PDA

View Full Version : Mary Pozzi at Atwater autoX



David Pozzi
04-14-2007, 01:47 PM
Here is a link to video of Mary autocrossing her 73 Camaro in CPL. She won by .4 second over other cars weighing 500 lbs less.
http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?p=751830#post751830
David

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2007/04/DSCN6474-1.jpg

Steve Chryssos
04-14-2007, 03:03 PM
Awesome.

CraigMBA
04-14-2007, 03:06 PM
Watching Mary drive and from the lap time she cut, it's obvious that package is very well sorted.

Nice job on the car and nice job holding the hammer down Mary!

What size Kuhmos are those?

David Pozzi
04-14-2007, 04:55 PM
She's very smooth and seldom over drives the car. This site is on concrete and if you overcook a corner it takes forever to recover and get going again.
Front are 275 40 17's on 8 inch rim which isn't ideal but we just moved up from a 245.
Rear is a 295 40? 17 on 9.5 which is a bit narrow too but we just increased width there too. We used to run the 275's on the rear, 245's front.

We are still developing the car, but the last mods were Alston G braces, GW cat5 rear springs, and I modified the rear anti-roll bar for adjustability, we have around 6 or 7 adjustment holes now. This car is teaching me a lot! FYI, - The G braces increased torsional rigidity by a third! :)

The car weighs almost 3600 lbs without driver, it seems everything we do to it adds weight.

We haven't done rear subframe connectors yet, saving that for last because I don't believe it will help much for an autocross car.

MrQuick
04-14-2007, 06:01 PM
Congrates Mary, thats great. Nice to see the car is doing you good. I'd like to see a full run down on mods and other specs. Sweet job you two.

David Pozzi
04-14-2007, 07:05 PM
FRONT:
Vintage wheels 17X8
Kuhmo V710 275X40X17
Springs, Hotchkis 600
Antiroll bar Hotchkis tubular
A arm bushings, all GW del-A-Lum
Stock lower arms, GW tubular upper
Upper Balljoint is 1/2" taller SC&C "Howe" unit.
Alignment -1 deg camber, 7 deg caster, 1/16" toe-in.
Steering, 12 to 1 AGR, Sweet late model pump and tank with return modified in tank, PS cooler
Brakes, Baer "Track" 13" vac power booster stock type. Cooling ducts for open track.
Alston "G" Braces
Global West solid aluminum stock height subframe mounts.
Shocks, QA1's Aluminum Stocker Star double adjust. Started with Hotchkis/Bilsteins, too soft.

REAR
Vintage Wheels 17X9.5
Tires, Kumho V710 295 40 17.
Brakes, Baer Serious Street.
Started with Hotchkis leafs 175 lbs/in measured, now have GW Cat5 L2 240 lb/in measured.
Hotchkis antiroll bar, modified to make it adjustable via several holes in welded on arm ends.
No leaf pads in perches
Herb Adams mod, raise front spring eye 3/4" increased anti-squat.
QA1 Stocker Star single adj shocks, started with Hotchkis/Bilsteins, too soft.

OTHER STUFF:
No subframe connectors yet,
Autopower roll bar
Corbeau seats
GM crate motor with 15lb flywheel
Speed Demon carb 750 double pump
Dual plane manifold
Hooker headers poor fit to pan/ground.
Summit X pipe with Walker mufflers, 2.5" and 2.5" Flowmaster mandrel bent tail pipes
Canton wide sump Road Race pan.
Richmond 5 speed
3.08 Gears
Battery in trunk

Car is almost 3600 lbs WO driver, 54% front weight.

zbugger
04-14-2007, 07:58 PM
Heh.... I think I'll be doing a little copying of that car on mine. I still want to go for a ride in it.

Orngcrush69
04-14-2007, 09:08 PM
Dave,
You got Mary hooked up! Now it's time to put your toy together! No more sharing the second gen!

Thanks for the CD of Buttonwillow, we spend a lot of time looking at it!!!!

