Finally a shot with some motion!
I have now smashed PAX at two practice events, but with only one real event under my belt, I have yet to find that overall win that I’m looking for. It was supposed to be easy, with this car and it’s “cheater springs”. I guess I’m not the conquering hero I thought I was. 🙂
My notes for the event were something like…
- Damn more front camber would be nice!
- Ack don’t let the revs drop below 4000!!!
- Direzza ZII SS… meh. The four cars that outpaxed me were all on Bridgestones. I need to make a change and eliminate my excuses.
- I hit zero cones? Zero?? Historically I’m the guy that makes the marshals work the most. Even at the soaking wet practice event the day before, I hit nothing. Odd… this shouldn’t be a negative thing, but it feels wrong.
I… or the car, really struggle with low speed understeer. Part of that, may be carrying too much speed into slow corners because of the pain that comes with trying to accelerate out of them. The amount of thrust this car generates is so underwhelming that it feels broken, especially when getting in and out of SSM and SS cars. In general I like that, but it’s agonizing when I’m not on the pace I want, and some more longitudinal G’s would be the easy solution. The actual solution is to brake down to slower speed, get on the gas sooner and then bounce in my seat impatiently while the revs climb.
With my stock sized tires, I’m using 37psi in the front and 32psi in the rear. Tire temperatures indicate that less pressure would be ideal on both ends, but tire roll over limits the ability to do that. It’s been a while since I drove a car that didn’t actually have any adjustability. I have a feeling that the car could be totally transformed with another degree of camber up front… but that will have to wait for STX.
I did, after this event change the Hotchkis front sway bar to the softer of it’s two settings. I may end up changing it back once the Bridgestone’s arrive, but for the moment, I think less sway bar will help neutralize the car in sweepers, and improve stability in transition.
photo credit: Ian Gulinao. Thanks!!!
If they are the right size (225×16 is best), I will buy your ZIIs from you. I am still a bit meh about the Bridgestones. I went back to the Dunlops for this last weekend, and the crisp response of the Dunlops is sooo much nicer than the rather sloppy feel of the Bridgestones.
They are 215/45… so probably not best for you, although I’d certainly be willing to sell. Feel aside, it’s pretty hard to argue with the results of the Bridgestones.
I’m also not that keen on the feel of my Dunlops… hopefully the Stones aren’t that much worse to my touch…