darkcambria's autox/hill climb BSP thread

[darkcambria]

Well, I figured I should make a thread instead of polluting everyone else's BSP threads. Warning, I'm not a very picture taking person so good pictures have probably come from someone else.

Up until this weekend I was mainly focused on autox. I've attended the Reading Pagoda/Duryea hill climbs for the last few years and supported my friend's SMF Mazda3 build there also. This winter and spring I focused on getting all my safety equipment that I needed to be legal. I ran the hill climb this weekend and got a total of 9 runs in. Since this was my first time, my first run was very cautious at 105.5. By the final run, I whittled that down to a 93.056 which won the class by .009 seconds.

There's still many areas to improve, but running under a Novice license I had to be careful not to have any incidents. Its certainly an interesting course, from the video you cant see, but all of the road except for turn 9 at the end is crowned for rain water runoff. This makes for some interesting lines since you can make that crown work for you, or if you cross it the rear end walks away quickly. With that said, here's the video of my best run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up_SB3LrGHY&feature=youtu.be

[SilverMiataRacer]

Nice job!!!  That course does have some nice straights to allow some speed building runs!  Where is the Pagoda Hill climb?

[rotorglow]

Looks awesome!  I keep trying to go watch, and schedules keep not working out

[darkcambria]

Pagoda hill climb is in Reading, PA. It is the same spot as the Duryea hill climb which reuses the same start but extends out for another mile. Here's a course map of Duryea, Pagoda only goes to halfway between turns 9 and 10



I was doing around 112 at the end of the "straight", others were doing closer to 130 (radar checked). Really, that area isn't too straight, its a lot of back and forth with the crown changing and crazy dips. A lot like being on a roller coaster, but the gopro didn't pick that up so well. I'm planning on running Duryea August 17-18th.

[turborascal]

Well done!   
Looks like GREAT fun.

[SilverMiataRacer]

It's a lot straighter than turns 1/2/3/4/5  

Have you ever seen the hill climb that runs in Robbinsville near Deal's Gap.  No straight like that at all.

You looked like you were doing really good getting into a reasonable rhythm and the proof was your time!  

[VolCrew]

Congrats  That looks like huge fun.  Thanks for explaining your line.  I watched the video before I read your post and I was wondering about it.

[darkcambria]

It's a lot straighter than turns 1/2/3/4/5  

Have you ever seen the hill climb that runs in Robbinsville near Deal's Gap.  No straight like that at all.

You looked like you were doing really good getting into a reasonable rhythm and the proof was your time!  

Very true, that's why I call it a "straight". I'm interested in doing Chasing the Dragon one day, will likely have to wait until I trailer the car down for it. I have a bunch of friends nearby that I could stay at and make that work.

[SilverMiataRacer]

Two years ago my friend placed 2nd overall at the Dragon event in his supercharged Mini.  It was his first hill climb event ever and he was on his novice permit.     His in car video of thee event was insane.  Did I mention it was raining intermittently all weekend and his times were in the wet!!     He's hooked but he just hasn't been able to fit it into his schedule again since he runs his own business.

[FrankL]

That looks fun!!!

[darkcambria]

Two years ago my friend placed 2nd overall at the Dragon event in his supercharged Mini.  It was his first hill climb event ever and he was on his novice permit.     His in car video of thee event was insane.  Did I mention it was raining intermittently all weekend and his times were in the wet!!     He's hooked but he just hasn't been able to fit it into his schedule again since he runs his own business.

Likewise, this was my first hillclimb and also on my novice permit. That definitely makes you hold back a bit, I know of a few friends that had incidents in their first 3 races and had to wait longer to get the full time trial permit. I'm certainly trying to avoid that. Running in the rain is crazy, I watched some of Duryea in the rain last year and that takes some serious balls! Some guys did great, most chose to not even run.

[darkcambria]

Okay, now time to talk next steps. Here's a picture of the car that a buddy took after turn 7 at speed.



I'm registered for the Duryea hill climb in Reading, PA August 17-18. I will be registering soon for the Susquehanna autox on July 20th, and I'm hoping to clear my schedule to run the Polish Mountain hill climb in Cumberland, MD August 2-3.

With that said, I'm still looking to move the car forward. I need to address the ignition, one of my coil packs started failing on friday driving up to the hill climb. Thankfully it behaved most of the weekend, but I need to look into replacing them with something that does not fail so often. Currently, I'm leaning toward LS2 coils.

I'm trying to get a hardtop ordered from Treasure Coast. The 10AE hardtop on the car has already been sold to my buddy with a 10AE and I'd like to take advantage of a much lighter top. No need for anything fancy here.

I'd like to play with the Hydra a bit more and take advantage of its features. I will likely work on launch control but I'm mostly interested in the flat foot shifting. I think I can have that working to my liking for the next event.

I'd like to work on aero for the car. I'm open for debate for what would be most effective. I need to balance that I have both low speed corners and 100 mph+ straights. I want the car to be a bit more planted since going through the bumpy "straight" at Pagoda I was bouncing all over the road. It took a lot of confidence and a few runs for me to keep my foot planted through that portion. My thought is a mild front splitter (1/2" birch with support?) and a spoiler ala Two-Six and Portis' setup.

Okay, sorry for the brain dump but I like to get other's input as I move forward.

[SilverMiataRacer]

If your interested in aero you need to read millsj's thread.  His design is pretty slick and seems to be working well for him these days.  He's lost a little top speed at the end of the long straight at Roebling but is still turning laps as fast as he's run in the past.  So he needs to work on his trust of the aero in the turns to pick up more speed in the turns.

As for the coils, if you have a Hydra why not run the FM coil kit?

[darkcambria]

I do really like Millsj's setup. My limiting factor right now is the BSP rules. I can't have the splitter extend past the bumper and the spoiler can only extend 10" from the body at any angle.

I'd love to do the FM spark kit, but over $700 is a lot to swallow right now. I'm definitely on a budget right now, but I would like to do it right the first time. I'm interested in Fab9's incoming LS2 kit (which is supposed to be around half of FM's LS3) but doubt that'll be available in time. I may just end up doing a DIY LS2 setup as long as I can come up with a mounting point I'm happy with. I like yenader's setup but don't want to have to run the wires that far out.

[darkcambria]

Okay, the new hardtop is on and I'm pretty happy with it. It weighed in at just under 20lbs with everything attached. Between that and some brackets and latches that I got taken off I shaved around 40lbs off. Not a bad weekend at all.