03threefiftyz

As far as Sam in STU (Nationally).....No the last I heard.

Me in STU....undecided on priorities for next year, but possible.

SS RX7 r2

iTrader: (1)

I heard Sam, along with Lane and 2 good SoCal drivers will be in C5s. There are a couple of 350s that are joining STU also.

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

I coned my fast run but even then you would have still had me.

The only reason you guys went so fast was all the awesome street tire rubber that heat 1 laid down.



I haven't asked him, but I would guess Sam is doing the R&D for an STU build but not actually going to run STU nationally. I think he is pretty committed to SSR.

I do really hope he runs STU locally. It's a different surface from Lincoln for sure but it would be fun chasing him.

an2ny

iTrader: (1)

Corvette?

I was going to leave STU... but maybe I will run another year.

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

Offseason…

Life gets in the way sometimes so the car didn’t move much between October (Hershey) and May.

The car is coming up on 60K so I had the timing belt/water pump service done at CBRD. I also did some dyno runs there, just to make sure the car is still healthy and happy, and it is.

I had been watching the Tire Wars closely, not sure what to drive on this year. I picked up a set of RS3s as street tires (like, actual street tires, not ST* tires) since my five-year old set of RE11s had picked up a nail and was toast. I figured I would autox on them until I decided between the Dunlops, BFGs and Bridgestones.

I ended up buying the Bridgestones based on the feedback of a lot of people. It sounded like a much more natural transition from the Z2’s I’d been running. Plus, $70 rebate. Thanks Bridgestone!

Other car prep stuff?

I am debating what level of prep to take the car to. The car has all the important stuff, but there are a few things left that would make the car more of an all-out build:
* 5-speed conversion (https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...scca-solo.html, $texas)
* 2-piece rear rotors
* a lightweight catback / turndown
* Hotchkis rear bar (lighter weight)
* Lithium battery (-8 lbs)

That would have the car at something like 3020 lbs with a slightly taller 2nd gear. Not “9 RS” light, but essentially an 80 lb penalty for ABS, which I am okay with.

I also have bad ideas about doing One Lap which would almost certainly mean needing the 5-speed. But I’d need an OEM clutch to keep it STU legal… or I would need to pay for two clutch jobs.. yeah.

Oh yeah. Solostorm. I want to try that.

OK.. that’s enough retroactive silly season babble for now.

Event #1: WDCR @ Fedex, 5-17-2015

Having not autocrossed in 7 months, and having not even scrubbed in/heat cycled my tires first, my expectations were pretty low.

No data. I forgot that the Bluetooth gizmo on my laptop that talks to the MaxQ is broken.

The course walked.. painfully. Especially the beginning “fox nose” into "fox ears" (can you tell Danny did the course?) which was essentially 4 90-degree turns in a row:



Thankfully it drove much better. Except for fox nose, which was about as painful as it walked.

Setup-wise, I started out with pretty much my old Z2 settings as a baseline:
2 comp / 3 rebound front
4 comp / 5 rebound rear
36 psi all around

First run - hesitant everywhere, and turning in way too soon (i.e., not looking ahead). 60.0+1.

Second run - still hesitant, still not looking ahead, but clean at least - 59.4.

Third run - sort of remembering how to look ahead. 59.1

Fourth run I was trying really hard to stay ahead in the early sections. I came across the line sure it was faster. It was not… I am guessing over-slowing in the early sections.


I would kill for some data. I will have the MaxQ or solostorm out next time.



I will need to step it up. I didn’t have the fast raw time in the class (saved by a cone) and I got raw timed by five people in STR (and outpaxed by six). Talented drivers for sure, but I feel as if some Mitsubishi engineer is crying somewhere every time this happens, like I have dishonored the Evo.

