Fun weekend at #cruisinthesmokies

[avewhtboy]

Did some autocross and spirited mountain driving in the vega on the tail of the dragon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUAQ1M3 ... tion=share

[bugdewde]

Love those side pipes.......
Hopefully someone will have some video of our Vegas "ripping it up".... lol

[avewhtboy]

Yes I really would like to see what my car looks like from different points of view on the autocross to see what it's doing.

Had a blast riding and driving with you good times. I am planning to run some SCCA autocross events maybe we can do it again
in less than a year!

[avewhtboy]

Another video uploaded from the trip to the event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z09iovw ... e=youtu.be

[bbcowboy]

You car looks great and sounds great...good to see it out on the road

[avewhtboy]

You car looks great and sounds great...good to see it out on the road

hey Byron, thanks! It was funny, on the way home I was thinking when I owned the car before I never left a 40 mile area in the car. Now I just drove it 4 hours to the event, beat on it for two days and drove it 4 hours home. Casualties, passenger side pipe came off twice, fouled a spark plug around 6000 ft above sea level, purple starter wire shook loose, windshield wipers needed hand assistance, battery cable came loose from battery and the ubiquitous tire rubbing on tight left hand corners!

The steering on this is awful, I dislocated a finger on the autocross trying to whip the steering wheel. Way too many turns needed on the wheel to run these tight autocross setups.

But I made it home car safely back in garage.

[bbcowboy]

At least you got it out and had fun with it....

[avewhtboy]

here is a link to some videos of the autocross, in the first video you can see how I had to wrestle the steering wheel to get this thing through the course.

I like "drifting" which is not the fast way around but its more fun.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... AcDgK_CDmr

[bbcowboy]

Boy, you were fighting with the steering wheel...side note....when autocrossing watch where your hands go on the steering wheel...try not to grab the inside of the wheel...looks fun...hopefully I will be there next year..

[avewhtboy]

Boy, you were fighting with the steering wheel...side note....when autocrossing watch where your hands go on the steering wheel...try not to grab the inside of the wheel...looks fun...hopefully I will be there next year..

y

You are right about hands inside the wheel, I really hurt one of my fingers on my left hand. The number of turns on the wheel needs to be cut in half from what it is now. A rack conversion
may be the only way to correct all the steering issues, along with some adjustable upper and lower control arms. Even that may not do it, could need new spindles or shorten the steering arms on
the Blazer spindles.

I was thinking about buying some spindle savers and using those to relocate where the tie rod end goes. Still uncertain what the best path is to correcting it. Paying a lot of attention to other
threads here that are trying to correct the same thing.

[bugdewde]

Rick,
I may run a couple of local scca events, too. Check their schedule here. ETRSCCA - (East Tennessee Region SCCA). www.etrscca.org
Maybe I can come down your way and hit one of yours, too.

We definitely would benefit from quicker steering..... I don't think my stock spindles required me to work as hard as you, though. The S-10 spindles on my other wagon project may need some "re-engineering". Should have gotten the Overkill k-member and steering rack set up.....
Wracker put his GoPro camera on my car for one run. I hope it got my steering inputs. Hopefully, he'll upload it soon.... and I'll post it.

[rpoz-29]

I knew a guy who raced GT-2 a Vega using a power steering box. He filled the box with fluid and looped the hp hose into the return. The ps box is 2.8 turns lock to lock, and the non ps box is 4.4. Food for thought if you can find the parts.

[avewhtboy]

I knew a guy who raced GT-2 a Vega using a power steering box. He filled the box with fluid and looped the hp hose into the return. The ps box is 2.8 turns lock to lock, and the non ps box is 4.4. Food for thought if you can find the parts.

Thanks for the info, I have a complete power steering setup from my 1977 ASTRE which is probably the box you are talking about. I was planning to do that but that
will not help the bump steer situation at all.

So a rack and pinion setup may be the only way to correct it all.

[bugdewde]

Rick,
Here's Wracker's GoPro on my car. It shows my steering inputs pretty good. Obviously, the stock spindle vs the S-10 turning radius is much better, eventhough I still had to fight a couple of the turns.
Pushed pretty bad on the 180 and a couple other turns but that's probably due to my bad throttle application...... I noticed in Finch's video, he has a turning/drift brake for the 180. Hmmm...... I have a set on the VW Baja.

https://youtu.be/Jl_SCwetGmw

[avewhtboy]

Rick,
Here's Wracker's GoPro on my car. It shows my steering inputs pretty good. Obviously, the stock spindle vs the S-10 turning radius is much better, eventhough I still had to fight a couple of the turns.
Pushed pretty bad on the 180 and a couple other turns but that's probably due to my bad throttle application...... I noticed in Finch's video, he has a turning/drift brake for the 180. Hmmm...... I have a set on the VW Baja.

https://youtu.be/Jl_SCwetGmw

I saw Brian doing that turn basically drifting around that cone. I did that later in the runs and it did work better for me to get around that 1 cone sitting in the box.

If you watch my videos you will see me grab my emergency brake handle at one point, but I decided against pulling it up!