Dec 16th Long afternoon shadows M4 had the Blues. Amen

[twistedwankel]

Wow what a nice course for a sunny cool afternoon. OR ANY other time for that matter.
M4 had all Blue cars in the first 6 spots but a lady won the Class by a wide margin making the next 5 finishes the Blues Brothers

The Results are posted all ready. Awesome. Ron is back. Yea Ron. He finished well too.
There were some really close finishes in several classes so competition is really intense.

Personally I'm very pleased to finish 4th with the level of competition in S1 on my stock sized wheels and 2 year old RE71's. Next year will be really interesting in many classes. Especially with the spoilers who show up like Dat, The Lawsons, Ken, etc. I believe there were 118 racers today. Wow.

Thanks to everyone for making our racing day a great time and getting home just as it got dark was cool too. Next time I'll leave the outdoor lights on to help me find the house. We don't drive much at night anymore since I lost my white cane.

Doug

[aw614]

Fun course, starting to get the hang of the long slaloms in the acura, will still be a work in progress, but its feeling a lot better. I watched Kyle's video (he might share it later), and I liked his turn around approach better. This wasn't the first time I made the same mistake, I recall doing it a few years back after watching the videos, the mistake looked similar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlp4GGMrZqE

I also had a 43.125+1, not sure where I hit the cone though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo-AowjYnCQ
M4 looks interesting with Mike back in the mix for the winter/spring months.

[Kshader]

I watched Kyle's video (he might share it later), and I liked his turn around approach better.

Ask and ye shall receive. https://youtu.be/gY2dllLF2Ik

Best run, 41.904. Today was good slalom practice, which was nice for me cuz I still don’t think I’m very good at them. Once I shook the sleep out of my eyes I finally started to put together some decent runs.

Good competition out there today, from all the classes. Really fighting the urge to throw money at the car to make it faster, I know it’s cheaper to just try and suck less I like driving a lot more than wrenching so I’ll probably just stick with what I got.

[ImpostorDan]

Me and the course got along pretty well today - was very flow-y; had a good time chatting with Jim on course.

[Loren]

Man, what a long day! But, a great "last Open event" to finish off 2018 with.

As always, we couldn't do this without you. All of you! Thanks!

I'm still miffed that I ran a 43.4xx and a 43.229 and coned away both of them! I had to settle for a 44.4, which was only good for 3rd in today's unusually large M4 class. I may have a video of my 43.2 run, I'll have to check.

[puncturina]

I'm still miffed that I ran a 43.4xx and a 43.229 and coned away both of them!

...and thus the line of shame dropped below me for once...

[twistedwankel]

I'm still miffed that I ran a 43.4xx and a 43.229 and coned away both of them!

Seemed like there were a lot of "fastest runs" coned away today by really good drivers. The first heat of the afternoon there were a lot of hit cones. Wow did I feel bad for the workers that heat. You guys are a big motivation to get some new tires for next year!! Joe B and I have been struggling lately to keep up on old tires against the current hot shoes. I don't think either of us hit any cones today on our slow tires. Oh, that's why

[Loren]

The one video I took was actually of my last run, which was my best clean time of 44.429. Meh.

https://youtu.be/nWXf8POD_XY

[jaball77]

There were some really close finishes in several classes so competition is really intense.

0.16 seconds covered the top 4 in M2 and 0.18 covered the top 4 in S4! That's just silly.

Congrats to Ben for winning S4 in an S5 car!

And congrats to Jamie for showing us that tires with 200+ runs on them aren't *quite* dead yet.

[cab33]

I enjoyed my 1.5 hour drive home, because I didn't know I hit a cone on my last run until I checked the results after getting the car unpacked.

The course flowed nicely and I enjoyed a slalom for the 1st time... thanks to the tips from people here on the forum.

[markzeronine]

I knew I left half a second out there just keeping it safe and off the cones, it paid off. Even imagining giving it all I had and not worrying about cones, I don't think I had a 40.0 at all.. that's really impressive.

And yes, for a 40 second day, the times are way too close for comfort lol

[CaptainSquirts]

Oof, I'm so off pace. Glad to finally be running again, except when a hose pops off. Got my butt handed to me but fun regardless! Tires are done, hard as a rock. I wonder if there is some correlation daily driving tires on street when it's cold on and off. I noticed my 615k+ tires nose dived in performance by the time new year time hit. Rs4's either I ran into the same situation or just declined due to daily driving/running 12+ events. But regardless, got some 71's sitting in the garage. Lets see how fast those baby's wear out daily driving/autocrossing.

Here's my 42.291 run, no sound unfortunately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVzfONfMYio

[Loren]

If you're not doing enough autocross to kill a set of good performance tires in a year, they're very likely going to "age out" before they "wear out". The combination of daily driving heat cycles, and just age are going to dry out the rubber, and they're just not going to grip like they did when they were new.

