Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

[John in Houston]

Wendi has granted permission (actually, I was kinda ordered) to go back to Texas and run a race with all my old friends. Well, flying down for a regional in Houston sounds pretty boring, so I'm pretty much thinking I will go to the National Tour in Ft. Worth this year (Houston isn't having one).

Anyone thinking of going? I'll most likely drive the M3 down unless a co-drive pops up (right now I have a tenative offer in a C Prepared car).

John

[hancheyb]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

XP? I'm probably not running. Oh crap, I scheduled a MW practice day on that day. Oops.

[Paul]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

I am going for sure. I think Jason is co-driving with me.

[Fair!]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

After that dismal set-up at Nats I doubt I could pay you to co-drive one of our cars again, but if you need a co-drive you got it (XP, or STS in the E30 if you want a really powerful car!)

[John in Houston]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

I'm actually talking with Butter (Matt Miller) and Sen-Roy to see if one (or both) of them will come up / down and co-drive. Sen-Roy would probably bring the Vette... Miller would probably slum with me in STU.

[Fair!]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

OK... if you are a Texas area autocrosser our need to get signed up for the Ft. Worth Tour ASAP: http://www.scca.com/home.aspx Yes, its $80, but its a 3 day event with lots of free food, drinks, shirt, and 2 days or racing. TMS Bus Lot so the grip is moderate and facilities are great. We gotta support the local Divisionals and Tours or we won't get one next year! Remember the ProSolo last year...

Current Entry List for Ft. Worth Tour - 11 in STU already, woo! XP has only 1.
http://www.scca.com/contentpage.aspx?content=56 - all the Tours
http://www.scca.com/event.aspx?hub=3&event=12137 - Ft. Worth Tour!

Here's a bonus: anyone that can prove they are "members of an independent club" can waive the need for the SCCA membership requirement, which is $80/year or $15/weekend:

Nationals Office writes:
Hi Brad-

I have some good news for you. Howard said that for your event, he would be willing to waive the $15 membership fee for folks that can show they are members of an independent club. They would still need to fill out the form at the event and entries would either have to be done on site or faxed in to Nancy. They cannot be done online.

Hope this helps.

Cindy

Brad Maxcy writes:
Could use some help here folks!

Sent a note to the National Office about trying to get entries from other car clubs to enter the Tour event.

Basically my note explained that I didn't think that folks would pay $80 plus another $15 for a weekend membership to run the Nat Tour event. I explained that we had several people take advantage of the free weekend membership for our Divisional last year.

So, the good news is that Howard Duncan has decided to waive the weekend membership $15 fee for the Tour.

If I could get you guys & gals to help spread the word about this, I would REALLY appreciate it!!

Late fees would still apply if they don't get their entry in on time!

Brad

Please spread the word to DFW area "car club" members. Subaru, S2000, Corvette, PCA, etc. Beat the bushes guys! Thanks.

Don't forget, the Texas Region SCCA is hosting a Tour warm-up event at the same TMS Bus Lot site on April 27th!

[Fair!]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

Looks like they have tickets for sale for practice runs on Friday from 11-2. I'll be there in the Alpha car taking some shake down runs, seeing that I've not driven it in the current configuration/tires before. So much has changed on the car... its dirty as hell, for one. Solotime is hosting a pizza and beer bash Friday afternoon, on site. Woot!





Amy will come out later in the afternoon in the E30, hopefully in time for some practice laps!



She's also never driven it in its current form (wheels/tires/seats - if I can get them installed tonight!). Gonna be a late night thrash to get them both ready to go and loaded up. Sure wish we had a 2 car trailer, and 48 hour days.

[Fair!]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

Just got the pass side seat in the E30 but ran out of steam (and night) before getting to driver's side. That 4 hour cluster-F of a job saved a whopping 25 pounds. Hanchey and his dad fixed the faulty TPS circuit (they traced the fault to a broken wire/connector) so the car finally runs right and no "check engine" light! So I guess the E30 is "Ready to race!" Alpha car just needed a wash and it was good to go.

2 hours to sleep then back up to load the car/trailer, then get workin' before heading out to TMS for some practice laps and tech. See yall out there!

[Tommy R]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

Woo hoo! I'm still not sure when I'm getting out of work, but at the earliest I suspect it won't be until 3pm, but I'll drive Dimples up there as fast as I can and meet y'all in the parking lot. Hopefully y'all can pit somewhere near the Spokes Biergarten!!

Tommy

[Fair!]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/4865226 - pictures... still uploading (1.2GB worth!)

Tons of in-car and out of car videos. I need to edit them then upload (they are upside-down - due to a new camera mount that otherwise took awesome videos!). Two HD cameras FTW.





Amy won STS-L
Terry won XP
Paul got 2nd in STU
Tommy took 4th in STS
Todd got 2nd in CP

[Tommy R]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

As we suspected, it definitely looks like the inside rear of the E30 is not only becoming unloaded, but it's coming off the ground entirely. With some more droop travel from the dampers and springs, a removed rear bar, and an adjustable front, I think the car has potential. It's a long, hard road to reel in those Civics, but I don't know if it's impossible.

And thanks to Terrry, Amy, and Brian for the drive!! Lots of fun!

Tommy

[Fair!]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

This was the first time we had a real head-to-head race n the E30 with SCCA competitors (other than one day when Amy compared her times against STS at Pennington, but during different heats/temps). The time gap was tighter on Tommys first runs each day, but the multi-driver cars had a significant advantage in the colder temps we saw (in every class) so the gap widened on subsequent runs in STS. Sure, we have some more work to do, and these mods should help us close the gap on the Honduhs:

• Move to larger 225/50/16 tires (the gearing is way too short with the 205/45/16s anyway, and the 225 is an inch wider!)
• Larger front swaybar, adjustable. Possibly lose the rear bar and alter droop travel/spring rate out back - again.
• Better header, cat and after-cat exhaust (lighter and more powerful) + a cold air and some tuning
• Remove A/C components (lose weight; doesn't work anyway)
• Driver's side UltraShield seat install.
• New Vorshlag transmission mounts (made a huge improvement on the E36M3 last week!)

The E30 was 2423 pounds this weekend on the SCCA scales. We've got another 25 pounds to lose with the 2nd race seat, plus weight in the A/C (45 pounds), exhaust ("lots"), and some other bits that are all legal. I see the car hitting 2300#, maybe lighter. Its not 2000# like the Civics, of course, but I think we can make up for that in increased grip and better handling. There are many other old&busted OEM items we haven't replaced or upgraded on this $350 car yet...

Regardless of its current performance, the car is doing what we intended: letting us test new Vorshlag products in a real racing environment. Here's the new Vorshlag spherical Rear Shock Mounts we put on the E30 the day before the race:



The raised upper bearing location allow more shock length in the same ride height, which should help extend our droop travel once optimized.

[Paul]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

Couple photos

[hancheyb]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

As we suspected, it definitely looks like the inside rear of the E30 is not only becoming unloaded, but it's coming off the ground entirely. With some more droop travel from the dampers and springs, a removed rear bar, and an adjustable front, I think the car has potential. It's a long, hard road to reel in those Civics, but I don't know if it's impossible.

And thanks to Terrry, Amy, and Brian for the drive!! Lots of fun!

Tommy

We watched my HD video of it last night in Slo Mo. It definitely is coming off the ground right at the apex, then when it loads up the inside front is off the ground too. I was doing some swapping on an E30 insert last night and I found some droop spacers we might remove to get more travel in the front.

[hancheyb]

Re: Ft Worth National Tour: May 3rd & 4th

Turn it up!!

http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/gallery/...92465005_fBMA9