American Muscle (Week 3): Laguna Seca (w / Results)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kolyana
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Jetboys427
Anyone else care to comment on this?
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IMO, B-Spec Bob should not be used for testing, he is an idiot :dunce: ! Bob will not push the cars to the limit like we(humans) do. If you want or need help testing I'd be glad to help, just send me a PM with the info I need.

I'd also like to see the Mustang SVT and the Grand National. :dopey:
 
I think that b-speccing and using TCS can give erroneous results across the board. IMHO. Testing should be done with a small group of reliable drivers, capable of turning in consistent times on courses that they know well.

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Laguna Seca:
I've changed my car parts ... this will be my 'car swap' of the season. I'm running a risk, because I'm experimenting with ditching my tranny, so we'll see how *that* holds up on the various long straights in future weeks.

That being said, I have new splits for Laguna Seca which hopefully will drag me off the bottom:
24.217
46.296
1'11.862
 
Well, that's kinda like what I'm doing now. I've employed Bryan, Jerome, you (Natalya), and Ronny. Bryan and I have decided on messing around on El Capitan Normal and Trial Mountain Reverse for testing...
 
I'll do some testing of my own and PM you when I have the time.

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New splits:
23.869
46.293
1'10.787

I think, with time, I could get this down even further ... I'm beginning to learn the lines, understand where I cna accelerate and where I can't ( :p ) but I'm not sure how much more I'm going to put into it ... this damned heavy assed Z28 is so darn touchy ... one wrong move and it's ass is all over the place :p

For interests sake I'm now running:
Supercharger / Oil Change
Sports Suspension
Sports Clutch
Racing Flywheel
2 wasy LSD
S3 Tires
Weight Reduction 1

Main difference is the LSD/S3 tires instead of a fully custom Transmission. I tried running with less HP, because the Z28 really can kick out the back end very easily, and then figured I could put the cash into an FC Tranny and drop the S3 tires, but my testing was inconclusive*



*Read: I took off 30HP and forgot to put in the tranny, which essentially meant a much worse car and no benefits ... sure the back end stopped kicking out, but forgetting to put in the transmission was kinda stoopid.

** Thanks to bhawk for the assistance :)
 
Message for bhawk:

1. bhawk776 has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.

bhawk776
[

Any luck with the Camaro?
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Yes, a lot of luck :)

Most of my problem was learning the lines of one of my weakest tracks, but after an hour or so it all started to sink in.

I immediately adopted your settings and parts and saw a good speed increase, finally running a sub 1'11 T3 and strong T1/T2. I almost certainly could shave off another .5 or so, probably without *too* much effort, but I need to take a break ... damn thing can be so frustrating!

I actually dropped the ballast altogether and I'm not really getting any wheelspin now ... just the odd time coming off the sharp corner before the start line, but it's rare and easily controlled. I also found that the extra weight in the back caused the ass end to come around *alot*, which can be fun, sure, but soooooooo annoying when it's near the end of a great lap. Dropping the weight seemed to help with this.

I'm still way off the leaders times, but it's a major improvement, so thanks for that.

I did try dropping the S3 tires, Racing FW, Sports Clutch and 30HP of power, figuring that I could then drop in a fully customizable transmission and the rear would be even less inclined to kick under power, but - silly old me - I did all my testing *with no transmission*, so essentially I just dropped a lot of parts and didn't put anything good back into the mix ... of course I ran slower!

I think this combo (yours) will work well for some of the tracks to come. I'm a little concerned that I'll lack speed on the fast straights of Infineon, but hopefully being able to run without TCS (!) will make up for that.
 
Sorry, Inbox cleared

Nice Splits 👍 👍

You might try reducing the rear ride height to 119 and increase the rear camber to 1.5 to help keep the rear end coming around.


Edit: New Splits 👍

Thanks to Koly for mentioning that she dropped the ballast weight from her car and following my own advice :dunce: about increasing rear camber I've was able to put down a decent time :crazy: . Theres more time to be had but I'm done.

New splits:

T1) 23.384

T2) 45.499

T3) 1'08.960

:D
 
Submitted My Time.

I've desided that I'm going to kept my same, original car for the entire season. Because A), I'm always up for a challenge, and B) I'm too lazy to going around testing cars and parts.
 
Relative to the FC tranny I concluded:

Sure you get a faster top speed (if the straight is long enuf) but that just meant you had to start braking a little sooner. In the long run I concluded that better tires and a clutch upgrade were better alternatives (assuming you already had the racing flywheel, for the money the racing flywheel seemed to provide the best benefit...the S3s and clutch cost about as much as the FC tranny). The S3's better grip help with both braking and acceleration (the FC only helps with the acceleration part) the clutch only improves the acceration part.

