SVT SE-R
Member
Drove the Lightning Sunday at a NASA-Virginia autocross at Va. Motorsports Park -- I dropped off the raSEcaR Friday night so the new engine can be put in, so I had to autocross the truck again. 
I got an alignment Friday and found out the Lightning is very camber-friendly. I got about -1.1 degrees of negative camber on either side, and there was more there if I wanted it! Unlike the three SE-R's I've had where I'm lucky to get -0.7 without having to resort to camber plates -- even after lowering them. Go figure. The added negative camber seemed to make the truck handle better -- it wasn't as sluggishly responsive as before.
I ran the first heat, which turned out to be the only dry heat of the day. I actually had FTD for most of the heat until a stock C4 Corvette and Street Mod E36 M3 stopped hitting cones. My first run was a 58.871, followed by a 57.939 then down to a 57.567, and they were all remarkably cone-free! On the last run, I tried to toss the truck through a two-cone slalom that was the beginning of a straightaway but finally hit a cone. Raw time was a 57.433.
The course was pretty fast -- hit the rev limiter in 2nd big time on that straightaway (guestimating 70mph w. the 285/30/18 Kumho Ecsta V700s) and probably could have used 3rd but didn't want to fiddle with trying to manually shift.
I don't think there was anybody else in F Stock. Mike Johnson ran later in the day in the ProKhana in a Z28 (which he finished 2nd in at Nationals last year in F Stock, and the car also won Pat Salerno a national championship in '99), and I was under a second behind him. But it was raining for him. I mean, um, uh, it was completely dry!
The Kumhos are holding up pretty well. There's still plenty of tread and grip left, and I've put 12 regular autocross runs on them plus about 23 on an Evolution School Phase II course and almost 20 during "screw-around time" on a Phase I course. My girlfriend drove the truck Saturday on the Phase I course during "screw-around time," and she didn't know what to think of it. Something like, "It's big like a truck but doesn't quite handle like a truck."
I got the rear Addco sway bar but didn't attempt to put it on. The front bar is on its way, so hopefully it gets here before this weekends track day at Va. International Raceway.
I got an alignment Friday and found out the Lightning is very camber-friendly. I got about -1.1 degrees of negative camber on either side, and there was more there if I wanted it! Unlike the three SE-R's I've had where I'm lucky to get -0.7 without having to resort to camber plates -- even after lowering them. Go figure. The added negative camber seemed to make the truck handle better -- it wasn't as sluggishly responsive as before.
I ran the first heat, which turned out to be the only dry heat of the day. I actually had FTD for most of the heat until a stock C4 Corvette and Street Mod E36 M3 stopped hitting cones. My first run was a 58.871, followed by a 57.939 then down to a 57.567, and they were all remarkably cone-free! On the last run, I tried to toss the truck through a two-cone slalom that was the beginning of a straightaway but finally hit a cone. Raw time was a 57.433.
The course was pretty fast -- hit the rev limiter in 2nd big time on that straightaway (guestimating 70mph w. the 285/30/18 Kumho Ecsta V700s) and probably could have used 3rd but didn't want to fiddle with trying to manually shift.
I don't think there was anybody else in F Stock. Mike Johnson ran later in the day in the ProKhana in a Z28 (which he finished 2nd in at Nationals last year in F Stock, and the car also won Pat Salerno a national championship in '99), and I was under a second behind him. But it was raining for him. I mean, um, uh, it was completely dry!
The Kumhos are holding up pretty well. There's still plenty of tread and grip left, and I've put 12 regular autocross runs on them plus about 23 on an Evolution School Phase II course and almost 20 during "screw-around time" on a Phase I course. My girlfriend drove the truck Saturday on the Phase I course during "screw-around time," and she didn't know what to think of it.
Something like, "It's big like a truck but doesn't quite handle like a truck."I got the rear Addco sway bar but didn't attempt to put it on. The front bar is on its way, so hopefully it gets here before this weekends track day at Va. International Raceway.