Chapter 27: More AX Shakedown

Look at that, I managed to write another update in a mere two weeks. Are you impressed? I know I'm impressed. Since the last update, I've continued to drive the car and make sure everything is working as it should. Last Sunday, the 19th, I manned up and actually drove the car to Houston for a Houston BMW Autocross. I've only driven the car out of town once before, and never with the new motor. I was reasonably sure the car would make it, but shit happens. I did load up my tool box, jack, jack stands, spare tire, fluids, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting just in case. Rather than change tires, I slapped the Azenis on the car for the drive down. It's almost like it's a real street car. I did, however, have to wear ear plugs, as the resonance from the dumps gets really old after a while.

Houston BMW runs at the Houston Police Academy, which is on the northwest side of Houston. The drive isn't too bad; just about 95 miles. Their classing structure is setup for BMW's, and all other V8 cars go to X1. Race cars go to X4. Since I'm on street tires and I drove the car there, I run X1. HPA is a wierd course, check out this link to Google Maps for a satellite view. The surface is nice, clean, grippy concrete. I managed to convince Norm in his WRX Wagon to show up, as well as Tilton in his Mustang. As usual, my goal is to beat Norm. As usual, I don't get it done. Houston BMW gives you seven runs, and on my seventh and final run, I needed to find about .6 seconds to catch Norm. I slow down. The car handled pretty well, the higher grip concrete helping the Azenis work, but there is still some throttle lift oversteer that is making me drive more cautious than I'd like.

The drive home is uneventful, and the car ran great all day. It ended the day with just as much oil pressure as it started with, and the opti behaved itself. I had no over heating or other issues, and I'm feeling pretty good that the new engine is going to last. Unlike last update, I actually have pictures to share. These were taken by Jerry Klumpp of My League Photos. He can be reached via email, jwklumpp 'at' sbcglobal 'dot' net.

Photo by Jerry Klumpp jwklumpp 'at' sbcglobal 'dot' net

Just one weekend later, it was time for Tamscc's AX3. After doing some reading on Corvette Forum, I decided to make a subtle change to the rear suspension to help with my throttle lift oversteer problem. Previously, the car has been running a 30mm front sway bar and a 26mm rear sway bar, both mounted on poly bushings. A C4 BSP competitor with a very similar setup suggested that the poly bushings in the rear were simply too stiff, and that softening up the rear bar by swapping back to factory rubber bushings would make the car more balanced in transition. Some digging in the garage, and I found my stock rubber rear sway bar bushings. Re-installation was pretty easy; I didn't even jack the car up. I also put washers under the bushing brackets to keep the preload low.

As far as competition, it was the same old story: me vs the boost buggies. Norm and Joel showed up, but Norm choose to run in STX instead of SSM to avoid running first heat. The rear bar bushing change helped, but this did not eliminate the problem. The course was VERY fast, and almost all of the competitors were shifting to 3rd gear. Due to my favorable gearing and new and improved 7000 rpm rev limit, I did not have to shift and didn't even bang into the rev limiters. Many, many drivers were giving their rev limiters a work out. I ran a pretty good time of 68.2, but I hit a cone trying the ever popular "I don't think I should lift here, so I won't." Yeah, I should have lifted. Joel ran a 68.0, so the cone didn't really affect things too much, and I still came home in second. Norm stepped up to a 67.5, so it's good he didn't run in SSM. Andy Hollis in his STS '89 Civic Si on street tires brought the ownage to all of us and threw down a 65.6. Ouch. Apparently we all need to find some driving talent. Thanks to another win, Joel has the SSM championship all but locked up, so I might change things up for AX4 and run a class other than SSM.

Ready to head into battle against the boost buggies

In other news, I'm headed back to TWS next weekend! I'm using some of my saved up driving credits I earned while my car was broken, and I'll be driving on Sunday. The car seems to be ready: the motor is running great, brakes feel good, and the suspension is as sorted as it's been. I'll be busting out some Hoosiers, the same Hoosiers that were on the car during that fateful session last December. Hopefully they'll warm up and start doing things that Hoosiers do again. As part of the 2009 Texas A&M Formula Hybrid team, hopefully I'll be assisting the data acquisition team by allowing them to use my track day to practice with the team's DL2. In order words, I get to use a DL2 and record all kinds of good stuff, like lap times, lines, etc. I'd really, really love to break into the 1:40's, but I'm not sure if that is realistic considering how rusty I am as a driver.

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