Spent some time cinching up the Evo (long overdue) late last night at Tobz Performance in preparation for today's Sport Compact event at Bandimere. It was a heads-up class for street sport compacts, although the fine line between street and "pro" can be a bit gray at times. Regardless, the class ended up being great with 18-20 cars competing, all of which got laddered (not just top 16). The quickest car in class was an 11.3, and then there were a whole slew of 11-sec cars behind along with several in the 12s. This made for a fairly even field where one mistake at the light (pro tree) or when shifting could take you from an easy win to a sure loss.

It was unfortunately the hottest day yet of the season as far as I know (~85-90* maybe), so that wasn't conducive to records times, but apparently my car wasn't aware of this fact. Up until now, I had hit a best of 11.84 but had not yet gotten a really solid 60' due to minimal track prep and subsequent inability to hook at all off the line. Due to this, I decided to purchase some drag radials to go on my winter rims and expected to run those today. Unfortunately, they won't arrive until Tuesday, haha. So, I figured that with this being a race day with plenty of big rubber muscle car there would be lots more stick - maybe enough for my Direzza Z1s to actually pull a decent 1.6 without lowering the pressure to extremes (20 or below). I also raised my 2-step up to 6500 hoping to get as much of a holeshot as possible on the sticky surface.

Well, first run of the day was against a drag slicked Integra with wheelie bars. I blasted him off the line and had the lead until almost the 1/8th, but then his power-to-weight pulled him right on by. However, he only finished a few lengths ahead of me, and we cut pretty much the same light. Based off my launch not really feeling that great, I figured he ran an 11.6-11.8 with me on a 12.0 or so. Just because I like the anticipation, I first looked at his time...whoa, 11.4? Hmm. Then, I looked at mine, and SHAZAAM!!!



Holy crap, I was just trying to sneak in an 11.7 on the street tires but only had faint hopes of 11.6s, and that was with the drag radials. All the sudden, I've gone halfway into the 11.6s with my street tires. The 60' was 1.68, which was better than I thought, but by no means a crazy launch. As a reminder, I still think this lane is reading 2mph high, so I believe this is closer to a 117.7mph traps (makes sense considering the 60' and nasty NLTS shifts). Regardless, I had never trapped this high before in this lane, so I knew the previous night of work paid off (fixed several huge boost leaks in the IC piping, which is all new, and fastened the EGR hose back on).

I later ran this to back it up, and this was during actual heads-up competition (1st round):



Wow, same 60' and exact 1/4 trap, but my shifting was 4/100ths slower.

I then beat an 11.8-sec Civic, but that put me up against the eventual winner - EpicEvo from here but driving a 2G Eclipse - in the semis. He had been running consistent 11.3s and was the #1 seed, so I basically needed to tree him and hope he missed a shift or broke. I managed to tree him by a tenth, but that wasn't enough as he ran an even better 11.27, and I was pretty much done in by my 60', which was caused by focusing too much on the pro tree 60'. No shame in losing to a car trapping 128, though:



This slip again shows proof of my belief that the right lane is reading 6mph lower than the left. Both of my runs in the right were 111, and all 3 in the left were 119. Wierd. Out of 6 runs, 4 were 11s (11.94, 11.76, 11.69, 11.65) on full launches and no missed shifts. The other 2 I missed the 2-3 and kept going on one (12.2 @ 111) but cruised home on the other (13.3 @ 85). Unfortunately, when I got my slip on the 13.3, it was a 1.65 60'!!!! That could have been enough to drop my 11.65 to an 11.59 with the same shifting. Man oh man...

Overall, I'm ecstatic. It was really hot, yet I was running faster than ever. The new goal is to hit an illegal 11.49 on the DRs with some cool air at a night-time TNT.

 

Nice runs man! I am really curious about how those 555r's work out for you. I am about to buy a set of 275/40/17 Mickey Thompson drag radials but still am not 100% sure they will fit on my stock rims and seal ok at lower tire pressures.

I ran 11.5's with 118-119 mph traps. You'll get that 11.49 just keep at it!

 

I wouldn't recommend 275/40, because they will bulge big time on the stock rims, they are heavier, they won't fit in the wheelwell easily, and we don't need huge width to get traction. A 225 or 245 would take all your power no problem. I only did the 245/45, because they will give me a little more gearing for 4th, which is petering out well past its prime at the finish line.

 

That's all I care about is a taller tire as well. I want to keep myself in my power longer and get some extra traction while at it.

I guess I'll keep looking but the 555r's are still on top of my list I just wish they had them in stock at Summit Racing.

 

They are in stock at Discount Tire Direct for $155/pc. 245/45 is taller than stock but not as tall as 275/40 I don't think. I will report on how they do next week or so...

 

1st time slip doesn't have <<<win>>> ?????

 

Eh? It was a qual session.

 

ah ok. keep us posted about the tires! Good job and good times btw!

 

soooo, which ones do you believe are the real ones warr? Your other posts you rant about how you dont believe the timers are correct, so, what do you think you "really" ran on those runs. Im asking not stating" if the MPH were of wouldnt the ET also?"

 

No, just the traps seem to be off. The ETs are the same on both sides, and they are the same at the other track locally. The traps at the other track are consistent in both lanes and match the ETs.

 

so, you hit 11.6 @ 113? congrats. thats working it for real

 

No, 117.xx more likely. Where did you get 113? Read my trap speed comparison pt 2 thread - I have great comparisons with Fathouse and Wiznaz.

 

Oh, my bad. I took 6mph off your 119 cause you said it was reading 5-6 mph off. either way. still moving.

 

Ah, sorry. There is a 6mph discrepancy between the left and right lanes, but I think they are both off. Strangely, it doesn't happen to every car, but I found several other STIs and Evos who experienced it. Uterus! hit a 12.2 @ 110 on the right but was 12.2 @ 116 on the left. He didn't even realize it was a timer issue until I saw his timeslip and showed him how the runs were basically identical but with a 6mph difference for no apparent reason. My slips showed the same. However, I think the right lane is way lower than actual while the left lane is a little higher than actual. At PMI, the other track here that is also 1000' lower, I trapped consistent 117s and high 116s. My highest is 118.0.

 

So there is a timing issue with the track lanes, so did you tell the track officials about it?