Oct 21 Post-Event

[Blue_Heron]

*crickets*

*maniacal laughter*

Preston, I highly recommend not buying a Mirage to autocross. Unless your a sadist who likes playing the underdog.

Loren,
I would rephrase that to "... a sadist who likes playing the ringer" Congratulations on your victory, sir. I went to S5 for a lower bar, then you went and raised it. I've already bought new 195 RE71s, so it's too late to bail out, dammit.

[AScoda]

kinda dumbfounding to be +5 out of FTD!

That time was on race tires.
You were only, um, +3.5 out of fastest street tire time.
That's....something.
Right?

[Native]

Gonna spend the next couple months finally replacing the worn out stock suspension with the coilovers I've had sitting in a corner of my garage.

Before anyone hates on you for a) leaving car parts sitting, and/or b) taking months to do a job that really only needs a few hours, let me be the first to say, rock on. Cuz that's how I roll!

[mymomswagon]

I had a fabulous time. No runs with penalties. What's up with that???

Car was faster though Steve obviously adjusted to changes more than I did. He re-widened our time gap and showed that the wagon is faster than it looks (even with those badass black steelies). There is more there, especially for me.

Loren continues to show us 'how it's done', now with one less cylinder. uch:

[CaptainSquirts]

kinda dumbfounding to be +5 out of FTD!

That time was on race tires.
You were only, um, +3.5 out of fastest street tire time.
That's....something.
Right?

Stop rubbing Cheetah blood on your tires Drew, making us all street tire guys look bad...

Here's my 53.467 clean run. Course felt tighter compared to last years layout but still quick and fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFsKxyXq5JM
Something something something i sucked at turn around and something something something need to change balance on car where I felt it lacked in....

P.S. damn you Les and your 52's

[CaptainSquirts]

Daniel - I like what you've done to your car too! And your times would suggest it agrees with you. Good job!

Thanks. I like it also, but I gotta change the rear up some. I think too much toe in due to car feeling a little pushy and rear not rotating very well at really low speed turns(the box). Currently at 1/4inch total toe in which is not very normal for a awd car to run so I'll have to back it out to 0 toe.

[Loren]

I went to S5 for a lower bar, then you went and raised it.

It's not like I brought the ringer car for the class or anything. I set the bar as low as I could!

[ImpostorDan]

kinda dumbfounding to be +5 out of FTD!

That time was on race tires.
You were only, um, +3.5 out of fastest street tire time.
That's....something.
Right?

TBH, maybe? When I started and added a set of sticky tires, I used to think any time I came within materially <10% delta of your time - I was having a good day; and any time that happened and I came within 3/4's of a second to Ron on a T position, I was on a the right track. Based on my morning times, it's a mixed bag, but then I'm comparing first run group to afternoon heats. If I back into my afternoon raw out of the gate in the afternoon, it was alright all things considered. I was experimenting through the afternoon set with a go for broke attitude as more of a limits and see if I could aovid braking/downshift on the inbound circuit - not trying to stay stable per se!

[Blue_Heron]

I set the bar as low as I could!

And then went on to beat about 2/3 of the entries... Hmmm. Maybe winning at autocross has more to do with driver skill than with the car you drive. I need to get me some of that.
Dave

[jbrannon7]

Daniel - I like what you've done to your car too! And your times would suggest it agrees with you. Good job!

Thanks. I like it also, but I gotta change the rear up some. I think too much toe in due to car feeling a little pushy and rear not rotating very well at really low speed turns(the box). Currently at 1/4inch total toe in which is not very normal for a awd car to run so I'll have to back it out to 0 toe.

Unless something changed or my memory is failing I thought we set rear toe at 1/8" total toe in. If you felt the car was not rotating enough, and I think most people thought their cars were not rotating enough on that course, you could have tightened the rebound setting on your rear shocks between runs. My car had more than enough rotation.

[CaptainSquirts]

When I rechecked later it showed 1/4inch difference from the front and rear. It felt great during mid/high speed sweepers. It'll probably compromise those a little but I'll have to dial it down a little. Increasing the rebound will help loosen rear/give it less grip?

[jbrannon7]

When I rechecked later it showed 1/4inch difference from the front and rear. It felt great during mid/high speed sweepers. It'll probably compromise those a little but I'll have to dial it down a little. Increasing the rebound will help loosen rear/give it less grip?

Yes, the theory is stiffening the suspension decreases grip.

[twistedwankel]

It was a beautiful day in Brooksville for once.

Special thanks to tech meister Dan for doing his job and finding the Stealership after keeping my car for over 4 days managed to break off the riveted clip that the hold down bolt the battery screwed into. Then rather than fixing it just slipped the bolt loosely into an empty hole. I will have to do an inspection after every visit to see what they broke that has nothing to do with the repair. In this case a brake booster on the other side of the car. Their delays also made me miss the Friday autocross in Gainsville - Grassroots $2017 event. Really bummed me out. (Shamed they into a free window adjustment.) So I spent 30+min making a temp repair to be able to compete but didn't have time for a course walk. It drove reasonably well blind and I drove by the first radical slow down 2 cone slalom at station 3 rather than kill cones. My young passenger learned more from my mistake than he would have otherwise.

