I've had a crazy month and I've got some catching up to do starting with the event in september. We were running in the afternoon, so it was nice to sleep in. I gave the front struts a little more rebound damping to see if it would help the front end stick better. They were too soft previously, and I hoped that this would make a difference. They ended up being still too soft but I was no longer locking up the front tires on hard braking. Before the front suspension would bounce off the stops and the wheels would lock up, but not this time. Awesome! However, I noticed hesitation again trying to go from part to full throttle but it could be a fuel slosh issue. I'm going to run a mostly full tank next time and see if the issue persists.
Lastly, after my co-driver/tire-warmer's first run he shut down the car. When he hit the starter button to fire her up again, the guts of the button shot out of the back of the dash. We scrambled to get the bug started again but that Painless button will have to be replaced. The starter engaged during his run, and ran until he got back to the grid where I pulled the back of the starter button off again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rymkcAR1PyU
First October event: My front damping improvements helped but I might add a bit more to see if front grip starts falling off again. Overall the bug is very predictable and easy to place in line, however the open diff is still a big achilles heel. With a nearly full tank I didn't get the hesitation issues I had before, so I'm pretty sure I was starving out the pickup in the fuel cell. After replacing the starter button, I discovered that the starter motor was cooked from engaging while the bug was racing around. The new starter is in but its planetary gearset makes the worst noise.
During this event our group was seriously short, and we basically hot-lapped 8 runs between 2 drivers. It didn't leave much time for tire pressure checking or adjustment, and the tires were gaining 2psi every couple of runs or so. All in all I finished just behind my nemesis by .3 sec, and barring him missing an event, he'll take the championship this year. Well fought!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LwpUI6ZtUg
Lastly, I have a new project I'm working out. Just bought a 71 super from the original owner, clean straight body, no accidents, and it's never left the SF Bay area. I'll get a build thread started once it has a name and direction, but I'm leaning toward a J-spec germanlook build.
