just wanted to be the first on the forum to congratulate Fast Eddie Runnion for capturing the regional championship this weekend. Great driving all year ed! It was supposed to be a close end of the season showdown but turned it into a rout; not even close! sorry i couldn't at least make it exciting and add some drama on the last run. see everyone at the slush series?

 

Thanks Leo, and great driving over the year on your part as well! I know the competition from you, Steve, Paul and the rest of the class has pushed me to drive faster than I would have otherwise!

Lesson from yesterday (and one I learned this year as well with the "old" set of tires) : for whatever reason, the MX's don't work so well on our cars . And I think that Steve is now a believer in the Hankooks as well, judging from his times and reactions yesterday!

 

Yup, congratulations Ed!

That track was a lot of fun - especially the run down to the finish.

 

I loved that track - finally a nice long sustained full throttle straight. Though Rob and I both lost it at the end of it once and spun our cars . A blast.

 

Congrats Ed! Congrats too to the winners of yesterday. It was a day to remember for sure.

 

[QUOTE=
Lesson from yesterday (and one I learned this year as well with the "old" set of tires) : for whatever reason, the MX's don't work so well on our cars . And I think that Steve is now a believer in the Hankooks as well, judging from his times and reactions yesterday![/QUOTE]

I knew i should have asked you about the mx's before i took them out there!!
they were ok at marina, but they're pretty far gone and stood no chance at ggf.
{if you know anyone wanting to buy a thrashed set of battles with mx's on them, send them my way, it's a bargain)
looks like kooks for the next set. can't wait to see the national choices and results.
sorry no fun runs lorry. i really wanted to see what you thought of the set up / tires. i was almost afraid you were going to say the tires were fine and i just butchered the course!
what size was steve running on his "farewell" bimmer? i didn't get a chance to get his feedback on what he thought.
once again, great driving all and thanks for making stx a blast every weekend.

 

Steve had the same size as I am running : 235/40R17. He has them on 17x7.5" rims though, whereas mine are 17x8.0" (max legal STX rim width).

Plan as of now is to run these tires again at the beginning of 2006 regular season (still hoping to run the Impala during slush if I can get it debugged in time), and get a fresh set of Hankooks before the Atwater Tour event. I also plan on doing some changes to the Group 4s : probably same spring rate in front, but more in the back ("stock" on the G4s is 280 & 225 lb/in front and rear, thinking around 280/280 or even 280/low 300s). Should help the car rotate better while still being fairly streetable.

FWIW, Rus is running the JICs now with 7kg (approx 390 lb/in) springs on all 4 corners. Food for thought

 

Woohoo ! Congrats to Ed and also, Judd !!!


Yeah, that track was a blast at the end. My second run was going good. No braking on that left sweeper into the straight, got into the straight a wee bit too fast , into the quickies and BAM ! 180 spin. No cones though plus, like Matt mentioned, it was a blast to spin !! After talking to Leo, I think my Azenises have seen their time pass. They should last through slush and some of next year, MAYBE.

I'll be in and out of slush (family time now). Hoping to run a few. See you guys soon !!

 

Did you spin out the same spot I did? Man, that car just made me realize how I much really need to learn.

 

Not sure where you spun-out,Judd as I wasn't really watching your rungroup.
That Starlet is bad-a** though specially after your description of how you drove it ! Gotta love that "2cam16" in it !

 

Its official, my struts are

Failed
Under
Continuous
Test

I thought one of the rear struts might be leaking when I put the new brake pads in. Kevin at AHQ confirmed it today, so I guess I'm gonna be making some shopping trips soon. If anyone wants to know, the OEM struts lasted about 70,000 miles of auto-x, ski-trips and romping through the SC mountains.


No worries maybe some other time.

 

Lorry : so what next on the suspension?

I swapped back to the stock struts tonight, mostly to get rid of the mystery clunk I had developed the last couple of weeks from the coilovers. Fortunately, the swap worked and the clunk is gone . Had forgotten how quiet and smooth the stock setup was.

Think I figured out what was causing the clunk : it was a wierd combo of the camber settings I had and the MRT/Noltec camber plates. The combo was such that I believe it tilted the strut too much at the camber plate interface, and caused the edge of the washer that goes between the top coilover spring perch and the plate bushing to actually HIT the plate under hard compression. Once I get the proper hardware, I have a new set of Tein camber plates to go on when I reinstall the coilovers that should solve the issue completely.

As for the spin spot in the slalom : that is called lift throttle oversteer. It sounds completely counter-intuitive, but next time that happens FLOOR the gas and the problem will solve itself. I felt the back end starting to get a little loose there on my third run (where I was going 62 MPH before the first slalom cone instead of the 57-ish from the second run), flooring solved it .

 

Lorry: Sorry to hear about the struts but that's good info for me since i'm still on stock struts. Mine will not probably last as long as your 70k miles as I have Eibachs on them.

Ed: I did try to floor it as it came quickly to my mind that that was the solution. Unfortunately there was no grip or I did it too late.

 

Results are online!

Round 14 Results (8-14-05 Event)

Season Results in STX

 

Way to go, man. I knew those headlights would make you faster. :rotfl: