No offense taken, but I will defend myself a little, if you don't mind...
No, the PT was definitely NOT "meant" to be autocrossed, but neither are a lot
of the cars we see, or there wouldn't be a market for
springs,shocks,bushings,rollcages,tires,go-fast engine parts,etc. that we put
on the cars to make them competitive. I haven't spent a lot of money on the
car, really - $340 on tires, $100 on bushings, $200 on springs, $125 on a cold
air intake, $14 for crash bolts. Not really anything I wouldn't have done to
the car eventually anyway.
If a Nissan Sentra SE-R can be competitive with a semi-independent, trailing
arm rear end, then I don't see what the big deal is. Those things are pretty
hard to beat in a stock WRX in DS class. You don't need a multi-link, fully
independent rear with a 300hp powerplant to go around cones fast at 20-50 mph.
It's not Leguna Seca. Seems like the Miata, RX-7, Z3, M3, S2000, Z-car, mini
drivers may need to broaden their ideas about what constitutes an autocross
car. Our motto is "Every car is a sports car some of the time". We have a
Toyota truck racing in EM, for pete's sake! (Supra engine) It's just good,
clean fun, you know? I'm not sponsored, and I make my living elsewhere, so
what I drive is almost immaterial, as long as I enjoy it. I did well last
year, to boot. I placed in every event, and made a few converts out of folks
who couldn't believe I was racing the PT.
You are welcome to track my progress this coming year on our region's web site.
www.okscca.org
Ken in OKC
'01 PT Cruiser Limited, with a rear suspension stolen from a Chrysler minivan
platform.
STS 101
-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck [mailto:golden1@britsys.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:46 PM
To: Adamson, Ken; Mark Sirota
Cc: autox@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Funny handling
No offense meant, but after reading this dialog, it sounds to me like there
are some vehicles that are meant to be AXed and some that are not, and it
seems the PT is one of the latter. It may be time to cut your losses and
replace it with something in the same class of vehicle with better AX
capabilities (Matrix?) or designate it your AXSV (autocross support vehicle)
and use the money you're going to be throwing at this car to add an
inexpensive AX only car to your driveway. But then again there are people
like Jesse James who enjoy building cars out of speedboats, problem is after
all the effort it ends up not being a very good car or boat and more
expensive than a good one of each. YMMV.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adamson, Ken" <KADAMSON@lifeline.net>
To: "Mark Sirota" <mark@sirota.org>
Cc: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 12:00 AM
Subject: RE: Funny handling
> Actually, I've had the crash bolts in separately from everything else, and
the
> bushings in without the spring kit or the crash bolts present. I
experienced
> nothing but the normal "jitteryness" of a car with a lot of toe-out - no
> pulling or dodging around.
>
> So, the real change was the addition of the springs - which, due to the
> neutral camber curve of this suspension geometry, a very long scrub
radius,
> and an imperceptible level of bump steer - does not affect either toe or
> camber. Properly designed Macphearson systems are very constant in
caster, so
> I'm not concerned about that. There is a little cross-caster difference,
> which causes a very, *very* slow drift to the left (starting on the right
lane
> marking, it takes about a quarter mile to drift all the way over to the
> centerline when everything else is correct).
>
> The rear is alignable, but only barely. It's a semi-independent trailing
arm
> with a twist-beam and integral torsion bar and anti sway bar. The shocks
are
> outboard of the springs. You have to use shims and adjust the subframe
> relative to the frame. Of course, you have to realign the front when you
do
> that, since it introduces a thrust angle problem. I dream of getting a
> coilover system. Maybe next year :) $$$$
>
> Ken in OKC
> '01 PT Cruiser Limited
> STS 101
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Mark Sirota [mailto:mark@sirota.org]
> Sent: Thu 1/29/2004 3:45 PM
> To: Adamson, Ken
> Cc: autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Funny handling
>
>
>
> --On Thursday, January 29, 2004 11:46 AM -0600 "Adamson, Ken"
> <KADAMSON@Lifeline.net> wrote:
> > I recently dropped the Eibach Pro Kit in my PT Cruiser, along with
> > replacing the bushings with the Energy Suspensions Master Kit. At the
> > same time, I put one set of crash bolts in to gain some negative camber
> > in the front.
> > ...
> > I know, I could just take it to my favorite alignment shop and they'll
> > probably fix it, but I'm an engineer at heart, ...
>
> A true engineer at heart probably wouldn't have changed so many things at
> once!
>
> Mark
|