I'm still going to order rain tires.
I'm still going to order rain tires.
Run work order
CM is working 2nd and racing 4th.
Tuesday east course. Wednesday west course.
eh, I have my FF rain fronts dismounted and bagged to bring. If I can't fit in Cory's CM car, I am bringing my KM kart as a backup. Intermediates mounted. full set of rains mounted. might as well bring the spare set of rains for KM in case someone else needs em. Hopefully 3.5 sets of rain tires I'm bringing will run off the chance of rain for our run group.Originally Posted by Lynn
Wow, nice job on your CM Solo Vee.
Not enuff smart people have built these to the rule limit, so should be very neat to see you run this car.
BTW, it is a good practice to wear a helmet anytime you move the car under its own power. An old friend in NER wasn't wearing one and had head injuries when his BM car hit a telephone pole and almost broke the car in half during early "street-outside-the-garage" testing.
I've done way too many street test runs myself, but Eddie's advice from his bad experience served as a strong reminder to me over the years to always wear the helmet. You never know if you will have a mechanical failure (especially during early tests) or if a mindless street car driver will run you over!
Good, Good !!
Ben
Sadly it still looks like I will not be able to free up work during Nationals week. I pulled my registration today. I am still very excited for all of CM and CML! Krystal will still be competing in CML, which is totally awesome but I'm sad I'll miss it.
Brandon L. #96 FF
-PM me for RF85/86 bellhousing
Dang if! We'll miss you!
Welp, we're out. I'll be posting details in the "That didn't go well" thread.
At least, I didn't order rain tires.
Last edited by Lynn; 08.26.17 at 4:04 PM.
Weather looks GREAT!!The forecast looks good: https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/li.../329505?day=21
My Magic 8 Ball agrees, which is probably more credible than a 20-day forecast.
Yesterday SOLOMATTERS did a live event on their FB page. I asked about the maps. They said Sunday by 1pm. I don't understand on why they wait so long.
CM's own David Fauth shares some great tips for Nationals prep: http://autocrosstalk.com/2017/08/21/...r-david-fauth/
Excellent presentation David, thanks very much!
They use to do that back in the day, I remember getting this nice little booklet with all the info you needed for the National's, This booklet had all the entries for all the classes and a course maps. At the time I was so new to the National level It didn't make an inpact but now that I've gone for the last 15 years out of 17 I can think of many ways you can take advantage of having a course maps weeks to a month ahead of the National's.Yesterday SOLOMATTERS did a live event on their FB page. I asked about the maps. They said Sunday by 1pm. I don't understand on why they wait so long.
Ben
So. Much. Fun.
My best run: (sitting 5th after day 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCOC84wWUI
Ted V's best: (sitting 16th after day 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLDsYndYjwQ
Awesome people, awesome competition, awesome cars. I'm smiling ear to ear and can't wait to get back tomorrow.
Corey
A huge shout out to David for a commanding victory! Well done! The real interesting thing was Ben's (CM/FFdriver) results if you take that one cone out. Watch out for him next year!
I struggled with seeing the course today and slipped back to 7th. It would have been a lot further but I got a rerun (John mowed down a bunch of cones) that let me screw my head on straight and try again. Here's my best from today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJRAJU8sytM
The OPR (Other People's Rubber) buildup is legendary at Lincoln. It's a mix of seam sealer and tire dust. It's soft and gooey, but gives less grip than tire rubber, so you end up scraping it off between runs if you notice it building. Watch the front left tire build it up quick as I go through the right sweeper at 0:42 to 0:46, and then it gets scraped to the inside and flies off in the next left. I hadn't seen that before!
I hope to see the C Mod gang again next year!
Last edited by captain_pants; 09.08.17 at 8:14 AM.
Nationals
Good job!
Thanks for posting.
I came across Greg M's runs on YouTube:
East: https://youtu.be/nGi2XcWPpxI
West: https://youtu.be/jlI_QAaAKBA
Very smooth. Nice driving Greg!
I'd love to see David and Ben's runs! Does anyone know if they were running cameras?
I was running a GoPro at the time but every time I went up to the start line I forgot to turn it on, I'm highly disappointed but I had a goal in mine.
WOW ! Corey I've never seen a tire do that, Great run though ! Did you see your hands LOL
Also Mark Mervich said on facebook the Honda's have done it but I say the Honda driver won but the ford's are still fast.
