First attempt at CS last weekend

[Sccabrz192]

EMguy and I ran my BRZ Premium this weekend at the Great Lakes divisional event in Pontiac, MI. I believe it is safe to say this was one of the first times one has been run on a set of Hoosier A6's (fresh sticker ones to boot!). Thanks again for letting me run on them, it was a blast!!

Car did very well, and as I am sure has happened to each of you it definitely stole the show.

EMguy got some videos from the Saturday runs, but the go-pro was dead on Sunday, so we only got data from the DL1 for Sunday, except a friend of mine slapped one on the car for my last run, I'll try to get the video from him.

The car is just a blast to drive, even with just wheels/tires (no alignment this weekend). It needs a few tweaks as the car just doesn't like to slalom well, its very slow to transition when you get it moving quickly, but in the sweepers and deep offsets where the car is loaded up more rather than trying to quickly transition back and forth, it was fantastic.

I took 1st in CS and 24th on Index overall for both days combined, 27th on pax saturday and 23rd on pax for sunday.

[mikochu]

What other cars were you up against, CS overall? Do they have the stats posted on a website?

[Draco-REX]

The BRZ/FR-S is supposed to transition really well. Might just be the stock alignment and those slicks overpowering the stock suspension.

It's cool that you took 1st in class though. It's one thing to top a regional, quite another to top a 2-day Divisional. I'm sure your competitors weren't asleep. Those CS Miatas are very quick and heavily developed. Of course, this is going to be reported as a reason to put the twins in BS.

[Sccabrz192]

results posted here: http://www.soloseries.org/2012/2012.htm

Matthew Braun rode with me on my second run on sunday, he was very impressed with the car, he felt I was probably giving up another 0.5 seconds due to driver error. I was getting late in a few areas and having to react to correct rather than proactively slowing for certain areas on setup and I had a heck of a time with the last slalom. My 2 runs after Matthew rode I felt like I picked up a lot of time in other spots but kept giving it back in the final 7 cone slalom. I have the DL1 data but havent really reviewed it yet, I kept forgetting to start it on sunday as well.

Overall though the car was incredibly easy to drive after taking a little time to learn it on Saturday. 3 of my runs were within 0.1 second of eachother and my 4th run was only .2 seconds off my fastest (I really screwed up the final slalom bad on my last). On A6's we were running peak lateral G's around 1.2-1.3, I think the rear rebound damping just isn't adequate at that load to prevent the tail from wagging hard in a 5+ cone slalom, it grows too fast and gets too big to keep hustling as fast as the chassis/tire package should be capable.

[Sccabrz192]

Eric, Matthew, and I all felt CS is exactly the correct place for this car to play. I think the only thing left to question is can it be prepped to be competitive against the ZOK/MSRs, or do those track pack suspensions just give them too much of an advantage.

[feldy]

What about the 350 370zs I have been trying to keep with them.

[Sccabrz192]

Yea, I keep forgetting those Nissans are out there. there are only 2 that run on a fairly consistent basis in the midwest. I think the success rate of the 350/370 is very course dependent, if they can utilize the power, they do have a good advantage. I've never driven one to directly compare.

[Sccabrz192]

I dropped a ton of pictures my wife took from the event in an album, she didnt have the right lens the first day, so a lot are pretty blurry, some turned out good though.

http://public.fotki.com/k2mr2/racing/

[Scooby South]

Congrats....on an awesome run...what size was the A6's..225/45/17???? man has the SCCA forums lite up like a Xmas tree... Lots of people questioning the classing of this thing..... Lots of folks running them this past week....I am sooo excited to be on the ground floor of greatness..

Bill

[Sccabrz192]

245/40/17. Grip was great, I dont see any benefit to going smaller.

[feldy]

What threads are you seeing all the commotion in? I looked I did t see anything.

[Scooby South]

Originally Posted by feldy

What threads are you seeing all the commotion in? I looked I did t see anything.

one on nasioc.fors sure...and road/race/autocross..

[Sam Strano]

Originally Posted by Sccabrz192

Eric, Matthew, and I all felt CS is exactly the correct place for this car to play. I think the only thing left to question is can it be prepped to be competitive against the ZOK/MSRs, or do those track pack suspensions just give them too much of an advantage.

The proposal for next year is that the MSR/Z0K move to BS.... leaving standard versions of the MX5 and Solstice.

[Simmons]

How was the gearing? did you have to go to third?


Simmons