Polo 9n3 Performance Tracking Thread #2

[sambb]

Thanks Eddy. Yeah I was really happy with that. Granted last time I still had standard front dampers and springs and AD08R's and it was my first time there. This time round I had the B8 bilsteins and A050's which helped. But still I was stoked with a 2 sec drop over such a short run. There's a slight right hander after the straight they call 'the kink' where the road narrows to a bit over a car width between Armco and a tyre wall at the top of third gear. I'd been building up to getting through there flat all day and managed it on the last run which was when I posted my best time - was an epic feeling.

here's the time sheet: http://wscc.org.au/results/club/20161120.pdf

[sambb]

I've had a few pretty good motorsport days lately. Last night I went out to eastern ck (Sydney motorsport park) where they were running round two of the whiteline summer rally sprint series. Whiteline Twilight Tarmac Rallysprint - North Shore Sporting Car Club

I'd probably have gone out there just for a sticky beak anyway as a mate and I will do at least one of these rounds this summer, but a big sweetener was when on sunday at the hillclimb event I just did, a couple of the guys invited me to co-drive for them. One of these cars was a fully set up ford cosworth RS sierra sapphire 2WD so I didn't need much more encouragement after that.

First up I was in a Suzuki Ignis sport 1600cc. This car has been at the front in state and club hillclimb championships in road reg class for a few years now. I was really curious to see how this car went because its an open diff FWD and he's a big left foot braker. Well I can tell you I'd have sworn he had a limited slip in it. He had it carrying so much apex speed it'd have been quicker than my car through the tight sections for sure- four wheel drifts, inside rear in the air and with his left foot braking had the thing stuck like glue on the front end. Very humbling from a driver talent perspective. He ended up 45th out of 80 or so cars, which is mental considering that every second car was a 4wd turbo.
The cossie was a bit of a bucket list thing. As a little boy my uncle used to take us down to the bottom of conrod and we'd watch the sierras in qualifying and this was my first go in one. This was a again a pretty humbling experience seeing how he pedalled this thing. He was running only 205 15's all round yet was so tidy and precise. The thing was a weapon and was running 17th!.
Another highlight was a yellow jaguar ( the long bonnet V12 ones) that musn't have had a flywheel because the thing revved like a banshee - honestly just like an F1 V10 sound. There were time attack cars. Muller and Muller had their golf R in the top 3 I think too.
If anyone in Sydney wants to co drive and has a CAMS license its as simple as buying a summer license from the club for 30 bucks , coming along with your helmet and longs and going onto a co driver list where you can jump in with anyone who needs a co driver.

What I have learnt: I'm going off the idea of shelling out for an LSD. I realise now there's a lot more time in me just driving better and that I absolutely have to master left foot braking. Second is Lights. There's a day run, a twighlight run and then 2 or 3 night runs. Obviously the night air is cooler but the track is rubbered in and still warm so that's when people go the quickest. I need somehow to fit a mounting bar for spot lights. In the Ignis the corner closing speeds weren't so high but in the cossie it really drove home that I couldn't do this till I can really light up the surroundings.
anyway it was lots of fun and spectators are free so its worth a look for anyone.

[kaanage]

Good job, Sam. I'd still like a WaveTrac for getting out of slow corners.

[seangti]

great to read Sam. Those Ignis sports can be pedaled and set-up really quite well for what are.

Yeah in hindsight I could have developed my suspension further before dropping money on the diff. I'm yet to get tangible results from the money, a few tenths isn't tangible IMO. That left food braking is a nice technique to master. I'm yet to get the firmer rear springs sorted, though I tried running without the rear wing at last timeattack. It was sketchy under brakes without it and wanted to rotate more, but was good/more fun. I'm getting more comfortable with rear movement which is influencing my driving style, allowing for more rotation earlier in the corner for a straighter exit and earlier on the throttle. The last event was stinking hot so I was 0.5s off my PB, though my mates were off by over a second, so there maybe something in running without the wing until I sort the springs.

