mike343sharpstick's 69 Javelin project

[mike343sharpstick]

Great to hear from you!

Dan

I've been a little busy, started a side job building suspension for other AMC owners that want to replace their crusty old suspension with new-tech. Response has blown me away, and kept me very busy!

[DanStokes]

I've been a little busy, started a side job building suspension for other AMC owners that want to replace their crusty old suspension with new-tech. Response has blown me away, and kept me very busy!

Good problem to have!

Dan

[langleylad]

Very good problem to have ! Nice going

[mike343sharpstick]

I just got the car out for it's first drive for the summer a few days ago.
I added a Bluetooth receiver to my amplifier, This little JL Audio MBT-RX is a clever little devise. I wired this to my Sony amp, and that's that. In other big news, I added an electric fan and shroud to the radiator, and finally painted my fancy custom suspension.

The brake package upgrade is on hold awaiting my machinist to finish the caliper bracket, all the other stuff is done!
Nothing too interesting going on, but it was nice to get it out finally.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I just got the car out for it's first drive for the summer a few days ago.
I added a Bluetooth receiver to my amplifier, This little JL Audio MBT-RX is a clever little devise. I wired this to my Sony amp, and that's that. In other big news, I added an electric fan and shroud to the radiator, and finally painted my fancy custom suspension.

The brake package upgrade is on hold awaiting my machinist to finish the caliper bracket, all the other stuff is done!
Nothing too interesting going on, but it was nice to get it out finally.

I wonder if I could hear a stereo in my C3? I'm lucky, my machinist (and electrician) are both friends.. and I've found that if I start the project, they push me aside and finish it themselves

no racing?

[mike343sharpstick]

I can hear the stereo when driving normally, when I'm pushing the go-pedal, not so much.
The guys that do the machine work, tube bending, and a few other things for me get busy in the summer race season.

https://www.racinginthedirt.com/

They are a great resource, and they are only about 1.5 miles away.

AutoX next month!!
I may go to a heavier front spring? How much camber are you running on your Vette? I'm at about -1.3

[mike343sharpstick]

Almost forgot, updated engine breather system. When That's done I'll share a picture. I put breathers on the valve covers, works under normal driving, but when I'm wringing it out on the track the open breathers would drip oil a little, and unfortunately they are right over the header. The tubes welded to the valve covers have baffles, but the oil vapor must just collect in the filter and drip over time. Anyhoo, I'll now be running a closed breather/PCV unit on each valve cover to a vented catch tank.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I can hear the stereo when driving normally, when I'm pushing the go-pedal, not so much.
The guys that do the machine work, tube bending, and a few other things for me get busy in the summer race season.

https://www.racinginthedirt.com/

They are a great resource, and they are only about 1.5 miles away.

AutoX next month!!
I may go to a heavier front spring? How much camber are you running on your Vette? I'm at about -1.3

-1.8 (from memory)...
it's such a fine line between what you can tolerate on the street and what is needed for the track. I started at 400# springs, now at 500#... I could do more for track but it'd be really hard to ride in on the street

[mike343sharpstick]

Yeah, compromise is annoying.
I have 450# springs now, moving to 500#. More spring should require less camber. I dunno??

[SuperBuickGuy]

Yeah, compromise is annoying.
I have 450# springs now, moving to 500#. More spring should require less camber. I dunno??

I kind of have two issues at this point. 1) I need stiffer sway bars however, the other issue, 2) more traction on the front means I probably need to solve this issue first. Basically it understeers - and the best solution is to whack the throttle to rear steer it out of the situation. Of course, that has some downsides (like 4 wheel drifts). Of course, there are some trade-offs. I plan on playing with camber this weekend a bit - but the structure of the competition doesn't give a lot of time to play with geometry between heats - however, I may try to pull a little out to gain more contact and/or reduce pressure in the front and increase in the rear... I dunno - the right thing to do would be spend a day playing with adjustments without the stress of competition going on simultaneously.

what is likely to happen is tire pressure and rebound adjustments... outside of that, I won't have time for much else

[mike343sharpstick]

Just by luck, my car is pretty balanced, so I could easily make it worse.
If anything it over-steers, but with a live axle out back all that can be done is more tire. I did that, and it was better, but I don't have any more room for more tire. I'm trying to improve the bit from when you hit the brake, to the apex.

In CAM-T I'm pretty far off the stupid 4th Generation F-Bodies, all the other old junk I can keep up with.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Just by luck, my car is pretty balanced, so I could easily make it worse.
If anything it over-steers, but with a live axle out back all that can be done is more tire. I did that, and it was better, but I don't have any more room for more tire. I'm trying to improve the bit from when you hit the brake, to the apex.

In CAM-T I'm pretty far off the stupid 4th Generation F-Bodies, all the other old junk I can keep up with.

time for a panhard bar and coilovers on the rear? I'll say this in public - your front suspension is far better then the floppy-weak McPherson on the front of the F-bodies.... it's why I used the C5/C6 front suspension with the F-body rear.... the biggest issue with the F-body front is McPherson either have great camber and terrible tire wear or terrible understeer but great tire wear. I'll take the slight under steer every time. I get why GM used the BMW system - but it's not better then what you have.

[mike343sharpstick]

I have an adjustable panhard bar, single adjustable shocks, and a rear sway bar, but still use leaf springs. Pretty much a copy of the 1970/71 Penske Javelins. It does work very well, when the rear slides it's very controllable. I can adjust the roll center with the rear pahard adjustment, but like you said in you post, there is limited time to make adjustments at an AutoX event aside from shock tuning and tire pressure.
I wish there was such a thing as an autocross test and tune day.
Honestly If I left the car alone and just worked on my driving skill I would get better times too.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Honestly If I left the car alone and just worked on my driving skill I would get better times too.

If there is anything I've learned in my vast experience (2x) of autocross - it's never the driver's fault. Ever. People who have done Autox 3, even 4 times completely support that notion....