Cpeehler7 Build/Race Thread

cpeehler7

Banned
So, finally, the moment everyone has been waiting for. It has been a long time in the making, sever months actually... but I have finished my car for the most part. The suspension is basically all finished, minus the tie rods, but those can wait a little longer. The car rides fantastic now, even going 70 around corners the car feels completely level. It's a world of difference, and I almost didn't have it finished for the next solo event this weekend. A mechanic/racer friend told me to get my car down to his shop on literally about 5 minutes notice after I thought I screwed up a ball joint on a pothole. Took it in and finished the whole car in just under 5 hours.

So basically this car is going to be built to STX SCCA Solo class specs. So suspension mods, and minor engine work, meaning no internal upgrades. I can mainly just do intake header exhaust, and intake manifold. Along with a good tune I may be able to push 170whp if I'm lucky, I don't want to push it too hard, this is my DD as well. From my point of view now, I'm going to just run this season as is. See if I can get to the top of the Novice class, then do some more costly upgrades later. LSD, stickier tires, subframe bracing etc... that can all wait until I get a little more seat time and more experience.

Anyway, here is a list of the mods that are on the car as of now. Everything else is bone stock. The engine has not been touched yet, only suspension and brakes have been changed.

Skunk2 Pro-S II coilovers
Buddy Club P1 front/rear camber kit
Function 7 Rear LCA W/ ES bushings
Energy Suspension Bushings in the front LCA
Hardrace Upper Control Arm bushings/hardware
Beck/Arnley Lower Ball Joints
Powerstop GSR Calipers/Slotted Drilled Rotors
Z16 Scorched Ceramic Brake Pads
Beck/Arnley Inner/Outter Tie rods (still need to be installed)


I'm running 15x7 Sparco Pista Wheels with 195/55/15 BFGoodrich Gforce Sport Comp-2 tires. They grip real well, but I'm thinking about getting something more track oriented for next season. They're perfect tires for street/spirited driving though, and for the price, they really can't be beat.

Also to those who were asking how the skunk2 coilovers feel. They are moderately bumpy, but not that I have both the rear and the front finished, it's not too harsh of a ride. Before I had only the rear finished, and the car was so bouncy, probably because of the massive difference between the front/rear hahah. It is a bit rough, but if you don't mind a hard ride, they are good coilovers for the money. If I had more I'd probably go with Koni/GC though.

Anyway, pics or it didn't happen, as always on the internet.











 

96LSteg

Jemel
Not too familiar with autoX rules but here goes:

are there any plans for weight reduction?
 


cpeehler7

Banned
Not too familiar with autoX rules but here goes:

are there any plans for weight reduction?
I'm still looking into that to be honest. All I'm doing for this weekend is tossing the space saver and jack from the trunk. Other than that, I'm not doing any weight reduction. Maybe I'll rip the back seats out if that is legal, but I know both front seats need to weigh 25 lbs including hardware.

Yeah I know I'm real lucky to have met this guy. Doesn't charge much in labor, and is cool with me just hanging around to learn a few things while he works.

Right now though, I don't know enough about my car to make huge changes. I've only run two races so far, so I need to get a lot more familiar with it before I get too technical. We'll see if I can get to the top of the Novice class this time. I was 8 out of 15 last time, but that was partially because my half finished suspension bumped me up from STF to STX class. If I was STF, I would have been 3rd place. Now with the front done, I should be able to corner a lot better and get up in the top 5 at least.

I'll be running a test & tune / novice school event Saturday, then the 2nd Solo of the season is Sunday. Now that I've gotten my first solo out of the way, I need to focus on taking a better line rather than just avoiding the cones haha.

Just one random question though. I'm pretty sure I need to tighten my steering rack it's still a little lose, but unlike before, my wheel doesn't completely straighten out when I let go of the wheel. It's not a problem, just curious why that would change with new ball joints/coils. The car in general feels new now. Completely level even when you push hard through corners. Well worth the money I've put into it for sure.
 
