Oscar
 

I've mentioned it a few times in a couple threads in recent months, but it finally happened. The guy that codrove my turbo Camaro the past couple years bought a 1991 Miata for SCCA Solo competition prepped for C Street Prepared last fall. The Miata's name is Oscar.

Oscar has a history. He was built as a cheapish but no holds barred build. Oscar is green and kinda "trash," so he was named "Oscar" for "Oscar the Grouch." One local guy acquired him and enlisted another local guy to help build him. That second guy wound up doing most of the work, so after Oscar was built, the first guy said, "Oscar is yours." The two of them ran it for a couple years and did really well with it. Then, the second guy, who was Oscar's owner, was diagnosed with brain cancer and sadly, treatment wasn't enough.

Oscar was sold to a guy in St. Louis (I think) and I wound up passing Oscar being towed to his new home when I was on my way to Ohio to pick up the turbo Camaro. That guy had Oscar for two years and did not do all that well with it. Oscar has a habit of breaking things and this guy wasn't very good at putting him back together.

A third DC local guy bought Oscar in September 2019 and spent much of that winter and the following spring and much of the summer trying to unfuck Oscar and get him back into good shape. Then, he was laid off from work and after a short time decided he was going to move back to Hawaii and go to work for his family's business and he and his girlfriend sold all of their Miatas (three?) and the guy that's been codriving my turbo Camaro for the past couple years (Kevin) bought Oscar.

Kevin is a longtime BMW guy and we found out we were a really good codriving fit in the Camaro. When he bought Oscar, he invited me to codrive. I spent all fall and winter asking him what I can do to help prep the car and he hasn't asked me for much. He's a lot more handy with a wrench than I am and he lives about halfway around the Beltway from me, so it's kind of a pain for either of us to get to the other's place.

Basically, about all he needed me for was to come over a couple times so we could find a seating position that works. In the Camaro, he would have the seat all the way back and I would have it almost all the way forward. Because reasons, we have to use a seat in a fixed position, so we tried a couple options and found something that seems to work.

Anyway, Sunday was the first time we got to run it. So, it's an NB. It was 2,340 pounds with a full tank (IIRC) on Nick's scales recently. It doesn't make a lot of power (and needs to be tuned). It's using 15x11 wheels with 275/35-15 Hoosier A7 R compound tires. So, while it may not have V8 grunt, it has superloads of stick and doesn't need to slow down once it starts moving. It also doesn't make V8 noises, but this one actually sounds kinda nice, like some angry bees at a reasonable pitch.

And, it's really fun to drive. Now, I just need to re-learn how to drive well. It was kind of cool on Sunday and we were not able ot get any heat into the tires, so they never developed as much grip as they're capable of and that was a hindrance, but as-is with those cold (and old) tires, the car had a lot more in it than I was able to get out of it.

I was way too tentative and didn't have enough trust in the car. As I was realizing this while running, I think I had already mentally programmed myself poorly for the rest of the day. Hopefully, I'll be able to address that better next time (in two weeks) and then again the following weekend at our first big event in New Jersey.

So, this course was at our new location. No more FedEx Field, we're on a former go kart track at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, WV. The site owner says they're going to make improvements like repaving (and maybe paving over the grass so we actually have a usable pad?), but will believe it when we see it. The course was short. Kevin turned a mid 36 and I did a high 37. Low 35s would have been "good" times.

So, are you splitting the season driving a Miata and the Camaro?

I saw the NCC BMW guys were running at Summit, too; I guess that's the only place left around here? I debated signing up but...eh, that's a long way to drive if I'm not actually going to be able to go on the track.

Yes. We're not 100% sure how many events Kevin can do (new job, virus, etc), there are a couple non-SCCA events I may do. If Oscar is ever not event capable.

The former SPK site at Summit is about the only place available right now and there's an event on that pad almost every weekend day all summer. The site really isn't suitable. Paddock is not adequate, there's not nearly enough grid space and the pad is what it is (complete with residual peanut oil deposits from drift events). The ownership seems really psyched to have us there and they've made a lot of promises about future/ongoing improvements. So far, they've done what they've said they'll do. If they continue, it's possible the site could be a lot better in a year or two.