David Pozzi
04-15-2007, 08:14 AM
It seems there's always something on the "list" for Mary's car. But I told her we are getting close to making it a race car with the stiffer rear springs and shocks, etc so we need to back off and get the 69 racer running instead. However she is going to be doing most of the work on that car and I've set my Camaro as a priority for me.

She's begun work on the 69 Vintage car, and I'm finally clearing out the area around my 67 to begin work on it!!! :) My shop is large enough that I had the luxury of just leaving stuff here and there on the floor and just moved to a new area for the next project, but I'm finally fed up with it and clearing it.

I also have the Lola entered in the Monterey HIstorics this year so need to prep that in a few months.
David

P.S.
The 600 lb front coils allow a fair amount of suspension travel on the street, the rate at the wheel is only 129 lbs/inch due to leverage ratios, and the low hanging Hooker headers have scraped from dips in the road when we drive it on rural roads. I'm not saying the front springs are way too soft, -they are twice what stock coils are, but they are not as stiff as we may imagine. I think they are a good compromise, I just wouldn't recommend using a lower ride height with these springs.

I think that for a street driven car, the 175 rear leafs with rubber front bushings is a better choice. I haven't driven the Cat5's except around the block, but they ride a lot rougher than the Hotchkis leafs we started with. I first rod in it with the GW leafs and race tires, it was TERRIBLE riding. I told Mary I no longer wanted to ride in it if she went on a club cruse out of town. The street tires were much better and tolearable but the Hotchkis leaf rate and rubber bushings are more ideal for a street car.

The Hotchkis leafs allowed some squat, but mainly I saw more front end rise. We couldn't do the Adams mod because the rear was already a bit too low compared to the front, and the front couldn't be lowered more because of header scraping. I had to use double 4 deg shim wedges between axle and leaf to adjust pinion angle down to a proper setting.

The GW Cat5 rear springs and Adams mod stiffened the rear to the point where I don't see any movement up or down when power is applied, the rear is very stable vertically now, also the front does not rise as much as before. I think preventing the rear from squatting helps keep the front down. This may be great on a race car but you sacrifice ride for it on the street, and with street rubber the G forces are lower anyway.

Suspension frequencies are:
F 1.24 CPS
R 1.42 CPS

David Pozzi
04-15-2007, 08:51 AM
News Flash!
Mary won again today! by over 1 second!
The Kumho tire guy was there and said he'd never seen anything like it.

Some NastyZ/28 members took videos again and will post them later.
David

Chad-1stGen
04-15-2007, 09:45 AM
sweet!

67Sally
04-15-2007, 06:40 PM
cool!

CraigMBA
04-15-2007, 08:11 PM
Are you guys that far "in the zone" or is everyone else that slow?

1 second on an autocross is an eternity!

Merlin
04-15-2007, 08:28 PM
A big CONGRATULATION for Mary. Most people don't realize that Mary won with a street car. Her competitors were in fully built, tube frame car with optimize suspension, and race tires
(aka pure racecar). I watched her runs as she pulled down faster time lap after laps. The most truly amazing thing I 've seen in auto-xing. Mary, you are very special person, not the driving part, we all know that, but the part where you help my co-driver with driving advice. With your help, she won her class by a large margin and her first National Tour trophy. Thank you again!

Cliff
p.s. you are welcome to drive our car anytime.

Zedzag
04-15-2007, 08:58 PM
Way to go Mary! You give all us 2nd gen guys proof that we can one day beat these newer "superior" performing cars. I can't wait until my 81Z is ready to take to the local auto-x where I can slowly start to better my car and driving skills.

David Pozzi
04-15-2007, 10:17 PM
Are you guys that far "in the zone" or is everyone else that slow?

1 second on an autocross is an eternity!

Remember she's running in Ladies class, CPL, the men's CP ran 4 or 5 seconds faster than her on sunday, she beat them Sat but it rained during their runs. She's still beating women who drive well and have faster cars, she's just out-driving them. At the time she quit autocrossing 16 years ago, she had more national wins (10) than almost any other woman, if I recall correctly.

