Yeah I agree. STR has gotten mighty quick this year. I could see it being one of those things like STX not being faster than STC.

I am almost certainly not going to be at Peru. Just started a new gig, and have already taken some time off, and still have to take off a week for Nationals. But I will definitely say hi at Peru

 

And by Peru I mean Toledo. Just noticed this

Double weekend with some smaller events -

Event #13: BMWCCA @ Waldorf: 7-14-2012

This was pretty much the same course as the last Autocrossers Inc event, except tighter in the middle, in a kind of painful way.

Ended up with a 43.62... 2nd best raw time out of 92 folks. The car I lost to was a 2nd gen MR2, with a V6 swap, on pretty wide Hoosiers - something like 2300 lbs, and 300 hp - so being .2 off Tim in raw time I can live with.

I forgot all my electronics so here's a video from Jerry's STU STi:

 

quite interested in an update from the Pro, what did you learn from Corey piloting the BDR STU car?

 

looking good

CBRD custom STU parts

cb

 

Unfortunately they both essentially lost a whole session when a brake line failed. The course was pretty tight, and I could see it being less than a ton of fun in a heavy ST car.

 

I heard/saw, was still curious how they felt with the car for the next two days, Sat/Sun.

 

Full writeup later, the video is still slowly coming off the Gopro.

First things first, John L drove really well and deserves serious congrats

No real complaints about the car from either of us, after it worked. I hadn't bled the brakes in the year-ish that I've owned it so it actually brakes a little better now I can only speak for me - I can't adjust to Toledo grip in 8.01 runs. The car was working pretty well in the last heat, once I started really chucking it, and I made some very fixable mistakes, like hitting the Jones Cone at the very end of my last run on the right. Even that clean 29.4 on the left on my very last run, I blew the braking zone at the end of the Chicago box. Definitely not the car's fault.

.. and I want to see about getting more power out of this thing for Lincoln

 

Event #14 - Autocrossers Inc @ Waldorf - 7-15-2012

This was a while ago, forgot to write it up at the time. This was one of the more fun Waldorf courses I’ve seen. I couldn’t quite nail it during class competition though - my best raw time was this one, 43.7+1:


I ended up on a 44.2 clean, which put me 6th out of 17 in the AI Pro class. The 43.7 would have put me in 3rd... ah well.

Toledo Prep

After playing with the suspension a little, I needed to get the alignment redone to get the toe fixed. Andrewtech was able to squeeze me in on Thursday as I was on my way out to Toledo and get the car aligned exactly to specs. They care, and it shows.

I also finally switched the radio and the gauges. With the radio up top, it was hard to see in sunlight. Also, with the gauges at the bottom, and the Autometer pod protruding a bit from the console, it was easy to sort of punch the gauges while shifting into 1st, 3rd and 5th. Here's the new setup - I like it a lot better:



Event #15 - Toledo ProSolo - 7-27-2012

The event started with the 8 hour drive to Toledo. I stopped in Breezewood because they have pinball



But the weather quickly went sideways, and with the turnpike being horribly rutted, the water was all pooling and creating some really scary tramlining / hydroplaning combinations. I ended up hanging out at a rest stop for like 45 minutes just to let the worst of it pass.



I got there early enough on Friday to register and hand the car off to Corey to get it through tech while I registered and tried to get a couple coursewalks in. The courses were less pro’y than usual, IMHO, definitely not as open as DC usually is, or as Toledo was the one previous time I did it back in 2009. He also recommended stiffening the rear bar for the concrete and got that taken care of before our first batch of runs. In order to minimize variables, the shocks stayed on their normal half-stiff settings, with plenty of adjustment in either direction depending on what happened.

Heat 1: Friday: Brakepocalypse

With the schedule change, there were no practice starts on Friday - even though attendance was down to only 280ish competitors, 30 or so of whom weren’t at the site yet. So the car did not turn a wheel in anger until class competition started.

And when it did, it couldn’t slow down in anger...


The spin was not because the car was loose but because I was steering as if the car had brakes and it did not The brake pedal was going straight to the floor. It had been fine on the entire drive up and even driving to the line. Something happened in the first 10 seconds of the course (something that might well have showed up during practice starts, if we had had practice starts...).

