I spend a lot of time reading car forums/blogs/industry sites etc, etc. Some of my favorites: jalopnik, autoweek, autoblog, smoking tire, crank and piston, speedhunters, you get the idea.
So I won't lie, I stole the above title straight from a great article from a series on jalopnik called "how to drive fast", which is written by Alex Lloyd (indy car driver). I suggest you all read it, his articles have been great, well written and its really cool to get insight straight from a professional driver. The main point of the article is that in the end, to be/become a fast driver...you actually need to be a bonified (sp?) idiot. I mean the truth of it is, the breed of person that dives feet first into auto racing could be reasoned to have a screw (or multiple) loose, since we do after all hurl ourselves into turns at speeds that normal people cant even handle in a straight line down the highway...and come out the other side (most of the time at least). The game is as much mental as it is physical and engineering. (here's the link for the lazy)
Try explaining that one to the girl you meet at the bar. (hint: she wont get it)
But I digress, back to the car at hand. In random forum discussion the idea of making a sway bar adjustment was brought up. It had crossed my mind but the I hadn't really done the research on the key points like my actual spring rates and how much stiffness change each adjustment point on the bar made. This stuff was an easy find, my springs are 290in/lb front and 330 rear and whiteline has a readily available stiffness chart. After talking to Andrew at GTWorx, he suggested that going to the middle setting on the rear bar coupled with my springs, and that this would not push me into an over steer situation, which obviously wouldn't be a good thing for a green driver like me. Long story short, I had hoped that I'd be able to up the bar and it would make an awesome change to the car...low and behold the bar was already set there. On one hand this is good because it's stopping me from making a big swing at the setup that may get me in trouble, but at the same time it means I will have to learn to drive around the inherent evo under steer that I hoped wouldn't be so blatantly apparent. There is one small change I can make, but that's a story for another post.
Here is my sub $100 mini battery setup that sticks to my modus operendi of building a car that at anytime I can put back to stock, operates in a close to stock manner and is fast...and hey I make a good salary but even still im not dropping $250 on a freaking mini battery (most vendors sell kits with trays that replace the stock tray, cost well over $200, and use a bettery that is 2 pounds heavier...I win.)
It's odd being in a position with a car where it feels complete and well rounded. I honestly don't think with all the cars I've ever built that I have had this complete feeling a car. I continue to be impressed on a very consistent basis with how well this drives to and from work, and yet goes out and rips it up on the track. I think big things will be coming next year. Global Time Attack has recently announced an "enthusiast" class with much tighter rules a la must be driven to the track. This was set up to combat the "street class" cars that are aero'd out with 500whp, slicks, etc and running higher classes normally, from strapping on street tires and running the next down class to easily win and set records. I fully plan on hitting the GTA NJMP event next year.
Now I just need to find the time to get the tune a tad more dialed based on what I was seeing on my wide band last time out. I still need to get around to converting to ECU boost one of these days too...
I actually don't mind writing these either lately...just need to come up with more shit to talk about.
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