I was told one of the hot cars in CP is a late model Camaro with V6, they have 500 hp and are very light with close to 50/50 weight bias. They are allowed 10X16" wheels with 12" wide slicks.

All I can say about her car is it's pretty well balanced now, with no major flaws, we just got it that way this event, so it's not like we are so far above everyone else, just a great driver in a good car but we are really in the wrong class, but with the mods we have, it's not legal to run any class lower than CP.

CarlC
04-16-2007, 07:29 AM
WOW! That's great Mary!

David Pozzi
04-16-2007, 09:03 AM
Carl,
The G braces were a very good addition, stiffened the car in torsion by a third! Give or take, my method of measuring was not all that accurate.

Mary bought a photo from a guy at the event that shows the car cornering with the LF wheel about 2" off the pavement! This was taken two weeks prior to when we hooked up the rear anti-roll bar and the car was understeering and rolling a LOT! I'll post it when we get it copied, it looks cool even if it doesn't represent our current setup.
David

Bow Tie 67
04-16-2007, 09:09 AM
Great job Mary.

Did anyone else notice the 69's hood fly up and block the windshield. I loved the expression in Marys voice, you could here the adrenaline. It has me jonesing for our first track event.

Matt

IDLZRUF
04-16-2007, 10:49 AM
Yea several cars had hood problems this weekend

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

mpozzi
04-16-2007, 12:00 PM
A big CONGRATULATION for Mary. Most people don't realize that Mary won with a street car. Her competitors were in fully built, tube frame car with optimize suspension, and race tires
(aka pure racecar). I watched her runs as she pulled down faster time lap after laps. The most truly amazing thing I 've seen in auto-xing. Mary, you are very special person, not the driving part, we all know that, but the part where you help my co-driver with driving advice. With your help, she won her class by a large margin and her first National Tour trophy. Thank you again!

Cliff
p.s. you are welcome to drive our car anytime.

Hey Cliff,

You'll LOVE this site and welcome aboard. The Tour was fun and the STS contingency is the best. And Doris put down some of the best driving I've ever seen her do. The times showed it and I was so happy she was rewarded with her first (of many, I'm sure) Tour and perhaps Nationals wins. Both of you should look to that premier event as being one of your autocross goals.

I posted the following in the Second Gen forums but will add it here as the event results are a bit misleading for CP and CPL, and there was some hoopla about CPL dusting the CP open class. While it looks like our Camaro was the most awesome thing on four wheels, it actually was only mortal and not invincible.

Gotta confess . . . on Saturday, C Prepared had the unfortunate experience of driving in the rain where us gals in CPL got the dry stuff earliler in the day. The open class dusted our times on a dry Sunday by almost five seconds as every car in there is prepared to the limits of the rules and most are very well driven. While it looks great on paper, those that were there know there was a weather element that contributed to this. Driving a CP car in inclement weather is not fun. Some of the CP-Ladies competitors asked me what I did when faced with rain. Telling 'em I roll up the windows, turn on the heater, select defrost, and get warm didn't win me any friends that day. It was cold, rainy, windy, and just plain nasty outside.

As for the car, I drove the hell out of it. There was absolutely nothing more to get from the car, suspension, tires, steering, engine, everything else and I even include the paint with this. I was behind on my last run by almost 7/10ths of a second and in autocrossing, this is huge. I had a 4/10ths overall lead from Saturday and was hoping to pad this cushion a bit more. The SCCA National Tour events are run like the Solo II Nationals - fastest run from one day is added to the fastest on the second day and the combined time total determines the class placings. You get three runs per day and if you hit a pylon, two seconds are added to that run's time. There are many classes where the placings are decided by mere hundredths of a second.