NY might just have the longest straight of the AMC season. Even tho the '69 Vette bounced on the rev limiter these parts provided quicker times...basically I had to brake earlier on the long straight with the higher top speed. The better tires ate the FC tranny up....although I never tried tuning the tranny beyond the auto setting that allowed the most top speed down the straight. The Vette's stock tranny is pretty good.

I don't think any of the rest of the tracks have any straights long enough to be a factor (for the Vette)...or the Shelby that I'm driving now....I did some testing it gets close. The only way it would make a difference is if you're topped out half way or more down a straight.

Anyway this is stuff I think everybody knows.
 
Congratulations to bhawk776 for taking top honors this week, his masterfully driven Chevelle pushing out Jetboys Charger 440 and Jump_Ace's C3 Stingray; good to see the other cars coming into their own at last ;)

A closely fought 2nd and 3rd place goes to Jetboys427 by 4 hundreths of a second!

Less drivers turned in time this week. We're missing the two fast brothers and no news from MustangManiac, ebiggs, bbinnel and frogger; hope you're doing okay out there guys and 'real life' isn't distracting you too much :p

And for those that don't know, kennythebomb won't be with us anymore; he's off to college and will not have his PS2 with him (oh the humanity!). We'll miss you at the top, Kenny.

According to the rules, the following drivers may change their parts if they wish:
Bigrew, Darkwind, Physics, Teledriel.

Congrats again to all drivers and especially the podium positions ... really showing the rest of us how it's done!!!

If I have any details wrong - especially now some drivers have switched cars - just let me know :)
 
Sorry kenny, we don't want u to go! But an education is like buying tires u know? Always a WISE investment ;) Just edged u out again for the 3rd straight week. For this week I felt I could have hit .6, but it wouldn't have been .608 more like .698...lol. Couldn't quite pull it all together this week, came to be VERY consistent at .9xx tho about 4 straight finishes and a couple other random ones, so the lap is there. Good times tho and learned a LOT, like how to drift; anyone else drift? 👍

jump_ace
 
Define Drift.

Sliding sideways while screaming at the top of your voice, eventually losing the rear end in a squeel of rubber and the spit of sand?

Yeah, I drift. :scared:


In all truth, I've found that - with the Z28 - it's an easy car to drift (Seattle was a BLAST for this), but I think it shaves off too much speed ... this car is all about needle like, surgical precision ...
 
Congrats to all :cheers:

I didn't think I was going to close to the leaders but the last minute changes made a huge difference.

Great racing everyone 👍 👍
 
Congrats bhawk, jet & jump :bowdown:
Way to go Koly in the Z28 👍 . Busted my chops pretty good. I guess I better work harder with the Shelby can't be embarrassing the good Ford name.

Just curious what HP and wt. everybody's running with. I've got 1153kg and 336HP = 3.432:1 Ratio -- maybe HP could be added to the chart...might be an interesting factoid. I expect I'm running the lowest weight and probably HP too. With a different parts combo I could have 346HP but the 1.5LSD gave me quicker times....too much wheel spin?
 
ahhhh!

If I hadn't have gone off to college I surely would have gotten second and (possibly) first! ..... lol man

Anyone wanna buy me a PS2? Please? lol
 
Kenny, I had assumed that you didn't have your PS2 with you, because the college banned it, or you didn't have a TV or didn't want to spend the time playing or something. Did you have to leave it at home for someone else to play?
 
Gratz to all. 👍

Didn't get much time this week to run or test new settings. Sunday, went to run, and turning the first hairpin, going for the first right hander, well, the car wouldn't steer right at ALL. This a brand new controller, and seems the Let Analog stick is all ready shot.... sigh. Looking at it when I return home in a few. Thank god for backup's.
 
Kolyana
Kenny, I had assumed that you didn't have your PS2 with you, because the college banned it, or you didn't have a TV or didn't want to spend the time playing or something. Did you have to leave it at home for someone else to play?
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The PS2 is my dad's, and so is GT4.

There is one (1) PS2 that everybody has to share. I managed to get a few minutes in for week 4 so I will have a time for it, but probably not a very good one, haha
 
You rock! I hope you can muster a PS2 together at some point, or mayeb dad will feel sorry for you and buy you one for crimbo ;)
 
Kolyana
You rock! I hope you can muster a PS2 together at some point, or mayeb dad will feel sorry for you and buy you one for crimbo ;)
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haha.... yeah right. I'm worth more than my dad, simply because I'm not in debt. He barely makes anything. I'm putting myself through an expensive college completely, so I've been scrounging for money for books :yuck:
 
Yuck. Sorry Kenny, aside from pawning yourself out to sailors at the docks, I'm outta ideas :p

Ran at Infineon a few times tonight ... consistently matched my T1 time, got .1 off at T2, nothing worth putting on the board, but did slash .7 off at the line, which I guess isn't a complete waste of time.
 
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