Ben
Last edited by CM/FFdriver; 09.10.17 at 10:42 AM. Reason: wrong
2017 Summary
First, congrats to our 2017 champions!
ProSolo Finale R1: Jonathan Clements 1994 Honda Van Diemen
Solo Nationals CM: David Fauth 1995 Van Diemen Honda FF
Solo Nationals CML: Sue Eckles 1983 Reynard Formula Ford
As always, it was enjoyable. It was great to meet new folks and catch up with those we only see once a year. Already looking forward to 2018!
Take care,
Chris Pruett
Swift DB1
Drained the fuel out of my car to see how much fuel we had left... Well to give you an overview- I took the car out with 3 gals in the tank for the 8 runs at the test and tune came back to find the rotor was cracked fixed that and then Steven took the car for a small test drive, not a big deal. Ok ready to go didn't add any fuel for Dianne's runs. We did try to break the pads in on grid with the rear of the car up in the air. Steven did add 1.5 gal for our first set of runs, not a big deal, I thought that was a safe idea. Then on our last set of run he added another 1 gal to be safe.
The crazy thing is if he didn't add the fuel if we would have had 1 rerun we would have run out of gas? or because when Steven came across the scales he was 1103 he would have been under weight .
So we started out with 3 gal of gas, added 2.5 gals left with 1 gal in the tank, burned 4.5 gals WOW!
Ben
Agh! So bummed I couldn't make it. It really looked like a knife-edge CM fight. You guys did NOT disappoint.
Big congratulations to Jon and David. Jon has had a lot of success in the Pro Finales and even though I didn't attend this year, the nervous "holy crap he is fast" feeling still set in on Sunday. I'm very excited for David and Barry and to see another style (late model/Honda) be able to win the class.
I don't know what Ben is doing but he makes RF84s look good.
The dulon still has it. The last time the newest and oldest cars went for 1-2 was in 2012
CML had a class and Krystal had a great time, although naturally disappointed we didn't make more effort to get her (any) seat time prior to first competition run.
I miss you guys.
Brandon L. #96 FF
-PM me for RF85/86 bellhousing
Sorry, we didn't record David's runs.
Sorry Ben, SMH, running underweight is okay if you don't get caught?
Eric why are you SYH?
Ben
Last edited by CM/FFdriver; 09.12.17 at 6:56 PM.
I wouldn't have expected someone would run underweight and then add fuel to be legal on the last run...
Wow ! Eric what's going on?, you gave Roger grief about his course and now your giving me grief for something that didn't happen, I mean I did have some people that told me that you could add fuel on your last run " to make weight " or to make your finish without running out of gas, I guess but that's not the way I roll !. 1st off adding fuel to a hot car is very unsafe and 2nd it's unsportsmanlike. So...Eric we added the fuel before we ran all 3 runs for both of us Not any fuel before Steven last run on the last day, just to be clear.
Ben
Oh good, we agree.
Now I'm confused why you would say you added fuel for last runs to be safe when you didn't. First runs = Tuesday, last runs = Wednesday?
Brandon your the 3rd person that has said that about my car, a person came up to me on Tuesday and asked what I had done to make my car work didn't talk for very long but interresting and then on Wednesday after my 3rd run the person that use to own Bruce and Colin Faucett's RF84 car come up to me with the same question and now you Brandon, What's going on !?
Ben
Well driven...
Ben,Brandon your the 3rd person that has said that about my car, a person came up to me on Tuesday and asked what I had done to make my car work didn't talk for very long but interresting and then on Wednesday after my 3rd run the person that use to own Bruce and Colin Faucett's RF84 car come up to me with the same question and now you Brandon, What's going on !?
The speed of the RF-84 isn't that surprising to me. George and Joey Schilling were equally fast when they competed at Nationals in their RF-84. I believe that Joey had the fastest CM time on the west course back in 2012.
To me, it seems the RF-84 *may* have *slight* advantage on tighter courses due to the somewhat forward weight bias of this chassis (i.e. it seems to me that the driver sits farther forward than most other FF of the era). By slight I mean less than 0.1 sec per 60 sec course.
That said, let them wonder; I think it's just well driven!
