Ran the Speed3 at the track today...learned what NOT to do!

[justa4banger]

Yea i'm not to found of cable shifters. my VW was notorious for missing shifts if you tried to SLAM through them. Short shifter helped, but its just the nature of the beast. On the flip note i never upgraded motor mounts and people claim that helps.

One day i'll get around to buying/installing an AWR piece and shifter bushings. Sounds like this is the mod to do first and foremost.

I will say this, you would have been better off with keeping the tires FULL and trying to spin them on the launch. For FWD it was the best way to launch IMO.In my Veedub i would spray first just to get a little spin and RIDE it out then go for the kill in the higher gears. My thinking was better to burn a little rubber then drop the whole engine/tranny out the bottom of the car. Wheel hop in ANY vehicle is bad for the drivetrain.

As for the Diff comment mentioned above, i'm not exactly sure which diff is in our tranny's but i'm pretty certain ITS NOT a locker style. probably clutch pack type. So the chances of the diff LOCKING and UNLOCKING....... ummm NO. Even if it was a locker style it wouldn't unload from wheel hop.

 

[Bakrauf]

Dude my car (MS3) has done the same thing, and so Did my MSp and it scared the s*** outta me. When I ever get on hit hard I get a wham wham from the front end. I always thought it was the LSD. People riding with me say WTF is that and I tell them its the LSD locking up. Is it or is it wheel hop? I truely think its the LSD and it seems to hit hard. I, like fourthmeal thought i dropped my entire front end.

 

[justa4banger]

wheel hop does suck, and personally i think it should be a recall for any vehicle that wheel hops. it can destroy drivetrain and suspension parts, but since the bean counters and engineers have overal say in production models, they win with softer/cheaper motor mounts and bad suspension design thats more prone to wheel hopping.

either way my suggestion is if you planon spirited driving , like i plan, then time to upgrade some parts.

 

[sixblade]

engine mounts make a huge diffrence with shifting. Both in my GTI vr6 and my 88 mr2 shifted so much better after replacing the engine mounts.

 

[BOOSTR]

I'm sure it sounded worse than it was. It was almost a light metallic thumping sound versus something falling apart. What brand of tires come on the MS3?

 

[justa4banger]

Tires are sticky Potenza Re50's 140 treadwear.
Won't last long, but grip like no tomorrow. Not a good winter tire i hear, but spring is coming soon.

 

[WagonMan]

It is not just a matter of bean counting that results in cars having wheel hop. The Cadi CTS-V suffers from bad wheel hop, and previous generation BMW M5s can also suffer. If you read Car and Drivers review of the current gen. M5 with the manual tranny they claim BMW won't let you turn off the DSC and Trac control fully in order to avoid wheel hop, and the expensive repairs that can result. My BMW 540 occassionally suffers from it as well, although not as bad as the MS3.

It is a result of having soft suspension and/or engine mounts in order to make for a comfortable car, and very sticky tires. Like everything it is a trade off, stiff mounts, higher NVH, no wheel hop vs soft mounts and wheel hop. These companies assume most people would rather have lower NVH, as wheel hop only occurs in certain circumstances whereas a vibrating dashboard is always annoying.

 

[dcomiskey]

Drag strips aren't race tracks. Take it to a REAL track and see what you can do.

 

[C'ville]

Drag strips aren't race tracks. Take it to a REAL track and see what you can do.

I 2nd that, this car is not made to drag race.
But do as you please with your own car

 

[justa4banger]

I 2nd that, this car is not made to drag race.
But do as you please with your own car

Cause you know all the top drivers are road course racing in Wagons these days.
No car is made for any one thing. The MS3 is an econobox, that rides well, pretty balanced, has great features and nice power. Has a few quirks but hey what car doesn't.
i bought my MS3 to replace my GTI. Things i required: It be quick, decent on gas, have 4 doors, and relatively cheap, amongst a few others. the MS3 met my requirements.
whether or not i can mod it is irrelevant. thats why i have a toy car with a 2.3 turbo.

Back on topic I plan on running my MS3 soon on the 1/8th (no near by 1/4 miles) and then do the engine mount change and see the difference.
I'm sure they will be one. If i break it, oh well warranty has got me covered.

 

[C'ville]

Cause you know all the top drivers are road course racing in Wagons these days. .

I never said that, I'm just stating that I think the MS3's biggest plus is driving it on something that isn't a straight line.
I dont see anything wrong with this car being a wagon,
School me on why its a bad thing compared to a coupe or sedan?

