Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

HawaiiKid · Mar 12, 2018

honeybadger said:
Thanks, brother! I'm having so much fun with this car. Been really happy with the blend design and function. Congrats on the new wheels! Car looks awesome. I'll bet you just created a surge of sales for Sig!

Its a gorgeous car, but I love that you still use it for its intended purpose-to kill corners :cheers: Loving the wheels on yours, would love to see some outside video of your car-perhaps from one of the many people you seem to be passing on track?

Also-great job on that harness install, bracketing that lower rail is basically tying into the cars unibody :thumbsup:

snaproll · Mar 14, 2018

Been meaning to say nice work and thanks - keep those photos coming! Outstanding!

honeybadger · Mar 18, 2018

Socalrugger said:
Great looking photos! Looked like the heavens were going to dump a crapload of water but they saw your car and said, we'll hold off a few hours to get that photoshoot in....

Not sure I saw your feedback on the HCM wing. Any comments good or bad to share?

Great thread so thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the kind words! And yes, the weather was very nice to us. It poured later in the day

Regarding HCM - I'll post the link to my thoughts here. The net is the wing is pretty appallingly poor quality and their customer service was extremely poor (I REALLY tried to let them make it right, but they didn't care). I highly recommend staying far away. If you're looking at wings, connect with 50 Deep for the C2C wings, or check out SpeedKore or Anderson (more of an inspired-by wing).

HawaiiKid said:
Its a gorgeous car, but I love that you still use it for its intended purpose-to kill corners :cheers: Loving the wheels on yours, would love to see some outside video of your car-perhaps from one of the many people you seem to be passing on track?

Also-great job on that harness install, bracketing that lower rail is basically tying into the cars unibody

Thanks! Tracking this car makes me appreciate it more and more each time. I spent last weekend at Thunderhill and had an absolute blast. With Cup2s on, there aren't that many cars that can touch it. Had lots of people stop by to check it out...heard a few "oh, it's THAT mustang." Ha!

snaproll said:
Been meaning to say nice work and thanks - keep those photos coming! Outstanding!

Will do! Thanks for responding and not letting me slip on posting!

honeybadger · Mar 18, 2018

Another trip to Thunderhill!

Spent March 10/11 with Northern California Racing Club at Thunderhill East. This was my first weekend on the 19x11 squared Signature SV502s and 305/30R19 Michelin Sport Cup 2s on track. I spent the first 2 sessions taking it cautiously since I'd never run sticky rubber like this. But it was clear pretty quickly these were had a lot of the same qualities as the MPSS I'm used to (predictable, communicative, and forgiving). Really only took 20 mins to feel comfortable with them. Session 2 and I already had a new fast lap time!

First day we ran CCW w/ the bypass. My previous best in this config on MPSS was a 2:09.4. Fastest of the day was 2:03.9. Of course the GoPro battery died, so no footage.

The goal of day 1 was really to get comfortable on the Cup2s, dial in air pressures, make sure alignment was good and shake off the track day cobwebs.

On day 2, we switched to CCW w/ the cyclone. Cyclone is about 1.5 seconds slower than the bypass according to my data. Fastest lap of Day 2 was a mid 2:03, so we did gain some additional time. Virtual best with the cyclone is a low 2:01, so plenty to more to gain.

On day 2, I wanted to focus on smoothing out my throttle-on transition in mid-corner and try to use less brakes to carry more speed on corner entry (vision is still number 1 of course!). I definitely made progress, but still have a ways to go. The "smoothness" of throttle application is so much more subtle than I would've thought. If you watch the first 8-9 mins of the video below, you'll see my throttle application is a bit more "Stabby" than the second of the video. The lap times reflect this, as they're faster deeper into the session. Part of this is also traffic, but not all! For example, if you watch 16:30, you'll notice I was able to take turns 3 and 4 with out letting off the throttle completely (whole sequence of turns was much smoother). Compare that to 12:20! Lots to learn!

Now - thoughts on running a squared setup! Just to recap I am running stock sway bars and end links, FP lowering springs, -2.2 front and -1.5 rear camber, 25mm spacers up front, and 19x11 Signature SV502s with 305/30R19 Cup 2s.

