Autocross with the Maxima today!

[HRH]

Holy dog balls Private!  It's hot out there.  100 degrees today not including the black top heat soak.  Lots of sunscreen and water.  We only did a half day today because of it.  Got out at 2pm, still got 7 runs in.  Pretty good.  Except I ran in the morning, worked in the afternoon.  Not used to it being quite that hot, plus I'm becoming a wuss because the new NAPA Cheney store has pretty good ac.

 

Anyway, did pretty well today.  Definitely a flowing course, lots of speed potential.  Moved the car to DSP class, worked well.  Except I don't think I have enough events left to get a season trophy even if I win all the events from here on out.  And there was another guy in that class who wasn't there who normally is.  I think I can beat him, but still.  I want to go faster, which means more power or less weight.  I'll probably go the less weight version.  But that may mean going back to EP class to try and catch Kelsey with his V8 Thunderturd. (Well set up fast car and good driver)  And realistically with my power level, I need to be at 2000 pounds in the Maxima.  I'm at 2700 now.  I'm pretty sure I can remove 500, but the remaining 200 is pretty tough.  And I'd like to keep glass in the car.  But if I'm going to go for it, I need everything out.  Door structure, seats, all glass minus the front windshield.  Haven't decided which way to go with that yet.

 

Here are some pictures and video for you while I mull things over!  Oh and I FINALLY GOT MY SWAYBAR!!!  The rear one came Thursday.  Of course I didn't have time to install them before autocross so I may do that later tonight.

 

Videos are still uploading, here are some oics in the meantime:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HRH]

Video!

 

[HRH]

And the other video!  More squirrelly in this one.

 

[datzenmike]

Matt does drive fast. I had a ride this year.

[HRH]

And there weren't even corners there!  ;)  I finally got the front swaybar in.  What a bitch.  Had to grind the brackets.  I'd bitch to the manufacturer, but that wouldn't do any good anyway.  Didn't work for getting my bars sooner, 3 months on order.  I'll post the swaybar install pics on the build thread eventually here.  Still need to put in the rear tomorrow.  Hope it's a little easier.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Awesome videos, that maxi is pretty quick!

[smoke]

And there weren't even corners there!   ;)  I finally got the front swaybar in.  What a bitch.  Had to grind the brackets.  I'd bitch to the manufacturer, but that wouldn't do any good anyway.  Didn't work for getting my bars sooner, 3 months on order.  I'll post the swaybar install pics on the build thread eventually here.  Still need to put in the rear tomorrow.  Hope it's a little easier.

Are you having understeer with just the front bar installed?

[HRH]

Haven't driven it yet.  Going to put in both bars and subtract as needed.  When I had the Miata I ran a big bar in front and no bar in the rear.  With the camber, understeer wasn't much of an issue. This car is a bit heavier, think it's going to need both to handle well.  I may need stickier tires after I put these bars in though.

[q-tip]

Stickier tires are always a good idea for autocross

[smoke]

A real apples and oranges comparison but I ran a VW bug in autocross for a bit. Strange as it may seem, that little fucker had oversteer like crazy. I softened up the rear with lighter torsion bars and ran an anti-roll bar in the front only, made it really predicable, the only way to make it oversteer was to lift your foot and jump back in the throttle. Made it much more fun.

[HRH]

Updated the build thread in project datto.  Not particularly impressed with Addco.  If anyone else had made the bars, I would have gone with them.  Hope they at least construct them out of decent quality materials as I'm going to be flexing them hard at autocross.