Overall, the Grassroots Motorsports $2012 Challenge was a success! Skipping to the end, the car finished 17th out of 34 entries and turned in a 14.56 quarter mile ET.
The drive down over Wednesday and Thursday was utterly uneventful. The car performed flawlessly and was getting over 35mpg while doing 70mph down the interstate. It’s actually not at all uncomfortable, and with the baffles installed in the Supertrapp, it’s not even that loud on the inside.
Once I arrived in Gainesville, my plan was to do a little more cleaning out of the car, however, the bath I had planned for it was cancelled due to rain, so I wound up having to go into the concours a little dirty from the road. I was, however, able to solve the oild leak problem, finally, thanks to Bill from the Shelby Dodge Automotive Club. He pointed out that the turbo is really really sensitive to any slightest upward cant in the oil return line. I drained out the oil, cut about 6-8 inches out of the drain line, put the oil back in, and suddenly my oil leak problem was solved. Amazing.
The autocross didn’t go too well, only turning in a time that was in the 44th percentile. The pro driver actually managed to shred the tires, so I think the first problem was that the rubber was pretty much spent. The car is also up too high and the rear end needs to be stiffened up. Adding some negative camber to the front probably would have helped a great deal, too. In the drag race, I would have been able to do 13s if I could have gotten the front end to stop breaking loose — I was breaking loose in first, second, and third gears. When I trapped at 100mph, I was also bouncing off the 6500 RPM rev limiter in 4th gear, so that didn’t help either.
So, what do I do now? Obviously, the car is going to continue as the rallycross beater, and I wouldn’t mind just driving it around town. I haven’t decided if I will bring it back to the $2013 Challenge, although the more I think about it, the more I think I want to do it. Most of what I want to do with the car could still be done for Challenge money:
Suspension
Coil-overs are probably the right way to go, and adding a rear sway would be a good idea. The car is super nose-heavy right now so being able to pre-load the rear suspension will help with launching the car, and getting it a bit stiffer and lower wouldn’t be bad either. I think that if I could find another front stock front strut, I could get the ebay coilovers on. That would also get the perches out of my way and open up my tire choices a bit more — especially for rallyx. I’ll also keep my eye out for a rear bar.
Engine
Things are running pretty well. I’d like to consider pulling the PCM completely and letting megasquirt just take over. I might also consider pulling the intake off again and doing some more porting and polishing. The boost pipes are doing their job just fine, and the oil leaks appear to be taken care of. Only one fan is currently hooked up, so I’d like to hook both fans up to a switch on the dash. I’d also like to fix the shutoff switch so that it works properly, and also put a shutoff switch on the dash to comply with autox rules. An oil pressure gauge should also be added, since I’m flying without a net somewhat.
Transmission
I think that transmission lube is leaking from the top of the transmission, and the speedometer ring is missing. I’d also like to have an LSD someday. Getting the transmission where I’d like it will be spendy and might not fit the budget. I’d consider possibly getting a junkyard clutch and transmission, using that transmission as my “regular one” and then swapping back to the junkyard clutch and the current transmission for the Challenge, which would put about $235 back in the budget for other things.
Appearances
Oddly enough, my concours score didn’t really change from 2006 to 2012. I’d like to pull the motor out and re-spray the engine bay — maybe in truck bed liner? I would also take that time to detail the engine and re-paint the valve cover and boost pipes. Some better brackets for the boost pipes and other such (instead of zip ties and bungee cords) would be nice too. The interior is okay, but it needs to be cleaned out better. I’m not really sure how to go about that without using a hose. The wiring needs to be attached to something with some little brackets, and flocking the dash would be a nice touch.
One thing that they’re always talking about is how black cars don’t photograph well, so if I could either plastidip or otherwise paint the car some more brightish colors on the outside, I’d probably do a bit better. Maybe even a good amount of vinyl applied in the right way. It would be pretty cool if I could mimic GRM’s old Neon.