I came back, told Corey something like “hey, so this is new, but the brake pedal is going straight to the floor” and after checking the master cylinder and seeing it low, he went off to attempt to find brake fluid, which he quickly did. I took my 2nd run just planning to work around it - figuring maybe I had somehow missed the car being down on fluid, and there was some sort of non-fatal hydraulic issue. I was able to run a 31.6 on the right course this way, a bit off the pace certainly but not terrible all things considered. When I came back, Corey spotted brake fluid all over the right front wheel and I pulled out of line so we could figure out wtf was wrong.



It appeared that the brake line had gotten gashed by a wheel weight. Most of the weights were on the spoke side, but there was a single tiny batch on the inner side. Because the struts don’t have brake brackets, the lines must have moved enough to get into the way of the weights. Surprising I had been running this way for well clear of a year and not had issues. I’ll update this thread when I get a chance...

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...our-lines.html

I started calling everyone I could think of - local dealerships, Buschur, Summit Racing, etc. Corey and Greg M (in town from the left coast) got the factory line off the car and headed to Pure Tuning to see if they had anything that would work, maybe something from a DSM. Well, the DSM lines didn’t work but Pure knew a place in Toledo that custom makes brake lines and other hydraulic hoses. The place is called Hose Sales Direct, and I feel the need to plug them -

http://www.hosedirect.com/

At 4:40 on a Friday when they could have easily packed it in, they built a perfectly matched brake line and pressure tested it to 3000 psi before handing it over. That is service folks!

After Corey and Greg got back the skies opened up. Corey got the line on the car during a brief respite so that the car wouldn’t bleed to death overnight.

Saturday

Between Corey, Eric S and Jason W, the brakes were bled with Super Blue. The brakes actually felt better afterwards - in the year+ I have had the car, I hadn’t gotten around to doing lines, so the fluid was probably ancient. Pedal feel was noticeably better afterwards. Bonus! The inner wheel weights were chucked also so that they could not cause further harm.

I went out for my runs - since Corey hadn’t been able to get his Friday runs, he was still technically in 5th, so I was running first. The car stopped in the first braking zone - awesome! I was able to get a 30.1 on both courses - decent times for Friday, but not for Saturday. At the end of Saturday, I was in 4th, 1.1 seconds behind John and about .7 behind Austin in 3rd. Corey went out and ran a 29.8 and a 29.4, good enough to get within a tenth of John L and put him in 2nd.

Looking at the data/video that night, I noticed that I was chickening out big time on the going-out part, not using nearly enough of the grip Toledo offers. I resolved to fix it for Sunday. I did another batch of coursewalks and after talking with Corey and Danny I felt like I had a decent plan.

Sunday



The 1 vs 2 battle in STU went first. John was able to drop an impressive 1.2 seconds, most of it on a great 28.8 on the left course. Corey dropped about .4 on the left, but coned a 28.8 on his last right side run to end up in 2nd.

Big congrats to John (Rexasomething?) on the win - really great times!

I went out for my runs mostly trying to keep the right outlook. I had gotten pretty down on myself in DC after my first run didn’t go well and it definitely impacted the next three. I was mostly trying to stay positive after a rather painful weekend and get some good runs in at the end. I went out for my first right side run and ran a 29.9, +1. I hit one of the cones going out in the fast Chicagoboxy section and my raw time hadn’t improved that much from Saturday. I was still not trusting the car.

My first left side run, I redlit. And how... a .318. Rather than pack it in I decided to start throwing the car around, and it was sticking everywhere. OHH, so that’s how much grip there is. Took me long enough. I came back with a 29.1 (though with my serious red light, I’m guessing that was really a 29.3?). But more importantly I finally had a feel for the kind of grip that was out there. It was a very productive red light.

OK - one run on each course to go. Right side first. I had a good run on the way out, a less than awesome turnaround, and a decent comeback, except I turned in too soon on the finish, taking out the famed Jones Cone.


29.4... plus one. This meant two things: 1) I would end up sitting on my Saturday runs on the right side, and 2) I hadn’t improved yet on any of my Sunday runs.

My last left side was a bit of a hail mary. I was pushing it at the tree, managing to snag a .501, a personal best. The way out was pretty good, but I was carrying more speed than expected and blew the braking into the turnaround (:16 mark). This cost me a bunch of time.


The second half of the run was pretty solid, staying ahead everywhere and not taking out any sneaky finish cones. 29.4, clean. Still not enough to move out of DFL, but a pretty decent run under the circumstances. I compared this run to my previous left side run (the red light) and if I had entered the turnaround as well as I did on that run, it would have saved me a clean .5, possibly dipping me into 28.9 territory. Coulda woulda shoulda, but it’s nice to know that most of the run was good, at least. I just wish the car had waited until Corey had gotten all of his runs before failing.

