SCCA Solo C Street Discussion

[itzmik3]

soooooo now that i have a little bit of time here is my recap of the weekend.

well first off i want to thank @simpleisbest for the codrive for the year.
he and his former codriver last year definitely got the car set up very well. all those testing of different bars along with different tire and tire sizes really paid off.

saturday's course was definitely all about speed maintenance.
i apologize in advance for not having videos posted of the weekend.

run #1: just went out to get a feel for the course and tagged a "pointless cone". i wasn't worried about hitting it on the next run. the car handled just as perfectly even with the multiple off camber corners.

run #2: this one was definitely a flyer UNTIL!!! a course worker decides that they don't feel like running after putting back a cone... well i don't know if i should thank him or not i didn't really "capitalize" on the extra look at the course (continue reading to see what i mean)

rerun#2: overall a great run. i was sitting in first with a .5 second run, but i knew that i had more in the tank

run #3: DISASTER! well thats not what i was thinking when i pulled up to the line, but due to pre-run check that was not done i threw away my run... traction control.
it literally went like this... launch... bog.... F*CKK!!!!!!!!!

overall after the first day i was sitting second by .194 to a local mx-5
amazingly had a .181 second lead over jeff stuart in the 370z. this was actually the first time all year i was able to beat him. so even despite the third run being a tragedy, i was happy with beating the 370z



sunday
the course looked a bit more on the worry some from my perspective. we were going back up the hill so i had the mentality that i could gain on the mx-5, but jeff will be charging with all of his torque.

before my first runs i was visited by a lot of veterans (brian peters, annie gill, ken motonishi, max hayter, jon lugod) with friendly reminders to turn off traction control... dohhh LOL

run#1: again going out just getting a feel for the car. after section 1 i felt that i was going to a bit too aggressively up the hill as the car was stepping out after each element. end result? i was .6xx off the from the mx-5 and gave up 3rd to jeff stuart

run#2: no oversteer going up the hill and the car felt really neat and tidy through the course. going into the final section i heard a "da dunk". in my head i am going "i hope i just based it". crossed the line with top time in class and less than a tenth from first BUT late cone call. i guess i based it and then some.

run#3: this was definitely my fastest run or at least it felt like it. i was able to carry considerable more speed with better lines in the high speed section. however going into the final section it was an off camber downhill long decreasing left. rear stepped out, but i wasn't worried about it immediately, but couldn't get it corrected in time to shut it down for the extremely tight and slow slalom at the finish. in the end it was my quickest clean time.

overall result from the top 3:
T 1 188 Scott Lewis 2006 Mazda MX5 Black Dunlop*
56.996(1) 55.053 54.327
53.604 53.813 53.597
107.924

T 2 193 Jeff Stuart 2012 Nissan 370Z Monter Hankook
55.505 55.079 54.702
53.790 53.794 53.747
108.449 (0.525)

T 3 181 Michael Yanase 2013 Scion FR-S* White Yokoham
57.206(1) 54.521 55.744
54.327 55.781(1) 54.050
108.571 (0.122)

so many would have could of thoughts going through my head, but i was still happy with the overall result. of course i would have loved to come out on top, but oh wells.





now it is time for impound. congratulations were given to scott lewis and jeff stuart.
and then i notice a sizeable huddle around the back of our car. i come over to see what is going on where i am greeted by todd cameron (local and also course designer) who asks why we have OS Giken stickers on the vehicle. as an employee of the company, i put signage on the car as a form of mobile advertisement. sean (my codriver) told me to tell them that "hey does kyle busch have m&m's in his nascar?"
however he still wasn't convinced and mentioned the thought of protesting the car. he himself claimed that he had not seen a FRS/BRZ finish so well locally. i mean we came down 2 weeks ago to do a quick shakedown and we were off the pace. i am guessing todd was expecting the same result. i mean when we came down two weeks ago we came on bfg's that weren't as fresh as the yokohamas we ran for the tour. so in the end he thought that we were running a differential in the car since we placed so "high". however in the end no one ended up protesting us.



well i thought it was the end.
as i was enjoying my beer at a different site, todd cameron decides to drive all the way to our remote pits to notify us that we should expect to be protested at the pro solo next weekend. so if we have a differential that we should take it out.
did he think he was doing us a favor?
i admit i am still a little crossed about him coming again to discuss the potential of us having a OS Giken differential in the car.

i mean honestly if he knew how our diffs worked, then he could tell even from our launches that we do not have a diff.



well that was my recap for the weekend
sorry for the long post hahha

[AustinTX]

Congrats on the good finish. The protest stuff is kind of funny. Perhaps I should make some NOS stickers...

[Kido1986]

How dumb can someone be to thing you'd not only cheat with a differential but then ADVERTISE that you're cheating?

Come on...

[itzmik3]

Originally Posted by AustinTX

Congrats on the good finish. The protest stuff is kind of funny. Perhaps I should make some NOS stickers...

yeah we are considering some RC injectors stickers along with Church's tuning
why not throw in a ecutek sticker also

Originally Posted by Kido1986

How dumb can someone be to thing you'd not only cheat with a differential but then ADVERTISE that you're cheating?