Here’s Brian K’s STR video. I would have needed a 57.4 to catch him in PAX. Um, ****.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNCh...ature=youtu.be

I’ve watched his video a bunch of times and I don’t think our lines are radically different (but 7 months removed I don't know if I trust myself there). I am overslowing a lot, especially in the first half, and I am not using all of the available grip. The RE71Rs are pretty much a much more awesome version of the Z2’s and the car was definitely pushier than the Z2’s on the same setup. Braking wise, it kind of reminds me of driving Lee’s BSP E36 M3 for the first time - I was braking like 50 feet too early because I was not used to the grip level of A6’s. The difference in grip is noticeable enough that I am almost certainly going to bump the rear bar and maybe even bump the spring rates. But I’m not going to overreact just yet since I have a grand total of 4 runs on them at this point.

Next event is probably not for another month though..

Construct

iTrader: (4)

This sums up my experience with the Bridgestones so far as well. I find myself overslowing in to every corner because it's difficult to judge the grip limit and I know that the car is now heavily biased toward understeer on this new tire setup.

I've only done one rain-free event on the new tires so far, but I'm already looking for setup changes to dial out some of this understeer. I had the car feeling almost neutral on the Z2s with 650F/700R and the Hotchkis rear sway bar on full soft, but that same setup feels very pushy on the Bridgestones.

If you can find any setup changes to dial out the pushiness, I'd love to here them.

MrAWD

+1 on under-driving experience first time out on RE71s. For me it was really hard to read what they were doing and where is the edge. I have also experienced issue with over braking, but I though this could be due to the switch from DS2500 to AX6s...now I'm thinking tire have something to do with this as well...

John, coming to Devens Tour? Only one entry so far in STU...but, there are few more locals that will be there, so you will have a class to run?

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

Well it is good to know I am not the only one.

At the Toledo Pro last year the car was super pushy and I was able to make up for it enough-ish with just lots of rear pressure and maxing out the rear shocks. I am hoping more rear bar + more rear tire pressure will do it, but I am a little worried that I'm at the end of my adjustment range and might need more for concrete. At that point I'd have to consider alignment changes (i.e. less camber in the rear).

Hopefully that will do it.. I don't really want to disassemble everything and go to something like 700/900, but if adding more bar gives me too much wheel lift that might be the route I end up on.

For reference, here's the car entering the showcase corner at the last event. Very off camber, but not very grippy asphalt either:


Next event isn't until 6-21. Not sure if I am going to do Fedex (more class competition) or ACU-4 (concrete).

No Devens (as much as I would like to run against Bryan/Glenn/Nick). I'm planning on the Wilmington Tour for sure, and wifey has given the go-ahead for Nats this year. I am not sure if I am doing it or not - it will depend whether I get my stuff together by August or so. First event was May and I am only doing two events in June so I have less time to get into some sort of groove this year.

And that probably means trying to keep runs off the RE71Rs (so I don't have to buy a 2nd set this year). I am not afraid of doing Nats on 50-60 run tires but having seen an 85-run set down to the wear bars I need to do a little bit of conservation.

MrAWD

I had exact situation a while back with my 2G. Car doing great locally on mostly asphalt courses, but when I made it to Topeka (at that time), extra grip pushed things all the way up in the rear rebound and it still wasn't enough.

What I did back than was 100 lb extra spring and new valving on Penskes, which is something I would suggest for you as well. Revalve those rear shocks, get a bit more spring in and make the things right. I would use alignment for small fixes if I really have to.

As of the wear on your tires, I don't think I would be that worried. Your car has good alignment settings already and tires are used the way they are intended to be used. On a camber challenged car that is typically hard on tires, 70 or 80 runs might make sense, but not for your car. Even Danny K. made over 100 runs on his WRX and his numbers are way worse than yours, alignment wise.

Construct

iTrader: (4)

Did you increase the spring rate on all four corners, or just in the rear?

MrAWD

Just the rears! I think they went from 550 to 650, while fronts were at 750. Few years later when the rules opened up camber adjustment for double wishbone cars, we went to 800 in the front and they are still there!

qucifer

If I were you, I'd assume there are zero entries so far...


-Bryan

MrAWD

C'mon man...I had to use anything and everything to get John to come to Devens...

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

This was on an STU STi with -3 front and -whatever rear. So not camber challenged, but a car with a lot of power.

I also try to avoid doing a Tour event as my 2nd event of the year...