I went into this event being a real underdog and not expecting much. My competition was Mary Ankeny and she drives exceptionally well. Her car, however, is nothing short of awesome. It's a tube-frame, V6, heavily modified to every letter of the C-Prepared rules Fourth Gen Camaro and just plain hauls butt. In Impound (occurs after each day's heat runs), they asked if I wanted to forego the weighing of the cars and I told them I didn't want to break the scales with mine. Being a V6, the Ankeny's car can have a minimum weight of 2450 lbs or so where my car weighs over 3500 lbs easy. Not sure what the actual weight of the Ankeny car is (very hard to get one down that light) but it's been put on a serious diet for autocrossing. That is one cool car . . .

In addition, I was the only one on street competition radials (Kumho V710's). Every other car had Goodyear or Hoosier race rubber with 10-12" wide wheels. Kumho Tire Company should be happy . . .

I drove at the same site two weeks before and was very unhappy with how my Camaro handled on concrete. The surface was extremely grippy and most cars will understeer when presented to that type of surface. My car thought understeering was a joy to behold and did it very well much to my displeasure. In retrospect, I was glad I ran that event as it told me what we needed to do to get the handling better.

The next two weeks were spent measuring and calculating lots of suspension data and determining what fixes were necessary. Dave's the guru with that stuff and decided to add a rear bar for the CAT5 GW springs and make it adjustable. The Hotchkis bar donated itself and is now sporting longer ends with several mounting adjustment holes. Other changes involved removing the front bump stop spacers (not the actual stops themselves) and adding the G-Braces.

Of all the changes, the G-Braces were the most noticeable from the driver's seat. The front end turn-in was incredible with absolutely NO understeer. It's rare that a component is added that gives so much benefit just by itself. As most are aware, the early Camaro front end doesn't lend itself to the addition of any bracing or frame stiffeners that tie one side to the other with the exception of a full cage. For the price and relative ease of installation (not THAT easy but that's for another thread . . . ), it's the best $$$ you can spend on your car. Calculations showed that it increased front roll stiffness by one-third (33%) and that's huge for a Camaro. I called Dave at ProTouringF-Body and thanked him for developing and manufacturing such a fine product.

I was so proud of the car and it gave everything I asked of it. Totally blown away on how well it did.

Thanks to everyone that added their .02 to this thread and especially to Leo (IDLZRUF) and Mark (Marks71BB) who took time to come out and take videos of the runs. Dave also drove over to help tune the suspension on Friday's Test/Tune event to see if the Camaro agreed with his calculation results. We made a couple of small changes and were good to go.

This site is awesome . . .

Cheers,
Mary Pozzi

6'9"Witha69
04-16-2007, 12:52 PM
Congrats Mary. My wife is inspired to see this type of driving. Now she REALLY wants me to finish up my 69 so I can start on her '71.

Merlin
04-16-2007, 03:23 PM
Mary, I was working impound when we weighed the Ankeny's camaro. I believe their car was just over 2600lbs. So they are not near the minimum weight for the v-6 engine combo. Again, great drive.

Cliff

jeffandre
04-16-2007, 05:37 PM
Great job Mary,
You better stay involved in the sport after this success! No more 10-year hiatus stuff for you. Anyway, I have a set of g-braces for my 71 Camaro and would like to know if you did anything special when mounting/installing them, or did you bolt them on and go? Thanks,

Orngcrush69
04-16-2007, 07:15 PM
Congrats Mary!!!!!

mpozzi
04-16-2007, 08:20 PM
Great job Mary,
You better stay involved in the sport after this success! No more 10-year hiatus stuff for you. Anyway, I have a set of g-braces for my 71 Camaro and would like to know if you did anything special when mounting/installing them, or did you bolt them on and go? Thanks,

Oh boy . . . here we go. The right side was a relatively easy bolt-on. No muss, no fuss, textbook per the instructions. The left side, however, was a real PITA. The mounting flange for the fender bolt did not match up with the cowl flange. When you mounted one part, the other would either stick up or not align at all!! Dave cut the fender bolt flange completely off, I bolted it to the fender with the necessary six washers and a new bolt, installed the rest of the G-Brace, Dave tack welded the brace tube to the mounted flange, and the entire assembly was again removed for further welding so the flange could live in it's new location. The bolt hole was also tapped. And after dropping the washers down the inside of the fenders not once but several million times, they were taped together using electrical tape. This worked well and the next time they fell, it was in one solid piece. I learned how to snake my hands inside of small crevices that are part of a Camaro (yes, there are some of those) to retrieve dropped washers and bolts.

