project:BDR 2006 Evo STU build thread
Sep 8, 2012, 07:07 PM
#271
Solo Nationals - Tuesday - West Course
The west course was very sweepery. If last year’s course was slalomy and called Slalomfest, this would be Sweeperfest
Here’s the Evo school walkthrough, something new for 2012 and an awesome resource:
No real setup changes from the practice course. The car had felt pretty good at the Pro so even though it was a little pushy on the smaller practice course I didn’t want to change it unless I had a good reason.
Run 1 - let’s get the nerves out. I didn’t get wide enough in the first sweeper (come out roll), was too chicken in the offsets and brake checking a lot (double down) but I had a decent run into and through the curvalloms (flop turn and river). I finished with a fairly crummy slalom. 63.2, definitely off the pace. The 61s seemed to be the time to have until Tristan L in an E36 M3 came through with a 60.4 on his first run. Dayum. After so many years without an E36 finishing well, definitely a surprise, though I remembered Rick saying on here to look out for him. Anyhoo, I looked at the data (forgot to start the camera though) and made a note to stay backside onto that early straight and be more aggressive through the offsets.
Run 2 - I was able to go through the opener better and peak at 62 mph instead of 59 on my first run. I overbraked though, so no net benefit over my first run. The offsets were a LOT better - looks like about .5 better by the data as I lined up the first one much better. But coming out of the lightbulb (bottom of double down) I did not get behind the exit, so by the middle of the curvalloms I had given my .5 back. I did set up the rest of flop-turn-river much better though - so between the middle of the curvalloms and the entry to 5 cone draw, run 2 was .6 faster.
Through 5 Cone Draw, I did a better job getting to the backside of the middle one, and was able to hit 59 mph instead of 53 mph on my first run. Entering Six The Easy Way, my 2nd run was .9 faster, i.e. on track for a 62.3. I got behind halfway through the slalom though, throwing a lot of that away. I finished with a 62.7. That slalom gave me problems all day.
Run 3 - started out about the same as run 2. But at the end of Let It Ride (i.e. entering the offsets) I went WAYYY wide, adding a ton of distance. At this point in the run, my 3rd was .6 slower than my 2nd. But I had a much better run through the offsets, and through the lightbulb, and especially through the curvalloms. Entering 5 Cone Draw, my 3rd run had pulled ahead by two tenths. But the rest of the run was a little slower, not getting on the gas early enough, and then getting late in the slalom. I ended up spinning through the finish trying to force it. Thanks to ustream I can relive the experience
Here’s the video
So the theoretical best lap - the 2nd run, except for the lightbulb and curvalloms of my 3rd run - would have put me at about a 61.9 or 62.0. That would have slotted me just outside the trophies (last trophy spot was 61.912). So I knew the car had it, but I wasn’t driving consistently enough to get there. You have to be able to keep the good parts of your run and fix the bad parts instead of fixing some things and making some things worse
I ended up 14th after day 1 was over. I knew getting into the trophies was going to be pretty hard given the sizable gap, but the east course was not nearly as Big Fast Sweepery as this one so I felt like I would at least do better there relative to the west.
I also knew I couldn’t let up, as the 15th-18th place cars were not very far behind - 62.745, 62.822, 62.949, and 63.145.
The west course was very sweepery. If last year’s course was slalomy and called Slalomfest, this would be Sweeperfest
Here’s the Evo school walkthrough, something new for 2012 and an awesome resource:
No real setup changes from the practice course. The car had felt pretty good at the Pro so even though it was a little pushy on the smaller practice course I didn’t want to change it unless I had a good reason.
Run 1 - let’s get the nerves out. I didn’t get wide enough in the first sweeper (come out roll), was too chicken in the offsets and brake checking a lot (double down) but I had a decent run into and through the curvalloms (flop turn and river). I finished with a fairly crummy slalom. 63.2, definitely off the pace. The 61s seemed to be the time to have until Tristan L in an E36 M3 came through with a 60.4 on his first run. Dayum. After so many years without an E36 finishing well, definitely a surprise, though I remembered Rick saying on here to look out for him. Anyhoo, I looked at the data (forgot to start the camera though) and made a note to stay backside onto that early straight and be more aggressive through the offsets.