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cpeehler7

Banned
since youve done all of the suspension work, have you gotten a full alignment?
I have not yet. The alignment isn't really off any more than it was before. I haven't changed the Tie Rods which is where I would expect most of the aligning to get messed up. I'm waiting to change those before I get it aligned. I'm also trying to see if I can get Firestone's lifetime alignment. I know they usually won't honor it if you mod the car, but the guy I was talking about earlier knows a guy who works there. He said he may be able to get me the same, or a similar deal from them, but he has to ask first.

Hopefully that does work out, that would be great to have. I have a feeling a friend of a friend may not get a deal like that though. We'll see, I definitely have to get it aligned after I put the new tie rods in.

Also another thing I have to do in the near future are the axles. They're pretty beat, I'm going to run them this season, and replace them after, or when they break... Which they shouldn't haha. They aren't too expensive, besides that, any rockauto ones should be good for the power I'm putting out.

But yeah, I can take my hand off the wheel and the car does go straight still. So it is decently aligned still, that's the only reason I'm willing to put it off a few more weeks. A new tire is cheaper than getting a second alignment for me, so I can afford the wear if there is any.
 


cpeehler7

Banned
So tomorrow is a novice school, that should be a great way to get tons of seat time before the race this Sunday. The only thing I really should do before that is bleed my brakes, they're spongy as hell right now hahah. I guess twice around wasn't enough after changing the calipers...

The only other immediate things I need to fix are the Clutch slave, and my cam seal. I aught to shoot Dlo a PM to see if he still has any, or is planning on banging out a few more of his. I didn't realize it, but apparently my clutch engages very close to the floor, most likely from a failing clutch slave. They're not expensive, so no big deal.

Just curious, to those of you who race, and have LSD in their cars. What LSD do you suggest running? Would a stock Type R one fit my car, and would there be better options? I feel like the Type R ones are a lot cheaper than the aftermarket ones.
 

DonJulio

Reppin' tha NW
since youve done all of the suspension work, have you gotten a full alignment?
Yea bro. Get err done.

Also if you can, and because your lowered and plan on racing. You should take the car to a proper performance shop and have it corner balanced. That will give you the maximum benefit from your coilovers and achieve better lap times.
 

cpeehler7

Banned
First off, thank you everyone who gave me suggestions in my help thread months ago. The suspension works fantastic, and that is an understatement. Took it out to the test and tune, and was running the same time as some Z06 vettes, beat a new STI, and just about everyone else at the event that wasn't very experienced and in higher classes.

Got a lot of help from the instructors, turns out I'm a quick learner too haha. Ended up pushing 42.5 at the start of the day, and ran a 39.5 by the end. Figured out how much changing the PSI of the tires helps. Was running 36 up front hot, and 47 rear, so the ass end would kick out a bit more. Really cut down on the understeer a lot. By the end of the day though, I ended up beating the time the instructor set in my car by quite a bit, about 0.75 of a second. Granted I had more runs in the car, but seeing as he was the solo champ for a few seasons I'm very pleased with the car.

I may have to stiffen the rear up a little more, but for now the car is solid. I think I may have to find a set of used racing tires. The gforces are good, but the competition has stickier tires. Even still I think I can beat them tomorrow. We'll see how it goes, hopefully I get a solid run in.

Seriously though, if anyone is trying to get into solo, let someone good drive your car. You'll see what it can do, then just try to do the same thing haha. Had the guy get in my car and basically tell me, don't be afraid to throw that fuc**r into the corners and let the ass kick out. Helped me shave off several seconds for sure.

Unfortunately, there were no official times or videos. Tomorrow is the real race, times will be posted for that, either way I should be a solid 2 seconds faster around the course from last week now that I know how to drive a whole lot better. That's all I needed to get to the top of the novice group, so hopefully I get a clean aggressive run in.