Fiddle-farting with this side took about six hours and lots of creative language until we finally realized what degree of surgery needed to be done for a correct fitment. After the final welding, I cleaned and beadblasted the end, and then painted it. Unless you look very close, you can't tell what we did and the brace looks fine. While this may be a problem for just my car, I can't believe that others haven't had the same frustration. Again, a real PITA and I can't see anyone that doesn't have access to welders, grinders, metal cutters, and the like tackling the installation of these braces. If you have a friend that has some of this equipment, perhaps you might install the braces at his facility.

Remember, these are 30+ year old cars that have probably sustained some type of collision damage, have had repairs for such, and have self-altered (read: sagged) their original mounting points for most anything that was once attached on the assembly line. There may be installation issues but I hope it goes well for you. These braces do work and you'll be rewarded with a better handling car when they're on.

Cheers,
Mary Pozzi

David Pozzi
04-16-2007, 09:12 PM
On the other hand, the passenger side bolted right on. :)
You might luck out on the drivers side. Or if you carefully note what needs to be modified and how much, you could mark it and have someone remake the end. It may just bolt on though, hard to say.

I do recommend you start with the difficult side first.
David

jeffandre
04-16-2007, 10:37 PM
Thanks for the replies! A quick trial fit looks good already (I can't believe I might have it easy on one part of the car!!!). Did you do anything to increase the support to the cowl area where the g-braces attach?

Aceshigh
04-17-2007, 03:48 AM
500lbs lighter and they STILL lost to a 2nd gen.
Schweeeeet. :drive:

Damn True
04-17-2007, 07:39 AM
Got the new issue of NA Pylon yesterday and Mary was mentioned there as well.

David Pozzi
04-17-2007, 11:21 AM
Thanks for the replies! A quick trial fit looks good already (I can't believe I might have it easy on one part of the car!!!). Did you do anything to increase the support to the cowl area where the g-braces attach?

Jeff,
No we didn't do anything to add support. We were a bit pressed for time, just got them installed a day before Mary left. The inner ends have two bolts and I would have liked to make a metal strip to go underneath instead of just washers. Ideally I'd make the end twice as wide and use twice the bolts, but probably use smaller bolts like 5/16" or 1/4". The lip is suprisingly sturdy and it's much easier to install the bolts compared to a first gen which has no lip. It's probably plenty strong the way it comes.

We will keep an eye on the braces and see if there is any sign of weakness. I hate extra tubes in the way of the engine, I wish there were another way to do it, but this method certainly works much more effectively than I'd imagined. I'd read a quote from Guldstrand that the Second gen's had a lack of subframe torsional rigidity, but WOW! :drive:
David

CarlC
04-17-2007, 03:57 PM
David,

You know you've created a monster (a very nice one), right? What's the next mod?

Would installation/manufacturing be easier if the downtube to upper A-arm mount or the cowl tube used a turnbuckle and/or rod end?

David Pozzi
04-17-2007, 05:48 PM
I see subframe connectors in the future, also complete the cold air system.

It would be nice if the cowl ends were threaded in, so you could adjust length and clocking. I'd also like to investigate bracing parallel to the anti-roll bar. Third gen IROC's have a small bar that mounts on the antiroll bar holes and strengthens the steering box since it's mounted to the front frame horn and that is only attached at one end. I still haven't driven the Camaro so haven't felt the "improvement" :drive2: :drive2: :drive2: :drive2:

Steering brace is not a problem on a first gen. I have a buddy with the G braces on a first gen, don't know how much they help for them. I'd like to "borrow" his car, but I don't know if he'd let me twist it with a huge piece of tubing!
David

ErikSOCAL
04-18-2007, 04:41 AM
wow, I looked at those pics and was surprised to see the mufflers didn't have any scrapes on a lowered 2nd gen. Whats the lowest part of the car, header flanges?