It's worth mentioning that he was pretty much a superhero all weekend, between getting the wheels switched and the car teched so I could coursewalk, to braving the ghetto of Toledo to get a brake line done, to all the great advice and between-run spotting and feedback (seriously, I think he has a stopwatch implanted in his head) you could not ask for more. It sucks that he didn't get a fair shot at the event.

As a final f* you, my Craftsman jack broke just after getting the street wheels back on, on Sunday. The little driveshaft-looking thing where the handle goes into the body of the jack just broke. It was 7 years old, and it led a decent life, but that was not the failure mode I was expecting.

Takeaways

The car worked pretty well overall. The hard part was catching up to it. More rear bar + the Toledo grip is definitely an adjustment. It will be interesting to see how the car works at Lincoln in this configuration.

The car isn’t going to change much between now and September. I found a set of cheap Girodiscs for the front (used), and will pick up some fresh tires, but that should pretty much be it. Oh right, other than re-attaching the undertray with something more secure than zip ties.

This event inspired me to want to sign up for the Finale, if for no better reason than to get some seat time before Nationals. And to get any kinks out of the car early. I also plan on carrying a healthy amount of spares with me... like, for instance, a couple spare brake lines.

Tomorrow is the next to last DC event. Josh mentioned the idea of us and Shane only doing 3 runs to help get ready for Nats. I might have to do that

 

Speaking of the DC event, nice driving yesterday.

 

Event #16 - DC SCCA @ Fedex - 8-5-2012

In the spirit of getting ready for Nationals I decided to wake up early enough to get there for morning heat, so I could get in a couple extra coursewalks. I ended up sleeping in a bit, so I only got one in the morning and two in the afternoon. Thankfully the course was fairly straightforward - probably less steering inputs than a normal Fedex course. A few really fun elements, like massive fast sweepers into really fast slaloms. Fairly Evo friendly - not much in the way of low speed digs to pull out of.

STU ran last heat. I wasn’t sure if the 3 run challenge was on, so I tried to trick myself into driving that way. My main goal was to not be careful, anywhere, and hope that the middle-stiff rear bar wouldn’t be too much for Fedex. Thankfully the car worked really well - no spins or general drama. I was a little late on the first braking zone but most of the rest of the run was tidy. 50.5. Not knowing what anyone else was going to run, one of my usual goals is to try to raw-time STR, and I was a tenth off Brian’s best clean run so I figured I had a shot.

Second run, focused on two things - the first braking zone (:15 of the video), and carrying more speed in the two fast sweepers (:24 and :37 of the video).


(don’t forget to set it to 720p... looks awful at the lower settings)

Rewatching the video, I was a little late in the slaloms, and turned in a bit early for the finish (you can see me double-input there). And checking the data, it looks like I under-braked between the two fast slaloms (first run was better there). But it was clean - 50.267. Josh ran a 50.031+1 and Shane was sitting on two dirty runs.

3rd run of the unofficial 3 run challenge. I got greedy at about the 30% mark, overshot and had to wait a while to get back on the gas. Also underbraked in the same heavy braking zone between the fast slaloms. And hit a cone in the final fast slalom. 50.8, +1. No help. Josh and Shane both dropped time but with one cone each.

I then found out that Josh and Shane were scrubbing in their Nationals tires - only the *first event on them. Damnit

Fourth run, I was mostly focused on that braking zone between the slaloms and generally pushing it harder in the fast section.



I found a lot of speed entering the first big slalom - you can see in the screenshot, the 4th run is at 49.4 mph vs 42.6 for my 2nd run. The lines in the bottom-right corner were different, but worked out almost the same, which usually means they both had some sort of mistake involved. I got on the gas much earlier on the 4th run, but added distance, too. I did pick up about a tenth to get down to a 50.166.

Josh and Shane were running pretty much the same times, but on unscrubbed tires, so I still have some work to do to keep up with them. But I did end up 7th in PAX out of 184 - 99% sure I’ve never had a finish that good at Fedex (unless weather was somehow involved).

The nice thing for me was, the rear bar being on middle-stiff worked out really well. The car was great in the high speed transitions, not twitchy like I thought it might be on the asphalt at Fedex.

