Got my race seat mounted, the R888's mounted on the new wheels, and fixed a blown rear shock. I've been running the car too low with the Escort wheels which killed the shock inserts in the front coilovers as well (no compression damping), but I didn't find that until the night before Saturday's autocross. I raised the car back up to it's optimal height for grip and stuffed soft bump stops on the front shock rods to add some compression resistance. Not the best solution but I didn't have extras on hand to swap in.
I hadn't driven on the R888's before the autocross so I wasn't used to the extra grip. My first two runs were pretty smooth and fast even with the added weight of a passenger, running low/mid 53's which was about 3.5 seconds behind the quickest times posted so far. I pushed the car harder on the third run and noticed that the car was cutting out in the corners; the carburetor wasn't fueling properly from the added grip of the stickier tires. My last run was with no passenger and a better idea of how the car handled with the new tires so it was my quickest at 51.6. They weren't annoucing everyones times like they used to but after asking around a bit we think 49.9 was the quickest of the day set by a modified S2000. So it did pretty good for having blown shocks and running low on power through the corners!
I have a pretty good idea what I need to change on the car to make it stick even better for the next event- taller rear bump stops to decrease body roll and increase the amount of weight on the inside front tire to keep it from spinning when on power out of a corner, and less toe out in the rear so it's not quite as loose. I'll probably have to go with a different carburetor setup to fix the fuel slosh issue; I've been looking at sport bike carbs and building my own intake manifold to fit them.
Intake would end up similar to this, four individual carbs on a simple manifold. I'm pretty sure the stock intake is a restriction now that I've done port work, cam, header, and exhaust work so there should be a gain in power with bike carbs.
Busted rear shock.
Fronts height set too low- even chewed up the bump stops.
Momo race seat mounted. This made a huge difference in driving the car- I had to learn to just steer with the wheel. With the stock seats I was having to hold myself in the seat with the wheel and steer so it made driving difficult.
Old ride height on the new wheels/tires. Looks good but rubbed the fenders, and the suspension geometry isn't the best for grip.
At the autocross at race height. Blake brought his GoPro and had it mounted in the car for three of the runs so I'll post those once he get them on YouTube.