The one good thing is that the event was much more relaxed than WDCR FedEx events in its heyday. Fewer people and COVID allows a much more relaxed pace. However, one of the things I heard some committee people talking about yesterday was how does WDCR/SCCA differentiate compared to the other clubs? When we had FedEx, we had huge events with top talent and amazing courses on a first class site. Now... :dunno:

FedEx was about 25-30 minutes of Beltway for me. Not a problem in the morning, but often kinda shitty on the way home. Summit is about 80 minutes away. The drive there is nice and quiet. Coming back could be hit or miss. If I was in Virginia, I'd consider events at Dominion (and we may do some there, too).

Yes I’ve seen talk about dominion but haven’t been there yet; it opened after I stopped doing track events back in the day.

Would like to try and make an event at some point but the weekends are starting to get busy again (which I’m definitely not complaining about).

Too bad abt Fed Ex, that was a cool lot.

I'm a broken record on this, but we could still use FedEx if the region put some effort into negotiating with the management there. But for too many years the SCCA leadership just rolled over and accepted what price increases FedEx demanded, so the club is in a bad position with the reduced numbers mandated by the county as a result of COVID.

Summit Point has said they're going to make improvements to the pad as Clyde noted, but I'm not holding my breath. The site as it exists now is IMO not suitable for much of anything bigger than karts. It was not fun in the RX-8 when I did a test event last year (it's also like ice when it's wet). Summit is already making money off of multiple clubs using that pad, so why improve it? Also, even if it's fully paved it'll still be pretty damned small.

Back on topic, SP cars are rad. It's a shame the category isn't more popular because in my opinion they're about the most fun you can have at an autocross. CSP and DSP in particular are a blast because the cars make so much less power than the available grip. It's positively bonkers driving a good SP car. Many elements where you think you should be braking can be negotiated with a lift or a breathe off the loud pedal. Elements where you think you should lift can be taken at WOT. There's nothing like it.

http://forums.carmudgeons.com/attach...1&d=1619025972

For those that haven't been, both FedEx and Washington Circuit at the same scale. They use the same colors for paddock, grid, and course. At FedEx, we had two grids int he same two places at every event. At Washington Circuit, there will be one grid at each event, but it could be at either end with the other end available for course space.

If the entire Washington Circuity was turned into a pad, there's nearly as much available square footage available for course, but in a less useful shape.

Fully paved, I think the pad could be fine. Filling the pad doesn't help the paddock or grid challenges, though.

For reference, the grass area between paddock and course is a hill with reasonably steep grading that, should it be paved, may help with paddock space, but no one wants to paddock on a hill that steep. It would be tricky to incorporate as course area as well since the transitions would have to be careful managed and you would quickly run out of margin since paddock would be downhill and it would totally suck for a car to roll downhill into paddock.

There's also a path visible between course and paddock. As it stands, that's not usable to move competition cars, but if improved that could open some more options if we're willing to have a hot transit area through paddock.

As it stands, it's marginal at best. Course layout options are limited because of the grassy areas. The pavement is usable, but not great or grippy. They have drift events on the site that apparently put peanut oil down which works against us. It's generally better than Rosecroft, but not as good as Ripken (maybe even not as good as Six Flags). I'd rather go to Summit for this than that high school in Manassass where NCC held some events a few times.

As-is, I don't think I'll be going if it looks like rain. Kevin doesn't plan to bring Oscar if we think it will be wet and I have no interest in suffering the Camaro there in the wet.

Sunday was the first time I'd run a non-Street class car in many years. It didn't seem like there was that much grip (see above). OTOH, Sunday was the first time I'd run a non-Street class car in many years and I may not have known how much more grip there was.

Going around the far skidpad was a good exercise in riding the line and the g readings were not that impressive. There was probably more to use in transition areas than I used because there was never a point where I turned the wheel and the front tires said, "nah." Some issues with turning the wheel and the rear end immediately screaming "Let's go for a rideeee!!!!" looseness, which may have been compounded by an ill advised lift or brake brush, but that can probably tuned or learned out.

I'm looking forward to running Oscar in NJ and Lincoln next month.

The only thing I'll comment on regarding space for course is on your magenta outline, you went right up to the edge of the pavement on the washington circuit but you pulled back 50' from the curbs at FedEx. Realistically we shouldn't be running course that close to the grass (particularly near the hill) at Summit. And even if the entirety of that circuit was paved that would remain true. So the usable space at Summit is much smaller. And as you noted, the shape doesn't allow for much variety.

