Friday, June 26, 2015

LONG CRUISE

Last weekend I went along with a group of motorcycles on a 200 mile drive through the twisty back roads of south Alabama. This was the first long drive and the first drive on twisty roads at speeds of up to 75 MPH. It was exhilarating  to say the least but the car handled great and took the curves at speed right along with the bikes. Temperatures were in the mid 90's but I felt no heat from the engine. The drive shaft tunnel felt warm from, I assume, transmitted engine heat and heat from the driveshaft bearings. I'm looking forward to another run like that, maybe in the fall.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

HANDLING ISSUES SORTED

I have finally gotten the handling issues sorted. With the caster now at about 7 degrees, camber at -1 degree and toe at 1/8" toe out. Front tires at 20Lbs. and rear at 40Lbs. She now drives straight up to 80 MPH. I can wiggle the steering wheel without affecting the straight line motion. Side winds will push it and require correction with the steering wheel as in any car. I've driven it through 90 deg right corners at 40 MPH and it handles them with ease.  I've put about 1200 miles on it now and it is a pleasure to drive.

One last thing to play with is scrub radius with the front wheels. The tire inner edge is offset from the kingpin line by 2". It will take a lot of work to change that so it probably won't get done.