AMERICAN HALL
All American Championship
Series Race Prize Money 10,000 cr/Race, 35,000/Series
Prize Car: Chevrolet Corvette Convertible (C1) ’54 (21,249cr)
1) 5 Laps Seattle Rolling Start
2) 5 Laps Infineon Sports Car Rolling Start
3) 4 Laps New York Rolling Start
4) 4 Laps El Capitan Reverse Grid Start
5) 5 Laps Laguna Seca Rolling Start
Having won this a couple of times in the Camaro LM, I decided to attempt it in a non-race-bodied car. Chose the Shelby Series 1 as I reckoned that it had the straight-line speed to do the job. However, the handling was appalling
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Fitted the following hardware:
Roll Cage and Racing Suspension
Custom Gearbox, Custom LSD, 3-Plate Clutch, Racing Flywheel and Carbon Driveshaft
Racing Brakes and Balancer
Racing Exhaust, Chip and Stage 1 NA Tune (Stage 2 NA Tune from Race 2 onwards)
Racing Tyres Grade 3
After a disappointing first go at the series, which was marred by a couple of spectacular wipe-outs due to the cars predilection for snap oversteer during braking, I settled on the following suspension settings:
Springs: 9.0/7.6
Ride: 99/99
Damper Bound: 6/5
Damper Rebound: 9/8
Camber: 2.0/1.0
Toe: 0/0
Stabaliser: 5/5
Brakes: 3/2
LSD: 10/30/30
Gearbox: Default
The LSD seemed to make a big difference to the car. I was running a 1.5 LSD unit before and simply dialling in the custom kit to an MR style setting made it much better. Also, I decided that the easiest thing to change was the driving style so I simply stopped turning the steering when braking, if at all possible.
Against a grid consisting of Dodge Viper GTS-R Team Oreca ’00, Ford GT LM Race Car Spec II ’04, Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Race Car ’98, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (C2) Race car ’63 and Ford GT40 Race Car ’90, I made pole at Seattle by over 3 seconds.
Previous experience has been that you need to pole by five seconds to take the win as the AI qualifies without HP upgrades and actually runs much faster in the race. Try it and see. A-Spec value 200. The Shelby bounces terribly up the hill jumps – I wonder if the front suspension was bottoming out there? Took a tight win over the Esperante with a BL of 1:31.6. The other cars were well back and I think that without the Esperante to introduce stress, this could be an easy ride.
I think the Esperante will be a problem unless I increase the Shelby’s horse-power, so I fit the Stage 2 NA tune, raising HP to 503 from 426. Took pole by 5.8 seconds but found that the increase NA tune made the snap-oversteer during braking much worse – I theorise that that’s simulated engine braking locking up the rears if you drop the throttle entirely? Won 200 A-Spec Race without getting bothered by the Esperante this time. BL 1:29.1
On to New York. Poled by 3 seconds – the Esperante’s speed is going to make it tough to win here, although’ I’m sure I can make it up in the twisty stuff. A-Spec 200. Won by 0.1 seconds with a punt up the backside from the Esperante propelling me over the finishing line
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El Capitan Reverse. This track gives me some trepidation as it seems full of the type of corners and bumps the Shelby dislikes. Poled by 1.9 seconds despite a little sideways action
. Victory by 0.2 seconds or so. BL 1’42.213.
Laguna Seca. This will prove very interesting in the Shelby I reckon – I might experiment with raising the ride height if qualifying proves too hairy. Poled by 3.5 seconds and, not pushing that hard, the Shelby seems okay. Let’s see if she handles the race just as well. BL 1’24.423 and an easy win.
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