Auto Racing: FWD racing, sway bar bushing, honda prelude

Question
Hi Dan,
You wanted to here from me after my race, so here it goes.  In the first race(3/31) we ran great for 5 laps in second place, then the car started pushing very badly.  We later found a sway bar bushing on the front left was blown out. We still finished 3rd.
In our second race(4/7) we moved weight to the left front, replaced the bushing, and come from 10th at the start to 2nd in two laps.  At the end of the race we were gaining 2/10's a lap on the leader and blew the right front tire with 2 laps to go, still finished 5th.
Both front tires and the right rear were almost equal in temperature, by feel, I did not have the temp gauge in my pit.  However I think we gained a lot of set up knowledge that day and hope it will continue.  As you mentioned about stripping all the weight possible out of a car, great advice.  Without having that weight to play with it would be almost impossible to set this car up.  Which by the way is a 1987 Honda Prelude.
Thanks,
Taft  

Answer
Thanks- --good to hear from you !!

NOW is the time to get that book I mentioned. Again , it's "How To Make Your Car Handle" by Fred Puhn. Its available at book stores, might even be  on the shelf, but any store can order it for you. Takes about a week, and costs about $16.00 .

As for the temp guage, the pistol grip infra-red electronic kind are getting cheaper- -  -$70.00 or so, and will tell you a LOT about how well your set up is working. Here's what you do:

Get a few hot laps on the car and get it off the track and into a safe area as fast as possible. Starting with the RF, take temps from the outside about 1" in from the sidewall. Again in the center of the tire, and finally the inside edge. Yell them out to an assistant who writes this down.  Now RUN to the LF and do the same.  Then do the LR, and finallly the RR.  

If the center is hot, you are running too much pressure, if it's colder, add some air, 1 Lb. at a time.  The outside edge of the RF should be about 15 Deg hotter than the rest of the tire. if the inside edge is hot you have too much negative camber. It gets even MORE confusing after that. but get the temps. send them to me and I'll try to help.

Now your front sway bar.  Change the links to spherical rod ends.  You don't need to pay for the pretty stainless ones, look in the Summit catalog for the $5-$6 variety and make the link solid!  

My most successful car has no rubber or polyeurethane in it anywhere, all bushings have been replaced with spherical bearings, and yes it was a bit coatly. It was also worth it !!

If you can't find cheap rod ends, write back (write back anyway ) and I'll try to aim you at the right supplier.

Glad to hear of your success- - - do keep me in the loop !!

Dan Liddy