Holy. Shit. The squared setup TRANSFORMS the feel of this car on track. With the squared setup, the rear of the car rotates so much easier. Not snappy, not a lot, just predictably and efficiently. Feels very smooth and predictable...but it makes switchbacks like Turns 3-4 so much easier to run hard...no more understeer. Now...if you come in too hot and just crank the wheel, you'll still understeer. But the squared setup just gives that slight bias to oversteer on throttle lift and turn or when powering hard out of turns. Thunderhill East is really hard on right fronts, so it was great to be able to take the right front and switch it with the left rear (and vice versa on the other side) to even out wear. Added bonus.

That outside tread sure doesn't last long. This tire ran driver side rear on Day 1. This was morning of day 2. By end of the day, no more tread.

Anyways - enough yammering. Here's some footage! Pick your poison - 2 laps with telemetry or 19 mins of uninterrupted bliss

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How I got the tire angle. It's rather fascinating watching the tire flex on the rim!

CTH621 · Apr 16, 2018

honeybadger said:
As I mentioned previously - it's time to step up the safety game again. My current OMP seat, 6pth harness, hans, and roll bar are a great start. But they offer very little side impact protection. Coupled with watching my passengers get flung around - I bit the bullet and upgraded to a proper halo seat for driver side. Next winter I'll add one to the passenger side as well. I chose the Sparco Circuit because it's one of the few seats in the market that is similar width to my OMP Champ R - which fits perfectly. As a 5 7ish, 155 lbs guy - I swim in most halo seats.

Because I had already installed the 6pt harness in the driver side, I only needed to prep the passenger side. I started by removing the OEM seat. To do this, you'll remove 4 plastic covers to expose the torx bolts. You'll need a T50 to remove them.

The 4 bolts look like so. 2 in front and 2 in the back.

Don't forget to disconnect your seat. For tech seats, you'll have 2 plugs. (Note: ignore the evidence of my cocaine habit. Kidding of course - it's baking soda).

With the seat removed, we can take a look at how we want to mount things. Here's a diagram detailing how to mount a 6pt harness.

I'm using a Planted Technology base for my seats, which use the OEM holes. So no drilling there. To secure the lap belts, I am using the Cooltech harness clips that go under the back seat bolts. That just leaves us with the crotch belts. I wanted to secure these separately for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to make sure I was meeting the chest line recommendation in the diagram above. Second, I wanted to keep as many of my harness mounting points separate for added strength. That way if something fails, (hopefully) only that mounting point fails.

I measured and found that about 10in back from the front mounting holes would be chest line (I did this by putting the seat on the base, putting it in the car, and measuring). To mark my holes, I put tape down roughly where I needed. Then I got a carpenters square to mark the the 2 most outside points you see on the tape below (I used the front mounting holes as my reference points, running the square through the middle of them to ensure I was straight). I then took my tape measure to ensure I was square by measuring the distance between the front holes and between the two marks I made on the tape - both were the same, so I was good. Next I needed to measure and mark center. Most materials recommend a distance of 400mm between sub/crotch belt mounting points. We have to go a bit more than that because of the rail directly underneath the seat (pic below). If I recall correctly, I ended up at a 6in spread.

Chassis rail I mentioned above.

Once I was confident in my mounting points, I drilled through the floor pan and used these Planted Technology backing plates to secure the eye bolts.

Pics of the lap belts connected to the Cooltech clips.

Apologies for the potato pics, but not a lot of room in my garage to take pics. I'll grab some more when I'm at Thunderhill this weekend. But the end result is great. The Sparco Circuit seat feels great and the OMP seat will be much appreciated to my passengers.

On a side note, getting in and out of the car is comically difficult now since I don't have sliders and I sit so close to the wheel. Down side of having midget legs

Hey buddy, I also purchased some Sparco seats but with a Sparco seat base. Will install this coming weekend. One thing I noticed though is that the rear left mounting bracket of the seat base is slightly bent upwards, hence all 4 mounting brackets don't sit "flat" evenly on the table. Is that normal? Is the car floor really not perfectly flat?

honeybadger · May 3, 2018

Busy month of April

Hey guys -

Been an insanely busy couple months in the Honey Badger household. We're moving to College Station, Texas! (more on that later)

Before diving into the move, wanted to share some bits from me and my buddy's trip down to SoCal for Fabulous Ford's Forever, private track day at Buttonwillow, etc.