Massive, sweeping setup changes!

In light of the increased grip of the tires, and knowing that I was going to do at least one (Wilmington) and maybe two (Nats) big events on concrete, I was contemplating setup changes. The cheapest and easiest things to try:
* tire pressures
* shock settings
* rear bar settings
Since I had already almost maxed out the rear shocks at Fedex and since I was already running more pressure rear than front and didn’t think it was quite there, I figured I’d give the rear bar a try. I had backed it off to full soft after doing the rear differential (late 2011) and then bumped it to medium for Toledo in 2012. I was worried it was going to be rusted or annoying or whatever.. but the bolts came off easily and the whole thing took 5 minutes, most of which was jacking the car up onto ramps.



This also reminds me that I’ve been missing a bolt on the rear swaybar bracket for four years. I ordered one, they sent me the wrong part and I never got around to it.

One of the big questions this year and next will be whether I do end up needing more spring. With the possibility of 255’s next year AND the fact that the tires are grippier it seems kind of inevitable but with my schedule likely to be minimalist this year it probably won't happen until the offseason. But 700/900 is in the realm of possible.

Event #2: CDC @ Waldorf: 6-20-2015

WIth the get out of jail free card of Father’s Day weekend, I was able to double up. This event was with a local club that does not do SCCA classing, and instead uses a very simplified index. I ran my RS3v2’s, I didn’t take it all that seriously and didn’t drive all that well either. FTD was Brian K in his STR S2000.

Event #3: Tidewater @ ACU-4: 6-21-2015

Tidewater Sports Car Club is a non-SCCA club that uses SCCA rules. One of their venues is on a Navy base’s hovercraft pad. Like, actual hovercraft:



(my old STX WRX)

It is concrete, it leads directly into the ocean and it is one of my favorite venues.



The course was very straightforward and very boost buggy friendly. The start lights were very close to the start, i.e. you had a strong incentive to launch.

I was back on the RE71Rs. Because it is concrete, I started at my normal Fedex shock settings, with an additional click of compression in the rear, and started the tires at 37/39. I think I went all the way to 42 psi in the rear last year to get the car to rotate at Toledo but figured with the stiffer rear bar I wouldn’t need to go that far.

Run 1 - 36.6. The car’s balance was really good, though there weren’t any really higher speed sweepers to get a full feel for things. But the car was chuckable and pretty neutral. And concrete is fun.

Run 2 - 36.3. Same deal, just trying to adjust to the surface, brake less, gas earlier. The opening slalom was a little sloppy and I bogged the launch (stupid concrete).

Run 3 - 36.4. This run looks visibly better, in particular the transition between the 2nd slalom and the first really long acceleration zone - I was able to get off the brakes a lot quicker and get on the gas a lot sooner. My best guess is that I bogged the launch so badly that I threw away any other gains.


Run 4 - OC. I was running out of ideas so I actually used the two-step this time. I was pushing too hard entering the 2nd slalom, got bent out of shape and ended up on the wrong side of the second slalom element.

I ended up missing top PAX by 0.016 to Tom Bleh. I should not have had that second Powerade

I still need to work on my habits. I was relying too much on memorization and not enough on looking ahead which has traditionally been the #1 bad thing I do. But the car feels really good.

I was also lucky enough to register for the Wilmington Tour - which is currently a 13 car STU field. It's unclear whether I will be at Nats this year but with the possibility of 255's next year, and the reality of finite vacation time, it doesn't make a ton of sense to go this year...

Construct

iTrader: (4)

Which bar are you currently using?

I've been experimenting with RE71R pressures all over the map, and I've been surprised at how low I can go without significant rollover. Granted, this isn't on grippy concrete, but they're still more forgiving than my old ZIIs. At my last event I walked the front pressures down to 33 PSI before the tires started acting strange under cornering. I'll have to try front pressures up in the 37 range at tomorrow's test-and-tune.

Bleh. That's close. Maybe that lightweight Hotchkiss swaybar and uber-$ lithium-ion battery would have done the trick?

Seriously though, nice work.