Run 2 - I was able to go through the opener better and peak at 62 mph instead of 59 on my first run. I overbraked though, so no net benefit over my first run. The offsets were a LOT better - looks like about .5 better by the data as I lined up the first one much better. But coming out of the lightbulb (bottom of double down) I did not get behind the exit, so by the middle of the curvalloms I had given my .5 back. I did set up the rest of flop-turn-river much better though - so between the middle of the curvalloms and the entry to 5 cone draw, run 2 was .6 faster.
Through 5 Cone Draw, I did a better job getting to the backside of the middle one, and was able to hit 59 mph instead of 53 mph on my first run. Entering Six The Easy Way, my 2nd run was .9 faster, i.e. on track for a 62.3. I got behind halfway through the slalom though, throwing a lot of that away. I finished with a 62.7. That slalom gave me problems all day.
Run 3 - started out about the same as run 2. But at the end of Let It Ride (i.e. entering the offsets) I went WAYYY wide, adding a ton of distance. At this point in the run, my 3rd was .6 slower than my 2nd. But I had a much better run through the offsets, and through the lightbulb, and especially through the curvalloms. Entering 5 Cone Draw, my 3rd run had pulled ahead by two tenths. But the rest of the run was a little slower, not getting on the gas early enough, and then getting late in the slalom. I ended up spinning through the finish trying to force it. Thanks to ustream I can relive the experience
Here’s the video
So the theoretical best lap - the 2nd run, except for the lightbulb and curvalloms of my 3rd run - would have put me at about a 61.9 or 62.0. That would have slotted me just outside the trophies (last trophy spot was 61.912). So I knew the car had it, but I wasn’t driving consistently enough to get there. You have to be able to keep the good parts of your run and fix the bad parts instead of fixing some things and making some things worse
I ended up 14th after day 1 was over. I knew getting into the trophies was going to be pretty hard given the sizable gap, but the east course was not nearly as Big Fast Sweepery as this one so I felt like I would at least do better there relative to the west.
I also knew I couldn’t let up, as the 15th-18th place cars were not very far behind - 62.745, 62.822, 62.949, and 63.145.
Sep 8, 2012, 07:10 PM
#272
Solo Nationals - Wednesday - East Course
This course was the one everyone said was the technical one. Here’s the map:
And here’s the Evo school walkthrough:
Definitely a more comprehensive mix of elements than the west.
Run 1 - started out good, staying ahead through the first few elements. I was enjoying the whee pedal a little too much at the end of the Tilt A Whirl slalom though, and ended up overshooting the entry a good bit. I also did not get through the offsets at the end of Tilt A Whirl very well, and was a little late on Crazy Wave, and I had to give it up a little in Kamikaze, but nothing too bad. Unfortunately I didn’t set up Ring of Fire well enough, and I hit the laaaaasst cone on the course you could really hit, #633. This threw away what would have been a solid time - 71.5, but plus one. After run 1, this was the 8th-fastest scratch time. Good sign!
Overall this run went really well. Unlike day 1, where I had slowly ratcheted up the pressure run by run, I was trusting the car a lot from the get-go, making it through a lot of the middle of the course with just lifts and no brakes. Last cone on the course... no, not bitter
Run 2 - I was focused on a) fixing the braking at the end of Tilt A Whirl, and b) tidying up the finish. I did both of those, but messed up a couple small things and was way off in the final sweeper/Ring of Fire. 72.0. OK, at least I have a clean time. Hrm, get the timeslip, 72.0 +1. Eh?
I checked the preliminary results once the sweep car ran. It had the run as clean. The radio logs and master incident report were also clean. Then I went through the corner station logs and finally found it - I hit a cone at the entry to RoF, #604 I believe. Gr. I checked the video and it looked like I had probably hit it. So, after 2 runs, I still didn’t have a clean one. There were a few other folks who were in the same position though, so I was still sitting in about the same spot, but I knew I would not be the only person who needed to clean things up on run 3.
