949 Racing project car - Blub

[FirstWinter]

Alright enough with the parts! When does Blub turn orange?

[949 Racing]

Our plan has been to keep the external appearance of Blub a bit more low-key. So I think it will remain the OEM silver with just a few 949 Racing decals on it.

It will look a little bit more agressive when we get Xidas on it to lower it a bit, with the APR bumper and ducktail.

[fatoni]

Still no prototype xidas? Also, can you compare your opinions between the frs and an nd miata?

[949 Racing]

86 and ND, we like both. We have nothing to add beyond what you have already read from the automotive press.

ND is a convertible, which can be a magical experience when the weather is right. 86 is a more useful car with the extra storage and interior space.

Dynamically, one is a purpose built, ground up design sports car, the other isn't.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by 949 Racing

86 and ND, we like both. We have nothing to add beyond what you have already read from the automotive press.

ND is a convertible, which can be a magical experience when the weather is right. 86 is a more useful car with the extra storage and interior space.

Dynamically, one is a purpose built, ground up design sports car, the other isn't.

Alright I'll accept that politically correct response. After 4 miatas an xidas and 6uls and all sorts of 949 purchases over the last decade, I'm looking forward to how you figure out the twin.

[86_IT]

I have listened to your Slip Angle episode, read your suspension guides, etc. And have always appreciated the approach of "I know I will beat you because you dont have x free mod" i.e. the lexan windows. 86cup, 86dc, supermiata etc are all about fun, learning, and growing. We all share data and have no secrets as to what has worked, what breaks, and what should be moved up or down in points. 86dc is a bit more open ruleset wise, but it suits the builds we see in norcal more and since many of the cars we see started as street cars with novice drivers we felt our ruleset fit our geography quite well. That being said, some of us make sure to change setups to fit into 86cup classing as some of us run both series. It make it an ever changing, fun, learning experience. Glad to have you guys in the series!

[nlopez]

Originally Posted by 949 Racing

About 12 years ago, we put together what seems to be the first marque based "Challenge" TT series anywhere in the US, Miata Challenge with Speed Ventures. Regular sponsors, points table, year end championship. Street, Mod, Unlimited class. Miata Challenge rules, schedule and format would be familiar to you as it became the template for all marque challenges to come after, including anything with the 86.

MC was an instant hit so the S2000 guys wanted one too. I helped put together that rule set. Then came Corvette Challenge and so on. It eventually migrated across the country so we see many different HPDE promoters running marque based TT "Challenges" based on points for builds with 3 classes.

One of the very first things we did upon building the first Miata Challenge rules was for the rules committee to get together and try to hack them. Brainstorming to build a "cheater" car that would dominate the class. If we found a loophole, we would amend the rules to close it. When none of us could figure out a hack, we published the rules.

Years later we began road racing and doing enduros with NASA in PT class. PT rules were also points based. Team 949 Racing proved quite adept at finding loopholes in the PT rules or more often, simply using our points more wisely. Lexan windows free, huge weight distribution advantage and safer. We would show up an out of 40 PT cars, we would be the only team with all our cars having Lexan windows front and rear. Teams using double adjustable shocks for an extra 3 pts. We would run single adjustable Xidas and use the spare points for a close ration trans and OS Giken. We won everything in sight, set track records everywhere we went and won a bunch of national championships.

So this whole thing about optimizing for the class rules really carefully, we have a bit of practice

Appreciate the story and current build! 86Cup appears to be more for weekend track warriors and not so much with full-experienced competition race teams. Seems like a slam dunk win every time you go if many drivers are not as experienced and simply drive their daily car to the track vs. a seasoned driver with a purposed built car that's trailered. How does it benefit the series as a sponsor? What is the goal the out of your participation?

[juliog]

Originally Posted by nlopez

Appreciate the story and current build! 86Cup appears to be more for weekend track warriors and not so much with full-experienced competition race teams. Seems like a slam dunk win every time you go if many drivers are not as experienced and simply drive their daily car to the track vs. a seasoned driver with a purposed built car that's trailered. How does it benefit the series as a sponsor? What is the goal the out of your participation?

