I agree wholeheartedly that a BSP Evo is great fun on the street- especially in comparison with, say, a top CSP NA Miata - no convertible top, loud, etc.

However, after the Devens NT my car sat for most of this year, as I picked up a very well prepped E-Stock Miata and trailer and have been loving every minute of it. The two cars couldn't be farther apart in concept and execution, and I've considered strongly selling the Evo because of how fun the little roadster is.

I figure I'll decide sometime in the coming months... TRE rear diff... or sell the car? The Evo is an expensive toy to sit for months on end.

 

Oh, and a belated congrats to our threadstarter Dave H. ("GTLocke13") for his trophy at nats this year in the Solstice! Great finish in that huge class.

 

10" wheels will fit up front, and will give you a bigger footprint there, if you can afford the extra cost and hassle of different size wheels front and rear. I noticed that I have almost an inch of tread surface on my rear wheels (9.5") that doesn't wear at all, because the tire is pinched by the narrow wheels. The fronts (10") wear across the whole tread surface.

Of course this means you have to take the tires off the wheels and swap them front to rear halfway through their life, if you want to maximize their usefulness.

But most of the secret sauce is in the spring rates, shocks and sway bar settings. I haven't figured it out completely yet, but I'm getting close. Can't afford decent shocks yet, but hopefully next spring.

The TRE diff rebuild is essential. Don't leave home without it. The stock injectors are fine, I think. You want the fuel pump just for insurance.

Weight reduction is overrated. At one of the local Devens events this year, I watched John lower his best time by a full second with me sitting in the passenger seat! I weigh approximately as much as 6 stock batteries, or 25 rear wings.

 

I picked up a 99 Miata and have been shocked at how much fun I've had driving this way under powered car. First time I haven't had the title to some make Mitsu in almost 9 years!!!

Have fun in the Evo SmokingTires! I'm going to miss it! I hope to join you guys in BSP with another Evo someday.

 

What other little things am I missing? I want to budget and plan in order of benefit.


There seems to be a pretty big price gap between 9.5" and 10" wheel. I figured larger are better, but I heard most people saying 9.5" so figured go that route.

 

this was my first year doing ax on a pretty regular basis. I didn't do any national events or anything, just local stuff. I ran mostly in the novice BSP class in my region but I had an awesome time. I'm lucky to have a lot of skilled drivers in my area who keep things interesting.

gonna work on my driving techinques & car setup all next year in BSP and hopefully in 2010 I can start to be more competative.

 

I'm worth about .2 sec on a 55 sec course. It does seem to vary a bit depending on the course. I'm roughly 200lbs btw.

To put that in perspective a 60 run set of tires is worth about 1.5 seconds compared to new tires on the same course.

 

The 10's are not "mandatory", though, as proven by the Berrymobile in BSP and SML this year. They ran on 9.5's all around. As a comparison, the Millermobile that coned away a possible win was on 10.5's in the front and 10's in the rear I believe. . . and both cars were VERY close to eachother. . .

I say if you are gunning for a national championship - test the wider wheels and see if your particular setup benefits from them. Hoosier recommends a 10-11" wheel, but folks have won on the 285/30/18 even on 8 and 9" wheels. . . personally I run 11" wide wheels in the front for important events, and 10's all around for local stuff. The same size all around is SO much more convenient. . .

I also think that a certain amount of weight reduction is overrated. My co-driver has a 150# weight advantage on me and we consistently run very similar times. The BSP Evos are 150-250# more than my car and consistenly run similar times.

The true test of this will be when we get some XP and FP EVOs out there with some more development time in them and see if they can go any faster than BSP or SM. . .

 

Are you saying that 60-run Hoosiers are about 1.5 secs slower than new Hoosiers? That would explain a lot about how I did on 80-run Hoosiers last month at Devens. By the way, for those of you who may not know, when you see those shiny metal broken wires sticking out of your tires at the end of a run, don't touch them. They're very hot and very sharp.

Mike

 

I didn't know that any 10" wheels fit in the back without cutting the fenders. Did you have to pull the fenders out a little? Care to tell us what wheels and offset you're using, and what spacer, if any?

Thanks.

Mike

 

There are several that fit. The ones I use are WedsSport SA-70 in 18x10 +32, no spacer. I've been running them since mid-2006. Back in 2005 you had to special order them from Japan, but then Tire Rack started carrying them as a 350Z fitment. Tire rack has recently stopped carrying them . . . so anyone looking for them should hit up some of the importing vendors here on EVOM . . .

I rolled the fenders using the Eastwood fender roller tool, and used it to push the fender out just a little bit. I also had to trim off the bolt that holds the leading edge of the bumper to the fender as that was always the first point of contact. . .

My buddy has 18x10 Advans on his car and I think he has like a +28 or +25 offset. They fit fine with 265 width tires as long as you don't lower it TOO much . . .

 

yep.

dead tires is about the only thing that can cover the gap and make me faster then Tom. otherwise i'm usually .5-1.5 secs slower then him.

Maybe Mr. Miller can chime in and tell us how much faster E85 is on a 60 second course?

 

whats the difference between an 8 and a 9? I imagine that difference to be the same as pump gas v. e85 v. 110.

 

Are there any affordable 18x10 options?

I found some heavier (27lb ish) 18x9.5 for $150/rim


Also, are there any other companies besides Ohlin who make a decent thread strut body setup? $4900 for flags are kind of out of the question for me for a while. But I don't want to compromise travel and pre-load.

 

I would not be concerned about travel too much. . .

WedsSport SA-70 in 18x10 are around $350 each if you can find them.

Rota makes some cheap 18x9.5's but they are not very strong. They bend and flex alot and should not be used on anything other than a street car.