First off! I would like to congratulate Billy Abold on a new Pineview lap record! Billy lapped the 1.1 mile course in his Porsche at 1:12.9 during his last run of event #4.
Also, event #4 had the biggest turnout yet!
Now, onto my night. Event #4 brought me a bittersweet win in the track category. On the one hand, I won! On the other hand, I was way slower than usual. Last year I was running well into the 1:14’s at Pineview. This year I am struggling to get into the 14’s. In event 4 I didn’t even make it into the 15s! The car would not turn. Instead of proper turn in, it would just shutter understeer. This resulted in me switching my driving technique to a mix between turning only while I am on the brakes and heavy throttle on exit to get the rear to rotate. On a tight course like Pineview, this technique opens up the mid-corner section to understeer and frustrates the hell out of you! lol.
Now the question. What changed? Why is my car understeering? Well, my bad. I believe this to be directly because I switched my rear 450lb springs to the front and front 400lb to the rear. I did this looking for additional rear grip. Although that worked, the rear feels a lot more planted over bumps, this resulted in less front grip. Stiffening up the front springs naturally results in understeer. To add fuel to the fire, shifting the springs around also affected front to rear weight balance. When I had the softer springs up front, the car was a little lower than it sits with the harder springs. This shifts the weight to the rear. Obviously shifting weight to the rear will cause understeer.
The remedy? As of right now I am in contact with YCW Suspension to see if they can ship me a pair of 400lb springs. My plan is to put the new springs up front and balance should be restored. My next driving event is at Pocono in 3 weeks which gives me plenty of time to get this figured out.
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