18 hrs for me, IIRC. The tougher part is it's after school starts back up for the kiddos. Maybe an arrive and drive or something, I dunno. Maybe this is dumb but I want to do a tour or something first to have some idea where I am.

You should def be doing some tours first. Its a totally different environment than local autox. So many more things are going on and people step up their seriousness during competition. And the 3 chances is all you get makes for a lot of drama. And it really takes a good amount of events at it to get to a "normal" state while driving them.

Man, a tour is definitely a good idea, and it looks liker there are some closer than 1400 miles lol.

I guess I could try using data for this

Nationals results for reference
https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1664316384

Bristol 2022 had 6 cars in STU, won by AJ Whitaker in a CTR. Donour Sizemore (former Evo owner, I think?) was 3rd here, and was 11th (last trophy slot) at nats
https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1656886856

Zmax 2022 had 3 cars in STU, won by Chris Mayfield in Donour's Lotus
https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1665947452

Finger Lakes 2022 had 11 cars in STU, won by AJ again in a CTR
https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1655666263

Axis vs Allies 2022 had 5 cars in STU, won by Evan Williams in Donour's Lotus (that car was busy)
https://cdn.connectsites.net/user_fi...pdf?1670184408

So it seems like there's a decent chance that even if the STU fields aren't deep, that there will be someone there who's a good comparison point.

the problem with national tours is if the class is old and dying (like ASP/STU) a lot of the good drivers already moved on. even XA/SM dont have the great cars/drivers, atleast in my area.

Dunno if I think STU is dying. It was one of the top 10 biggest classes at nats, IIRC.

Locally though, yeah it's sparse.

*national tours*. our current STU tour champ was the last placer back when STU was popular. he just waited it out lol

Yep, Donour previously had an evo and has an ID on this forum. Good dude for sure! We've talked a lot at some national tour/nationals events in the past. I even offered him a co-drive last year.

National Tours can definitely be hit or miss in regard to competition within STU for sure - depending upon the region you go to it seems. You also have to take 1 event with a grain of salt too. Don't get me wrong, they are a great way to prepare for how Nationals is ran, etc.

I wouldn't even concern yourself (or anyone who's never attended one) so much with how you would place at your first Nationals. Go for the fun, the experience and the absolute knowledge you'll gain at your first one. I still will never forget how much I learned at my 1st one, which was the year of the flood in 2018. But I totally understand how much more of an undertaking it is for most of you guys, living a LONG ways away.

I went in 09 (STX WRX) and 12 (this thing, finished 13th/28). I did some national events in 2013 that went well, but with the whole family-starting thing I haven't done a Pro/Tour since 2014, I think. I love Prosolo but still haven't wrapped my brain around new Prosolo classing.. plus there are even fewer Pros within a reasonable driving distance.

I'm hoping Bristol will work out scheduling wise as the lot looks awesome.

On a related note, I haven't seen anything about new tires upsetting any applecarts this year. Any reason not to pick up some new A052s now to avoid the potential scarcity issues?

Also for folks who have upgraded their clutch.. since I need to swap anyway, I was looking at STU legal options. I'm looking at the Exedy stage 1 or the ACT HDSS

https://www.maperformance.com/produc...o-8-9-me2-hdss

https://www.maperformance.com/produc...ubishi-evo-8-9

I haven't even ruled out the OEM clutch - I got pretty good life out of mine, and it does act as a fuse that could help the rest of the driveline not break at a Pro or something. What have folks tried that's legal?

I really liked the HDSS. Ran that till I had the stroker and bumped to the XTSS. Now I'm on the exedy and TBH its not really much of an improvement. If I blow this clutch I'll probably go back to the XTSS.

I’ve been using the HDSS and I like it. Only running like 340 to the wheels. The only problem I’ve had with it was when I launched when it was very cold outside on my first autocross run. This caused the clutch to slip a lot(first couple of seconds in 1st gear with the clutch pedal disengaged). Thus my next couple of runs it was finicky getting off the line. Besides that it has taken a ton of launches fine and never had a lockout issue.

Are those STU legal?

I thought i recalled them allowing modified clutches in STU a year or 2 ago but I could be wrong.

ah ok. I guess I'm quite behind on 'hidden mods' that were then legalized. I moved to STOpen (X class today) because of the clutch upgrade