SCCA Solo C Street Discussion

[e1_griego]

Yeah, Adam Ruff.

It's a Grand Touring, which means 18x9/19x10 wheels. And it's a 2007 which means VQ35HR.

[Twinz]

I autocrossed a 350Z for ~11 years. I'm familiar with it's strengths. (and weaknesses)

I just haven't heard it mentioned in any of the suggested rule changes for CS in this thread.

[e1_griego]

No way I would know that, just clarifying for everyone else.

Adam is pretty darn quick.

[Twinz]

Originally Posted by e1_griego

No way I would know that, just clarifying for everyone else.

Adam is pretty darn quick.

It just seems like a LOT of different cars have won CS at different national events.

Some cars in CS are a little faster than others, but with so many good drivers getting the job done in so many different cars, I'm not ready to start writing letters for class changes.

[qoncept]

Originally Posted by Locust

Is that video safe for work?

Eh.. if you'd listen to Howard Stern on the radio out loud... no, probably not.

[Locust]

Originally Posted by Twinz

So now a 350Z has won a National Tour in CS? (Packwood)

Originally Posted by e1_griego

Yeah, Adam Ruff.

It's a Grand Touring, which means 18x9/19x10 wheels. And it's a 2007 which means VQ35HR.

Originally Posted by e1_griego

No way I would know that, just clarifying for everyone else.

Adam is pretty darn quick.

Soooo the Packwood tour. Adam is a really fast driver, had some amazing times on day 1, and the Saturday course was a straight line launch start into a 45mph slalom. We were playing from behind right out of the gates there but looking at data the car had at least another 1.2 seconds in it on Saturday. Day 2 was an elbow left start but the entire heat was just a complete mess with rain starting mid first runs and then really picking up mid second runs. No one was going to catch Adam on day 2 but the rest of the field was wide open until the rain started.

One driver (not sure if he's on here?) had a huge spin on his 3rd run and took out the timing tripod that holds the antenna.

I have my videos from my fastest runs here:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UidqL7_QsI"]2016 SCCA Packwood Championship Tour - Day 1 - YouTube[/ame]
And here:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s73pHeJ3vDM"]2016 SCCA Packwood Championship Tour - Day 2 - YouTube[/ame]


My thoughts on the ND Miata are that it's going to be a beast to contend with in the hands of great drivers and it's probably going to take the new BRZ or a similar refresh for the FR-S/Toyota 86 (whatever it's going to be called going forward...) to contend. The one ND there was driven by someone doing their first Championship Tour event, on Kumhos, and with minimal prep. He's a decent driver with, I think, 5-6 years of experience.

[Twinz]

Never been to Packwood, but that surface looks almost as bumpy as Bristol.

That's one of the few national courses I would prefer to be in a steet class Z rather than one of the twins. (A lot of sweeper-ish stuff+diggs...less transitions)

[e1_griego]

Regional events in packwood tend to run North/South instead of this East/West config, that way you're not jumping the crests.

It's not the best surface by any means.

[Locust]

Originally Posted by Twinz

Never been to Packwood, but that surface looks almost as bumpy as Bristol.

That's one of the few national courses I would prefer to be in a steet class Z rather than one of the twins. (A lot of sweeper-ish stuff+diggs...less transitions)

It's extremely bumpy depending upon how you've set up your course. This course was designed by someone who hadn't designed a Packwood course before and although he tried his best he hit some of the worst elements of the site head on (the huge crest before the finish on Sunday most notably). On Saturday my car never felt settled and there were several points on both courses where you had to turn sharply while going over bumps. It also can really screw with the visual elements as there are going to be places where you simply can't look ahead because the cones aren't even visible yet.

I believe on Saturday I counted over seven off-camber turns and just one on-camber.

[86_Freak]

Since this will be my first Nationals on street tires, how new of street tires does everyone like to run at Nationals? I'm trying to decide when to put a new set of tires on. I'd like to put them on before the Blytheville Pro, but that'd mean they'd have 48 runs on them between me and my codriver before Nationals even starts. I feel like that is too many. But, on the other hand, I have 115 runs on my current tires and are at the wear bars, so I'm not sure how useful they would be at Blytheville. Are the RE71R's useful down past the wear bars? I haven't felt any reduction in grip so far.

[justinco]

The RE71R's seem to keep grip well past 100 runs (from what I have heard).

I ran Nats last year on 85+ run RE71R's and they were great, I personally think they get a bit faster after 50 runs (anecdotal). I'll have 90 runs on my RE71R's this year come Nats and I will be running those.

For wet conditions, you want full tread RE71R's. But 48 runs is plenty fine for the dry, IMO.

[chucky12012]

Originally Posted by 86_Freak

Since this will be my first Nationals on street tires, how new of street tires does everyone like to run at Nationals? I'm trying to decide when to put a new set of tires on. I'd like to put them on before the Blytheville Pro, but that'd mean they'd have 48 runs on them between me and my codriver before Nationals even starts. I feel like that is too many. But, on the other hand, I have 115 runs on my current tires and are at the wear bars, so I'm not sure how useful they would be at Blytheville. Are the RE71R's useful down past the wear bars? I haven't felt any reduction in grip so far.

Personally, I'd say that is in their sweet spot.

[Biggins]

I'm probably running 110-run RE71Rs from 2015 or ~70-run V720s at Nats.

[Locust]

Consider that nationals is concrete and if you don't typically run on concrete and you come out with well-worn tires you're going to shred them up a lot faster than you are used to. My co-driver and I will be running a new set one local event before nats and then doing test and tune on site. Should be right around 40 runs total by the time we hit Tuesday.