Need a little help figuring something out

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Shock travel measurements...

Was a busy day as I had to get the car ready for a co-driver to drive it first heat, then I was to drive it in heat 2, both of us were to get 5 runs each. I didn't do any measuring during Dan's runs in heat 1 as I was busy trying to get him used to the car then I took the opportunity to videotape his runs as I wanted some footage of the car on the track from the sidelines.

Here's a taste of that

http://youtu.be/Ya8ZOd5O76Q

Getting measurements on my front shock travel was next to impossible between runs as I could not only not see the bottom of the shock, much less measure in there...I was able to get my cell phone in there and get a pic of the ziptie after a run though. And it was as I figured, the zip tie was pushed down to the base of the shock.



I verified this when I got it back home and on the lift, both zipties on the front shocks were bottomed out but not broken off or crushed. The front suspension pretty much lives on the stock bump stops, and I think the bump stops and the shocks bottom out at about the same point. The rubber cushion of the stock bump stop keeps it from being a hard stop though which makes it un-noticeable when driving, but it is clearly happening.



The rear shocks work as intended from what I can tell. First off I had to take the backs loose to get the boots off of them and put the zip ties on. This let me feel the dampening on them when loose. I had to put my shoulder onto the bottom of the shock to push it back up and onto the shock mount when reinstalling...I was actually surprised at just how much pressure it took to push the shock back in.

I forgot my tape measure on the grid during my runs, but I did grab my phone and take pics of the rear shocks after each run, then pushed the zip tie back up again.

Left rear shock after run 2



Left rear shock after run 3



Left rear shock after run 4





Right rear shock after run 2



Right rear shock after run 3



Right rear shock after run 4






I know it's not exactly scientific, and I'll do better next time I promise.

I was having a few other issues at the same time that I was dealing with, one being this...



This course design was heavy on fast left hand turns and fast long straights with lefthanders at the ends of them and it not only abused my brakes but also my right front tire...cutting my day a bit short. I decided to not try my fifth run and I wouldn't have bettered my time anyway as it was sliding the front pretty bad on my 4th run.

I HAVE to do something about my brake setup, it was a true weakness that this course design exposed big time. Several times under hard braking it wheel hopped the rears real bad...you just couldn't drive the car to it's potential because you had to back up the corners at the end of the straights so much.

Here is my best run from the side mount view.

http://youtu.be/8YhTlaVJOV4

If you watch in the carousel, you can tell it is sliding the fronts almost all the way through. Still a fun drive though.