Busy busy busy. I neglected to update the website last month - my bad. I uploaded a cool picture (above) taken by one of my students during the CO2 drag races this semester. Pretty fun, although my baby suffered catastrophic failure. I'll just have to make a better, faster dragster with which to compete. I've run across some pretty cool stuff lately: Homestar Runner - excellent, witty and twisted flash animation. DIY Costume - Do it yourself Leather Armour Stewart BC - Photos of Stewart BC, where I lived 1981-1984. Stewart is a wee mining town on the border of Alaska and BC. Great place to grow up! We love the Iraqi Information Minister - This is just odd. Budget CAD - There are lots of really good, really cheap CAD programs out there. This one used to be FREE, but is no longer available. Strangely, I have a copy!
|
In March I had the car aligned as I wasn't able to stop the car from pulling by ghetto-aligning the car in the driveway.
Once I put the summers on, I knew what the problem was - the winter tires are starting to develop "radial pull." The fronts
will be going on the back next winter to help limit their effect on the car.
April 04 I ran the first Kelowna Corvette Club event at Comet Transport, in association with The Autocross Outlaws and took second place in the Modified class. I also ran the fifth fastest time, beaten only by a well-prepped and well-driven Civic Si, two Corvettes and a multi-time hill climb champion MGB GT with a Rover V8 running Goodyear slicks and full downforce. Not too shabby for an econobox import.
Again, I'm making a compromise. I've decided to run -2.2° camber on the street again, instead of changing from -1.2° to
-3.2° for every event. This should hopefully make it a bit more fun and less work. I will of course eat through tires....
Should finances allow, I am seriously contemplating running a *cough* Phantom Grip *cough* in the Sentra. For a couple of
reasons. Mainly it's all there is for the Sentra. In all my research, talking with people who have and have not run them,
the only people who complain are those who don't run one. Running the "green" springs seems to work fine for most people.
And friends who are running one have not noticed any wear in the internals. Not even shavings in the oil. I'm up to trying
one.
Other methods to reduce wheel spin are to disconnect the sway bar on the drive wheels. This prevents body roll from lifting the inside wheel thus losing traction. Since I don't have much spring rate or suspension travel to begin with, this is an option I don't think I want to pursue. If I were to run coilovers, I could set the front springs pretty stiff and remove the front bar - this would limit roll with the springs, and maintain traction without the bar. An idea....
I am also seriously considering prepping the car for FSP, using the Whiteline caster kit KCA303 and slotting the upper strut holes 2mm to easily adjust camber. This of course opens the field wide to further prepare the car, as then coilovers are legal, as well as caster plates, internal engine mods, 13x9" wheels, etc. etc. This could get expensive.
May 01 I ran the first Okanagan Brittish Car Club event at The Brick. Although I ran
some very quick times, I was unable to get a clean run in. The course was VERY tight, with no room for creativity through
the gates. I also found the car just too hard to turn around quickly enough to get through the gates. (This event is what
inspired me to run more camber - I was running my street setup so far). All in all quite fun, but the size of the lot, and
the proximity of the curbs kind of frighten me. I'm a wuss.
I have also snagged a sponsorship with Kelowna Nissan! It also turns out that one of the parts guys is a member of OBCC and saw the car run - he was impressed with the handling, and commented that this might be a good thing. I'm pretty stoked about it!