2013 Ultimate Track Car Challenge
08-10-2013, 11:18 PM
#31
Burning Brakes
And the best part is, the conversion took a solid 30 lbs off the front end! All told, I've removed a solid 200 lb from the car, maybe a little more. Between that and the rebuilt engine, the car is a rocket - feels like there's the aforementioned Cayenne V8 under the hood. I know that's just my imagination, but after mostly driving an old minivan around while the 968 was under construction, it sure feels that way. I expect to seriously ruin the days of some 6-figure car owners at the track...
09-03-2014, 01:11 AM
#32
Three Wheelin'
Hi Pablo,
Sorry to revive such old news, but a friend just showed this to me.
Congratulations on your achievements, it is great to see the 944/968 chassis taken to the extreme and competing against much more common/modern cars. Based your results, it is obviously damn quick and you know how to drive it!
However, I can't help but notice that in every pic of the car going through a turn (including your avatar pic), the inside front wheel is lifting significantly, looks like a LOT of front roll stiffness!
Is this an issue for you, or is the balance pretty good? What spring rates/ sway bars are you running? Have you done any modifications to correct the front suspension geometry (spindles, ball joint pins, etc)?
I am curious as I am wading into the deep end of suspension modifications in my 951 street/track car.
Nice recent COTA video by the way.
-Chris
Sorry to revive such old news, but a friend just showed this to me.
Congratulations on your achievements, it is great to see the 944/968 chassis taken to the extreme and competing against much more common/modern cars. Based your results, it is obviously damn quick and you know how to drive it!
However, I can't help but notice that in every pic of the car going through a turn (including your avatar pic), the inside front wheel is lifting significantly, looks like a LOT of front roll stiffness!
Is this an issue for you, or is the balance pretty good? What spring rates/ sway bars are you running? Have you done any modifications to correct the front suspension geometry (spindles, ball joint pins, etc)?
I am curious as I am wading into the deep end of suspension modifications in my 951 street/track car.
Nice recent COTA video by the way.
-Chris
09-05-2014, 07:15 PM
#33
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Hi Chris,
Thank you Sir....
Yes. Your observation is accurate and something I have been slowly working to address. I say slowly because the car has been fast and I am able to put the power to the ground out of slower corners better than many other competitors so I was hesitant to mess around too much with a winning setup. And in mid to fast speed corners the car has been fairly good, albeit always lacking a bit of front-end grip under power as I tend to get on the power earlier than most. Which is a symptom of the things you reference. But most times I was able to dial most of the push out through rebound/comp damping adjustments on the front.
I had been looking at sway bars but mainly from the perceptive of adding more in the rear. Previously (2013), the car had the factory MO30 bars on both ends. No adjustment in the front, but always full hard on the rear which never seemed to be enough. Not wanting to do much of a jump, I replaced the rear bar with an after-market bar that was about the same size as the MO30, but with an extra "stiff" (4th hole) position. This helped a little.
At COTA, the condition was generally improved, but IMHO the pictures were still too much evidence that I needed more spring in the rear. So I am going up 100 lbs. in the rear springs. They are sitting at the shop and I'll have them in place for the next outing. Once I test this setup, I'll make a decision on the next step if needed. Which would be replacing both rear and front fully adjustable bars to allow me to go to a stiffer setting in the rear and/or softer in the front compared to my current settings.
With such a power deficit vs.effectively anything and everything I race against, my only saving grace is carrying lots of speeds into a turn (at times under heavy trail-braking) without too much oversteer and then standing on the gas early and putting the power down before everyone without over-rotating the car...
We shall see... :-//
PS: The avatar shot was actually taken as I was coming down from a serious "bicycle" after clipping the "orange deterrent" inside of the curbing at COTA's T1. Both tires where probably a foot in the air for a while.... I felt like an Australian V8 Supercar driver for a second there! :-)
Thank you Sir....
Yes. Your observation is accurate and something I have been slowly working to address. I say slowly because the car has been fast and I am able to put the power to the ground out of slower corners better than many other competitors so I was hesitant to mess around too much with a winning setup. And in mid to fast speed corners the car has been fairly good, albeit always lacking a bit of front-end grip under power as I tend to get on the power earlier than most. Which is a symptom of the things you reference. But most times I was able to dial most of the push out through rebound/comp damping adjustments on the front.
I had been looking at sway bars but mainly from the perceptive of adding more in the rear. Previously (2013), the car had the factory MO30 bars on both ends. No adjustment in the front, but always full hard on the rear which never seemed to be enough. Not wanting to do much of a jump, I replaced the rear bar with an after-market bar that was about the same size as the MO30, but with an extra "stiff" (4th hole) position. This helped a little.
At COTA, the condition was generally improved, but IMHO the pictures were still too much evidence that I needed more spring in the rear. So I am going up 100 lbs. in the rear springs. They are sitting at the shop and I'll have them in place for the next outing. Once I test this setup, I'll make a decision on the next step if needed. Which would be replacing both rear and front fully adjustable bars to allow me to go to a stiffer setting in the rear and/or softer in the front compared to my current settings.
With such a power deficit vs.effectively anything and everything I race against, my only saving grace is carrying lots of speeds into a turn (at times under heavy trail-braking) without too much oversteer and then standing on the gas early and putting the power down before everyone without over-rotating the car...
We shall see... :-//
PS: The avatar shot was actually taken as I was coming down from a serious "bicycle" after clipping the "orange deterrent" inside of the curbing at COTA's T1. Both tires where probably a foot in the air for a while.... I felt like an Australian V8 Supercar driver for a second there! :-)
09-08-2014, 06:55 PM
#34
Burning Brakes
Pablo,
Interesting... Obviously there are large differences between our cars, but a lot of similarities as well. As my driving skill has climbed the very fun part of the learning curve I'm on, I've begun noticing that I'm starting to lose some traction at the rear as I'm carrying more speed through the corners, and am applying the throttle earlier (I have a Guard torque-biasing differential). So, I actually softened my rear sway bar, from the medium position to the softest, and the car now seems better composed coming out of the corners (and my lap times have dropped a bit as well, and have become more consistent) and am considering going from my current 1000 lb springs in back (torsion bars deleted) to 900 lb (fronts are 700 lb). Just another data point...
Interesting... Obviously there are large differences between our cars, but a lot of similarities as well. As my driving skill has climbed the very fun part of the learning curve I'm on, I've begun noticing that I'm starting to lose some traction at the rear as I'm carrying more speed through the corners, and am applying the throttle earlier (I have a Guard torque-biasing differential). So, I actually softened my rear sway bar, from the medium position to the softest, and the car now seems better composed coming out of the corners (and my lap times have dropped a bit as well, and have become more consistent) and am considering going from my current 1000 lb springs in back (torsion bars deleted) to 900 lb (fronts are 700 lb). Just another data point...
