Slaloms and general Hooligism

[Bonnyboy]

I have been challenged by members of my "other" car club to bring my "little princess" out to a sanctioned slalom to see what she can do.  Not one to stand down from a challenge, especially by owners of British machinery I have paid my fees and signed up for a slalom next week.  

My previous experience in slaloms is with early 70's BMW 2002s or early 70's MGBs.  The BMW was totally fun in that the wheels were spinning (smoking) most of the time and giving a real good show.    I do not intend to drive "my little princess" as hard as I would say the MGB or BMW but still want to uphold the honour of Mr. Uhlenhaut.  I have a LSD so don't really want to hammer it coming out of the corners (or do I) for fear of breaking something.

I thought I would solicit the collective wisdom of the club on a few points.   Is there any weak spots in the car that I should be careful about? Does anyone have any special hints as what to watch out for?  

I plan on putting approx. 40lbs of air in the tires, removing the hub caps, checking the lug nuts, taking out the spare tire, donning a helmet and going for it.  

[Flyair]

Ian
Make sure somebody will take a video of your performance.

The only weak spot of the car I am aware of is the driver... 

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Ian,

Having driven four ///M3's I lonely like to caution you to go easy on the cornering

BTW, my first M3 was purchased in Vancouver I drove that 2002 model all across the country and on the track as well, the other three were purchased in Ontario, all are gone now, however, the memory will remain ... Yes they were and are fine cars, our Pagoda is just so much better.

Good luck with your outing and yes do have fun and as Stan recommends have someone take a short video or pictures.

PS. Tahoe along some essential tools and a set of fuses.

[GGR]

If your rear axle rubber mounts are tired you may end up with the wheels rubbing the inside of the wheel wells. The swing axle may throw you into a spin if you lift the gas pedal in the middle of a curve. Try to slow down enough before the curve so as to be on the gas all along the curve (same issue with Gullwings!).

[jameshoward]

You've got to video it!

[garymand]

Most i,mmportant are your tires, you can fit 245/45-16.  It makes a world of difference in how the car attachs corners rather than responds to them.  I also have a 300sel sway bar keeping the front end flatter.  If you have a newer MB (or a crazy friend with one) maybe you can barrow the wheels.  I'm running 225/50-16 right now w/all weather treads and get maybe 20% better grip.  The 245s are on my 560 at the moment and those tires will get you in the race.  The LSD should give you better cornering too.  As you power oaround a curve, the weight shifts to the outside wheel, but the inside looses grip.  This way you'll have traction on one tire. 

Better take some practice  runs.  The sway axis is unique in hard corning.  If you sway too much, you loose a lot of stability and traction.

Good luck

[GGR]

Most i,mmportant are your tires, you can fit 245/45-16.  (...)  I'm running 225/50-16 right now w/all weather treads and get maybe 20% better grip. 

I tried some 225/60-15 on 7x15 wheels with ET25. Clearance was an issue both in the front and in the back: in the back, when the wheel was jacked up to maximum, it was rubbing on the outer side of the inner fender while it cleared the inner side by a couple of millimeters. In the front, while turned and jacked up, the tire touches the fender lip. How did you get the 245 to clear?

[ja17]

Make sure all your exhaust rubber hangars are intact.  Use the shifter, drive aggressive you will do fine. Fresh brake fluid is good. Old fluid collects water which can  boil in the lines during hard braking, filling the system with air bubbles !

[stickandrudderman]

If this is just a bit of fun I wouldn't bother with improving the grip in any way. The lack of grip helps to reduce the side loads going through every other part of the car and so prevent damage caused by those elevated stresses.

[Bonnyboy]

thanks all,  yes this is just for fun so I will not be putting new tires on the car.  I have 195-75-14 touring tires on the car so I'm not expecting a whole lot of serious grip. 

I have been going over the car a bit and I think I am ready for a bit of fun.  The serious guys have purpose built toys that are all about performance.  After the big boys run for national points, I'll be running with the unmodified cars and all I need to do is participate.  No trophies to win or cash to get so I'm really not prepared to give it my all.  Bit of noise and some tire smoke should be enough

I'll report back in a week after the 22nd.

[Bonnyboy]

The slalom is over and was that fun or what...

The car was wonderful.  Was a little out of place with all the MGs, Jaguars and Opel GT with alum V8.   Traction was not an issue but it was the shear weight of the car and my lack of driving skill that kept my times down.  I was a full five seconds off the leaders but considering the weight of their cars, the suspension mods and their level of driving skill I think I did just fine.    The faster guys nailed their cars at the start and left major patches of rubber and I didn't want to do that so I accepted an extra second to save my rear end.

First run I went all out and had lots of tire spin and screaching but was slow.
Second run I just tried to not screech the tires
3rd and 4th run I was trying to get smoother and smoother and reduce body roll
5th run - I tried to be smoother and give more acceleration sooner coming out of corners  (video) but the extra acceleration made the steering a bit hairy at times

Times 54.3 in first run down to 50.1 seconds for last run.  And I did win the informal "best sounding car" though.  I  went under her this morning and found no oil leaks, and only had a little rubbing at the rear drivers side front of the axle to wheel well so I went at it with a hammer to give me more clearance.

I have a video that my daughter took but its too big to attach.  If anyone out there can receive my video (MP4) and post it on this site or link it I would appreciate it. 

[Peter van Es]

Ask your daughter to upload the video to Youtube and then link it here...

[Bonnyboy]

Thanks for the advice Peter.  My daughter knew exactly what to do to post on youtube. 


check out the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FO4mUzGlkY

or you can search "Mercedes Pagoda Slalom"

This was my last run of the day and my best run in terms of time but as you can see so messy and uncoordinated. 

[Garry]

Ian,

Thats cool, both the daughter uploading it  and the actual slalom run   Looks like fun.

Garry

[stickandrudderman]

Good fun. It looks to me like your ride height is a little high. If so then your cornering is severely compromised by an elevated roll centre.

[Peter van Es]

Well done. Looks like you had a great time!

Peter

[Rothko]

Nice.   

[Bonnyboy]

Thanks all for the comments - with regard to the ride height, I was watching some earlier runs I did and as soon as I accelerated the back end of the car would come up a bit and stay up for the entire run.   Is there a way to keep the back down.  Is that the compensating spring doing its job???

I saw a 230sl last week with no compensating spring - the hardware was removed and there was no spring.  I didn't believe the owner so I crawled under the car in my suit (of course I turned the suit jacket inside out to lay on so I wouldn't get my shirt dirty) and sure enough no spring - no nothing - wouldn't the car handle horribly?    Anyone have the hardware including a spring that I could buy for him?