Polo 9n3 Performance Tracking Thread #2

[sambb]

I ran in the last nsw state hillclimb championship round that i'll be doing this year. It was at the southern districts motorsport complex (south of Wakefield). If you look up SDMA hillclimb on you tube you'll see the course.
I manage to place 3rd out of the registered state competitors in my class, but we all got done by local club competitors for the first 3 spots.
Conditions were tricky - it was trying its hardest to rain so the sun was in and out from behind the clouds. Its amazing with hillclimbs/cold tyres how just 5 mins of sun on the track will cause times to fall and then you'll go backwards when the track temp drops.
Really happy with the car and my times for a track I'd never been to before - I was pipped by only 1/10th by an HSV gts 6.2L supercharged behemoth so I was happy that I came away from it where I did with the car in one piece.
Starting to nail what I need to do on the start line too for good start splits so that has only taken 1/1/2 years of competing to get to there.
Next year hopefully a wavetrac!!!!

25/9/16 over 2.5L road registered class, SDMA hillclimb complex, A050's, dry conditions: 49.05 seconds

http://entry.sdmahillclimb.com/WebDisplayBoard.php

[louis19]

Last nights PB Willowbank run




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[kaanage]

Well done sambb. Doubly so, louis19.

Sorry for the delay with the updating.

[sambb]

20/11/16
Huntley Hillclimb (non-state round)
dry, A050 mediums

28.64 secs

p.s proof coming soon. They are a bit slow getting the official result sheet out.

[Eddy]

Hoyhoy.

Over 2 secs better, well done Sam.

[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.