Harry, nice pictures.

On the tires they drop a few tenths at as they get old, note I do strategically buy them so I can run them for 12 months (or more). By the last track day my overpowered wonder turns into a drift car.

The sway bar it is an ADCO bar, the bushings attach to the frame rail near the front spring shackle, the end links attach to the spring like in the competition manual.

I should also clarify on the traction bars as I've had them on the car for many years; the original ones were exactly like the manual, T-shaped with the rod end bolted to the bracket under the axle. The ones on the car now have a rod end on both sides, the front spring shackle mount for the bar has a set of machined spacers/bushings. It is possible this change is causing a bind, perhaps it's pinching the busing in the front spring eye etc.

The only bump rubbers on the car are the ones on the shocks, I also have done exactly as you suggested and used a dab of grease to see if parts are making contact, nothing obvious.

It's ironic you mentioned the rear shackle, because I dragged out my copy of Tune To Win in an effort to see if I overlooked something obvious.............I checked the rear shackle and it is swept toward the back of the car. I have not measured the angle but somewhere between 15-30 degrees.

Also on the subject Smith books, he wrote that he felt that the complication of properly installing a Watts Linkage wasn't worth the bother over doing a proper Panhard Rod.

In corner in the video the car is pulling about 1.3-1.4G (based on guys who have telemetry and run at a similar speed), that really isn't well beyond what other 1200's are doing. I will have a better idea on Saturday after it gets inspected, if nothing obvious is found we will likely install a panhard rod. At next months track day I will try the car with and with out the bar hooked up. I am also going to try undoing the traction bars to see what that does (I use track days for testing). I will also have my fabricator take a look at the front end just for good measure. I am fairly sure that the instability may also be the nut behind the wheel, to be honest had I not seen the video I would very likely continued to just drive the snot out of it, especially since I have a single seater in the garage again. Happily fixing this should at the very least make it easier to drive but I do expect to trim the lap time. I have been telling a friend for some time that I feel there is more speed in the car.

On the subject of single seater, the Novakar Formula 500 I have now uses a solid axle like a Kart but with suspension, it weighs 725lbs with me in it and the car is perfectly capable of pulling 2.5Gs and the lateral locating device is quite stout for such a small car.


Tom