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Autocross- SCCA EV-X Class vs. SS

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#1,141
Question: what adjustable aftermarket front swaybars w/o bonded bushings can be set closest to the OEM one in stiffness?

I think I may have accidentally stumbled upon the reason my alignment was getting thrown off after autox events. I was diagnosing an unrelated suspension noise (probably a ball joint starting to go in the compliance linkage, likely due to stiffer bushings). Disconnected sway bar endlinks, drove around, reconnected the same way they were and ended up with a crooked steering somehow. I'm thinking OEM bonded bushings are acting weird, and maybe slipping a bit.
 
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#1,142
That's an interesting theory. However, for a swaybar to impact your steering angle, it would need to affect your ride height, and differentially on one side vs the other. You should be able to identify this with a tape measure if it's happening. Measure your ride height with the bar disconnected, then measure with it connected (after driving around enough to settle out the height error that happens from jacking it up. Even more important than a height change is if the height changes differently from one side to the other.
 
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#1,143
My starting ride heights were within ~1mm of each other (and I don't think I can reliably measure them with better precision). W/o the sway bar connected I ended up with ~4mm difference somehow. Not exactly sure how, my shocks/preload were set the same left/right. That ride height difference resulted in a large shift in steering (like 7-10 degrees CCW) and triggered the 'service alignment ...' warning. After re-attaching the swaybar, I ended up with **about** the same ride heights I started with, with steering a couple of degrees CW. So, there *may* be ride height changes, but they are with my 1mm error margin. Apparently, that's enough to skew the steering. So, as much as I hate to do this this close to the Nats, I'm gonna have to mess my swaybar to eliminate one potential source of issues. The steering rack itself is still in contention tho :(
 
#1,144
dsgerbc said:
My starting ride heights were within ~1mm of each other (and I don't think I can reliably measure them with better precision). W/o the sway bar connected I ended up with ~4mm difference somehow. Not exactly sure how, my shocks/preload were set the same left/right. That ride height difference resulted in a large shift in steering (like 7-10 degrees CCW) and triggered the 'service alignment ...' warning. After re-attaching the swaybar, I ended up with **about** the same ride heights I started with, with steering a couple of degrees CW. So, there *may* be ride height changes, but they are with my 1mm error margin. Apparently, that's enough to skew the steering. So, as much as I hate to do this this close to the Nats, I'm gonna have to mess my swaybar to eliminate one potential source of issues. The steering rack itself is still in contention tho :(
Click to expand...
Holy crap. Even boogering up my alignment I have never been off more than a few degrees!
 
#1,146
Gonna try to not make this long, but I had the opportunity to get 3 events under my belt. First one being a National Tour here in Chicago. Ran this one on stock OEM Pirellis'. Not expecting much here since I kind of expected the car to be crap with OEM tires. Only thing I did for this event was do an alignment. Overall, I feel I did fairly well considering I haven't autocrossed since 2018 and had no idea what or how the car would drive. Pic of event results w/AS as well....
ChiTour.png


After that event, I fully caved into buying a wheel set and RE71RS'.. Was able to run 2 local Chicago events after that. First event on new rubber I was surprised how well the car felt and performed. Obviously I knew the car was going to get better, but I half expected the balance to be thrown off with much grippier tires. First event results... Had a scratch time that would've netted me fastest RAW time of day and 5th on PAX, but overall was super happy with the car.
Chi4.png


Following week event... This one was a bit tougher due the the weather. Our event site is usually pretty dusty for the morning runs and usually 1st heat will go faster in the afternoon. Not that day though, 100f + with heat index made it a grueling day. Side note, Dan Simms ran all his runs in the AM. I was able to clean up for the afternoon and to my surprise I did go faster with the car sliding all over the place., tires fatigued very quickly. I'd imagine if I was able to run that run in the morning, I could've been .4-.5 tenths faster. Results...
Chi5.png


Now, at the first local event, we did have a SEB member there and he flat out told me BS is not going to happen and they were getting a lot of pushback from the AS crowd. Now unfortunately I did not help the cause with my results, but he did say that conversation was going to happen at NATS.

Overall, really happy with the car as it stands, and can't wait to do more events. Cheers!

Also, here's a little tid bit over on FB SCCA AS driver page..... 😬😬
FBpost.png
 
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#1,147
Yet nobody at a nationals event can come close to an SS time in an EV-X car, even people that dominate at their local events against great SS cars.

The reality is that there is no appropriate class for a Model 3. For some courses it's an SS car. For others it's not even a BS car. The longer and faster the course, the slower it is.