Regarding Oscar, it's possible you never got heat into the tires or they're old enough that they're no good. I wasn't able to get any heat at all in the RX-8's tires at the test event two weeks ago... because they were used at 2019 Nationals and stored since then, and had apparently gone off. For reference the BMW would regularly generate steady-state readings of 1.3 g on the Racecapture. The RX-8 saw around 1.4 in Lincoln in 2019 but it wasn't exactly working well.

I probably should left some buffer on the Summit map, but we're going to be a lot closer to the edges there on a regular basis compared to the closest we ever got to the curbs at FedEx. The three main skidpads at Summit are only 50' wide.

But that's another item worth mentioning. Things happened at FedEx over the years, but they were rare. Off-pavement excursions at Summit will not be.

Why not both? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Was it fully dry when you ran two weeks ago? I wasn't there, but it sounded like ti was wet in the morning, dried out a bit, but maybe not completely before it opened up again right after the event?

Sunday, it was sunny and dry when we ran, just starting to get cloudy as we finished our heat. Kevin and I saw a few peaks of 1.2, barely touching 1.3. Through much of the course, Kevin was consistently pulling about 0.05-0.07 more than I was. For each of us around the far skidpad, we were barely over 1.0 sustained and it felt slick. The data more or less confirmed seat of the pants feel.

I know that tires, surface and me were all factors, I just don't know how much of a role each one played relative to the others. Not sure if we will be on stickers in two weeks or if we're saving them for NJ.

The UMI track was wet initially but I was running on Michelins. By around 1PM it was almost completely dry and sunny and it didn't rain all all the rest of the time I was there. I want to say I swapped to the Hoosiers when it started to really dry out, maybe noon-ish. At one point I did five back to back laps (including accelerating through third around the banked turn exiting the finish of our cobbled-together course) and there was nearly no heat in the tires even after that. :ack:

I'll be on stickers for NJ, but they're stickers I won in 2018 (!) So... hopefully they're OK?

Give it a few more events and I'll bet that you have the car mostly figured out... can you do a test-and-tune at a decent venue?

You've done enough events in the last few years that I think you will adapt within a few events and get used to the car. I can't imagine you would be far from where you expect to be without more and substantial seat time.

I'd have to have some time to type out all my thoughts about Washington Circuit, but it's a site that is available to host an autocross. I have a lot of similar reservations that you both noted, but I still want to autocross and cannot travel too far any longer for local events. I think I'll do ~5 SCCA and 3-4 NCC BMW events at the Washington Circuit this year, but I already miss FedEx despite its issues. If they try variety in how the courses are laid out, some courses will be decent and others will be rough. I've done events with good courses there and events with dreadful courses there.

I still want to autocross... Ripken is a mass vax site now, NJ is too far for a local event for me, so it's this, Philly, or Susquehanna I guess?

I'm sure next week will be better than last week and then I'll get to see if I can adjust to NJ the week after that.

A couple weeks after that is Spring Nats in Lincoln. If you haven't been following along, Spring Nats is going to be two Tours this year, all on the east (plane) course side AND Nebraska region is going to run a test and tune Thursday-Sunday on 2019's west course.

The next five weeks are going to go by quick!

Good luck! I'm planning to do NJ, but it will be a last minute decision for me. I wish the finger lakes and NJ dates were switched, but I want to do at least one national event this year.

Is Oscar ready for all of these events? I'm sure Kevin has been wrenching on it and knows how to fix things.

As someone else who has codriven with him said to me once, "he's good with a wrench," and that's very true.

Oscar, though,... My understanding is that when Oscar left the area a few years ago, he left in pretty good shape. Being an SP car, things break and maintenance is constant. After Shriv brought Oscar back in late 2019, you might have seen a million photos on vids over the next year that he posted on facebook with captions like, "Is this supposed to be like this?" To which the answer was always no.

By the time Shriv sold it to Kevin, he'd repaired just about everything he'd found and it sounds like he did a pretty good job. Kevin found a couple other things and addressed, but we're still not sure if there's anything less that needs to be unfucked. We figure we'll find out when we start breaking stuff.

To that end, as of 30 minutes ago, Oscar was getting some help so he can break things with more authority (and hopefully start and idle more reliably).

http://forums.carmudgeons.com/attach...1&d=1619281029

We should be ready.

