Nice work! Congrats!
'97 M3/4
Took another win last round at round 4 of lonestar drift at Texas Motor Speedway. Here are all the battles to keep this thing updated:
The car is working better than ever with the addition of the front sway bar. I put a 30mm TMS solid front bar on it, and welded some sway bar link tabs to the MG control arms. The car stays much flatter in drift now, and is planting the inside rear tire MUCH better than ever before. Now when I get on the throttle, the car moves forward and not just more sideways. It really is incredible how much rear grip the car gained without changing anything in the rear end at all. Now I am going to move the links to the struts for even more leverage on the bar and see if I can get this thing 3 wheeling! I was able to run down some of the fastest lonestar drift drivers with ease, whereas I would have to pedal the car and be really careful with the throttle and angle input to stay near them before. I went 2 OMTs against my buddy Fielding Shredder, and admittedly he was the only car that had more grip than me, but he was on a significantly faster tire (Kenda KR20A 265/35-18), which I didn't find out about until after I knocked him out. Once he had to change tires for our 3rd battle and swapped back to regular KR20 like I was on, it was game over.
Tl;dr If you have the power and can handle more snap in the car, put a front sway bar on. You'll run over all your competition if you don't already have a significant one. Round 5 is in a few weeks. Going to try to take home another podium!
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
I would love to put my front sway back on
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
Car looks dialed in! Amazing your progress over the years. Nice work.
'97 M3/4
So nice to see a project completed and not abandoned half way through like so many
Testing out the Zeknova Supersport RS tires in this video. I ran these 2 laps with 20psi cold in the tires and they feathered a bit. I dropped them down to 15psi and did another 2 laps and they started wearing nice and evenly. After another 2 I again dropped them to 15psi and they felt great. I was able to run over anyone in practice with ease. 6 total hard laps like in the video and I'd say they have probably 50% life remaining or so, maybe slightly more. I was pretty impressed to be honest!
Also, just posting this video to show that the car is still alive and well, and so am I. It's still doing work this year!
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
Everyone still runs Kenda KR20, except Nick Noback last round ran Valinos and had a huge grip advantage. I plan to run old KR20 (what I still have a bunch of). Most/some people are on new KR20S now, which have slightly more grip than the old ones I run, but last about 70% as long. If I have to go against anyone not running a Kenda, I'll throw these on for sure and run them over.
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
Feather. Can you tell me more about this?
I think of a front tire getting that weird slope and sharp edge on either the leading or trailing edge of the tread block. I've assumed this is related to braking.
I assume you're talking about rear tires.
Feather: What is it? Why is it bad? What does it indicate? How is it resolved?
none
Round 3! Managed to Grab a 2nd place! I think I could've taken the win if everyone was on the same tire, but Taylor Ray showed up with 245 Maxxis VR-1 in 245/50-15 on his Miata, which is an absolute massive amount of tire for a tiny little LS Miata, so naturally he was able to gap me a little bit in certain areas. I should've changed tires for the finals but I didn't feel like being "that guy" so I ran all of my battles on the same pair of tires. Overall an incredible weekend, with tons of great competition!
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
Taylor's miata didn't blow up? shocked.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
congrats on the 2nd place. it was good seeing you again, havent actully seen you in awhile. sucks about taylor showing up with the vr1, those tires look super grippy and in a 245 on the miate is insane. i noticed he was way faster than everyone else.
i was hoping to get a final shred session in after comp. i was fighting the heat along with everyone else. i eventually went hood off, but didnt get another session in to see if it would help. me, my kid, and my friends all had a blast. would def drive HPA again.
Pro3 entry today!
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
Was that your visor?
100+ mph entry with the homies @zachmitchamore and @harrisondrifterkid
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
Baking off a set of 265s in short order
Mike
IG: @mikevanshellenbeck
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