Nationals 2005 Results

[John in Houston]

You guys got beat by that ^

[Tommy R]

So yesterday a friend came over and we swapped over a bunch of stuff from the white car to the black car. First things first, we pulled the front sway bar. I pulled the endlinks off on my end and slid him the tools under the car.

"Hey, Tommy?"
"Yeah?"
"How tight are these endlinks supposed to be?"
"Pretty darn snug."
"Oh. So barely finger tight is bad?"



Turns out the driver's side endlink had come loose and had even wallowed around tearing up the threads. I'm thinking this could easily explain the horrible push I had at Nationals. It could also explain why the car did surprisingly well in the wet....at least regarding the front end.

Fortunately, I got some *cough* Ground Control *cough* endlinks for free-fitty-free from a "sponsor" of last year's Nats. MPACT gave $50 to trophy finishers from last year for running their sticker. Rich and I did. $100 spending money (Rich donated his half to the cause since they didn't have VW stuff).

Anyway, I guess it was good to know about. Still frustrating to think I could've done better. Honestly, I'm not sure how much this hurt the car, but hopefully I won't find out again!

Tommy

[Paul]

I never realized I was picking up a wheel.

[Nick]

Looks like it's about to squirt on the cone...

[hancheyb]

You were doing it on the North course too.

[Fair!]

Dang, those are good pictures. Very helpful for tuning! I think the added grip of the Forbes Field concrete made all sorts of different stuff happen!