Now kids. I don’t have many photos just yet so you’ll just have to bare with me. But basically this weekend looked to be going real real south, real real fast. We couldn’t get a handle on why these rear axles were overheating, so we adjusted the rear suspension countless times on the Friday test day to try and solve the issue.
Basically what’s happening is right at the inner CV joint the axles are heating up to the point where the boots are melting, or getting so hot that they develop cracks and let all the grease out. We attempted to pull the suspension arms all out (they are all adjustable) thinking the CV ball bearings were pressing on the inside of the housing, but we ended up yanking an axle in practice. Oops. Stripped the spline so we had to send someone back to the shop to get a new axle. Thank god it didn’t chew the teeth inside the diff! We dis-assembled the “new” axle (it was just another blown axle), and greased it up with a redline / castrol mix and put it back together, this time shortening the arms all to close to factory lengths.
Still had the overheating problem. The trouble of course was that we don’t have any way to align the car at the track. We attempted a string alignment but with about 10 min before the first race I accidentally knocked over the jack stand and fucked it. FUCK! Well the race was wet, the car was on a full dry setup (I was having trouble getting the car to rotate enough in the dry, so I was trying whatever I could to get it to loosen up!) well it sure was loose enough in the rain. Hahaha I almost died on the pace lap. I gave the car a shake and nearly spun, it would have been rather embarrassing if I did!
Finished race 1 basically dead last. It was probably the worst race of my life. I mean, I’m not the greatest in the rain, especially not at Mosport, but I’m not that bad haha. I figured walling it would be a bad idea, so I just tried to circulate as fast as I could without taking too many risks, and just get a few points in there.
After the race I was pissed the fuck off, naturally, and decided to tow the car back to the shop to give it a real alignment, check over the entire suspension and come back for redemption on Sunday. Hopefully it would be dry.
Turns out the front strut was loose allowing huge camber and toe change, which is why the car tried to spin itself out whenever I lifted off the throttle cresting the top of the back straight. It also had like 1.5 degrees of rear toe in, which is a touch excessive (we normally run 0.1!!). Some relief was felt, and despite being midnight at the shop we continued wrenching until the car was perfect. Back on the trailer, back to Mosport, and back to the hotel to sleep.
Starting 26th meant there was no way I’d catch the lead pack, but I was hoping I could at least catch the guys a bit slower than me, and hopefully make a good charge. My main concern was getting into a wreck, since we’re going through touring class cars which are slower, and also have super touring BMWs behind that DNF’d last race that would be in a hurry to try and pass me.
Bob’s car also didn’t do to well in the rain, which meant he was starting back there with me (mind you a few spots up). So we were hoping to charge to the front together, and that we did.
The race started and Bob went off into the grass to pass a touring car, which was awesome, but I was also watching from directly behind him a little concerned with the results that may have come of this action. Thankfully, we got through corner 1 OK, and I tried to be somewhat conservative into 2 because you never know what to expect there! I crossed the track with little to no regard for anyone behind or beside me entering three, and passed a couple more cars and before I knew it I was chasing Borgeat in the Solstice for position. During the first half of the race I could get a tenth or two on him a lap, but I believe his pace was increasing and mine was slowing. I made a mistake and got loose in 5 when i missed a blip down to 2nd, which cost me half a second and after that I just couldn’t close the gap on him. We were however closing on a Lombardi car and some other ST cars, but I would never quite get there.
Two BMWs came from behind about half way through the race and block as I tried, they walked by. One of the BMWs would end up pumping the wall in corner 9 right infront of me, it was so close I honestly thought he was going to rebound back onto the track! It was awesome.
So, all in all it would be 11th position for us in ST. I was hoping for a top 10, but considering how SHIT the weekend wend before that, I was happy with the result.
Now we need to work on the suspension some more and see if we can’t get these cars to handle a bit better. Less understeer would be nice, and more front aero is required as we’re just pushing everywhere at speed.
Here’s a quick video I threw together:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNLgKRYzr4k]
