{"id":2031,"date":"2013-09-15T01:56:15","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T08:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2013-09-15T01:56:15","modified_gmt":"2013-09-15T08:56:15","slug":"2013-national-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=2031","title":{"rendered":"2013 National Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, that was about what I expected…<\/p>\n

After a better-than-expected finish at the ProSolo Finale the weekend before, had high hopes headed into the Solo National Championships.<\/p>\n

At the Pro the car finished 5th, ahead of some car\/driver combinations I had no business being ahead of.\u00a0 Some of it was a course that favored the car, some of it was in the problems those car\/driver combos had.\u00a0 The Camaro at this point is rather tricky to drive – I don’t yet have a good feel for the brakes, am still learning the requisite throttle control, and overall, the car is much less forgiving than it could be.\u00a0 With 6 tries at each course in the Pro, it gives me the chance to learn the correct braking and throttle application points by experience, vs. going by feel or judgment.\u00a0 Worked there, but you don’t really get those chances in the Solo…<\/p>\n

The Pro ended on\u00a0a Sunday, and STX didn’t run until Thursday\/Friday.\u00a0 This gave three days to further test and tune the car, and I had time slots Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Monday’s slot was used to test a shock change, with everything else from the Pro totally left alone.\u00a0 Up to that point, the car had always felt very “dead” in slaloms.\u00a0 At the car’s very first event, I’d turned the shocks from an unknown initial setting (which turned out to be full stiff) to full soft in all 4 adjustments (rear shock description<\/a>).\u00a0 In general in a powerful RWD car I like the rear shocks set a little softer than you might want for ultimate pure-handling performance, as it makes the car a little more forgiving of incorrect throttle or brake inputs.\u00a0 And the car was so deadly loose early on, full soft made sense.<\/p>\n

As the grip in Lincoln was very high and my comfort level with the car was rising, the first real shock change I did, was to take rear rebound from full soft, up to about 25% stiff in its adjustment range.\u00a0 The car responded very well in the slalom on the test ‘n tune course, really starting to come alive in those transitions. “More” might have been better but that was a start, and I didn’t want to overshoot and make the thing a nightmare.<\/p>\n

Monday I was approached by the GRM crew, they were interested in doing a shoot with the car.\u00a0 Even at 6:30pm it was still a little bright out to do engine bay shots, thankfully Tom McDaniel was there to lend a hand, and some big sign thing, to help them out.<\/p>\n

\"Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday test ‘n tune covered the switch from the Hankook RS3 tires to Dunlop Direzza Z2.\u00a0 As we were running in the first group in the morning, which would be relatively cool, and I had no codriver, I felt this was a more appropriate choice given the likely difficulty I’d have in getting (and maintaining) enough heat in the Hankooks.<\/p>\n

The Dunlops were on the new CCW<\/a>\u00a0“Classic-5” wheels in 18×9.\u00a0 These wheels have a very nice vintage look, and since they were made with quite a bit less backspace, they\u00a0can be\u00a0run without spacers, while providing a much more aggressive “deep dish” sort of look.\u00a0 From before:<\/p>\n

\"J-Rho's<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately the car had a bit of a rubbing problem in the front with the wheels at this backspace.\u00a0 A little bit of rubbing is ok, but I was worried not just about damage, but about what sort of funky understeer moments this extra “brake” on the outside front tire might cause.\u00a0 Cut this session short with 2 runs, and had a pair of the Dunlops mounted on the higher-backspace Jongbloed wheels.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s test session had the new front wheel setup, and I also changed out to my lightweight “Nationals” battery.\u00a0 In the picture below, it’s the one on the left-<\/p>\n

\"XS<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s an XS Power C680, which is the same form factor as the Odyssey PC680.\u00a0 It’s shown next to the Odyssey PC1200 I’d been running.\u00a0 The lithium battery is crazy light – under 4 pounds.\u00a0 When you pick it up, you’d swear it had to be an empty battery case.\u00a0 This switch saves 35 pounds, and since the car burns fuel so fast, it was probably under 2950 competition weight for most runs.<\/p>\n

Speaking of fuel, this thing drinks it up!\u00a0 The tank was nearly empty on the trip out, and I decided to do most runs with the tank full (note the signs of fuel having sloshed out the back in the battery picture above) – and on this trip, the car got over 27 gallons put in…but I think the stock tank is only 18 gallons.\u00a0 Major thirst!<\/p>\n

Here is video of my second test ‘n tune run Wednesday:<\/p>\n