Another one back on the road (track)

[MarkN]

Had my first autocross of the season this weekend, posted a picture in
Photos under "Miles E's..."
With a field of 178 cars, I was 93rd overall. That's 52nd percentile!
That means I beat 48% of the cars there with only 2 cylinders.
Other than the paint job over the summer/fall/winter, I also rebuilt
the top end of the motor. I left the rear suspension alone this
winter, but increased the spring rate in the front to 350lbs/in (stock
is around 125), and adjusted out some excess castor that wasn't
helping. Now I'm pretty close to neutral handling, I think as I get
better as a driver I'll be able to deal with a little more oversteer,
but currently, a little "push" (understeer) is a lot easier to deal
with than the rear end coming around like it did last year.
Anyhow, thanks to Miles C, Tim and Mike for supplying me the parts
that I can't make with a welder and a hammer.
-Miles E.

[riceburner006]

--Thats great! Did you do any mods to change the camber?
- In 2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com, "wanna600"
wrote:

> Had my first autocross of the season this weekend, posted a picture in
> Photos under "Miles E's..."
> With a field of 178 cars, I was 93rd overall. That's 52nd percentile!
> That means I beat 48% of the cars there with only 2 cylinders.
> Other than the paint job over the summer/fall/winter, I also rebuilt
> the top end of the motor. I left the rear suspension alone this
> winter, but increased the spring rate in the front to 350lbs/in (stock
> is around 125), and adjusted out some excess castor that wasn't
> helping. Now I'm pretty close to neutral handling, I think as I get
> better as a driver I'll be able to deal with a little more oversteer,
> but currently, a little "push" (understeer) is a lot easier to deal
> with than the rear end coming around like it did last year.
> Anyhow, thanks to Miles C, Tim and Mike for supplying me the parts
> that I can't make with a welder and a hammer.
> -Miles E.

[MarkN]

--- In 2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com, "riceburner006"
wrote:

> --Thats great! Did you do any mods to change the camber?

Yeah, I did a lot of welding to the front of that car. I raised the
upper strut mounts (to lower the car) and moved them inward and
backward (to add camber and castor). Next, I removed the front sway
bar; now the front wheel is held in it's for/aft position by a heim
jointed tube that runs from the subframe to the swaybar mount on the
lower control arm (no more flexing). After that, I was getting some
nasty bump steer, so I had to remount the tie rod from the steering
rack to the bottom of the steering arm on the strut. Also, I
repositioned the inner lower control arm mounts to optimize the CV
axle length.
I learned lot about strut suspension design during that project. I'd
recommend not attempting to do this unless you're willing to learn
alot, or redo your work once you figure out that it will not work the
first couple of times (I did a little of each).
The struts are reduildable, so I put heavier oil in them and fabbed up
"coilovers" so I could use standard race spring sizes.
Whew. that was a lot of typing.
-Miles