> Inquiring minds want to know.
We've been autocrossing a Mk II for almost ten years now. Two drivers,
competing in two SCCA regional championship series, plus an occasional
club or non-SCCA event, averaging twenty to thirty events a year. Our
car gets used a lot.
We are currently running 225-45x15 Hoosiers on 8-inch wheels. We use
C.A.T. springs, with Konis at full-stiff in the front, a 1-inch sway bar,
and
plastic bushings throughout. We have never had a balljoint failure, and
we've never broken a fulcrum pin, though we did upgrade to stronger
pins when we redid the front-end a couple of years ago because the
mounts for the lower a-arm were ripping themselves off the crossmember
on one side. In all, our most common failure has involved the sway bar
brackets.
This, however, should not be taken as a mitigation of the fulcrum pin
problem. I've heard and read of many broken pins. I saw one snap
about six feet from me when Peter Phelps was backing out of a parking
space at Tigers United in Santa Rosa a while back, and Chuck Daly
broke one on the way to a get-together at Ed & Karen Foster's a couple
of years ago.
Yep, they break. Yep, you are at risk driving out of your driveway.
This probably scares some people. It scares me too. But if and when
the level of my fear surpasses the intensity of my thrill, I'll park it and
maybe learn how the play the-wax-and polish game. <ok. Maybe NOT!>
Ramon
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