MHIC Set up
I am going to put a Giant Asterisk on my set up here. There were a few "outside the box" Titanic Deck Chairs that I clung to throughout the event that I would love to have a do over on. That being said, taking 3rd in stock is not too poor of a result. And if I was able to solve a bizarre left turn issue in 13.5, it would have been podium worthy as well. Back to that asterisk, I had good luck at home by placing CRC 45 side springs over the side links and spacing the cross brace up 4mm in the mod car vs Roche whites in the factory location either touching or preloaded. At home... this mod helped my car finish the corner a little better and attack each corner more aggressively. Initially I arrived with 169mm wide fronts, 5* reactive blocks and springs in factory locations. I just couldn't get the cars to really steer enough. I practiced with diff's in both 17.5 and 13.5 until about 2p Thur then swapped to spools. Steering improved along with lap times, but still more was needed. I narrowed up the front track widths and went to 10* reactive and the cars made a nice jump in performance. I tried more camber gain, but it didn't feel like the right change for me with the spool so I went back to all shims on top of the eyelet. The 17.5 car was on spec tires of course and was pleasant to drive. The 13.5 being on open tire, I tried R35 but then shifted over to mag/gre which made the car feel a little more connected to the track. Still looking for more initial steering, I tried stiffer front springs to see if I could get the car to transfer weight a little more instantly. I went from Roche-white to Roche gold. The 17.5 car accepted the golds, while the 13.5 didn't so much. I went back to Asc 18 on the 13.5. In hindsight, I should have done the same in 17.5 and simply doped more front tire. As the event wore on, I swapped out my B/A Lola in 13.5 for a PF AMR P/L at the same time switching to the 10* reactive. It allowed me to drop the nose of the body to pick up a little more "aero steer" too. That move alone shaved 2ths off my laps. EA flat out took me behind the woodshed when it came to 13.5 HP. Clearly, he had that all dialed in. I plagiarized his settings and got a little closer, but there was not enough dollars to toss around to fix my issue, so I just sucked it up. It was nice that Denver did a motor tech. Several didn't pass. At least I could see what amount of motor I was missing is all about. Moving on... I did come into a little issue with the 13.5 car not wanting to turn left consistently. It would either carve in nice or push in, snap loose out...it was a 50/50 deal. The mod car was on the same tires and it didn't do it, so I am left scratching my head. I was running a 3 line center spring in 13.5 low on the mounts vs a 2 line center spring in the mod with 2mm more of elevation. I'll solve that next season....
All said and done, I would have liked the 17.5 car to be a little more aggressive (but I blew out A2 after getting too aggressive). The 13.5 could have steered consistently. The mod car got away from me on main day, I needed to change tires.
Hope some of you can pick up something from my testing results.
Brian