Also thanks to Doug and Eva for inquiring if my car was raceworthy. I was so frustrated seeing the mounting limitations I almost went home early. At 5pm I spent 3 hours trying to drill a hole in a spring steel U-Speednut (breaking 3 drills) then ruined all 3 of my remaining muscles getting the pedestal base reinstalled (had taken battery out of car so couldn't unlock the trunk where the little vise grips I needed are). At least my day was much better than Mike D's. Always someone worse off, right!!

Station 6 and 7 were buzz kills for me and I know I left a full second or more at each of those manuvers. At least I beat a miata on real race rubber. I'm pretty sure I have the only R1 car actually driven to the event on 100u Track tires. Being this course was significantly longer I lost to my measureby drivers by about a second more than normal which makes total sense.

I have come to realize that "Track" tires are actually longer lasting than my year old RE71's well worn and on stock wheels. My only advantage to use 100u R888R's is their 295x30 width but more importantly I now have 10.5" square setup of wheels and can run much lower tire pressures saving on precious air. Whenever I wear these out I'll find the widest 140-200u tires I can and run stock again. This will be a very long time as I still have my RE71's stacked in the garage with 30+ runs left in them. I'll be putting them on again one day just to compare my observations.

**Looking at the results I see a couple people way ahead by large margins. They are very gifted. I also realized something. Modern cars have computer controlled ABS + "traction controls". This is considered to be the same as having a LSD in my mind. So therefore I suggest that the S5 "rule" about having an open diff is Moot unless there is no ECU traction control available. The 195 tire width is very limiting but the ABS/traction control is not enforceable? They put this on every car built by Federal mandate? I have two friends with a 2004 BMW and a Porsche both of which have factory open diffs and run in BS and CS but have traction control via ECU. As I recall Saturn was the first company to realize with a few key strokes they could also use the ABS program to stop wheel spin for free. Some food for thought next season.

[blacksheep-1]

Was anyone taking pics at this event? if so where may I find them
Thanks

[Jamie]

Was anyone taking pics at this event? if so where may I find them
Thanks

Phillip will get around to posting the ones he took...there will be a link in this thread.

[twistedwankel]

I went to S5 for a lower bar, then you went and raised it.

It's not like I brought the ringer car for the class or anything. I set the bar as low as I could!

I set the bar as high as I could in R1 on 100u tires with a stock car and brought them all down a notch - They only look faster now.

[mymomswagon]

Doug, regarding the traction control observation, my guess is this varies by car. For example in my car there is an electronic differential and something akin to traction control that prevents wheel spin.

I have both turned off 24/7 and disable stability control at events. I found that both were too invasive and if anything slowed me down. Glad I did as I think I'll learn more.

Maybe there are cars out there where it's an advantage.

edit: maybe I'm not one of the gifted ones

[CaptainSquirts]

Remember to do a quick overlook of your car to make sure it is in still one piece and nothing is leaking. For some reason a rear axle popped out of the rear diff a little which was causing it to leak/sling rear diff fluid everywhere. Luckily I caught it before it lost too much fluid or it would've been a costly fix... That axle that popped out I took it all apart and put new boots and grease a good 4-5 months ago. Possibly/maybe a bad installation on my part. Good thing I was rechecking my tear toe or I would've never of noticed .

[AScoda]

Hey! Quick history lesson.
We had a couple of OG FAST autocrossers at this event that many of you do not know. Charles Stowe and Rob Edwards. Both were regulars 10 years ago when FAST evolved.
I remember at one of my first events, Rob told me to "just throw it in there and see if it sticks!" I still do that from time to time.
You may have noticed in my avatar that I note my car as one of the FAST original four. I actually have 2 of them. My 87 Mustang and this Miata, which was raced with FAST by Brian Heintzman 10 years ago. Even though he hasn't brought it out lately, Charles Stowe has one of them--his turbo 240 SX. Steve Frank's Miata is the 4th of the cars that are still around from the very beginning.
The original 4

[Evil MS3]

Gonna spend the next couple months finally replacing the worn out stock suspension with the coilovers I've had sitting in a corner of my garage.

Before anyone hates on you for a) leaving car parts sitting, and/or b) taking months to do a job that really only needs a few hours, let me be the first to say, rock on. Cuz that's how I roll!

Lol I'd love to have got it sorted sooner but been trying to save $ to build a pool so put myself on a spending freeze. Need some more parts: rear camber arms and front camber plates (since KW is apparently the only company that doesn't that doesn't include them on their coilovers) then the alignment/corner balance lol Finally ready to get the show on the road. Just in time to need tires too haha