David Pozzi
04-18-2007, 08:02 AM
The front dives a more than the rear, when you hit a dip on the freeway the header tubes can hit. Especially the RF tubes, they are lower (thanks Hooker)... The front tubes and header flanges are the lowest part. The exhaust is pretty new so not a lot of miles on them yet. Love the X pipe, very quiet and nice sound.
David

PTAddict
04-18-2007, 10:23 AM
The front dives a more than the rear, when you hit a dip on the freeway the header tubes can hit. Especially the RF tubes, they are lower (thanks Hooker)... The front tubes and header flanges are the lowest part. The exhaust is pretty new so not a lot of miles on them yet. Love the X pipe, very quiet and nice sound.
David

I ran Hedman elite headers when my '71 still had a 1st gen SB, and they had pretty good clearance even with my Hotchkis front springs. I also have an x-pipe, and in combination with magnaflow mufflers it makes the most lovely snarl. I run the revs up in the lower gears just to hear it.

My '71 is now set up quite similar to your car, except for rear sway bar, Guldstrand mod, and g-braces (I have a set, but haven't installed them yet), and I have Global subframe connectors. I run track days but no auto-x yet. The car works very well indeed. I haven't noticed issues with too much understeer, except in one tight left hander at Portland International Raceway. Interestingly, I didn't notice that much difference in ride switching from the Hotchkis to the Global Cat5 rear springs - the ride overall is pretty firm, but not to the extent it really bothers me. And I'm not a young guy :)

I also noticed that rear-end dip under acceleration was dramatically reduced with the Cat5 springs, even without the Guldstrand mod.

David Pozzi
04-18-2007, 12:40 PM
Will the Headman headers clear a wide oil pan? We have the Canton pan.
You have 100hp more than us, must be fun to drive! :)

The car rode much better with the street tires, but I liked the softer Hotchkis leafs better for street use.
Dvid

PTAddict
04-18-2007, 02:12 PM
Will the Headman headers clear a wide oil pan? We have the Canton pan.
You have 100hp more than us, must be fun to drive! :)

The car rode much better with the street tires, but I liked the softer Hotchkis leafs better for street use.
Dvid

I don't have the motor any more, it's been three years - but if I recall correctly, I had a Milodon road race pan on it, and I know I was using a Lakewood scattershield, and the Hedmans cleared both.

The modified LS1 is an absolutely fabulous motor, pulls hard to the rev limiter at 6,800, but idles and drives like a late-model *****cat. I'll never build a car with an old gen SBC or BBC again ...

Edit: I see there's an old term for a feline pet that triggers the kid-safe post checker! LOL.

Orngcrush69
04-19-2007, 10:26 PM
Since this thread is still hot...Speed Ventures is on June 2-3 we'll be there with Dan's new 383 and my tranny problems are solved! Hope to see ya there.;-)

mpozzi
04-20-2007, 02:22 PM
Buttonwillow, right?? If so, I'm in. You guys going for both days or just one?

How'd you fix the tranny problem?? Yank it and put in a 5-speed?? :yeah:

Cheers,
Mary Pozzi

Orngcrush69
05-06-2007, 06:00 PM
Sorry, Yes Buttonwillow, We're going Saturday 6/2. I think Dan will be there all weekend. NO I didn't yank the 200R4, that tranny is awsome for the pounding it takes! Shifting is fine, heat is fine! Driver just learning. lol Saturday will be CCW with no Bus Stop(25A)! So it's gunna be different with high speed on the back of the track, with the new turn where the buttonhook used to be, a great config for us Mary! Sunday will be CCW with dog leg.

mpozzi
05-06-2007, 06:42 PM
Cool and I just registered. Didn't see you guys on the list so if you haven't done so yet, get cracking or you'll get the cattle prod.