Run 3 - careful but not tooo careful. The run started out about the same as run 1, but the slalom was not quite as good. I caught up in Kamikaze by chopping a little distance - pretty much the same as run 1 to this point - but didn’t backside Cliffhanger as well, and chickened out quite a bit entering RoF to avoid hitting the cone I hit on run 2. Overall my run through RoF was very paranoid. I had to give it up a bit to avoid the cone from run 1. Across the line... 71.7... and clean!
My clean run was the 12th fastest on day 2, and 1.5 sec behind the best east course time instead of the 2.3 seconds on the west course, so a relative improvement there at least. I really needed to tag that first 71.5 clean in order to have a shot at moving up - sitting on that and attacking with the last two would have opened up some options. But I wasn’t trying to hit home runs (i.e. go crazy and hope it works), just trying for the best possible finish, and that meant removing a bit of risk on run 3.
I ended up with a 134.497 after day 2, sliding me to 13th/28 instead of 14th. I needed another .183 to catch John L for 12th, and was only .067 ahead of Tom S in 14th. The last trophy spot was Sean G with a 133.054 so that left me 1.443 seconds out.
edit:
.2 faster = 12th
.5 faster = 11th
.8 faster = 10th
1 sec faster = 10th
1.1 sec faster = 9th
1.4 sec faster = 9th
1.5 sec faster = 8th
This course was the one everyone said was the technical one. Here’s the map:
And here’s the Evo school walkthrough:
Definitely a more comprehensive mix of elements than the west.
Run 1 - started out good, staying ahead through the first few elements. I was enjoying the whee pedal a little too much at the end of the Tilt A Whirl slalom though, and ended up overshooting the entry a good bit. I also did not get through the offsets at the end of Tilt A Whirl very well, and was a little late on Crazy Wave, and I had to give it up a little in Kamikaze, but nothing too bad. Unfortunately I didn’t set up Ring of Fire well enough, and I hit the laaaaasst cone on the course you could really hit, #633. This threw away what would have been a solid time - 71.5, but plus one. After run 1, this was the 8th-fastest scratch time. Good sign!
Overall this run went really well. Unlike day 1, where I had slowly ratcheted up the pressure run by run, I was trusting the car a lot from the get-go, making it through a lot of the middle of the course with just lifts and no brakes. Last cone on the course... no, not bitter
Run 2 - I was focused on a) fixing the braking at the end of Tilt A Whirl, and b) tidying up the finish. I did both of those, but messed up a couple small things and was way off in the final sweeper/Ring of Fire. 72.0. OK, at least I have a clean time. Hrm, get the timeslip, 72.0 +1. Eh?
I checked the preliminary results once the sweep car ran. It had the run as clean. The radio logs and master incident report were also clean. Then I went through the corner station logs and finally found it - I hit a cone at the entry to RoF, #604 I believe. Gr. I checked the video and it looked like I had probably hit it. So, after 2 runs, I still didn’t have a clean one. There were a few other folks who were in the same position though, so I was still sitting in about the same spot, but I knew I would not be the only person who needed to clean things up on run 3.
Run 3 - careful but not tooo careful. The run started out about the same as run 1, but the slalom was not quite as good. I caught up in Kamikaze by chopping a little distance - pretty much the same as run 1 to this point - but didn’t backside Cliffhanger as well, and chickened out quite a bit entering RoF to avoid hitting the cone I hit on run 2. Overall my run through RoF was very paranoid. I had to give it up a bit to avoid the cone from run 1. Across the line... 71.7... and clean!
My clean run was the 12th fastest on day 2, and 1.5 sec behind the best east course time instead of the 2.3 seconds on the west course, so a relative improvement there at least. I really needed to tag that first 71.5 clean in order to have a shot at moving up - sitting on that and attacking with the last two would have opened up some options. But I wasn’t trying to hit home runs (i.e. go crazy and hope it works), just trying for the best possible finish, and that meant removing a bit of risk on run 3.
I ended up with a 134.497 after day 2, sliding me to 13th/28 instead of 14th. I needed another .183 to catch John L for 12th, and was only .067 ahead of Tom S in 14th. The last trophy spot was Sean G with a 133.054 so that left me 1.443 seconds out.
edit:
.2 faster = 12th
.5 faster = 11th
.8 faster = 10th
1 sec faster = 10th
1.1 sec faster = 9th
1.4 sec faster = 9th
1.5 sec faster = 8th
Last edited by Butt Dyno; Sep 12, 2012 at 07:13 PM.
