September 5, 2010 - Track day test!
The good news? The new diff works beautifully. I could get on the power much earlier and get a solid drive off turns - left and right. It's a clutch-type diff. I had an idea this might be effective as the V8 cars from Flyin' Miata have shown an uncanny ability to hook up out of corners. On the first session, I managed a 1:03.796. That's nearly a full second off my personal best in the car. Now that is some serious progress!
It wasn't without a cost, however. I found the handling of the car was difficult. In particular, I had trouble with corner entry understeer. It didn't seem to be there for that first session, but almost seemed to get worse as the day went on. I tried to drive around it and I tried to tune around it with shock settings and a stiffer rear sway. Interestingly, the sway bar change didn't seem to have any effect. I also found I couldn't get enough rear bias into the brakes - even with the rears turned up all the way, I'd still lock up the fronts too easily.
I suspect what might have happened is that the old tires have finally given up. This is the same rubber I ran in the Targa almost exactly two years ago. They've seen 5 days at Laguna Seca with two drivers, probably a dozen track days on this track, some road use and of course the Targa itself. When the Seven is too low on traction, it gets a similar behavior. Oddly, the car doesn't feel slippery, it's just not hooking up the front under braking or turn-in. Am I going in the wrong direction? Hard to say. I might just have been trying too hard.
I have another track day on a big track next weekend, and I flat-spotted at least one of the fronts badly enough that it's done now. I have two more mounted tires and two unmounted ones in the garage. Both pairs from the Targa (or possibly pre-Targa testing) of course, but they haven't seen as many heat cycles. So I'll swap the flat spotted front tires out for the "new" unmounted ones and put the other pair on the rear, then take the existing rears with me as spares. I'm also going to double-check that front shock to make sure it's working as well as bleed the brake system again, and if things aren't any better then I might throw in some extra front camber if possible.
I ended the day a bit bummed out that I couldn't go faster, but I'm feeling a bit better now that I look at the times again. Another Miata at the event - a turbo car running some Nitto 225/45-15 tires on 15x9 rubber!- was putting down times right around the same as I, and his times fell off over the day like mine did.
Was the diff a success? Well, if I can sort out the handling, yes. Right now, the car wouldn't be happy on the Targa because it's too easy to wash out the front end, but if I can get that sorted then it's a real winner in terms of fast corner exit speeds.
tags: testing, other cars, skills |
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