Thanks Brad! I think I might be too close to the steering wheel. I'll try moving my seat back a little. I notice my whole body moving when I'm turning. Plus, I'm conciously trying to keep my hands @ 10 and 2 o'clock....instead of 9 and 3. I can grip the wheel more and feel more control w/ my hands @ 10 and 2.

 

I re aligned the car today. -2 degrees from -1.8 and .05 degree toe out from 0 while seated in the car. I wanted to go to -2.5 but, the driver side didn't exceed -2. The back seems to be getting more and more cambered now it's -2 from -1.5 with a toe in of .1 degree. I guess I'll shim it later.

I put back in my torque damper as my engine seems to be moving more and more these days. The response is much improved but, there is a notable increase in engine noise.

The car rides very straight now with virtually no bump steer yet seems to turn faster and easier. It's funny my Kumho XS seem a little quieter too.

 

OK,

You did the alignment yourself or took it to a shop?

For front wheel drive-

Front camber as much as you can get right and left-
-2.0 degrees is good maybe more if you can get it but don't assume that more is always good. You'd have to test the results.
Front toe- slightly toe out about 1/16" to 1/8" is fine or -0.03 to -0.06

Rear camber-
If you have rear wheel drive you can go a little more even vs the front or negative. -2.0 approx.
If you have front wheel drive and make it more negative that will increase tendency for understeer so limit to about -1.6 degrees or less would be safer. Since you already have more negative camber see how you do first.
Rear toe can be zero or slight toe in for more stability or slight toe out for more responsive turn in but typically stock setting is more toe in.

I have all wheel drive so I can run more rear negative camber- essentially I just maxed out camber for more clearance and to try to make more use of the wide tread width.

 

I took it to Island brake and alignment the owner said I know the guy with the GTR. haha

It's funny my drive side maxed out at -2.0 so that was my limiting factor. I think I'll get small diameter bolts for the top to increase the range. Randy got his at -2.5 and I like how his car carves through the turns of course I think the coilovers help too.

The back is untouched, I need shims to adjust it. It seems the lower it goes the more camber it gets and toes in more too.

I really want coilovers but, baby comes first don't want her getting whiplash maybe I'll check more into HKS with a more mild spring rate of 6k front and 4K back. I currently have 3k front 6k back. Maybe I can get a fatter front sway bar and take off the back. I'll just see what happens at test and tune.

 

Today's SCCA event was fun as usual. Course was more technical. My gas, gas, gas, and occasional brake strategy failed on my 1st run. haha. Again...Thanks Brad for your help.

The GTRs were neck-and-neck again!

And...Man! The Scion tC driver in our class is tough! Tom and I are still giving it our all. Hmmmmm....maybe we should give the Blitz Throttle Control thing a try...

Here's a video from the 4 runs today: YouTube - 20090802 SCCA Event run 1 - 4

Laters...

 

The Fits were rocking today.

1. Raton 33.420 sec, 64th of 114 on raw time, 47th on Pax overall
2. Scion tC 33.430 sec
3. Nissan Altima 34.182 sec
4. Tanukifit 34.448 sec, 80th on raw time, 64th on Pax overall
3 more drivers

No cones hit. Run times were dropping each time out.

And as far as the GTR wars go-
Going into the last run we were separated by 0.007 seconds.
Last week I won by 0.1 and this week he did.

 

Check out the hard braking!




and



I wonder if braking can be done a little more gradually just to reduce the front end body dive and subsequent weight shift which would be hard on a front wheel drive car. Once there is this much dive I would think that understeer is going to happen.

 

Haha, I think we both gotta lose some weight. I'm pretty sure my front sway bar helped a lot this past event. That picture pretty much answered my theory why at the end of the sweepers I would always start understeering.

Usually in sweepers I try not to touch the brakes at all. Once I do there's always massive understeer. I think I gotta find a way to bring the back side of the car a little lower I keep thinking I should race with a full tank of gas but, I never do.

 

Wow! Cool pics!

I've definately been braking harder lately. I think that pic (58) is at the end of a straight, just before taking the hair-pin leading to the finish. I was trying to stay on throttle as long as I could...then mash!!

I can try to be more gradual, but I'll have to get off gas & brake sooner. I need to identify my 'braking zones/points' better.

I was curious how lowering the rear would change things too. But I'm hoping to do the corner-balancing @ the next TnT first and see what that reveals first.

 

Well, had fun @ today's event. The course was stingy in giving up any 100ths of a second. Still got lots to learn....Always a challenge. Thanks again Brad for your advice and help. You had your hands full with that Porsche 911 TT.

Here's the video from today's event: YouTube - 20090816 Hawaii SCCA - Honda Fit Sport '08

Yawl should give it a try. It's pretty good fun.