While down in SoCal, I hooked up with @bellwilliam to pick up a couple sets of 305 Cup2s from him (worth the trip right there

). Thanks, man! I'm set for the big road trip in August now!

On Sunday, we had the big show at Knotts. Buddy and I did Thunderhill on Friday, so the car was filthy. You know damn well we rolled it out of the trailer and into the show covered in tire marks, brake dust, bugs, etc. It was fun driving through Anaheim in a race seat with no license plates #didntgetpulledover #becauseracecar

It was fun watching people's reaction to the Honey Badger (car's name, not mine) next to Terrence's carbon fiber'd car. Total ying and yang. Definitely found a few track rats based on their reactions

^Pic from the autoweek article. http://autoweek.com/article/car-life...ings-blue-oval

On Monday, we had the private track day. What an absolute blast. Had a really great time giving rides, running with other Mustang owners, and getting schooled by Dan M. from Ford Racing school as he reeled me in on street tires :lol:

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Unfortunately, my videos from the day were shit. Buddy and I were running on about 13 hours of sleep from the past 3 days, and we completely forgot to make sure the mic was plugged in :headbonk: sigh....amateur hour. I'm sorry!

Luckily @Rgluckman was there to at least capture some epic pics

And my personal favorite. Sparks!

honeybadger · May 3, 2018

Tire, camber, and brake pad data from my trip

Couple of separate notes from the trip and some feedback on the G-Loc pads.

My buddy Matt and I decided to get a bit scientific this time around and brought a pyrometer to measure the tire patch to see how the camber/tire pressures were going to affect temps. Had some interesting insights.

32 psi HOT (as in, rolling into the hot pits without a cool down lap) yielded even tire temps across the patch when the car was driven quick, but smooth on the -2.4 camber setting. 34 psi yielded temps 5-8 degrees hotter in the middle. 30-31 psi yielded best traction, but sacrificed a bit of "feel" and "responsiveness."
-2.4 camber was good for smooth, quick laps, but not enough for hot laps. Thunderhill West is really hard on the passenger front tire (every turn that matters is a left). When doing pushing 8-9/10ths, we measured temps of 142, 147, and 155 (inside, middle, outside)

While chatting with bellwilliam, he swore by -3 to -4.5 front camber. My data also supports this.

I was talking to Sonny (driver for 949 Racing) and Dan M. (from Ford Performance Racing School) at the private Buttonwillow track day about camber as well, and both echoed William's comments about the car liking a lot of negative camber upfront. Dan mentioned he's been wanting to push the race-prepped GT350R at the school they're building to something like -3.5, but is getting a bit of push back since the car will see joyrides from Ford execs and it's overkill for them.

Lastly, wanted to share some data about my tire and brake pad life. I used G-Loc R16s (front) and R12s (rear) for 12 track days last year on street tires. I went with the same setup this year, but burned through the fronts in 4 days running the cup2s. They actually separated from the backing plate on me during my last session at Buttonwillow at hell into the barrel of my wheel (incredibly, it didn't break through the powder coat finish of Sig wheels). No bueno. My first set "started" to separate, but I pulled them off before it became a problem. Since they lasted 12 days, I didn't think much of it. But 2 sets in a row from different batches isn't good.

I'm now trying out [MENTION=19800]CSL[/MENTION] long-time recommendation of Raybestos ST43s next Saturday (yeah, yeah, Chris. You finally won!). Hopefully they work better. Shoutout to Porterfield Brakes for a really quick turn around without charging me extra. you got my business.

Also, as you can see from my tires, it's further proof I needed more camber than -2.4. These tires were rotated every day (fronts went to opposite rear, and rears moved to the same side front). These tires literally only saw track use and to be driven from the garage to the trailer in the driveway. Need. Moar. Camber.

I've since put a used set of Cup2s on and upped my front camber to -3.2. Will get data on my next trip out.

Zitrosounds · May 3, 2018

Good Stuff!!! What is the maximum negative camper you can set with the vorshlag plate?

honeybadger · May 3, 2018

Honey Badger is Moving!