Thanks again everyone who gave me input a few months back. The car responds much better than I thought it could, you know... minus the part where I went 180 through a cone on my last lap hahaha.
 

cpeehler7

Banned
Race #2 of the Solo Season

So it turns out a whole lot more competition showed up for the novice category hahah. It was real tight, we were bouncing each other around all night. In the end I wound up 6th (keeping in mind one guy tossed some hoosiers on half way through, technically shouldn't have been up there, but I didn't care)

I honestly thing my biggest issue at this point is the fact that I don't have enough midrange power. Coming out of the hard hairpins I'm rocking like 4200rpm when I get back on full throttle, when the other guys in the S2000s and corvettes have so much more power. So all things considered it's pretty solid to be less than half a second slower than them with so much less power...but I'm not happy with that!

My main issue is, that I'm running moderately sticky street tires. If I want to win I really need to get some Dunlop ZIIs, but I think it'll be best for me to just run my Comp-2s all season. That way my car will be slower than the other cars, so I'm forced to focus more on taking the right line and positioning my car for the corners better.

Those of you guys who do know a lot about engines, what can you do to get more midrange/vtec crossover power, when all the engine upgrades you can do are intake header exhaust? I'm assuming it's all going to be in the tune, maybe have vtec engage a hair earlier too? I can put it on the dyno later on to see where vtec engagement would be most helpful.

Anyway, I'll toss up a video of a guy from the event, so you can see what the course looked like. He was also driving an integra, so it'll fit in. I'll also toss up the results from the last race as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD9UxN_79hE

Here are the live results, no download required: http://live.wny-scca.com/

Here are the permanent results, small download required (the live results will be wiped after event 3): http://www.wny-scca.com/index.php?board=17.0

Anyway, the event 1 and 2 results are there. You can look at both and see how much quicker I got. I beat all of the people who beat me last month, except for the guy who won in the corvette. So I was a whole lot quicker, most of which was probably driver improvement. The finished suspension definitely helped a bit too.

But the BRZ guy was my biggest competition. We have very similar HP cars, 0-60 is roughly 7.0 for both of us. The only difference is that he is on ZIIs. Well I'll have to improve my entry position for next month. That was what I was doing wrong apparently, other than that the top 5 in novice was just so close. One good run and you're in the lead. I did also end up running a 40.36 in a fun lap after the event too haha. Unfortunately it didn't count.
 

Aussie

Zoom-Zoom
I doubt you need any more power, autocross is tuff. It takes a lot of practice to set fast times. The biggest benefit is definitely tires and remembering the course. Trying to keep up with a BRZ in autox is like trying to keep up with a Miata, there's a reason they are in C stock and the Integra runs H stock :lol

Your raw times don't look bad though compared to the rest of the group, and they are fairly consistent except the first and last. If you are just starting that is pretty damn good. I always compare my time off the fastest guys, once I can't get any closer to them I start thinking about making changes to the car.
 
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cpeehler7

Banned
I doubt you need any more power, autocross is tuff. It takes a lot of practice to set fast times. The biggest benefit is definitely tires and remembering the course. Trying to keep up with a BRZ in autox is like trying to keep up with a Miata, there's a reason they are in C stock and the Integra runs H stock :lol

Your raw times don't look bad though compared to the rest of the group, and they are fairly consistent except the first and last. If you are just starting that is pretty damn good. I always compare my time off the fastest guys, once I can't get any closer to them I start thinking about making changes to the car.
I had the guy who won pro class in the civic ride along with me, then take my car for a run. He pretty much told me that I know the limits of my car, I can drive it better than him, but my entry to a lot of the corners is late. I also apparently focus on cones that "don't matter" meaning the first of a slalom etc. So I was cutting in when I didn't have to which set me up for the next cone off balance.

Around the long 180, he said that I was perfect, that's why I ran faster times than him in my car. I could keep speed better than him (he said he isn't used to street tires). So basically I need to focus on entering corners correctly at this point. He was surprised I was so far back in the novice class. He thought for sure I was going to win after Saturday haha. It does kind of hurt me that I'm running in STX, with like 1/4 of the mods done to get me into that class, but it doesn't really matter to me. That'll force me to drive smarter to squeeze every tenth out of my car before I upgrade.
 
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