 

Raton,

You both definitely did well in lowering your times. It's usually a pretty close race and any of you in the top 3 or 4 could succeed.

Yesterday's course was not forgiving and was a blend of tight turns with some straights but definitely not as good for high powered cars. Better for balanced cars. That's why the STU and STX cars didn't do that well vs ST class.

In ASP class we are happy to see new drivers including the Ferrari F430. The top four drivers in my class are all on race tires so we will have to battle it out. Winning margin is about 0.1 seconds each time. Very close.

 

Yeah, Tom said that's $180,000 driving on the course...the Ferrari.

 

That wasn't a new one but if you had to buy the 2009 base coupe F430 it would MSRP for $188K. 4.3L V8 490 HP


A 2005 F430 (looks sharp)

Don't forget a few options:
Leather $2334
Integrated Radio/CD with Bluetooth $3092
Bose Hi fi Sound system $7397
Brake Calipers in Red, yellow or grey $1040
Carbon Fiber engine bay $12,513
Carbon Fiber intake cover $8039
Power Seats $2620
Leather luggage set for trunk $4284
Runflat tires with TPMS $2328
Paint Color "Color Anni '50 e '60 $10,568
Handy Fire Extinguisher $585
Space saver wheel kit $1165

The list is really really long and you get the message.

Or you go for the upgrade F430 Scuderia for about $283K

Don't forget to bring it to autocross.

F430 36.438 seconds (novice driver)
Honda FIT on street tires 34.873 seconds ("expert driver")

 

Time for pre-reg online this weekend for next autocross on Sept 27.

Then next event on Oct 4 so don't put away your race gear too fast.

Then Test and tune on Oct 18 (practice day everyone invited)

Then Nov 1 autocross. So that's four events in about 36 days.

Here's the Ferrari at autocross. See if your Fit can beat his time.

 

we'll find out if they do.. ill look for the post "WTT ferrari for fit" in a couple weeks

 

Depends if he feels like he can do better.

From the last event-
ASP class
3rd place Corvette with race tires 33.155 sec 36th raw time, 43rd overall PAX
4th place Ferrari F430 (novice) 36.438 sec 85th raw time, 95th overall PAX
(2nd best novice time of the day out of 9)

ST class
1st Honda Fit Sport 34.873 sec 57th raw time, 37th overall PAX
3rd Honda Fit Sport 36.027 sec 75th raw time, 59th overall PAX

The Fit Sport is very capable as you can see. The Ferrari looks more exotic though.

 

Well, another SCCA event down. This course had a lot more "stuff" in it--short slaloms (couldn't fly through 'em) and sections that tried to trick you (lots of folks took wrong turns and DNFed).

Tom and I are still out there pushing it. Fits FTW!

Here's the video of my runs: YouTube - 09-27-2009 - Hawaii SCCA - Honda Fit Sport '08

The next official event will be on 10/4.

On 10/18, there will be a Test-N-Tune. There'll be instructors all day, drive as much as you can, tweek your car between runs to find the best settings. Cost is $65.

Laters....

 

Hey Tom and Randy...Howard also...

Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys...and answering the newb questions regarding SCCA....

You guys were really cruising through the course...smooth is the word that comes to mind right away...very fast.

Alright...that was a blast!

Thanks again,

Brent

 

Welcome Brent,

Hope to see you at a future event.

Tom and Randy,

Competition is close. The Fits are still doing very well. Remember you just have to do better than others using the four runs you have. Doesn't count if they can catch up with more practice so key is to get your runs smooth and clean from the start.

Something interesting-
Look at your fastest runs, 1 or 2? That means you did OK then pushed maybe too hard during 3 and 4. Just keep doing what you are doing but cleaner and smoother and don't over drive the course.

With street tires you don't need to get them up to warmer temperatures. I run my first two runs on cold tires and the third is better but I cannot really push as hard until I can get more traction. Otherwise I will just slide. Typically the fastest runs are 3 or 4.

Every event the course is different, new things are present.

This time the course was a bit more wide open going out to the far turn. I got up to 65 mph using scangauge II max reading for speed. Slowest was about 57, 60, 63, then 65. Didn't hit a cone. Got second by 0.025 seconds. A loss is still a loss. Close race though.

 

This coarse seemed to be tricky(confusing) for a lot of people. There were a lot of did not finish (dnf) due to the Chicago box slalom coming out of the round about.

My first run (fastest run) I wanted to make sure I got to know the track so I was just coasting through. It was still 2 secs. off Randy though so I knew I had lot of catching up to do. After that it was always one of the tight turns that got me in a bad understeer. Oh well, hope to do better next week.