Put a brand new uber-high-performance tire on a shelf somewhere for two years, it's going to to exactly the same thing. Lots of heat cycles and exposure to sunlight and ozone just accelerate the process.

The solution: Just autocross more!

[twistedwankel]

Lets see how fast those baby's wear out daily driving/autocrossing.

Your run looked smooth as silk. Not jerky at all. Don't forget about alignment destroying tires too. I know people who know people who change their alignment on site then put it back before driving home. Then I know those who trailer their cars to events. Personally I think that is an excellent time on stones or even decent tires. We know you were just taking it easy on the new driveline!! I was told by an insider that one of the top FTD contenders who now runs 615 class put on an old set of RE71's and went about 1 second faster on the same course in practice a while back. I keep waiting for you to buy a used set of wheels for Xcross only. Am I the only one who notices 200+ run co-driven Jamie dragging a tire trailer behind his 250k miled Miata and still finishing near the top? Then there's Philip aka "Are you shitting me?"

**Just for info you should put Kyle's 41.9 run next to yours and see where the difference is.

[aw614]

Kyle and I have about the same amount of runs +- 10 or so on RE71rs that we got mounted around the same time when the season started (PCA, FCRC, and FAST events), but his seem to be wearing a lot better and he hasn't had to flip them already like I have. We both think his miata is just much easier on tires.

I think Im going to bump the camber to -2.5 to -3 vs the -2 I have right now and just run them til they cord. But I'm considering just buying another pair and mounting them only up front on my gunmetal SSRs just to get me until summer events.

[markzeronine]

Well on the next "fun" event I'll be pulling the s2000 back out on over a year old re71rs that have just about a whole season, plus a pca endurocross at showtime speedway, plus a round trip to the dragon with 4 days of hard driving there. Now they still have decent thread left by autocross standards, it'll be very interesting to see if they're competitive at all considering I usually kill a set of tires every 6 months of nothing but autocross.

It's always good to have an excuse anyway

[Loren]

Excuse making is one of the most fundamental autocross skills. Of course, most of us aren't making excuses for "why I didn't set FTD today".

[Carracer]

That was fun. Like really fun. Aaron's car was interesting. Turn-in was lacking but the second you get any weight on the nose it grips up hard and leaves the rear wagging in the wind. Felt underdamped, better shocks and dropping the ITBs would make it a beast. Still, can't remember the last time I spent so much time with opposite lock in a turn or slalom!

My first run was a mess. couldn't move my hands past my knees so trying to drive that car with only a quarter turn of lock was a challenge I wasn't up for. I'm sorry to all the course workers. A different set of shoes helped a lot for run 2 and riding with mike. This was the only run I got the return side almost right. Run 3 was going great until it wasn't, committed it a line then chicken lifted. Run 4 was better but I completely screwed up the return side. Run 5 started with a silly cone. I think it had my best turn around. Figured I was going to get at least a raw 39XXX, then I got late, again. Wasn't looking far enough ahead. What I wouldn't give for 1 more run. Coned my best run but I was in good company, Cliff coned a 40.003!

Just a heads up, pictures will be late. I have about 1700 shots to prune down.

[Kshader]

Kyle and I have about the same amount of runs +- 10 or so on RE71rs that we got mounted around the same time when the season started (PCA, FCRC, and FAST events), but his seem to be wearing a lot better and he hasn't had to flip them already like I have.

Everyone called me a stance kid for going with -3 degrees of camber. Who’s laughing now

[JasonS]

Tires are done, hard as a rock

I remember back to a couple of events ago when I was saying the same thing about the RS4s. When they die, they die. It was like someone turned off the grip switch. Here one event, gone the next. The RS3's might have had a touch less overall grip and response, but they faded more gradually, and seemed to have grip longer into their life. Not sure I will do rs4's again.

This course was an absolute blast. It had all the flow. I was stoked when I got a 41.7. Then followed that up with a 41.2 and I have to think a 40.x was more than possible. I know I don't have much experience with tuning a car for autox, but I'm blown away at the difference adding some camber and a tiny bit of toe out can make. I'm sure to most of you this is common knowledge but for those that it isn't, go do it... NOW. Night and day doesn't do it justice. Had a cone free day, and with the length of that slalom I have to think that speaks to the new precision the car has. It went where I pointed it and no where else. Too much like fun. Feels nice to be back up to speed, other than the dogtrack, I have been off my pace since I put the tune on the car. Feels good to have things figured out again. Was way better at not over driving this time around. In fact, I'm betting I still had a fair amount of push harder left in the tank.

The true test will be to put Philip in it again. He declared that he "could not drive my car". I'm curious of your thought now. Next event, come find me for a run or two.