I've got a few maintenance things to address in the off season, e.g. new cam cover gaskets, new turbo oil return line and forge baffled sump. It's all at home. I'm also getting a boost leak code (though it's holding boost) and a misfire/knock count low in the rev range and at idle when cold. Yet it's driving better than ever lol

[sambb]

Did you end up softening the front by putting the standard front anti roll bar back in Sean? What I'm finding out (although it might be different for me cos I'm normally pushing on cold mediums) is that the car is probably quicker at the apex with the whiteline FARB on stiff, but I have to be faultless to be quick. If I'm going in too hot and have to lift slightly to tuck the nose in then it'll obviously get really light in the rear. When the bar is on soft though there is no doubt more roll and the car is less pointy and agile but its a lot more forgiving in that there's less chance that i'll need to adjust the nose at a bad time and so less chance of lift off oversteer despite still having the rear bar on hard. Seems counter intuitive that the car is more forgiving and less inclined to bite me with oversteer when the roll stiffness is more rear biased but thats the way its working for me. I think if I can master the left foot braking thing then it would work better with the front bar on hard though as I wouldn't have to lift to get the nose back in anymore.
A trick that I found really helps with rear end stability despite running it relatively stiff is track width. I've played with spacers at the rear to get the rear track width much closer to the fronts and I've found it makes a big difference to rear end stability even if your very stiff there - might be a way to help things when the rear wing is off the car.

[sambb]

If anyone who's Sydney based is interested, the next round of the twilight rallysprint series is on this Thursday evening at eastern ck. Basically come to the dragway carpark which acts as the pits at 6pm when the first runs start and it goes until 10.30+pm. Everything from a rally spec UK prodrive aston martin vantage to Neal Bates and some ARC guys/girls to time attack cars and little road registered shopping trolleys like mine. nsscc.com.au

[sambb]

Did round 3 of the whiteline tarmac rallysprints last night. It was really tricky drizzling conditions with the track going from damp to damp with a dry line to full wet on the last three runs. Its was awesome fun to deal with things like time control, rally countdown clock and staged start times. Having a mate as a co driver to tell you when you suck and when you nail something is cool too. We ended up 30th out of the 88 cars that ran. In our 2wd over 2 litre class we ended up fifth behind a time attack RX7, a porsche GT3, a 180SX and the sierra cosworth that I co drove at the last event. Best bit was managing to stay ahead of a lot of the evo/wrx/gtr brigade in the wet:

http://nsscc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WTRS-Results-Round-3-December-2016.pdf

If I run again i'll need another pauir of A050's as my rears are on the indicators and even better lighting. Going ten tenths at night in the rain when you can't see a goddam thing is a huge rush compared to doing it in the day but gets a bit risky. Nest move there will be a roof/magnet mounted LED light bar.

[sambb]

finally got round to working out youtube uploads. Here's a vid of my first run, wet, on stone cold semis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6RZ8kPg33o

[louis19]

New PB for me at the 1/4 tonight. 13.1 @ 106MPH. Ready to try and crack a 12 in cooler weather [emoji1591]

[sambb]

far out that's mental!

[louis19]

far out that's mental!

Thanks Sam, new tyres felt like they were hooking up well, and the 60ft shows that too!

[sambb]

what tyres are you on now?

Curious if you've tried spring rubbers/blockers. They are really big in the states especially for biasing suspension stiffness for circle track work but are also used in circuit racing (larkham on rpm was showing how they are used in Supercars) and in street car drag racing.

You basically measure your rear spring diameter, the thickness of each coil and the distance between each coil. Buy a pair of spring rubbers - https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...-212/overview/ . You can get them for standard coils and tightly wound coilover type springs. They come in different hardnesses. Install them like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKtCpVw9F70
when you get to the track.
They basically lock out one of the coils on each of your rear springs. In FWD drag applications it increases the rear spring rate. When the rear load transfer happens at take off the higher spring rate and resulting higher rear ride height keeps the car raked which helps front end traction. When its all over, you pull them out and drive home on a standard car.

[louis19]

On Re003's now. Those rubbers are interesting, briefly heard about them before but never really looked much into them. I haven't tried any suspension tweaks to be honest, just run it as I do from circuit work, same height etc. I don't go enough to justify trying all different setups/changes, but I'll do some reading up on those anyways for curiosity sake. Thanks for the link ☺


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[TDIfan]

Finally have some time to bring my PoD to the drag for the first time
Was expecting a 14 but it was a lot to learn for a first timer plus the launch control map untested before the runs and I can't turn it off while I was there so 15.1 was the best run of the night :/

[kaanage]

Times added/updated

Well done Sam, Louis & TDIfan.