Take care,
Chris Pruett
Swift DB1
Yup, it was similar story with the Shillings. I don't mean any offense by it, it just happens to be the easy-to-forget Van Diemen year as they ditched pretty much everything on the 84 to copy swift in 85.
For Solo, this year's results were perfect for the class - podium covered by Vintage, Late model Honda, and the odd one-year wonder chassis. Any car can win, and the driving talent is sharp!
Brandon L. #96 FF
-PM me for RF85/86 bellhousing
PRU-
Thank you very much,1st day not so much but day 2 I had a goal !
Way to go Joey to bad he couldn't come back
Brandon-
I'm not offended by what you said at all, I just thought there maybe talk out about the RF84 and it shouldn't work. I have heard they don't work on road courses, Just slow aero and bad handling, aero doesn't matter in autocross. I have talked to George from time to time and Bruce & Colin at last years National's and what they done to their car's, Helped a lot.
The car has been very easy to work on and I've talk to A LOT ! of people to help me dial this car in, people have told me I've been very lucky with this car and based on other people's story's I have been. Back when I drove a Capri, this car I feel is like a reincarnation of the Capri, Loved that car.
Ben
Had lots of fun this first year in CM! I was talking to Pruett in grid at nats and said if more people had the chance to drive a formula ford this class would be huge. Lots to like about these cars.
Big thanks to John & Vicki Ryan for letting me co-drive and towing the car to events. I drove an STS Civic last year but the car owner decided he wasn't go to autox this year so I wasn't sure if I would autox at all this year either. Was planning on just focusing on road racing but then John offered the co-drive and I couldn't pass it up. Because John lives in Pittsburgh and I live in Michigan I only get to drive the car at national events. Seems like every event I learn something new about driving a FF and that's been really enjoyable.
Lincoln was a little up and down for us. The pro finale was a disaster. Tire puncture, car popped out of gear on the start line, missed shifts, cone trouble. Seemed like everything was going wrong and I just couldn't put it together after digging a big hole on Saturday. Congrats to Jonathan on some super driving! Nats went a little better. Felt like my one East course run was pretty good, but coned it. West course felt okay, but definitely left some time out there looking at video.
When I first saw the Dulon this year I was a little skeptical how competitive it would be. Looking at the mechanical tach my first thought was "Wow this thing is old..." But after driving it I was super impressed. The balance seems to be really good. Not sure if any of you have driven an STS Civic but you have to really trail brake to get them to turn and that seems to transfer well to a FF. My only complaint with the Dulon is that it doesn't handle the bumps at Lincoln very well. A couple spots on both the finale & nats courses had some bumps in bad spots and it really tossed the car around. John and I agreed that a shock upgrade would be the most obvious place for improvement next year (it just has basic twin-tube konis right now).
No kidding! It's a very pure form of driving. Everyone locally assumed that my car and trailer were $50,000 or something. When they find out that it was less than their car, they're typically floored. So much value for the money!
Nice driving Greg! Your video shows very smooth and controlled driving. You have clearly bonded with the car. It also showed me that I cut too much distance off.
This talk of adding fuel is interesting. I run a one gallon tank and can do eight runs no problem.
How could you possibly get less than 8-10 mpg? Even if you idle that gas away, wouldn't the car overheat first?
Well I think your talking to me, I'm not sure at this point how I could have burned that much fuel, I must be running very rich and will be looking into this in a big way because I would hate to be throwing away HP's and time.
1. Running to rich
2. Right rear shock had a small leak?
3. Running to heavy, 10 lbs I beleave
4. From My point of view the alignment was off from where it started?
5. Right front wheel bearing suspect
6. Double check both front spindles in the Jigs to make sure there spot on.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Ben
Re-reading your post again, I think this might be a larger concern. If your car came off its stands when you were testing the brakes, someone could have gotten hurt.
Last edited by OneWayOut; 09.15.17 at 6:51 PM.
I was looking in the rule book about adding fuel on your last run thing that Eric and I were talking about last week and now I know more about how you can't have your car in gear with the wheels moving on gird, so that won't happen again.
I really don't believe you can add fuel whilst your on car is on grid unless it's buried deep in the rules somewhere, so like usual I have been misled or the person that told me you could add fuel on your last run doesn't know the rule was change?
Learn something new every year
Ben
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
