The backstory: I've been fighting a bad case of understeer on the track. It got particularly worse after I went to larger (23/31) torsion bars and the Big Wing. I was able to dial it out in small increments, but it was still pretty bad. Tyson thought my car had a limited slip, it pushed so much. At Thunderhill last weekend, I almost ran straight off at the end of turn 2; when I'd mash the gas, the car headed straight for the weeds!
I had the front bar set full-soft, the rear full-hard, and that made things tolerable, but it was still out of control. Tire pressures didn't seem to be helping any more.
Then I had an idea. You see, I have TRG sway bars, and I had the "A" bar in the rear, and the "B" bar in the front. This was the setup the guys @ TRG suggested when I bought the bars 4 or 5 years ago, and I never questioned it. It was time to question it. It turns out that the A bar is the softer of the two, so my logic was if I'm maxed out on adjustment, I should switch the bars and start over. I didn't want to buy
new bars, and seeing as how I couldn't get a hold of TRG, I wouldn't be able to get them for love or money anyway, I would have to make do. Wed night, Serge944 came over and helped me swap them. I had to modify the rear bar by cutting off 1/2" on each end and dressing it out, but other than that the switch was pretty straightforward.
The difference in handling was phenomenal. For the first time since I've had the 3.6L, I can actually throttle-steer it at will. I
thought I was throttle steering it before, but now I can make this baby
dance. I still get a little bit of push at higher speeds, but it is very manageable. In slow to mid-speed turns, I can drift the car at will and stop the drift with a touch of the wheel. It's amazing. I'm kinda bummed that I drove it bass-ackwards for so long
I knew there was something magical going on when I handed the guy in the GT-2 with 25k in mods his
ass, and now he wants to buy my car. Yeah, it was
that good. Luckily for me, Watts, Olsen, Schmidt and Stefanowicz weren't at Thunderhill today to put me in check
In one of the afternoon sessions, I really started to try and hang it out there, trying to counter another GT-2's HP advantage with my newfound cornering 'prowess' (I have to qualify it, because I don't think it's really
mine yet). It was all I could do to keep the car on the track: braking
very late and
very light into 1, running 2 in 4th, only dropping to 3rd for turn 3, running over 5 hard in 3rd, and then 4th all the way to 10 - I was
thrashing my poor car. I honestly need to put it on the lift to make sure I haven't broken anything. I have a reputation for being too cautious and conservative, but I let it all hang out just this once. Like the computer nerd who happens upon the drunk horny supermodel at closing time, I honestly question whether or not I can repeat the performance in the future, but right now I'm so amped up I can hardly type straight.
The stars happened to line up just right for me this one time.
Gentlemen, I present the fruits of my labors:
I should just sell the car and take up needlepoint or shuffleboard; I think I'm at the top of my game.