Da Groj

Who gets sunburned in February?!?

I loved this course. I like them all, but this one was particularly enjoyable. I only got two timed runs - one in the VW and the other in Ben's FiST (we corded a tire on the VW). And thanks to Ben again, I did get to try it out during the test runs. Fabulous. That car is so much fun to drive.

The VW setup and the course were an excellent match, kinda bummed I didn't get a chance to really make it work. Next time...Bill and I were talking today, and I think we came to the conclusion tha the car is pretty much dialed-in.

Appreciate all the help today, too! Y'all rock.

Hey, the results are up on the website, check 'em!

Great event all-around. Great course, great competition, great weather, great peeps!

Steve, Bill caught me in passing and told me you needed a ride due to corded tire. I promptly forgot and/or assumed you must have found a better ride. You could have taken some runs in my car! Oh, well. At least you got some tasty test-runs in Ben's FiST.

I'll have some video in a bit. I should have my best run from both my car and Andrew's Acura.

More later. I still haven't showered yet. (but, I did have sushi, so it's all good)

I didn't know Bill did that.
Thanks to both of you!

Okay, here's what I got for video. (and what Andrew got)

I took my first run in the Mirage, 44.8. Then I took two runs in Andrew's car, 44.2 & 43.3. Took my last run in the Mirage, your official Line of Shame: 44.159.

Here's my fastest run, 43.3 in Andrew's Acura:
(note the evil laugh at the end... all I wanted was a 43... a 43.9 would have been fine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COC5mApFM1M

And this is what 44.1 looks like in a Mirage:
(wanted a 43.9 here, too... I might have gotten it if I'd taken all of my runs in the Mirage)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llfer9t33z8

I didn't know Bill only did 2 runs. He could have taken a run or two in the slug. Not sure he would have appreciated that though.
While the Miata is undergoing clutch reassignment surgery, I brought out the grocery getter. Factory stock Mustang GT. It's got a quite anemic V8, slippery leather seats and an automatic tranny. It's a heavy convertible and has the cheapest 245/17 tires that Tire Rack stocks. But, at least it gets terrible gas mileage!

While it will never produce fast times on the clock, did provide some enjoyment.
Kinda what Autocross is all about.

Just realized that Phillip ran in the same group as I did, so probably won't turn up in any pictures.

I really enjoyed this course, and the weather was near perfect, depending whether you thought the stiff breeze was a plus or a minus. I learned some about tire pressure, mostly that I didn't have enough early on.

I was very pleased to take the second place sticker in MA, and would like to thank those who made it possible; Drew for running PAX in his grocery getter, Matt Sullivan for taking a voluntary handicap on all seasons, Ron Rice for not showing up, and Dan Estep for doing whatever he did or didn't do that allowed me to beat him for the first time ever.
Dave

While I did design this course, I can't say that it was awesome just because of that. Steve, Drew and Ben reviewed the course map weeks ago, and we tweaked a few things. And then Steve, Drew and I walked it with 6 experienced eyes and tweaked it some more. Then we drove it... and tweaked it some more still!

The original layout would have had some parts that were downright painful, and other parts that were too fast, and the finish was flat-out scary! Just a few little tweaks got it all together. It caused us to start 15 minutes late, but it was totally worth it!

What I should have done was walked around grid, shouting "Steve says he has 20 bucks and he can beat your best in your car!" ahhh...afterthought.

I was too focused analyzing in my head about 'what to do with tires' to consider my last two rides. Thank you for the generous thoughts

This was indeed a fun course. Prior to the event, I wondered about that section onto the runway and wondered about it more as an instructor. Really wasn't sure how fast I get through it so I opted for trying 'fast' on the first time out. That didn't go well but second run was clean. Anyway, I was giddy after both runs..too bad the tire ended it all.

As Steve mentions the car feels balanced...a little lively and little underdamped imo but very manageable and fun.

Looks like you could use a bit more tire pressure to get a little more out of the center of the tread.

Loren wrote:Looks like you could use a bit more tire pressure to get a little more out of the center of the tread.

yeah we've been as low as 43psi and bumped it up gradually to 48.

An earlier flip would have helped too (we were close to 100 runs without a flip) ..and last 2 events were counterclockwise turnarounds so might have overstressed the right side near it's end of life?

Loren wrote:Hey, the results are up on the website, check 'em!

What are the calculated results for P class? What's posted is simply our raw times.

Yeah, Ken is working on fixing that.

I looked at that last night. The pax adjusted times (if I recall correctly) were the same as the raw results except for I was ahead of Bill. Since Bill only had two runs, he was ahead of me on my second run, so I'll still claim last.

mymomswagon wrote: Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:49 am I was too focused analyzing in my head about 'what to do with tires' to consider my last two rides. Thank you for the generous thoughts

Do you have an extra set of wheels or do you leave these on all the time?
I don't label tires as to front or back: every time I put on her running shoes I put the ones with the best shoulders up front. I flip them at between 80-90 runs and have been getting around 170-180 runs per set. It used to be 140-160 but number has gone up since I've become better at not overdriving the turn around.

Even if they stay on, switching front <-> back may get you a bit more life as well.

My one penny thought.

Pictures! Run group 2 only unfortunately. Thanks to Drew for spotting!
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmyVgK8F

Damn...my car is starting to lean almost as much as Philip's....

Carracer wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:34 pm Pictures! Run group 2 only unfortunately. Thanks to Drew for spotting!
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmyVgK8F

Yo Phillip

Great photos of 52 (522)

thanks

IMG_8469 by Philip Petrie, on Flickr
Wow the rear tire lift is far more noticable vs the previous type r sway bar (22mm) I used to run, handling is also far more predictable too which has shocked me. Though I think I heard from someone else that it looks twitchier from the outside? I heard the same thing from another friend at the first event I ran the new bar, go figure.

I didn't find your car twitchy at all. In fact, I almost felt like it could have used a little MORE rear bar. With the LSD, I was getting a little understeer in places like the turn-around that maybe could be helped with a little more rear bar to shift load to the front.

Or, maybe I just needed to come in hotter.

Car setup ultimately has a lot to do with driving style. What works for one driver might not work for another.