Nationals will be interesting with 9 cars, and I promise you none of us will come close to the SS time despite having modified cars.
 
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#1,150
dsgerbc said:
What was the course like? M3P can absolutely dominate on tight lots with lots of slow corners to power out from.
Doesn't make it competitive against GT4s in competent hands on big courses. Looks like AS would be a good match though, but it will never happen, lol.
Click to expand...

Best if I post a picture of the site..

RT66.png


I'll post vids of top PAX (FS Champion) from both events to give you an idea of the courses...

Event #4

Event #5

Courses here are usually very fast down one end to the turnaround and fast back up to a few tight elements to slow the cars down before the finish.

**EDIT**
Also to note, for event #5 on one of my runs I made a conscious note to attempt to look at my top speed up to the turn around. I saw 73mph then I immediately overshot the next element 😅
 
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#1,152
I was at Chicago tour too. Agreed, pretty fast course with little grip. Watching you drive the Model 3 was really impressive, especially on OEM tires. I usually can’t watch the other Teslas because they’re directly before or after me. I’d love to see what you can do with your RE71Rs or even in EVX!

I’ve been scrambling a bit before Nationals. Sold my LR AWD a few weeks ago, picked up an M3P 2 days later, had some initial quality issues I wanted addressed before ripping the suspension apart, tried to swap compatible parts but had a seized bolt in my FUCA which cracked my shock mount. Involuntarily learned how to do my own alignment because my shop had a 3 week wait, then I went to the Nebraska region event last weekend where it was over 100f at the airport so I didn’t feel like playing with many settings beyond learning track mode (which is awesome). Looking forward to going back in a couple weeks!

Chicago:
IMG_0771.jpeg

Use anti-seize:
IMG_0777.jpeg

Lincoln:
IMG_1026.jpeg
 
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#1,155
Soooo, I did a TnT event last weekend, partly because I wanted to understand what different track mode settings are doing.
Had ~30ish runs with track mode + scanmytesla logging. Crap tires + asphalt, but plenty of track mode variations.
Had some bluetooth disconnection issues, so, ended up with 20ish useful merged logs.
Scanmytesla has front/rear torque split.
I finally got time to play with data today. So far, it's not real informative and I will need to come up with creative ways to visualize what's going on.
On top of regular telemetry time series (maybe overlaying a couple of runs), I can do charts like this:
Steering_vs_torque_on_deceleration.png

Here, I have front torque minus rear torque vs steering angle, restricted to data points with the rate of speed declining.

Any suggestions on what to look at next?
I can have logs of 'F power', 'R power', 'F torque', 'R torque', 'Steering Angle', 'Accelerator Pedal', 'Brake Pedal', 'SOC', 'Speed', 'Lateral Acceleration (m/s^2)', 'Longitudinal Acceleration (m/s^2)', 'Brake Pressure (bar)', 'Steering Angle Rate (deg/s)', 'Yaw Rate (rad/s)', 'Power Level (KW)', 'State of Charge (%)'
 
#1,156
dsgerbc said:
Soooo, I did a TnT event last weekend, partly because I wanted to understand what different track mode settings are doing.
Had ~30ish runs with track mode + scanmytesla logging. Crap tires + asphalt, but plenty of track mode variations.
Had some bluetooth disconnection issues, so, ended up with 20ish useful merged logs.
Scanmytesla has front/rear torque split.
I finally got time to play with data today. So far, it's not real informative and I will need to come up with creative ways to visualize what's going on.
On top of regular telemetry time series (maybe overlaying a couple of runs), I can do charts like this:
View attachment 968340
Here, I have front torque minus rear torque vs steering angle, restricted to data points with the rate of speed declining.

Any suggestions on what to look at next?
I can have logs of 'F power', 'R power', 'F torque', 'R torque', 'Steering Angle', 'Accelerator Pedal', 'Brake Pedal', 'SOC', 'Speed', 'Lateral Acceleration (m/s^2)', 'Longitudinal Acceleration (m/s^2)', 'Brake Pressure (bar)', 'Steering Angle Rate (deg/s)', 'Yaw Rate (rad/s)', 'Power Level (KW)', 'State of Charge (%)'
Click to expand...
It would be neat to note how much rear torque is restricted with various degrees of Travtion Control and Stability Assist at different steering angles?
 
#1,158

Had my stability assist too high, and had to run with factory LCABs and CR bearings after swapping in factory parts while changing a clunk (bad lower ball joints) resulting in a lot of understeer.

Finished 5th of 40 in the local Porsche club event after coning away this 2nd-place run.
 
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