For those who missed the Hershey Centre Auto-X, like me...

[BlackTieTD]

bryson smokin' the competition once again.

[fspGTD]

Nice!    (How did he do?)

[BlackTieTD]

not sure, i was studying for a math exam  :?

[andy2]

Bryson is there a web site, schedule or somthing for those of us who would like to go and see you preform at these events :lol:  thanks.

[Dr. Diesel]

sure, check it out here!
http://www.wiredmotorsports.com/pitl/pitl-info.html
saturday, 9th of 27 in my class. sunday, 2nd of 30something. Sunday was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun! I made a hugeass rear swaybar saturday night,  and on sunday, had a friend sitting in the back seat for my first four runs. The car's never handled better!

[andy2]

looking foreward to see this ,and to see how well your jet handles, I should do some work to mine ;seems I can't blast around corners without a tire breaking loose when the boost comes on. :evil: , It sure is great fun suprising the gasers with the old td   ,Its totally changed the way I drive the car now with its new found power.

[fspGTD]

NICE JOB!!!  (Amazing what impact some benign object like a swaybar makes to handling and how much it impacts your run times, isn't it? )

Power is good and definitely having at least "some" helps, but without handling - you ain't gonna go very fast at an autocross event.

[Dr. Diesel]

on the last run, i kicked my passenger out. (he was in the back seat) The handling was not nearly as good. it got me thinking, seeing as I've got more power than acceleration traction anyway, why not ballast the rear of the car some, and improve the handling!? It'll be a little while yet before the peloquin'd tranny is ready, so maybe the next event (July 10th!) I'll leave my street tires in the trunk. Maybe toss the front bumper too.

[TDIMeister]

on the last run, i kicked my passenger out. (he was in the back seat) The handling was not nearly as good. it got me thinking, seeing as I've got more power than acceleration traction anyway, why not ballast the rear of the car some, and improve the handling!? It'll be a little while yet before the peloquin'd tranny is ready, so maybe the next event (July 10th!) I'll leave my street tires in the trunk. Maybe toss the front bumper too.

Relocate the battery to the rear, as I am thinking about doing, and race on a full tank of fuel  

[Dr. Diesel]

done, and always do!

[fspGTD]

If you need to get rid of understeer in a pinch, don't forget you can always just overinflate the tires on the end that you seek to take away traction from.  Try it first running like 4 or 8 psi over in the rears from what is optimal for best traction back there.  You should feel a noticeable difference in the car rotating better...  Easy to adjust between runs to fine-tune your handling balance too!  (4 psi increment adjustments should be noticeable I'd think.)  And get one of those 5-gallon portable air tanks and before the event, fill it up to like 200psi at a service station then have it next to your car in grid so it's ready to add air to your tires between your runs for fine-tuning your handling.

You can also under-inflate tires to take away traction, but this is less preferable to over-inflating, because generally the tires will squirm more and make the handling more vague and also tire wear will be accelerated and the tire will build more heat vs. overinflated option.

In the longer-run to optimize handling, you would be better off changing your front and rear roll stiffness (don't forget about shocks too!) to get a good handling balance with all tire pressures set optimally.  (moving weight off the front towards the rear, or getting rid of it particularly from the front is a good thing too!)

Those pricey multi/highly-adjustable shocks are one of the best things that happened to autocross cars since sliced bread...  But some simple rebound-adjustable konis properly valved for your spring rates are just about as good!  Instant handling adjustments available between runs via the twist of a knob and without giving up any overall grip (as ballast / over/underinflation does), is awfully nice thing to have...

[Dr. Diesel]

yeah, i was upping rear pressures after each run. got to 44 psi before running out of air. not sure I'd want to go much higher. They were cool on the outsides and lukewarm in the center after a run. Fronts were hot all the way across, and very hot on the outsides. No question that they're working...
I'm gonna throw a set of 620# springs in the rear. 420# currently. 5somethings in the front. shift some more weight around too, if I can.