Come on...

hahhaaa exactly. oh not to mention i wore an OS Giken shirt LOLLL

[Rexpelagi]

I don't get it - an MSR is basically an STR car with narrower wheels - that's why it is fast. A base NC isn't an STR car, or even close. Have they just never seen a fast twin locally?

Can you acquire more OS Giken stickers? Maybe the whole CS Twin field should run them if that are going to insinuate things like that.

[mrazny]

They have to post the Protest Fee, then post cost, so you'll effectively get a free diff fluid flush. Make sure they have what you want to go back in there on hand though as opposed to some shitty autozone stuff.

Man, Giken fluid would be a nice expensive replacement though

Don't fret the assholes. Local Chest puffing is unfortunately common.

[DylanFRS]

Originally Posted by itzmik3

as i was enjoying my beer at a different site, todd cameron decides to drive all the way to our remote pits to notify us that we should expect to be protested at the pro solo next weekend. so if we have a differential that we should take it out.

Now you HAVE to do well or they are going to think you took the diff out of your car.

[SeanRTR]

Originally Posted by itzmik3

however he still wasn't convinced and mentioned the thought of protesting the car. he himself claimed that he had not seen a FRS/BRZ finish so well locally. i mean we came down 2 weeks ago to do a quick shakedown and we were off the pace. i am guessing todd was expecting the same result. i mean when we came down two weeks ago we came on bfg's that weren't as fresh as the yokohamas we ran for the tour. so in the end he thought that we were running a differential in the car since we placed so "high". however in the end no one ended up protesting us.



well i thought it was the end.
as i was enjoying my beer at a different site, todd cameron decides to drive all the way to our remote pits to notify us that we should expect to be protested at the pro solo next weekend. so if we have a differential that we should take it out.
did he think he was doing us a favor?
i admit i am still a little crossed about him coming again to discuss the potential of us having a OS Giken differential in the car.

i mean honestly if he knew how our diffs worked, then he could tell even from our launches that we do not have a diff.

I'd have a full OS-Giken wrap on my car after this, that's hilarious. (in fact you might see a Quaife decal on my car at some point due to my job as well)

Do you think the Yoko's are that much faster than the Rivals? I thought my Rivals were pretty stable in performance from full depth, all the way down to the cords even after several events/heat cycles....

[itzmik3]

Originally Posted by DylanFRS

Now you HAVE to do well or they are going to think you took the diff out of your car.

well i wish i had a chance for a repeat performance at pro, but i will be competing in STX

i guess i will just have to go down to SD again
honestly i am not the biggest fan of their lot, but if i have to go to prove a point

[itzmik3]

Originally Posted by mrazny

They have to post the Protest Fee, then post cost, so you'll effectively get a free diff fluid flush. Make sure they have what you want to go back in there on hand though as opposed to some shitty autozone stuff.

Man, Giken fluid would be a nice expensive replacement though

Don't fret the assholes. Local Chest puffing is unfortunately common.

$50 per liter.

[itzmik3]

Originally Posted by SeanRTR

I'd have a full OS-Giken wrap on my car after this, that's hilarious. (in fact you might see a Quaife decal on my car at some point due to my job as well)

Do you think the Yoko's are that much faster than the Rivals? I thought my Rivals were pretty stable in performance from full depth, all the way down to the cords even after several events/heat cycles....

we had over 8 OS Giken stickers on the car

honestly the yoko's are the best street tire i have driven on.
don't get me wrong the bfg's are an EXCELLENT tire. we ran them all the way to the chords and they still did well at el toro (can't say the same for fontana hahaha)

we are 54 runs into the yoko's are they still grip as great as when we first put them on.
the yoko's love heat and even cold performance is superior

but in the end though i will be paying a lot of attention to what happens at spring nationals. will the yoko's fall flat on their face like bfg's did?

we will just have to wait and see

[MTCRX]

One consolation, if they are thinking of protesting you have them worried. ANd from the names you listed, that is some good company to be in.

[itzmik3]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOCwTzbXdPw"]SD Tour Day 1 4.5.14 - YouTube[/ame]

here is the day 1 video

[TrqlessWonder]

Originally Posted by mrazny

They have to post the Protest Fee, then post cost, so you'll effectively get a free diff fluid flush. Make sure they have what you want to go back in there on hand though as opposed to some shitty autozone stuff.

Man, Giken fluid would be a nice expensive replacement though

Don't fret the assholes. Local Chest puffing is unfortunately common.

Yep, there's always a couple folks that are super-friendly, until you start beating them. Take it for the back-handed compliment that it is.

Always worth a smile when someone walks over to your car, and stoops down to take a real close look at things (while you're standing there), then stand up and walk back to their car without saying a word. Even better when it's clear that they have much deeper pockets than you.

Stickers could be a nice running gag for the season though. Perhaps some fake Top-Gear-ish stuff like Big Stiffy Springs or oemappearingraceparts.com?