This came up on SHOforum.com a few weeks ago and it has made for a interesting thread so I though I would give it a shot on here. One SHOforum the thread was asking how you car is holding up and where do you plan to race this year.
Discuss
I plan to get my 1990 SHO to as many tracks as I can afford. mechanically the car is holding up extremely well. I need to order new brake pads and rotors for the front because I broke them at my last event in the fall. I also need to figure out why my car is trying to kill me. I rotated my tires and added a rear strut bar last season and the car has uncontrollable oversteer. I have a hunch that it may be a tire issue. I think it might be possible that I over heated my front tires and turned them into rocks or something and when installed on the rear now I have less rear traction when near the limit and around she goes. I have not been off course in the last 6 track days I have been to and that last one in the fall I spun out 3 times and went off course twice (safely).
I will try rotating the tires back and see how it does. If the issue persist I will get the alignment checked and remove some camber from the rear and if that does not help then I will remove the rear bar. I noticed that with the addition of the rear bar quite a bit of my rear tires do not see pavement. It is probably a inch or inch and a half. Without the bar it was probably only half inch unless I got the car into a massive slide then I would use all the tire but never roll onto the sidewall.
The engine and trans are solid. I have learned to not fill the P/S fluid more than just touching the bottom of the dipstick or it will puke out when it gets hot. I often wonder how hot my oil temp is because I run pretty long sessions sometimes or I will run 2 or 3 in a row, but so far the engine has not locked up so I guess it is doing ok.
To speak on the wheel bearing issue you are having shocar. I had the same issue with the stock subframe but when I upgraded to the Gen 4 frame and spindles I have noticed much better durability so far. I did 2 days at road america, 1 day at black hawk, and 3 days at nelson ledges Plus my daily driving activities and I have not worn any tie rods, ball joints, wheel bearings, or strut rod bushing (which use to constantly fail). I can’t honestly say I notice much if any difference in the way the car drives but not having to replace stuff after every track event made it worth every penny.
I really have this car where I enjoy the hell out of tracking it. My prep is down to shaking the front and rear end down, checking fluids and tires and racing the hell out of it.
My favorite chase of last season was a guy in a STI. It was only lightly modded but good god those things are quick. We were taking turns following each other to try each others lines in a couple different corners and towards the end of the day he started out behind me and I kept pushing harder and harder until oops no more brakes. Threw the car sideways to bleed speed around the corner and later he commented that it was the coolest drift he has ever seen a FWD car do. I explained the situation and he said he though I was “a bit ambitious” with my entry speed. nearly 70mph into a 45mph corner… yeah I would say so.
The best thing about these cars are they are very affordable to race. Three track days last year and the ONLY thing I did to the car was 3 oil changes and add 1 qt half way through each track day.
I plan on at least a couple days at nelson ledges this year. I really want to make it to bever run this year because I have heard it is a blast. I also want to get out to gingerman for a run out there. I love that track. I have run a bunch of events with autointerest. It is always a great group of people to race with. I really want to get out to road america this year again with Midwest F-Body Association. My buddy lives in wisconson and when he went to a event last season people were still talking about the nut in the white SHO that was out terrorizing everyone in the rain. On a side note a quafe equipped SHO is a force to be reckoned with in the rain. Especially against big HP rear drive boats