Man, that place brings back a lot of memories. I've done hundreds on pulls on that dyno :lol: It's a very consistent dyno. Only thing I don't like about it is the knurling on the drum is pretty worn out. Last time I was there the RX-8 was smoking the tires on the drum. Guessing you won't have that problem :D

I've never been.

It is making 6% more HP and 9% more torque than Mike's last session, so that's something. They also got the warm start fixed (took about 2 minutes after a warm start last week before it would idle on its own) and cold start is much improved.

Any better luck with Oscar last weekend? I didn't stick around but i assume/ hope you're ready for the big events?

I bailed on NJ due to car issues and CS not making a class. Ugh.

Kevin was two seconds off of where we should have been. I was two seconds off Kevin.

Tires are 2018 build and they had some wear, but we don't know how they've been stored. They were stupid slidey by the end of their fifth run. Kevin was still about a second faster on each of the last few runs, so I can't blame it all on tires.

I'm consistently underdriving the entire way. Just a tad bit slower through everything. I think a lot of it is that everywhere Kevin is moves away from 100% throttle, I'm coming of just a little bit more and a little bit longer. Whatever the condition of the tires, I need to get better again at managing slip angles. While driving, I was hyper-aware of the grass and wanted to stay on the pavement enough that I think I gave up a little more than I would have if the pad was solid and there was more runoff room. Coming out of the opening loop and the pinch before the finish were a bit dicey a few times.

Hoping fresh tires and runoff space will help me reset.

It was the first event with a new Race Capture Pro and we had some wiring/power issues, but I think we figured them out and have a fix. It starts hot a lot better than it did before visiting Peter the week before, but it still won't idle cold until it gets to closed loop. Not super happy with our camera setup, but good enough for now.

You could run your car in STX. I don't think you'd do poorly. But if the car is giving you issues...maybe you can codrive with someone?

But if you've already decided not to go...

If the tires were losing grip as you guys accumulated runs, they're probably done. Were you keeping tire blankets over them between runs?

What time are you guys heading up on Friday? Maybe I'll see you on the road.

My times were pretty consistent, but they felt ever more greasy. Kevin slowed down after first three runs. No blankets, but we ran last heat. It was sunny, quite warm, and we were nearly hot lapping.

Stickers are now mounted and wets are in the truck, because we may need those this weekend.

Kevin is picking me up about 7:45 and we're taking the longer toll free route.

Cool. My plan was to be out of the house at 0700 but that depends on many factors so it may be a bit later.

What's the longer toll-free route up there? I've done the I-95 to I-295 route the last few years. It's not toll-free, but it avoids most of the Turnpike and is actually a fairly nice drive.

I think I83 to US30/222 to I78 to I287 to I80, but not sure. Kevin's plan.

Also, just sent you an email about food. Kevin and I are iffy about indoor dining and trying to figure some things out so we don't have to once we're there.

Ah, okay. I've gone up US222 a few times before and it's got a lot of slow two-lane. I guess I'll see you up there.

There's also 83 to 81 to 78 which Google Maps says is five minutes slower, but is all freeway. Like I said, Kevin's plan. :)

I would definitely encourage that route vs. 33 / 222 if you have any influence over Kevin's direction. I'm gonna grit my teeth and pay the tolls to save an hour. I'll try to save you a parking spot.

Thanks! I think we'll be there by 1:00pm.

First big event in Oscar was this past weekend and it was awesome, but also kind fo a mixed bag. The car is really loose whenever we touch the brakes. Just wants to instantly swap ends. Add a low grip sealed asphalt surface and a little bit of rain under regular Hoosier A7s and it was like driving on ice Saturday for my first run. It dried out a little by Kevin's first run and both our second runs, so that helped. Rain started again right before my third run that made it almost as bad as my first run, but dried up enough that it was much less of an issue for Kevin's third run.

On my first run Saturday, I spun twice. There's no excuse for that, but it easily could have been four times. Kinda sucked because the course really looked amazing. Great mix of tight and technical with open and flowing and lots of transitions all along the way. In addition to the spins on the first run, I collected a bunch of cones on my second and third runs.

My driving was tentative and cautious. Mostly trying to just hang on. With the weather, I'm not sure how much my head was in it.

