First big event-Lincoln Tour

We loaded up the Pink Panther and traveled from Winnipeg, Canada to Lincoln, Nebraska for the Pro Solo and Solo Tour event known as Spring Nationals. Because of a strong headwind and lack of towing power, we were down to 45 mph with the heat cranked and windows opened to keep our Suburban tow vehicle alive until we got to Lincoln.
    We tested the car last Sunday and everything was fine except after 3 minutes of continuous hard running through a simulated autocross course, the clutch stopped fully releasing. I assumed that I would just have to bleed the clutch and add a heat shield to the hoses and all would be well. When we unloaded in Lincoln, the problem persisted and made practice launches for the ProSolo very difficult because as soon as I took my foot off the brake, the car would roll through the start lights. In order to adjust the hydraulic release bearing, the transmission would have to come out.

The shifter, drive shaft, seat, tunnel and crossmember all had to come out in order to remove the transmission

And finally I could get to the release bearing and adjust it out a little.

 I got it all back together in time for ProSolo practice launches but couldn't do much because we could stage the car correctly but as soon as we took our foot off the brake, the car would roll forward, causing a red light.  It occured to me that maybe I could adjust the pedal travel to correct this and amazingly, it worked-except it means that removing the transmission was a waste of time. I went back to do some practice launches and after a couple of 4000 rpm clutch dumps, I snapped a rear suspension mount. Those 14" rear slicks really hook up! Briget and I fanned out in the paddock area asking everyone if they had a welder, none were on site. Many calls to local welding shops also turned up nobody that could come to the site and weld my car. I was forced to drive to Tractor Supply and buy a welder, grinder, helmet and steel for reinforcing the bracket. The irony is that after I purchased the welder, four other competitors borrowed it to get their race cars back on track. If I had charged $200 each, I would have broken even!

I used some flat bar to add strength to the bracket

They told me the welder came with a sample spool of wire, what I discovered when I got back to the site was that it was flux core, and I have never welded with flux core.

This picture is upside down but you can see the mess left behind by flux core wire. Under all that white crap is actually a beautiful weld. I got the car done but it was too late for running the test course or doing any more test launches, the next opportunity was the ProSolo the next day. Briget was scheduled to run first and was worried about breaking the car, I told her to go for it and not worry about it. Here are some videos for you to enjoy:

 Front suspension cam-ProSolo
Briget Pro Solo launch 1
Briget Pro Solo launch 2
Briget Pro Solo launch 3

Briget came back from her runs reporting that the car felt fine but was a little understeery. I attempted to correct this by stiffening the rear sway bar but during my runs I was spinning the inside rear tire a lot. Also, Briget got warnings for exceeding the sound regulations but curiously, I received no warnings. In an attempt to cure the wheelspin, I installed the front sway bar and softened the rear sway bar again. Briget went out for ProSolo session 2 and came back reporting that the car felt better but she couldn't get it to rotate properly.

Briget Pro Solo session 1
Mark Pro Solo session 1
Briget Pro Solo Splitter cam
 Briget Pro Solo session 2



For my second session I tried stiffening the front spring rate and going full soft on the rear sway bar and the car felt better to me as far as wheelspin goes but it could have also been that I was driving better. the Avons were not overheating despite the back to back runs but we were also only pulling 1.3 peak lateral G, which is significantly  less than what we should have. We started to notice a strange wear pattern on the outside shoulder of the front tires and pumped up the pressures for the next days runs. I also changed the angle of the exhaust tips from pointing out to pointing in in an attempt to pass the sound regulations.

Mark Pro Solo session 2a
Mark Pro Solo session 2b

For session 3 of ProSolo, Briget wanted the same settings she had from session 2 so I softened the front spring rate and stiffened the rear bar again. She set her most competitive times yet and the front tires looked a little more normal. I went out for my 3rd session but was late to grid and penalized two runs so I managed only one run on each course. The car still had wheelspin but wasn't hopping around as much in the back so some of the adjustments were working. Briget and I didn't do very well relative to our competition in the ProSolo but the car didn't miss a beat even with 22 hard launches and aggressive runs, which is a victory. However, the car was still hitting 103 dB on the sound meter and something drastic would have to be done.

Mark Pro Solo session 3

We went to Speedway Motors and purchased two long bullet mufflers and a side pipe kit. Then I got to use my new welder again and added the mufflers to the current ones I had on the car. This significantly reduced the noise level of the car. Now I could hear the gears in the transmission whining and the rubber chunks flying off the rear tires and hitting the wheel wells.

One of the modified side pipes with two bullet mufflers welded together, and adding 13 lbs.

 Briget was the first to run in Solo competition and had some trouble steering the car due to an arm injury sustained in a motorcycle crash. Her times were close to or quicker than her competition but cones jumped out in front of her on her best runs. Also, ambient temperature was now higher than during the Pro and when she came back from her runs, we needed to spray them with ice water. I went out for my runs later in the day when it was even hotter and tire temps were higher than I was comfortable with. I drove very badly and missed critical braking points, losing a lot of time in acceleration zones. I was second last in class by the end of the day, happy that the car was running but disappointed in the results.

Briget day 1 quicket run
Mark day 1 third run
Mark day 1 fender cam

   For day 2 of Solo competition, Briget started out in wet conditions and had her hands full keeping the car pointed in the right direction. This got better for 2nd and 3rd runs but she couldn't dig herself out of the hole she was in from day 1. I had an hour or two until I ran and during that time, several people came over to discuss the car. They all said that out on course, the car appears to go into a positive camber situation up front, causing rollover and tire smoke. I was so caught up with spring rates, panhard bars, high and low speed compression and tire pressures that I forgot about alignment. I was running very little toe-out and only -.5 degrees camber and wondered how quickly I could change these things because I was already parked in grid. I decided to go for it and loosened off the upper control arm bolts and added some spacers to increase camber, which also increased toe-out.

Briget day 2 bumper cam with data
Mark day 2 tire cam with data


     The car responded well to the changes and understeer was significantly reduced, but my driving was still shabby. For my next two runs I removed the spoiler and diffuser and tried to be smoother out on course. The car was actually a little oversteery in places, which was a good sign that the alignment helped. I still finished 2nd last in class and way off the leader but the car held together, felt great and is easy to drive. After a lot of discussion with people more knowledgeable than me, it was determined that I need a wider tire and wider track width up front on the car. I already have a set of wheels that will widen the track width by 3 inches and a set of Avons are on the way, bumping tire size from 10.7" to 12.3". In the meantime, I will continue to play with alignment, Panhard bar, tire pressures and shock settings.