As I mentioned a couple posts above, my wife and I are moving to Texas! Mrs. Honey Badger took a new job, so we're headed down to Texas. So excited for COTA to be the new home track! Unreal!

We'll be driving the Raptor + trailer down--moving company taking care of the rest. This trusty steed has 7500 towing miles on it so far (only 13k total miles :lol

. And some folks told me that Raptor's were "impractical." HA! Nothing says practical like towing an 8k lbs trailer 1500 miles and then unhooking it to go hit some sweet jumps!

Back on point, we've bought a canopy for it to transport dogs more easily (will have to remember to remove for the sweet jumps mentioned above). As much I hate canopies on trucks, I hate a meowing cat and dog breath for 3 days more. Luckily the new canopies are light, making them easy to take on and off.

Our house here sold a couple of days ago, new house is under contract - so we're shipping out the 26th of this month. Completely insane.

So who is everyone running with down in TX for track day organizers? Which tracks should I look into? (I've heard good things about MSR). We only know 2 people in TX, so looking forward to meeting fellow 6G members from the area (PM if you want to meet up!).

honeybadger · May 3, 2018

Zitrosounds said:
Good Stuff!!! What is the maximum negative camper you can set with the vorshlag plate?

Thanks, Harold!

I am running MM plates and they max out -2.4. I recommend them, but don't anymore. [MENTION=17837]raiderjatt02[/MENTION] runs vorshlag and said he was able to get over -3.2 I think.

I am still using the MM plates but added my BMR camber bolts back in to get more. FWIW, 949 is using 2 BMR camber bolts per side for -4 camber without problems.

Epiphany · May 3, 2018

I absolutely love your writeups Kevin. Prose is spot on. Photography is perfect. The tech is always something to pay attention to. And your sense of humor ties it all together.

Don't stop doing what you're doing.

tlisotta · May 3, 2018

honeybadger said:
Thanks, Harold!

I am running MM plates and they max out -2.4. I used to recommend them, but don't anymore (will probably switch to Vorshlag later this year). I'd run Vorshlag. [MENTION=17837]raiderjatt02[/MENTION] said he was able to get over -3.2 I think.

I am still using the MM plates but added my BMR camber bolts back in to get more. FWIW, 949 is using 2 BMR camber bolts per side for -4 camber without problems.

I have Vorshlag and have -3 but it can go more - not sure how much more. It is touching the sheetmetal at -3 so if you go more, you will have to make a modification.

rushca01 · May 3, 2018

[MENTION=23430]honeybadger[/MENTION] Stop man, my junk can only get so erect! Excellent write ups!

Zitrosounds · May 3, 2018

honeybadger said:
Thanks, Harold!

I am running MM plates and they max out -2.4. I used to recommend them, but don't anymore (will probably switch to Vorshlag later this year). I'd run Vorshlag. [MENTION=17837]raiderjatt02[/MENTION] said he was able to get over -3.2 I think.

I am still using the MM plates but added my BMR camber bolts back in to get more. FWIW, 949 is using 2 BMR camber bolts per side for -4 camber without problems.

Duh!!! What an idiot I am!!!! Great use of suspension bits. Seriously, these cars love camber. I will have to rethink not having camber plates. I have only tracked the R once with the BMR bolts (session's where cold and wet, bummer) but had several sessions with my TP albeit on MPSS camber maxed out. I could only imagine -4 degrees camber:eyebulge:

Great post! Thanks for sharing and have a safe trip to TX.

Harold

honeybadger · May 3, 2018

Epiphany said:
I absolutely love your writeups Kevin. Prose is spot on. Photography is perfect. The tech is always something to pay attention to. And your sense of humor ties it all together.

Don't stop doing what you're doing.

Thanks, Tob!

rushca01 said:
[MENTION=23430]honeybadger[/MENTION] Stop man, my junk can only get so erect! Excellent write ups!

Tob says don;t stop, you say stop :lol: Thanks, brother!

Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

HawaiiKid

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snaproll

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honeybadger

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honeybadger

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CTH621

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honeybadger

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honeybadger

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Zitrosounds

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honeybadger

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honeybadger

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Epiphany

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tlisotta

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rushca01

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Zitrosounds

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honeybadger

Just don't care