Second Packwood weekend and Spring Nationals Leadups
It’s been an incredibly hectic two weeks. I spent a couple days tearing into more of the electrics and found that the fuel pump wire down the driver’s side of the rear harness had rubbed through to the chassis, which is probably what started everything. I ran a new thicker gauge wire and re-loomed/moved some of the harness, so it should hopefully never rub through again, and the thicker wire will be less prone to heating. I also ordered a Deutchwerks 300LPH pump due to my decreased confidence in the Walbro, intending to use it as a spare if the Walbro died. Finally, I moved the fusebox out from under the side of the engine bay into a spot near the intake with some airflow, in case it just needed some ventilation as well.
The subframe that we were told existed wasn’t actually the right subframe, which we didn’t discover until after close of business Thursday night. We got to wake up early Friday morning and call every parts shop in the area to find a new subframe. The only one we could get before Monday wouldn’t be pulled until 5pm that night, 2 hours from home. So, we picked it up, got back home around 7:30pm, and spent the entire night swapping the subframe and front control arms. Shaikh finished up the shocks Thursday night and overnighted them so those arrived Friday morning, and when we finished with the subframe, we got to also assemble/swap the new shocks (mounting canisters, etc.) Around 11:30pm we finally finished with all the work, then spent until almost 2am doing a ride height set and string alignment. We realized the alignment wasn’t going terribly well, and we couldn’t get enough camber out of the front anyway, so we called it good enough for a shakedown and went to bed.
We decided that waking up in 3 hours and driving to Packwood for the morning session was out of the question, so we went down for the afternoon, which was a nice dry day, and had no major issues at all with the car. The car was pretty loose, but still drivable, and we settled into liking a RaceLogic setting of 20% slip and 5.0mph wheel differential. Sunday morning we woke up to a wet ground and ongoing rain, and we ran a very wet morning session, where we got to throw on the Hoosier Wets (225/50/15 H2Os on 15×9 6ULs) and play with the RaceLogic to figure out a wet setup, which worked out quite well. We tried 5%, which seemed pretty good, but 10% was really the sweet spot, if you had quick enough hands. The car is remarkably drivable in the wet, which is good to know. On a very representative course, I was only 0.4 behind the Hyman GT-R car in full wet trim, which is closer than I would have hoped to get. We had no issues with the car in the wet either, called it a day, and drove home.
On the tow home, the alternator on the truck let go, though, adding some more insult to the existing injury. Nothing is ever easy…
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