Nationals prep

En route:
* Fresh set of Dunlops
* Used Girodisc front rotors
* Safety wire to get the undertray to stay on the damned bumper
* Steel brake lines

Still need
* A piece of the splash guard on the driver’s side
* Clean up the front lip, epoxy it to the bumper
* Get fresh Dunlops scrubbed in, hopefully this Saturday
* A new factory clutch kit for the Finale, just in case!

I’m sure there is other stuff I’m missing... there usually is

 

Actually, it was the first event. Their only "break in" was the 60 mile drive from Aberdeen to Fed Ex.

Still doesn't change the fact that you stepped up and went fast on both your second and your last run. I inevitably choked under the pressure hitting that cone and pussyfooting that last run. Another opportunity to work on the mental part of this whole thing and hopefully learn something.

But seriously, great driving this weekend!

 

Oh, my bad. I remember Shane saying to John V "it takes two events" and got confused. It was hot

 

Congrats on making it into GRM! But when did you grow a big red beard?

 

Beat some slow poke in a datsun today....

 

Weren't you out of gas?

Event 17 - Autocrossers Inc @ Waldorf - 8-11-2012

One issue that’s annoyed the hell out of me all year is the undertray becoming detatched from the lip. When I was at Harbor Freight replacing the jack that broke at Toledo, I also picked up some steel zip ties to see if I could get the undertray to stay on a little better. I drilled a few additional holes in the undertray so I could make a cleaner loop through the front lip - think holes that are perpendicular to the ground, through the vertical parts of the tray - and put three of the steel zip ties through it. I’m hoping this will hold up a little better. Replacing the zip ties all the time sucks! I guess I should probably stop hitting cones...

I was hoping to scrub in my Nationals tires at this event, but they weren’t going to arrive on time... ah well. Back to my trusty 150-run set. It’s pretty amazing how good they feel even this far into their lifetime. I feel like we should all send Dunlop a fruit basket or something Sure beats paying for Hoosiers! *ducks*

After working morning waivers, I spent most of the morning heat (which wasn’t that long) going over the car with some bug+tar remover to get the cone marks off. I was able to get a surprising amount of them removed. No one would confuse my lip/bumper for new, but it’s a substantial upgrade, very worth the half hour of elbow grease + a bunch of shop towels.


Thanks UpsFella on S2ki...

After 1st heat, Kevin in his DSP E30 was winning the Pro class with a 47.0. After consulting my phone, I figured I needed a 47.5ish to catch him. But there were some very fast drivers in 2nd heat so I figured that time was going to drop.

First run, I botched the start (not looking ahead) and hit a cone in the slalom, and came across with a 47.6+1, good sign. The course was definitely tighter than the hang-it-all-out-fest at Fedex the previous weekend, where the car had been spot on, but the car was still working very well even in the low speed stuff. It was a little pushy but not too bad.

2nd run, I made a conscious effort to not screw up the start, and to try to hold more speed through the sweepers on the middle of the course. The result was a 47.2 - good enough for the lead in the Pro class, but barely. STU was near the end of the driver’s list, so before my 3rd run, most everyone had already taken their 3rd runs, and the PAX standings looked something like this:

Chris - STR Miata - 47.570 * .835 = 39.72095
Me - STU Evo - 47.239 * .841 = 39.727999
Mike - STS CRX - 48.125 * .827 = 39.799375
James - STR Miata - 47.683 * .835 = 39.815305
Ian - STS CRX - 48.230 * .827 = 39.88621
Kevin - DSP E30 - 47.079 * .851 = 40.064229

Top six all separated by a little over three tenths. My last run I was focusing on staying patient at the start and staying ahead through all the sweepers in the middle of the course. I ended up running a 46.7, slotting me to first in PAX -


People dropped some time on their 4th runs, but it ended up being enough to keep the Pro lead and the overall PAX. I’ve been second a few times, but this was the first time I had ever top-PAX’d After the event was over I realized, much to my surprise, that I had managed to snag FTD also, by less than a tenth, over Mike (03fiftyzeee). Also a first. And I’m including BMW events, PCA events, etc etc. It is nice to cross that off the list!

That said, some caveats - the course was tight in spots, and a lot of drivers were trading keys and not in their normal cars, and there were not that many spots where the R-comp guys could REALLY use that extra grip. But regardless, it feels good to execute.

The car is working really well right now. I have one more event before the Finale, a Richmond event to get my Nationals tires scrubbed in. After that, a long-***, stiff, loud ride to Lincoln