clyde
04-11-2005, 11:35 AM
Atlanta.
Wow.
First thing, to get it out of the way...
Brian Flannigan lost a wheel on his second run Sunday (the car's fourth run of the day). It happened at the corner where I was working. The car was coming out of a chute into a long right sweeper. The braking zone for the sweeper was very bumpy. I mean very bumpy. That whole section of the lot had a bunch of undulations that were close enough together to get some violent bouncing going on in some of the stiffly spring cars. (I'll have video of Karen Kraus in an ESP STi coming the other way on Saturday posted sometime this week.)
Anyway, this DSP E36 was bouncing pretty hard on all runs Saturday through this section when going the other way. It was lifting the rear tires on Saturday. On the first three runs Sunday, at the end of the sweeper (over the second set of severe bumps), it was getting up on the outside two wheels. It looked like the shock compression might have been set kind of soft, but rebound kind of firm. It wasn't like the car was about to roll (but I'm glad there were no fast stock E30s on R comps :speechle: ), but that the wheels would go up over the bumps and then not come back down fast enough. So, the wheel would get jacked up into the wheel well and not have any travel left to absorb the next bump.
I was on the "inside" of the turn with a direct view of the passenger side of the car. It came into the braking zone, bounced a bit like before and the driver's side front wheel shot up about 50 feet in the air on its way out to the woods and there was a grinding noise as the car came down onto the pavement. It came to a very quick stop.
The corner with the missing wheel had three studs sheared off and the remaining two were only partly there. The passenger side front was missing two lug bolts and those studs didn't look good...or long. I don't think he even had two full threads of engagement. :speechle: Considering all of it, it's surprising that the car made it as long as it did before it lost the wheel.
If we had run the courses the other way each day, and the studs held for the same amount of time, the flying wheel could have gone into a spectator area. No one was hurt this time, and I hope it serves a lesson to others so there is no next time that does result in an injury.
Moving right along...
I drove well on Saturday, only being half a second off of Carter. That was an accomplihment as far as I was concerned. Better yet, I was only about a quarter second off of Sammy. And then there was Andy Hohl, who is also pretty darn good, and I was only about a tenth behind him. I felt good going in to Sunday.
John earned some WTF?! points by forgetting to turn off DSC for his first run Saturday. I think that screwed with his head for his last two runs as he made some big mistakes.
Sunday...John and I swapped performances, but I was even slower. I oculdn't keep my eyes up. I was reacting to the car instead of directing it and I just put in a miserable showing. John was fast, being less than two tenths off the fast class time of the day.
I think we made a point. We went up against four top level drivers and between us proved that some decent, but not great, autocrossers could be in the hunt with the RX-8. It's going to be a fun, long year with some epic battles looming on the horizon.
Wow.
First thing, to get it out of the way...
Brian Flannigan lost a wheel on his second run Sunday (the car's fourth run of the day). It happened at the corner where I was working. The car was coming out of a chute into a long right sweeper. The braking zone for the sweeper was very bumpy. I mean very bumpy. That whole section of the lot had a bunch of undulations that were close enough together to get some violent bouncing going on in some of the stiffly spring cars. (I'll have video of Karen Kraus in an ESP STi coming the other way on Saturday posted sometime this week.)
Anyway, this DSP E36 was bouncing pretty hard on all runs Saturday through this section when going the other way. It was lifting the rear tires on Saturday. On the first three runs Sunday, at the end of the sweeper (over the second set of severe bumps), it was getting up on the outside two wheels. It looked like the shock compression might have been set kind of soft, but rebound kind of firm. It wasn't like the car was about to roll (but I'm glad there were no fast stock E30s on R comps :speechle: ), but that the wheels would go up over the bumps and then not come back down fast enough. So, the wheel would get jacked up into the wheel well and not have any travel left to absorb the next bump.
I was on the "inside" of the turn with a direct view of the passenger side of the car. It came into the braking zone, bounced a bit like before and the driver's side front wheel shot up about 50 feet in the air on its way out to the woods and there was a grinding noise as the car came down onto the pavement. It came to a very quick stop.
The corner with the missing wheel had three studs sheared off and the remaining two were only partly there. The passenger side front was missing two lug bolts and those studs didn't look good...or long. I don't think he even had two full threads of engagement. :speechle: Considering all of it, it's surprising that the car made it as long as it did before it lost the wheel.
If we had run the courses the other way each day, and the studs held for the same amount of time, the flying wheel could have gone into a spectator area. No one was hurt this time, and I hope it serves a lesson to others so there is no next time that does result in an injury.
Moving right along...
I drove well on Saturday, only being half a second off of Carter. That was an accomplihment as far as I was concerned. Better yet, I was only about a quarter second off of Sammy. And then there was Andy Hohl, who is also pretty darn good, and I was only about a tenth behind him. I felt good going in to Sunday.
John earned some WTF?! points by forgetting to turn off DSC for his first run Saturday. I think that screwed with his head for his last two runs as he made some big mistakes.
Sunday...John and I swapped performances, but I was even slower. I oculdn't keep my eyes up. I was reacting to the car instead of directing it and I just put in a miserable showing. John was fast, being less than two tenths off the fast class time of the day.
I think we made a point. We went up against four top level drivers and between us proved that some decent, but not great, autocrossers could be in the hunt with the RX-8. It's going to be a fun, long year with some epic battles looming on the horizon.