 

[clos561]

car isn't that new. It has 3800 miles on it. I don't baby it, but I don't drag race stoplight to stoplight either. I'm not afraid to punch it though. The clutch doesn't seem like a problem on this car. The wheel hop caused by a botched high rpm launch, super sticky track, low psi tires, and extremely weak factory mounts all culminated, I believe, in what I experienced. The clatter sound you heard on the outside wasn't audible from the inside. It sounded much more like hitting a washboard road at too fast a speed.

I believe as all this motion was happening, that the linkages to the shifter were out of alignment with the gear selector. Basically it was all bouncing around. Interestingly, you can grab the linkage (complete with counterweights) at the transmission side and SHIFT gears on the car. You can push it forward and back, and it will arc across a path. Also, you can lift up or push down on the weight and turn, and that selects other gears. With that part being counter-weighted, and with all the linkages being connected with soft bushings all over the place, AND with the motor mounts allowing all these parts to move back and forth a TON, I think therein is the recipe for shift control loss. It only makes sense once you witness the design at the transmission side. Just pull your airbox to see what I'm talking about. EEEK!

So, anyway, it all comes down to this:
Hopefully you fellow MS3 owners take something away from what I found out the hard way. Don't hard RPM launch the car like Mazda suggested to the magazine journalists. Don't race with traction control on (duh), and if you don't **** up the launch, nor loose the feeling of where the gears are within the shifter, the car will move nicely down the track.

And to the person(s) who've taken this post as a way to criticize what I've already admitted to being mistakes, ...you've missed the point of this post completely. You receive zero points for your effort. We are now all dumber for having to listen to your post. Good day.

<now where is the two middle fingers in the air smiley?>

To those who get what I'm saying here...sweet. Its all about learning experiences and what we can bring to the forum community. If someone doesn't have to go through the painful learning curve that I did, better for them, eh?

i always race with traction control on....if u mean that dcs button on the left...i alwayshave it on and neverhave problems launching....shifting problems are my fault..i try to shift to fast...and minor grind....i got alot better and it doesnt happen ne more...wtf does dcs stand for neways?

 

[Aviboy97]

i always race with traction control on....if u mean that dcs button on the left...i alwayshave it on and neverhave problems launching....shifting problems are my fault..i try to shift to fast...and minor grind....i got alot better and it doesnt happen ne more...wtf does dcs stand for neways?

DSC is Dynamic Stability Control. If you turn that off, your traction control should turn off as well. From what I have heard, with those systems deactivated, it is easier to launch.

My MS6 does not launch well, and I heard a "clunk" when I left it on. My next few launches was with it off, and I simply took off.

 

[Rotus8]

i always race with traction control on....if u mean that dcs button on the left...i alwayshave it on and neverhave problems launching....shifting problems are my fault..i try to shift to fast...and minor grind....i got alot better and it doesnt happen ne more...wtf does dcs stand for neways?

The normal state is ON. If you push the button the light goes on and the system is off.

 

[yashooa]

Man this thread sounds just like the MSP threads back in the day. Our cars wheel hopped like a b**** to. That damn motor would bounce around like a methed up Hollander, river dancing with clogs on.
Not fun. But these new AWR mounts solved that problem.
Niether car is a drag car so you are kind of beating it into submission

 

[tru-boost]

the awr mount helps this a lot !
i just did mine yesterday and ....wow !!
it will still hop but not nearly as much or as violent.

 

[clos561]

how do u guys launch...i get wheelspin. and it sticks right away....maybe because i use the traction...duno whatu guys are talkn about..i doesnt seemtodothat for me really...

 

[Mocoso]

wheel hop does suck, and personally i think it should be a recall for any vehicle that wheel hops. it can destroy drivetrain and suspension parts, but since the bean counters and engineers have overal say in production models, they win with softer/cheaper motor mounts and bad suspension design thats more prone to wheel hopping.

either way my suggestion is if you planon spirited driving , like i plan, then time to upgrade some parts.

I agree bean counters shouldnt have a say but to leave the engineers out of it.. if you dont want engineers having a say in the car design then who?

 

[CTGrey02]

The track is a completely different environment from the street. I have far less traction on the strip than I do on the street (even with drag radials) so I typically launch with out raising the RPM so I can at least have traction. I can't watch your runs from work but from the sounds of it, if your going to raise the RPM you need to ride out the clutch (not good for it) to compensate or you will get wheel hop. Wheel hop kills half shafts so be careful.

 

[LinuxRacr]

People always ask what my car runs in the 1/4. I tell them I don't know...because I don't You see, my car is not a drag car, but a fun daily driver that I can boost, and kill corners in.