There are many experienced drivers in the lower classes.

Intent of 86CUP Stock and Street classes is to provide a driver-centric playing field for street driven cars with low costs of participation. Modified class opens things up, with at least half the field being street driven cars as well, depending on the region. Unlimited, anything goes!

[949 Racing]

Blub is prepped to the same rules as your car. It is also daily driven. But skeptical comments are the beginning of the resentment. "You guys suck for coming in and blowing everybody away but hey what's your setup?"
No one likes to get beat but they want to know what the fast guys are doing . That's fair.

Frankly when we race in NASA against the best race teams in the country we sometimes get the same reactions. "You guys suck because you're beating everybody, but hey can you help me with my driving line and share your set-up?" On more than one occasion, NASA management actually asked us to win by less margin to make the competition appear closer.

When I think about it more, I don't know how to do things half way. Leaving modifications undone, not fussing over the setup and simply not trying hard is just well.. it's not in my DNA. I am a racer. And yes you can get a ride, get coached by Sonny and learn everything about our setup. Hopefully you will go faster too. In the end that's all we really care about.

But if there is enough backlash, we simply will sell the car and not participate. If that happens there won't be any Xidas or other parts development from us. We breed our parts in competition. That happened in Corvette Challenge when I was personally banned from competition by having a points value assigned to me as a driver. Z06 was sold, no Xidas or Corvette wheels.

We experienced a similar backlash in Miata Challenge so we decided to change the rules to allow shop teams to compete but not be eligible for awards points or prizes. Standing on the podium is not why we do it. Developing the parts and platform while setting a higher standard for lap times, are. For what it's worth we don't plan on doing every 86 cup event. Partly because we're too busy but even if we weren't, we don't want to upset the natural order of things.

[churchx]

Please, don't let (autosport)politics or less successful competitors to rob from potential goodies for twins from you . Even more so, when some seems to be first/unique to you (eg. steering wheel spacer).

[86_IT]

Agreed. Please dont abandon the platform we need as much support as possible as most of the market is just stanceboi tilt wheel rep junk. The guys who track their cars need the development of the chassis if we want to continue to see the growth of tracked 86s we already have. I mean 40+ cars at a track day is pretty amazing and we all want to see this chassis grow into an icon.

[949 Racing]

More from the scales:

38.3 lbs Hoosier A7 245/40R17 + 17x9 6UL
42.9 lbs Toyo R888R 255/40/R17 + 17x9 6UL

20 lbs of rotating weight can be felt. 86 Cup (SoCal) rules a bit different than 86 Drive Challenge (Norcal). Same mod class build for Norcal has points leftover for 40tw tires. We have a set of 2 year old 245 A7's from our Nd project car, Beaker. We'll run those for 86DC at this weekend SoCal/Norcal crossover event at Buttonwillow. Because of their age, we'r not sure how much faster they will be than the R888R's. Durometer is about halfway betwen fresh and done so we'll see :P.
A fresh set of A7's would be roughly 2s faster on BW 13CW.

Note: Hoosiers tend to run wide and short so a 245/40/17 is about the same height as every other companies 235/40 and the same width as every other 265/40 (if there was such a thing).

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by nlopez

Appreciate the story and current build! 86Cup appears to be more for weekend track warriors and not so much with full-experienced competition race teams. Seems like a slam dunk win every time you go if many drivers are not as experienced and simply drive their daily car to the track vs. a seasoned driver with a purposed built car that's trailered. How does it benefit the series as a sponsor? What is the goal the out of your participation?

There are some people in the upper classes who have spent far more on their cars then 949 has lol. The upper classes are much more of a gentleman's competition as the same cash incentives aren't there like the lower classes anyway and tire contingency generally doesn't come into play since people want super sticky tires. They have the right attitude about it and all it will do is further the platform and competitors forward imo, not do the series harm.

[Jdmjunkie]

Any more info on the steering wheel spacer? I will buy one as soon as it comes out.