minimize the number of times I do this. It's sort of fun in a way, but it really does take a lot of time and effort. So besides replacing the tattered, clutch that was probably a hairs breadth from grendading like this one:

The flywheel, and the Limited Slip Differential (LSD) were also installed. Basically, as a consultant, my time can be converted to money fairly readily and long term it's cheaper to do it all at once.

The flywheel is the Fidanza Aluminum flywheel, which shaves 6.8lbs off (about 45%) the stock. The clutch plate itself is only an ounce or two lighter, but it has less mass near the edges, and the clutch plate cover and pressure plate is a pound less, so the total weight savings should be about 8lbs of rotational weight. 

The LSD will offset that somewhat, adding back a couple pounds or so, but the diameter of the added rotational parts will be small, so perhaps 5-6 lbs off the car, and even more reduction in rotational inertia. PLUS power will now be available in the corners!

Only one problem... with great power comes great responsibility. It turns out that a lot of the time I've not been very gentle with the throttle. The LSD exposes this flaw in my driving in 2 ways. First, if lateral grip is not at maximum, but the car is turning, when the LSD locks up, this results in power only on the outside wheel (since the axel has become solid the inside wheel with less weight and traveling a different radius must slip). That tends to torque steer the car into the turn. This is potentially useful, but also throws you off if you are not used to it. Second, if you are at the limit of lateral grip, adding power now causes the OUTSIDE rear wheel to slip... and that will tend to make the car want to spin.

So while the LSD unlocks a new level of potential speed, the open diff will tend to save you from yourself, and is slightly easier to drive. My first event on the new LSD was quite disappointing because I was discovering that my throttle work needed work. After about 5 events, now I'm getting used to it and learning to ease onto the throttle and not be on/off the throttle as violently, and may just be beginning to reap the benefits of the additional speed in the corners.

Other notes on the changes I made... the lighter flywheel seems to make it slightly harder to get the car to actually turn over, which puts my present battery solution right on the very hairy edge... I probably need to think about setting up a cold weather jump system to ease the wear and tear on my starter when I have to leave for a race in the early AM. Mostly I just need an easy way to get jumper pack clamps on the battery.... without risking a short. The present space is pretty tight.

Waiting for the thaw...

Such a winter... 3-4 ft snow in the yard at max. Many all time snowfall records broken, season record in jeopardy. Even more amazing, it went from almost zero to nearly a season record in under a month. Not much was happening in early winter, so I didn't bother trying to manufacture a post. Then later, I was preoccupied with climbing on my roof to hack off the ice that was almost a foot thick in places...

With winter wrapping up and warm weather on the horizon, of course the car is somewhat disassembled... So I don't have time to write anything interesting now either, but I can offer you some pictures of lotus guts...

So obviously, the clutch is getting replaced.... other mods TBD, time/$ permitting...