Crazycandians KLG4 swapped autocross beast

[crazycanadian]

While you are checking out the tire flex on the front suspension video have a good look at the front control arm mounting point... You might catch the frame flex thats happening during heavy cornering...

Another video to post up.. This one is from todays autocross event.. This video is compiled from new data logger.. You'll notice part of the begining is cut off.. This is because I need to fine tune the triggers I am using that auto start the data logger..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM-9l2uxXMM

I am not 100% sure but the talk around the time trailer was that I set FTD... If I did this video is my FTD run.

[crazycanadian]

So I guess I haven't updated this in a little while... As with any great build there are always challenges to over come... This summer I discovered that my radical alignment specs, although proving to be fast out on the autocross course, were coming at a price... I was chewing up the inside half of my slicks.... So some adjustments needed to be made..

Here's a picture of one of my front tires..


This kind of wear is pretty odd to find on a mcpherson strut car... I ended up putting my car back up on the alignment rack to have a closer look at my camber gain on turn in.. At about 20 - 25 deg steering angle I was gaining an extra half a degree of camber.. At this point it was pretty clear that my 3.25 deg static camber was to much for racing slicks... I dialed the camber back to 2.25 deg.. After talking to a few people, they were under the impression that I was running to little air pressure as well.. Going from 28 - 30psi up to 40psi would also help improve tire life.. So far this has done the trick..

An interesting note... My friend Rob who also autocrosses a 323 runs about 3 deg camber up front, but he races on street tires.. So far his street tires aren't showing any rapid wear problems.. Since I recently bought a good temp gun, I think we will have to look at tire temps..

[crazycanadian]

So the alignment and tire pressure changes sure had an affect on the car.. My next event out I really struggled to keep the back end of the car under control.. I ended up having to soften up my rear shocks and take 6 psi pressure out of the rear tires to get the back end of the car back under control..

In this event I managed to finish up 20th over all out of 98 drivers, and 3rd in my class.. Turns out this was good enough to clinch my 1st place over all standings for the season.. The ugly duckling and I are going to be taking home our first ever trophy at the end of this season...

Here's a video of my best run from the event..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tXx18PIxfc

For next season I have been on the hunt for new tires... A great deal popped up on a local autocross forum.. I didn't waste anytime picking them up... Some nice 15" Konig monoblock ultralight weight rims with 205/50 Hoosier A6 tires... The hoosiers are pretty much new, they only have 1 run up knox mountain, and 2 laps around mission raceway on them... I am looking forward to finding out what all fuss is about when it comes to racing on Hoosiers..

[Surgeonasst222]

Congratz on the trophy!!!

[crazycanadian]

So I am getting ready for this weekends final autocross race of the season for the VCMC car club... The new r-comps I picked up needed to be driven on a bit to get rid of some ORP (Other Peoples Rubber) if you have ever known anyone to race at nationals in lincon or packwood you will know what I am talking about..

I decided to take some comparison pics..

205/50/15 Hoosiers and Konig 15x6.5" rims.. 29 lbs...


225/50/14 Kumo's and Nissan Sentra 14x6" rims.. 35.5 lbs..




205/50/15 Kumo SPT''s and Mx3 GS 15x6" rims... 31 lbs...

[crazycanadian]

An interesting comparison in measured tread widths...

Kumo SPTs'.. 205/50/15


Kumo V710's. 225/50/14


Hoosier A6's..205/50/15

[crazycanadian]

Last but not least.. Test fitting the new Konig rims and Hoosier tires.. I think the car looks pretty sexy with its new shoes..

[crazycanadian]

Some interesting specs on the tires...

The Hoosier A6's new weigh in at 18lbs... The tread is supposed to measure out at 8" wide..

The Kumo V710's new weight in at 21lbs... The tread is supposed to measure out at 9" wide..

The hoosiers are almost brand new.. That would make the rims around 13lbs.. I'll weight them out one day when I change tires over to see for sure what they weigh in at..

The Kumo's I have are almost worn out.. that makes the rims about 15 - 16lbs... Thats not to bad for an OEM 14 rim..

[Daninski]

I normally wouldn't say this but, that's a nice looking "JOHNSON" you got there.

[WhiteFinish]

Good stuff...

But uhh.. what does it mean ?

Why are thread widths important ?

[Surgeonasst222]

Good stuff...

But uhh.. what does it mean ?

Why are thread widths important ?

The wider the width the more grip u have I belive... Maybe I am wrong

[crazycanadian]

Good stuff...

But uhh.. what does it mean ?

Why are thread widths important ?

Not all tires are created equally... properly fitted 205/50/15 hoosiers are a little wider then my properly fitted 205/50/15 Kumo SPT's... Even though my 225/50/15 Kumo V710 are squeezed on a 6" rim, if they were properly fitted they wouldn't be much wider then a Hoosier A6... If you have been around autocross you might have heard guys talking about how hoosiers tend to measure out a little wider then what they are advertised at..

By going to a proper rim/tire set up, even though I am running a smaller tire I am still maintaining the same size of contact patch..

You add in the fact the hoosier rim/tire combo is 6.5lbs lighter then my V710's, plus over all a better tire.. Next year should be fun... I was quite successful this year racing... Next year should be better..

Anytime you are looking for all out performance, little details like this can be make a big difference.. You always need to look and compare everything..

[crazycanadian]

Looks like I haven't updated this in a while... Autocross season wrapped up last year with a bang... I had lots of fun... I ended up winning first over all in my class.. Mazda canada also paid out enough cash to cover all my entry fees and general costs of running all the events I ran last season.. Its wasn't a lot of cash, but it helps...

The trophy I got for my class win..


A shot of the car out running the cones with the new hoosiers...


Over the winter its just been some maintenance related stuff mainly... This summer should be fun.. A friend of mine is stepping in as a codriver... This week we are getting measurements to have some custom 15x10 rims made for the front.. This way we can run some 275/45 hoosiers on the front... We all ready have the date booked off and the details being planed out so that we can run nationals down in packwood this july...

Had my son help me take the head liner out of the car.. It had come unglued and was hanging down in the back..


I managed to peel it apart and re-glue it back together...


I also scored a good deal on some new shoes for the car... 205/50/15 Dunlop ZII... They only had 2,000 km on them.. The guys selling them decided to switch to Toyo R1R's...


Last but not least I scored a really good deal on a new daily driver... My new 88 Mazda 323 GTX... Feels great to be back in the BF world and have a GTX again.. She needs some tlc but over all she is in good shape... She only has 80,000km on her and she is 100% bone stock, unmolested... The only plan I have is to do the maintenance work and then driver her..

[Josh]

I have been driving on those tires daily now for about 1.5 months.. and I like them a lot. Not as much as my R888's, but these are pretty nice tires.

[crazycanadian]

I have been driving on those tires daily now for about 1.5 months.. and I like them a lot. Not as much as my R888's, but these are pretty nice tires.

I wonder how the R888's would compare to the Dunlops in a rainy autocross event... These Dunlops have proven to work really well in the rain... The first event of the season it down poured part way threw my morning runs and right threw the afternoon.. Looking at the afternoon runs I was 2nd fastest overall in Raw time...