We'll have the motorhome so have a place to escape from the heat. BBQ like last time???

Cheers,
Mary Pozzi

Lemons
05-07-2007, 11:49 PM
Wow, your car is awesome. It looks and sounds great.

I just attended my first auto-x this weekend, and I think that I might be hooked. I didn't drive myself, as we were there to test out our FSAE car before competition, but I did get a chance to ride in some cars. This was a really great experience, and I look forward to doing it again.

I also have a 73 camaro myself, but it needs a ton of work before I can get out there and embarrass myself. I do have a ton of plans for my car, and it sounds like I'll learn as much as I can from your setup. It's been just about impossible to work on the car while I'm in school, but I'm almost to the end.

Great job, the car and the driving look superb.

Chris

mpozzi
05-08-2007, 08:32 PM
Wow, your car is awesome. It looks and sounds great.

I just attended my first auto-x this weekend, and I think that I might be hooked. I didn't drive myself, as we were there to test out our FSAE car before competition, but I did get a chance to ride in some cars. This was a really great experience, and I look forward to doing it again.

I also have a 73 camaro myself, but it needs a ton of work before I can get out there and embarrass myself. I do have a ton of plans for my car, and it sounds like I'll learn as much as I can from your setup. It's been just about impossible to work on the car while I'm in school, but I'm almost to the end.

Great job, the car and the driving look superb.

Chris

That's great about your first autocross and glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to try parts that we're currently running and ask any questions about set-up and all. The first, second, and most of the third-gens are not that competitive in F Stock or E Street Prepared, and the $$$ needed to make them run well in C Prepared or Street Modified is huge. Get a copy of the SCCA Solo II rules and regs to make sure you don't change something on your Camaro that bumps you into the wrong class.

Curious to know more about your FSAE car?? We had Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) bring theirs out and they had a blast. I think their entire group ran it.

Keep in touch,
Mary Pozzi

Lemons
05-09-2007, 12:01 AM
Hey Mary,

Thanks for the encouragement and advice.

So, you're curious about our FSAE car huh. Well, I have had the pleasure of being a suspension engineer for this year's FSAE car at Cal State Northridge. The auto-x was our first chance to take the car out and see what she can do, and we weren't disappointed. Since you have seen Cal Poly's you have some idea about what these cars are all about, but as you can imagine no two look a like. Here's some specs for this year's car:

Yamaha R6 engine w/modified camshafts and custom ECU
Tuned aluminum intake and titanium exhaust
Carbon fiber front monocoque w/aluminum rear monocoque
Pneumatic paddle shifters
Rising rate suspension w/ bellcranks and pushrods
Non-parallel, unequal length a arms
Adjustble front and rear anti roll bars
Three way adjustable coilover shocks
Wet weight 446 lbs

Just about every component on the car is designed and manufactured in our own facility on campus with our CNC machines. I had the pleasure of operating one of our CNC mills, which was great. We design the entire car in Solidworks and analyze every part before manufacturing even begins. I have really enjoyed this project, and I have learned so much. Here's a link to our website where you can see the car and many of the parts we have made:

http://www.ecs.csun.edu/~sae/2007/

The auto-x this last weekend was a chance for California schools to practice before the upcoming competition in June. There were about 6 schools there this saturday, including Cal Poly SLO. We had a blast, and it was great to see some other cars. Our car performed very well, actually beyond our expectations. We actually recorded a peak lateral acceleration of 2.5 g's, transient, and about 1.5 steady state. This is a big step up from last year's 1.6 peak, transient. We are very happy with the performance of the car, and we haven't even started tuning the suspension yet. We feel very good about this year's competition, which will also be at Fontana. We will compete with schools from around the world in both static and dynamic events. The dynamic events include acceleration, skid pad, braking, auto-x, and an endurance. The cars are driven by students as well. We have about a month of testing to get good at driving and tune the car. We are off to a good start to far, so hopefully things will continue to improve.

