The quest for 9's all motor
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 4,148
Likes: 4
From: California
Yeah, first race event didn't go as planned. Finished car day before event. Got to Bakersfield on Sunday and on first round of qualifying I took it easy on the tune and shifted early- got loose in 5th gear and let off- ran 10.3@112. Motor was running good so second pass I put a better tune in and it left hard and went left s little so I corrected and ran 10.07@127. Put some more oats in the tune and weather was perfect.First round of eliminations I got a bye run for a no show. I just broke beams and backed up.Second round I knew I had a good chance for a 9. Conditions were perfect. I made some changes to keep stupid wheelie down but it didn't work- the little 24.5" tired hooked hard sending me hard left hugging the wall I kept my foot in it, car was pulling harder than ever, I was out of the groove trying to steer it into the groove when the tires broke loose causing me to head towards the car in the right lane so I overcorrected not to hit him and that sent me towards the left wall- didn't want to hot that so corrected right and it went right over. I turned engine off as I was sliding. Looks like it's just body damage. Engine is perfectly fine, I already started it up. Plans are to check frame and suspension and get back out there.
Yeah, first race event didn't go as planned. Finished car day before event. Got to Bakersfield on Sunday and on first round of qualifying I took it easy on the tune and shifted early- got loose in 5th gear and let off- ran 10.3@112. Motor was running good so second pass I put a better tune in and it left hard and went left s little so I corrected and ran 10.07@127. Put some more oats in the tune and weather was perfect.First round of eliminations I got a bye run for a no show. I just broke beams and backed up.Second round I knew I had a good chance for a 9. Conditions were perfect. I made some changes to keep stupid wheelie down but it didn't work- the little 24.5" tired hooked hard sending me hard left hugging the wall I kept my foot in it, car was pulling harder than ever, I was out of the groove trying to steer it into the groove when the tires broke loose causing me to head towards the car in the right lane so I overcorrected not to hit him and that sent me towards the left wall- didn't want to hot that so corrected right and it went right over. I turned engine off as I was sliding. Looks like it's just body damage. Engine is perfectly fine, I already started it up. Plans are to check frame and suspension and get back out there.
Jay, car was running good, its a 9 sec car for sure
Sorry you had that setback, hopefully you will back at it soon!
Man sorry to hear about you and your car been really looking forward to your new setup, glad you are alright. Do you think the weight removed from the front end contributed to the car moving around on you. Cause I've seen you pull some crazy wheelies and still stay in it . Just wondering how much weight do you lose with the aluminum plates compared with the factory steel plates.
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 4,148
Likes: 4
From: California
Thanks guys. I had the frame checked out just for peace of mind and it's ok so I just have some body and paintwork to get her perfect again. Obviously the lighter weight motor didn't help with the wheelies but I knew that going in so I moved some weight up front to help compensate. I really didn't get to make and adjustments as the first pass was a shakedown pass and second pass it went to the left a little. So I didn't want to make any changes based on one event. So on the third pass I added more power and it launched hard left- hard to see in the vids but I was hugging the left wall- probably should have let off but I have driven it back many times like that before work no problems. I think with the added power and cooler track it just spun the tired since I was out of the groove and the rest is history. Based on that run if I hadn't crashed I would have made a chassis/shock adjustment. This was done on the little 24.5" tires and we were running higher than normal tire pressures to keep it from coming up but the track was hooking hard. There was a couple cars that crashed in that lane as well so who knows. I'm over it an moving on. Plans are to put wheelie bars on and go for the record. Screw the all motor Honda rules- they can have fun racing each other. It's not worth it to me to race without bars- it's stupid at this level. I have talked to the promoters and they are looking into changing the rules to allow wheelie bars for rear wheel drive rotaries. Hindas in my class are already running 9.6's so they have the upper hand. So until they change the rules I'm just going to have fun racing my car in private test and tune. The winning purses are a joke anyways.