Sep 8, 2012, 07:30 PM
#273
Conclusiatory thoughts
(not a word)
First off, if you like this sport and you've never been to Nationals - GO. It's fun. Just set your expectations appropriately. Make sure you do some karaoke with people from your region or otherwise hang out and/or meet people. Autocross without the social aspect isn't much fun.
Second, I was overall happy with how things went. Not ecstatic, but happy. I want to trophy at Nationals one of these days (in a competitive class) and I feel like I know how far off I am at this point. Run 2 on Tuesday was almost really good, and run 1 on Wednesday was almost really good. More practice, some minor tweaking, and some putting-it-all-together-on-one-run and I should be able to get close.
Third, I wish I brought a bike.
Fourth, I am mixed on whether I'd want a codriver for future Nats. I generally prefer to drive with someone, but I know Josh+Shane had a hell of a time keeping their tires cold on Tuesday, and we ran in the morning that day. I usually had almost a half hour between runs, which is almost too much, but would 12-15 minutes be enough to cool tires, check pressures, switch 1s, transfer knowledge about how the car is working, watch video and look at data? Those of you who did it, what did you think?
Fifth, this car is really fun in this configuration. It's been pretty reliable at this power level and the maintenance costs haven't been too bad so far. If you are considering an STU car, get a ride in a good one. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Sixth, I think I need to loosen the car up next year, especially for a course like the west. And I need to do it early, and get used to it. Use the ProFinale as a test and tune. I was watching Sean/Josh and Josh/Shane on 3rd runs and noticed how much better it looked like their cars were turning in. I'm sure a bit of that is driving style/line, but in retrospect I did have to wait a bit to get back on the power. I have a lot of adjustments I can make here.
Seventh, I need freaking brake brackets.
I think that covers most of what's been running through my mind the last few days.
Another note... if this seems more like an autox diary than a setup guide, at this point it kind of is. The major hard parts are done - from this point it's minor tweaks and driving. And it's mostly to force me to figure things out and write them coherently so that I can get them straight in my own head, sort of like doing scientific research that you know is going to be peer reviewed. It helps me. Hopefully it helps someone else too
edit:
Eighth, I should bring my local set of tires next year for TnT'ing, or drive on them.
Ninth, find someone to drive back with!
(not a word)
First off, if you like this sport and you've never been to Nationals - GO. It's fun. Just set your expectations appropriately. Make sure you do some karaoke with people from your region or otherwise hang out and/or meet people. Autocross without the social aspect isn't much fun.
Second, I was overall happy with how things went. Not ecstatic, but happy. I want to trophy at Nationals one of these days (in a competitive class) and I feel like I know how far off I am at this point. Run 2 on Tuesday was almost really good, and run 1 on Wednesday was almost really good. More practice, some minor tweaking, and some putting-it-all-together-on-one-run and I should be able to get close.
Third, I wish I brought a bike.
Fourth, I am mixed on whether I'd want a codriver for future Nats. I generally prefer to drive with someone, but I know Josh+Shane had a hell of a time keeping their tires cold on Tuesday, and we ran in the morning that day. I usually had almost a half hour between runs, which is almost too much, but would 12-15 minutes be enough to cool tires, check pressures, switch 1s, transfer knowledge about how the car is working, watch video and look at data? Those of you who did it, what did you think?
Fifth, this car is really fun in this configuration. It's been pretty reliable at this power level and the maintenance costs haven't been too bad so far. If you are considering an STU car, get a ride in a good one. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Sixth, I think I need to loosen the car up next year, especially for a course like the west. And I need to do it early, and get used to it. Use the ProFinale as a test and tune. I was watching Sean/Josh and Josh/Shane on 3rd runs and noticed how much better it looked like their cars were turning in. I'm sure a bit of that is driving style/line, but in retrospect I did have to wait a bit to get back on the power. I have a lot of adjustments I can make here.
Seventh, I need freaking brake brackets.