When all the times of all 53 drivers in the first heat were adjusted to indexed times (an overly simplified way to compare/rank different cars at different prep levels that is very, very flawed, but provides for endless bench racing), I was in last place. When the second heat which drove in nearly fully dry conditions for much of the heat finished, I was last of 206. It rained solid through the third heat and it was quite wet for the fourth and final heat, so I was able to move up relative to the bottom…but not by much.

After Saturday's competition, we started looking at and under the car. Visually, it looks like the right rear has a lot more camber than the left rear. The eccentrics that control toe and camber in the rear were marked and it looked like they had slipped. After putting a wrench to them, we found the washer was moving and the marks were not indexed to the bolts. So, maybe they moved, maybe they didn't. The stock eccentrics on the NB Miatas do not hold up to autocross driving with sticky tires for very long at the factory torque spec. The common practice is to way over torque them and hope stay in place longer than if torqued less. When they do eventually slip, realign and start over. We found some locking eccentrics that we're going to try, but none of that helped our immediate problem. We tightened it back up and planned to just ride it out on Sunday.

We also started talking through what else could be causing the looseness and identified a few checks and potential fixes.

Sunday was dry, but kinda cool so we weren't able to get a lot of heat into the tires, but it kind of went better for me. My first run was a DNF because I went off course while saving myself from a spin and I collected multiple cones on my second and third runs. It was also the first time I got to try shifting to third. If every generation of Miata has an Achilles heel in autocross, it's short gearing. Different generations and transmissions have different top speeds, but the NB tops out around 61 or 62mph in second gear which is not enough for courses like we had this weekend. In trying to go to third, I either went to fifth or didn't get past neutral in four attempts. Kevin also had similar issues. Part of the problem is the shifter which has a really tall arm and makes it pretty tough to feel what's going on quickly without a lot of movement. A new shifter will be in shortly.

Missing those shifts cost me a lot of time on each run. Even so, my third run was the first time this year I've been close to Kevin. According to the data, he picked up about a 0.5 second lead through the first few elements, I made it all back up over the next few, we were equal for the few after that and then I had a bigger missed shift issue than him and I feel back a bit, made it back up and then fell back a few more tenths in the last few elements.

This was the first run I've had in the car where I didn't feel so tentative. I think I am so calibrated to bigger cars that weigh 60-70% more with two to three times the power on street tires that it's been tough to make the adjustment. This time, I starting to throw it and it was mostly working.

I still have an issue with using all the throttle, though. There are a couple things I think may be going on. The exhaust note of the car is like a swarm of angry bees. It sounds much more furious than it is, but I think 80% or 90% throttle tells my brain that it's at full throttle until I consciously tell my right foot to push harder…which takes time. I also remembered reading something from early on in the Miata days about Mazda making the throttle pedal travel longer than other cars to make it more satisfying for the driver. I am wondering if when my brain sends the "full throttle" signal to my foot, my ankle is bending to where it thinks full throttle is. I had a similar issue in the RX-8 a long time ago and found that if I reprogrammed the "full throttle" signal to "push the pedal until it won't go any further" the problem went away. So, I'll be trying that again.

What's also been interesting is how people have come out of the woodwork to offer their unsolicitied thoughts, advice, and assistance. There is something about this car and the autocross community that knew Mike. There's something very cool about it.

Kevin had the car up on stands as soon as he got it home after dropping me off. Today, he confirmed that there's no bind. The brake proportioning valve is set to almost all the way forward which means the rear brakes are only getting about half the pressure as stock. That could be a factor. The shocks are 5 years old and have never been rebuilt, so something could be going on there. One of the rear brakes could be slow to apply or release. Spring rates may be off where they should be. Like I said, alignment could be the problem. Kevin is running through things and has ordered some parts and lined up borrowing (or buying?) some special tools. I wish I lived close to make it easier to help in the evenings. Meanwhile, people keep texting us.

We're hoping to get as much as we can to a known baseline level before we head to Lincoln in a couple weeks where we have to Tour events over four days and a test and tune course going on the whole time on the surfaces of the National Championship event.

We'll see.

Some interim Oscar updates…

After New Jersey, Oscar's had a little attention. In New Jersey, we spotted what looked like a slipped alignment bolt. When trying to adjust it back to the markings, we found that they weren't properly indexed, so it's entirely possible that there was no slippage.