As you can see, I get a little chatty when it come to our FSAE car, so feel free to ask any question if you want to know more. The competition is June 13-16, and anyone can come out and watch. I hope I didn't state too much that you already knew.

Chris Lemons

Orngcrush69
05-09-2007, 06:53 PM
Signed up. Dan's bringing his new 5th Wheel, so we'll be there all weekend...C-everyone there!!!

Lemons
05-10-2007, 12:07 AM
David,

I was trying to find some information about the Alston G braces, but I haven't had any luck. I was wondering if you had any information or pictures of these. They sound like they work great and would be a great addition to my car.

Thanks,

Chris

David Pozzi
05-10-2007, 08:44 PM
Dave,
Are you guys renting the same garage as usual?
I'll try to park just behind it with the rig. Mary will tow down her new trailer which is too large for the motorhome to pull, so I'll drive the MH separately.

Chris,
Look here for a G brace thread my wife posted pics there.
http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85801
David

Lemons
05-11-2007, 02:49 PM
David,

Thanks for the info on the G braces, they look pretty good. I was wondering if they have caused any interference when trying to work on the motor, such as working on the headers, spark plugs, or valvetrain. I could definitely see the benefit they would provide. There's not much point having a great suspension if the chassis simply flexes all over the place.

Chris Lemons

Orngcrush69
05-13-2007, 05:09 PM
Pozzi's
No Garage this time, Dan has a huge trailer that he is going to hook up, so I guess we'll be at the west side of the track. Would like to do a camp closer to the track for day use, so we'll talk about when we get there.

David Pozzi
05-13-2007, 06:08 PM
Dave,
We'll see you guys there!

Chris,
The braces do get in the way some. I haven't changed plugs yet but I think we can get around them OK. I have a buddy with some on a first gen and his seem more in the way for plug changes.

If you are not going to autocross or open track you probably don't absolutely need these braces, but from what I've learned from testing torsional rigidity, they are well worth putting on and their effect can be felt when you drive the car.

I really hate putting tubes along side the engine, there's enough stuff under the hood allready, but they do work.
David

CarlC
05-15-2007, 06:33 PM
Chris,

I had Prince as a teacher for one semester back in the day. I spent most of my time on the other side of the old engineering building making concrete canoes.

Nice work on the FSAE. If you guys need rolling element bearings let me know and I'll try to get you the homie hookup.

Lemons
05-15-2007, 10:54 PM
Hey Carl that's awesome. I try to take any class that Dr. Prince teaches, and I've really enjoyed learning from him. I'm glad you like the car. We are really hoping to do well this year.

We are planning to test the car every weekend up till the competition. It's really great to see the car running, now we just have to get as prepared as we can and try to have some fun.

Chris

CarlC
05-17-2007, 07:55 AM
It's really great to see the car running, now we just have to get as prepared as we can and try to have some fun.

Chris

Words to live by.

We had a pretty good boat, but never had the time to practice. It killed our chances at the ASCE competitions. FSAE had some of the same problems that year. But we had a fun time, nobody remembers who won, and the core group are still friends after many years.

The fastest car does not always win the race. It's sort of like golf. Tiger Woods will clobber most any golfer with a beginner set of clubs. Ditto for a good driver. Does your team have dedicated drivers, and is there time/money in the budget for driving lessons? Even pros take lessons.

Got a picture of the FSAE you can post?

Lemons
09-11-2007, 08:56 PM
Well, this has been a long time since I have posted, but I thought I would let you guys know how we did at our FSAE competition. I am very happy to say that we did great and had a great time. We posted our highest finish in school history, finishing 7th overall out of about 80 teams. Dynamically we were certainly one of the top teams, finishing 1st in skidpad, 3rd in acceleration, 5th in autocross, and 9th in endurance. Unfortunately our static performance was not as good which kept us out of the top five. No complaints at all for 7th. It also felt great to win the skidpad as I was on the suspension team and designed the shocks/swaybar system.

We had a blast, but now it is time to try and get some work done to my 73. I have quite a few ideas, but a lot of questions come with them.

Chris