My first H-body autocross in about 8-10 years.
My first H-body autocross with a 215 V8, ever.
38 entrants in the streetcar class (not Pro), I placed 30th. 7.1 seconds behind the leader (2016 Z06).
Here's a breakdown of my runs.
1st: 54.744 (DNF - off course )... (without a walkdown of the course.... as I was a bit late getting there)
2nd: 52.076
3rd: 50.939
4th: 50.558
5th: 51.338
6th: 52.314 (attempted in 2nd gear)
7th: 52.504 +1 cone (2 second penalty added)
8th: 51.039
9th: 49.218 (fastest time of day for me)
OK..... so just to put things in perspective, most ALL of these entrants were HIGHLY modified vehicles. We're talking 600 hp LS power, DSE/Ridetech suspensions and mini tubs and 315-335mm wide Rival tires.
My lowly Vega wagon barely deserved to be on the same track as these AWESOME rides.
I have a Spyder 1.125" front anti-swaybar with poly mount and end link bushings. Everything is stock H-body (except the 180 HP 215 & the poly swaybar bushings).
The course was extremely tight, and I had my best runs just staying in 1st gear. The 2.56 rear gear with a 3.4:1 first gear helped me to keep the lil' 215 in the power.... at most times.
Mind you, I was the only one on 13" tires (street tires at that), so lack of traction in the tight turns (along with too much entry speed) caused quite a bit of push..... which was pretty good at slowing me down, but correcting it took 4 turns of the steering wheel back to neutral then another 4 turns in the other direction to complete the next turn..... very tiring with all that turning back and forth. A quick-ratio steering mechanism would have been a huge improvement.
I had a BLAST..... I was really proud of the Kammback. Decent power(enough to get loose in some corners with the LSD), decent brakes, and the larger front bar really improved the overall handling (want a Spyder rear bar, now).
It got quite a few looks/points/giggles. The announcer/starter would make comments everytime I staged.... like "Going to pick up the kids?" "Bring back some eggs, bread and milk.... don't break the eggs." etc. All in good fun.
The tech guy said, "4-lug wheels? .... Man, you're brave." ( I didn't tell him my V8 only weighed 320 lbs).
Sooooooo........ I now have some 5-lug S-10 axle shafts.... I need some 5-lug vented Monza rotors..... that will let me mount my 16" IROC wheels... and maybe some decent tires. Quicker steering? Naw.... probably won't happen. It's not a track car..... it's NOT a track car..... IT'S NOT A TRACK CAR!!!!!!!!
A buddy mounted his GoPro on the Kammback. Hopefully in the next few days, he'll download it to youtube, and I'll post a link.
Here's a vid of his Duster making a 46 second run:
https://youtu.be/kzL6gT1Ez48