Once the car was back at Kevin's and ran through things, he tried to install the Paco Motorsports rear control arms that came with the car, but were not on the car and found out why they did not come on the car. Each side is bent or deformed in some way that makes the distance between the ends a little too small. An eighth of an inch on one side and a sixteenth on the other. Their arms are the go-to for adjustable control arms and make alignments MUCH easier for NB Miatas than the stock arms or any other manufacturer (that I'm aware of). Their website says they are out of stock, but we were hoping they might be able to find a set if we stopped at their site in Kentucky when we're on the road to Lincoln Wednesday…but they don't. They do think they can fix them, so we'll be sending them in, but they won't be a help for a while.

After putting the suspension back together, it got an alignment on Friday. Things had been moved around so much, we don't know where things were before, but we now have a baseline to work from.

Saturday, the local club had an autocross school and we were able to do some testing after the school ended in the afternoon/evening. The school course is short, but a pretty good test and tune course. It begins with a start straight into a six cone slalom, followed by a 115 degree turn to the right, a quick jink back to the left, a near 90 degree sweeper-lit to the right, a juke left, a hard and tight right into a long double apex decreasing radius 170 degree left that spits you through the finish lights. It's very quick to learn and you can quickly try different approaches and settings to see what kind of effect they have.

The short of it for Oscar is that the alignment helped a lot, but it's still very, very wrong. It's pretty amazing in slaloms, but very, very loose on turn in with a lot of lift-oversteer that it shouldn't have. It's much better than it was, but it's still not good. Of the five of us that took runs in it, I was the only one that didn't spin it in the decreasing radius left at the end…but I came very close a few times.

By the time we were done, we had reduced the rear shocks rebound and compression to their minimums, dropped pressures in the rear tires, and were playing with the shocks in front to try to take away some of its phenomenal grip to better balance the car (we can't effectively make the installed front sway bar any stiffer and there's already no rear bar), but it's still pretty bad.

We think the rear alignment can use some additional tweaking (reducing camber from -3.0 to -2.5 and adding a little more toe in), but the big conclusion is the same conclusion we had in New Jersey…reduce rear spring rate. The plan is to back down from 450 pounds to 400. But…

The school course is on asphalt. Our national championship courses are on concrete. It's possible that the car's setup will work a lot better on concrete than asphalt. And we leave for that site in the morning. Over the next week, we have two competition events there on the surface where one of the championship courses will be set up in September and a test and tune course using 2019(?)'s championship course from that half of the pad.

The 400 pound springs are in the truck. We're hopeful we'll be able to take some test and tune runs on Thursday and we'll take it from there. If the car is good, we'll go with it. If it still feels wrong, we expect to change the springs, take some more runs and see what's what.

Another interesting thing we learned by way of doing this test and tune on Saturday is that the car is riding at least half an inch higher than it was when originally put together and turned to work well. We don't know when that happened, why, or how. That could also be a big part of our problem. How did we figure that out? One of the two guys that originally built it was one of the people that ran it on Saturday. At one point when we were standing next to it talking through some things, he said, "Oscar looks high." He couldn't remember the ride height settings, but described a test we could do to see where it is compared to where it was…putting the car on a certain trailer and opening the door. If the door cleared the fender, it's sitting higher. If the door doesn't clear, it's lower. When Oscar was working well, the door kinda sorta scraped the fender. Apparently, it easily clears. What does that mean? How did this happen? We're not sure yet.

On another note, having this test session allowed me to experiment with how I was driving the car without competitive pressure and it was tremendously helpful. I was essentially ran the same times as everyone else (although we were all hitting a lot of cones and some cones saved more time than others) and gained a lot of confidence in the car despite it still being "undriveable" in the words of the others that drove it.

To be continued…

Oscar update:

Kevin and I took Oscar to Lincoln, Nebraska for our Spring Nationals. This year it was two Championship Tour format events instead of the normal one Pro Solo and one Championship Tour format because Pro Solo broke and was not yet fixed. This is the site where our National Championship event is held the week of Labor Day. Additionally, the local region held a low cost extended Test and Tune on one of the 2019 Championship courses.

To recap, the car was barely driveable in New Jersey in early May. We did some inspections, made some alignment changes, did some testing and pronounced the car "better…but still needs help."

When we got to the site Thursday morning, we swapped the rear springs from the 450s that were in it to 400s and did some runs on the practice course. We fiddled with shock settings some more and after that session declared the car "driveable…but still needs help." In the process of changing the springs, we noticed some other issues in the rear suspension and later in the day, got a call from Paco Motorsports that they cannot fix the rear control arms mentioned in the previous post.