I think that covers most of what's been running through my mind the last few days.
Another note... if this seems more like an autox diary than a setup guide, at this point it kind of is. The major hard parts are done - from this point it's minor tweaks and driving. And it's mostly to force me to figure things out and write them coherently so that I can get them straight in my own head, sort of like doing scientific research that you know is going to be peer reviewed. It helps me. Hopefully it helps someone else too
edit:
Eighth, I should bring my local set of tires next year for TnT'ing, or drive on them.
Ninth, find someone to drive back with!
Last edited by Butt Dyno; Sep 12, 2012 at 06:59 PM.
Sep 12, 2012, 07:16 AM
#274
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Excellent writeup John. Sucked about the brake lines but more than happy to help. It's a shame you were all the way down on the other end of the grid, I never had a chance to really talk to you during our runs. Not that I would have had too much time since Shane and I were going nuts trying to cool/change tires, look at videos, etc. But still would have been good to talk.
I think the week was an overall success for your first time to Nationals with the car and first time since 2009. We'll keep working on getting you faster as I know that you and the car have it in you to do it. I think we both need to do a better job of getting our head in the game and just drive fast, ala Shane (that jerk).
Also, after driving home on my own without an Evo following me, I can say that caravanning with someone else makes the trip MUCH better. The way out felt easy, the way back completely sucked.
I have a lot more thoughts too, but not enough time to write them out at the moment. But my overall thoughts are that I had a blast hanging out and can't wait to do it again next year.
I think the week was an overall success for your first time to Nationals with the car and first time since 2009. We'll keep working on getting you faster as I know that you and the car have it in you to do it. I think we both need to do a better job of getting our head in the game and just drive fast, ala Shane (that jerk).
Also, after driving home on my own without an Evo following me, I can say that caravanning with someone else makes the trip MUCH better. The way out felt easy, the way back completely sucked.
I have a lot more thoughts too, but not enough time to write them out at the moment. But my overall thoughts are that I had a blast hanging out and can't wait to do it again next year.
Sep 12, 2012, 07:08 PM
#275
Excellent writeup John. Sucked about the brake lines but more than happy to help. It's a shame you were all the way down on the other end of the grid, I never had a chance to really talk to you during our runs. Not that I would have had too much time since Shane and I were going nuts trying to cool/change tires, look at videos, etc. But still would have been good to talk.
I think the week was an overall success for your first time to Nationals with the car and first time since 2009. We'll keep working on getting you faster as I know that you and the car have it in you to do it. I think we both need to do a better job of getting our head in the game and just drive fast, ala Shane (that jerk).
Yes, it's good getting to spar with two people who are established trophy winners / course FTD or almost FTD folks. Next year, 3 run challenge all year Yeah, I kind of can't imagine not going (double negative) now.
Sep 12, 2012, 07:50 PM
#277
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Hey Buttdyno. Thanks again for the free 20mm rear bar a couple years ago. The new owner of my old Forester is still enjoying it.
Last edited by Mildred470; Sep 12, 2012 at 07:53 PM.
Sep 13, 2012, 08:46 AM
#279
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Sep 13, 2012, 09:38 PM
#281
Evolving Member
Sep 14, 2012, 04:22 AM
#283
Some say... like Macguyver, they can build a transfer case out of duct tape and paperclips, and that they can replace it without even asking for a 5 minute technical...
I was going to start an "STU -> BSP, what do you really need" thread but decided that even going that far was probably a bad idea
I'm sure the car would be fun, but I have nowhere to put a truck/trailer and neither me nor my wife want to daily drive one. 
Sep 14, 2012, 09:05 AM
#285
to be fair though, at the risk of jinxing ourselves, we haven't had a t-case fail on us at the track. But I suppose it is a little telling that I'm as good at changing T-cases as I am.
I dunno, driving the 2006 chevy 2500HD diesel truck with out the 10k lbs trailer attached to it is almost more fun than DD my stock 2004 evo. That truck has some ***** (25psi on a 6.6L V8) and gets about the same mileage as my evo. but yeah daily driving a trailer would suck. hahaha
Last edited by griceiv; Sep 14, 2012 at 09:10 AM.