Well that did not go according to plan. Jefferson wound up getting run in a reverse configuration. The course started at the #11 corner station and ran clockwise until corner station/corner #1.

I only managed to get 2 honest runs in before I gave up for the day (1 normal drive through first). I almost crashed both runs and decided to cool down elsewhere. Pushing when frustrated has led to previous crashes so I tried to recognize my limits (excuses).

In reverse, the track actually flows quite well. There are only 2 major sticking points. The first is corner 8. Stretching the first corner (10) into 9 puts you into a slight straight away before corner 8. You can’t see how tight the corner becomes so over shooting is easy. This corner ended at least 2 driver’s days an is where I went off on my first run.

The second sticking point is the corner set of 5/4/3. They are gentle corners with long straight-aways. The first half of the course, I was constantly on the rev limiter in third, so stretching the second half in the same gear probably isn’t possible. I straightened of flew off the course entirely in this section.

With more practice, I’m confident the majority of the course is doable. It’s simply the 5/4/3 section that needs an upshift that I’ve never done before. 3rd gear allows for up to a 60mph average speed. So 4th will likely easily hit 80. The bar has raised and I can’t wait to hit it.

Long time no update right?

Today let’s talk about caster and camber as it pertains to drifting. Originally, I went by this write up by Mike Kojima. But it’s a bit out dated now and either my skills are better and this is for beginners, or the general idea and concept has changed.

I was rolling around with good old Rapper Dan Savage the other weekend and he noted that his “poop coupe” with angle mods had 3.4 degrees of caster. My E30 has 9.6 degrees (not necessarily on purpose). His rationale was that with more steering angle, the extreme caster would cause a lack of contact patch at full lock. This was also mirrored by his low camber (-2.3 degrees)

Stiffer suspensions cause less camber gain with suspension travel but lowered cars without roll center adjustment cause exponential camber gain. So it makes sense to add in some positive camber to gain forward line stability (on a straight away and small turns). The lack of caster will allow for the tires to maintain a greater contact patch near lock and allow for the driver to keep on throttle. Which of course means more smoke and “gangster angle”.

In practice, your ability to modify caster will likey be minimal. When I was younger, I’d just take my camber/caster plates and set them to max pos caster and max neg camber. Ironically, my camber plates are currently set max positive and I’m about to set my caster settings to max negative.

Word of caution: Caster effects for what’s called “self steer” or “wheel return”. The less caster, the less wheel return there will be. Some angle kits have modifications to “trail” which helps this. But regardless, steering might/will require more input with these settings.