To simplify a bit, through the four days of competition and further inspection and tweaking what we had left to tweak we got Oscar driving pretty well and developed a high degree of confidence in things "most important to do next." At the top of the list:

Install a shifter that allows us to reliably engage third gear. The courses we ran were previous east side National Championship courses, as well as running them backwards. In the normal course of events three of the four courses would have required three shifts to third per run. Our collective success rate at shifting to third was about 16%. A few second to fifths, a couple second to neutrals, more than a couple second to can't get into anything back to seconds, and I personally did at least two second to firsts. Why? The guy Kevin bought it from put in a shifter with an arm that sits about five fucking feet tall because some road racers like it(?). There's no feel and it's such a huge lever. Ugh.

After running the last day, a friend came up to us and said, "I was working course. You guys looked miserable…you'd be flying and then, oh man, it just looked so painful. I'm so sorry. But it was rad because you were lifting the inside front through some turns."

So, while it looks cool, lifting a front tire is often an indicator that something less than great is happening.

Other things we learned: the car has a substantial rake that it probably shouldn't have. The roll center may be off of where it should be, there's a crack and possible bend in the front subframe, there is a new potential bind in the rear suspension that we have not located (and didn't discover until reviewing video after getting home where we could clearly hear something going on that shouldn't be), the (unnecessary) spring perch locators in the rear are cutting the axle boots, we probably have too much camber in the rear and maybe not enough toe, the shocks need to be revalved on new curves or replaced, and about half a dozen other minor things.

We also got to run in the rain on Hoosier rain tires. In some ways it kind of sucks to have had to use them, but it's totally awesome to have had the experience with them so we know what to expect in more important events.

We only had three drivers in the class in each event. Two other drivers were signed up for both events, but were no shows. It takes five drivers to make a full class. With five drivers, if Kevin and I placed first and second in each event, we would have won a total of six tires (assuming that Hoosier will award tires to codrivers if the other driver "bought" the tires), but with only three, there was only a reduced amount of Mazda money to be won. Kevin won both events and I was second in each so we both won a couple hundred bucks. That's cool, but our times were not very good relative to anyone else.

When we rolled out, we felt good about having a much better idea of what else we needed to do and happy that we'd made the car pretty easy to drive (although off the pace where we need to be). Basically, a successful trip.

And then it got fun…as in, you ain't really traveled through this country until you've towed a "racing car" through it. That part of the story is for another day.

The postscript is that after dropping me off, Kevin got Oscar back to his place, put the car away, backed the trailer into its spot, shifted the truck to "D" and there was no forward motion. Yeah, the transmission in his 300k+ F250 died at the very end of the trip. As of Sunday, the old transmission was out and the replacement was waiting to go in as soon as the old one was removed from the transmission jack. The shifter for Oscar has arrived, also, but still waiting on some other parts. Not sure how quickly it will all get put back together. As of now, it looks like we will be taking the Camaro to Bristol for "Summer Nationals" to do a Pro and a Champ Tour.

Oscar update:

Oscar took a back seat to the F250 transmission replacement (Oscar wasn't going anywhere without the F250 anyway). All of the Oscar parts that were going to replaced in this cycle (front subframe, control arms, bearings, etc) are in hand (I think), and some things that don't absolutely *need* to be done right now will wait for later (like rebuilding or replacing shocks).

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the last thing to do before getting the car back on the ground is doing the front subframe swap. Was prepped and POR-15ed yesterday and everything was loosened in the car to facilitate. Once that swap is complete, the car will need to be realigned and then hopefully we can do some testing...

The calendar for the season is starting to close. There's a Pro Solo in Toledo next weekend, but while the subframe should be in before Friday, it's super unlikely we can get it on an alignment rack. Kevin also wants to get more miles on the new transmission to be comfortable using it on a long tow. So, we're taking the Camaro to Toledo. After that, there's only one more National event on concrete and it's the following weekend in Oscoda, MI, and we're not really wild about heading up there. Other than that, there's not a whole lot of options left. Our remaining "home" events are all at a lousy site that isn't very helpful, and "local" events that are not really local, and are better than the home site, but not much.

So, which car we'll take to Lincoln in September is a question mark at the moment.