John's CS BRZ progression

[AustinTX]

First post-nationals event was on Sunday, and things went pretty well. The night before, I decided to finally test the softer setting of the 19mm Perrin front bar - I like it better. The balance was much more neutral than it had been before nationals. I ended up 2nd in X class and 5th in the PAX, 0.469 out of the top spot. The course was a pretty good fit for the BRZ - no shifting, plenty of speed maintenance, thread the needle type elements.

I also double entered in a friend's STU prepped GR STI. In 5 runs, I was able to outPAX my BRZ times slightly. I'm still somewhat annoyed by that.

My BRZ was driven by a couple guys in double as well, and they both finished just over a tenth behind their PAX results in their own cars. My assumptions from the double entry results are that
1. The BRZ is pretty easy for people to jump in and to go fast.
2. I'm still a little bit better at driving AWD cars with power.

I didn't take video this time - post nationals apathy. Here's a video of Todd Roberts driving through the Vivel Goel designed course:
[ame]http://youtu.be/DviJWG4pWRc[/ame]

Results: https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/file...ep2014_pax.htm

[vroom4]

Dont worry about comparing street class cars pax'd times to other classes....as Im sure you know.

[chkltcow]

Originally Posted by AustinTX

1. The BRZ is pretty easy for people to jump in and to go fast.

I'll test that theory this weekend. There's a guy locally that's in his first season of AutoX. He drives a Volvo wagon in STC (yes, seriously). He's doing amazingly well in it though, so a few of us discussed getting him into a better prepped car that can PAX a little better for NCAC. So I'm throwing him in my FRS this weekend at Black Lake as a warmup, and then at NCAC in a week and a half. I'm really curious to see how quickly he can pick it up, and we'll test that theory of yours

[bimmer635csi]

John, thanks for letting me ride shotgun on Sunday. I sure wish I had some data of yours to compare to mine, but I vaguely remember what the car felt like when you were driving compared to me. I'll shoot for that at Retama next time.


My basic summary is:
1] Drive deeper into turns, brake later and harder than I have been
2] Get closer to the cones (the cabin of the twins is really deep, so you aren't as close as you think)
3] Smoothness doesn't necessarily equal speed (for autocross)


Cheers,

[vroom4]

Originally Posted by bimmer635csi

3] Smoothness doesn't necessarily equal speed (for autocross)
,

I think thats more of an advanced lesson. Once you have mastered smoothness (say this is being at 98% of the limit), add more speed to get to the limit, which will feel sloppy as you are constantly battle being under the limit and over the limit.

[jdrxb9]

Interesting thoughts on the bar - maybe I will try something less stiff than the Strano bar, but probably not until I'm on the 'next round' of tires, whatever they end up being (Z2 SS or something else).

As far as car hopping and the BRZ being easy to pick up - did some of that on Sunday at our local as well. We typically run a 3+3 format. Morning was a wash with a wet course. For the afternoon, MarkA and I switched cars. He had driven mine last year and thought they were about even. This year he impoved his some and drove another local guy's which he didn't feel was as good so wanted another shot in mine to compare.

Official results: http://stcsolo.com/standings/ (see event 7)

A bit more interesting - fun runs - quoting myself from another board:
Mark in my car ('official'): 40.0xx
Me in Mark's car ('official'): 40.2xx
Me in my car, fun run #2: 40.0xx
Me in Mike's car, 1st run in car: 40.1xx
Mike in Mike's car, fun run #3-ish: 39.7xx
Pallotta in John L's barely-CS-illegal car: 39.5??
Pallotta in my car, 2nd run in car: 38.8xx

Not sure if it all means that much with regard to CS in general without Mark or Andrew running Mark's car in the dry - my times are +/-0.1 in 3 different cars, but I'm no benchmark. In fact, I clearly need to 'just drive better' - Andew's time in my car would've been good enough for top PAX!

and videos - take the overlaid solostorm data with a grain of salt

Andrew:
[ame=http://youtu.be/bxDIP6Z0FmU]http://youtu.be/bxDIP6Z0FmU[/ame]

Mark:
[ame=http://youtu.be/5C2dmr1dNow]http://youtu.be/5C2dmr1dNow[/ame]

Me:
[ame=http://youtu.be/_qJ9RDyIWAo]http://youtu.be/_qJ9RDyIWAo[/ame]

[AustinTX]

Finished up a decent 5th in X and 9th in PAX yesterday. The car was pretty good, but one corner was well down in the torque dip. Fastest street class car at least.

My car was the village whore this time out with 4 total drivers. I also drove an STU STI just for giggles. The course was not favorable for the STU car due to the huge skidpad element, but it was still fun to get back to my roots. I ended up going only 0.4 faster in the STI. I still don't miss it

Results:
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/file...ct2014_fin.htm

PAX:
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/file...ct2014_pax.htm

BRZ Video:
[ame]http://youtu.be/EFtb72KG6AQ[/ame]

STI Video:
[ame]http://youtu.be/alxkXTW89zc[/ame]

[vroom4]

That course looks miserable!

[AustinTX]

Originally Posted by vroom4

That course looks miserable!

It was kind of fun, but definitely not our best. Not much space in the lot beside COTA. We just don't have any bigger lots near Austin. Our tree hugger city council wrote a regulation to block the construction of any large, open parking lots over 20 years ago. All lots have trees peppered all over them

[AustinTX]

I did move the rear toe back to @1/16th" toe in per side. I'll revisit toe out after I get smaller tires back on the car. I'm trying to wear the RS3V2's out, but they still have 7/32nds in the center after well over 100 runs...

[chkltcow]

Originally Posted by AustinTX

I did move the rear toe back to @1/16th" toe in per side. I'll revisit toe out after I get smaller tires back on the car. I'm trying to wear the RS3V2's out, but they still have 7/32nds in the center after well over 100 runs...

You need to come run with us at Darlington. Did an event there over the weekend... went in with 130-some runs... about 4/32" of tread left... and after 11 runs on that cheese grater surface, came out on the wear bars :-\ Inside and outside shoulder are both missing the grooves. I'm gonna get protested for running Hankook C71s without being in CSR at our next event, I'm sure

[AustinTX]

My season has finally started up again. This time, I borrowed a set of wheels with 225 RS3's to compare against my 245's. Interesting result there - the 245's were consistently .2-.4 faster. The 225's were about the same vintage/tread depth but had been tracked a couple times, so I think they have begun to fall off the heat cycle curve. Either way, the 225's didn't launch as well, made considerably more squeal, and would suddenly generate lots of understeer if pushed too hard. They did actually feel better in general, though. The car stayed more square and didn't squirm as much during transitions. I guess I will need to just buy a fresh set of narrower tires to see if they are better. I'm still on the fence a bit about the BRZ nationally, but it should be competitive locally this year with a more generous PAX.

I finished 2nd overall and 1st in X class, so not a bad day. Vivek just had to take the PAX from me on his last run...

Results:
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/file...-feb15_pax.htm

Best run on 245's (class win):
[ame]http://youtu.be/k71QW0R4ZMs[/ame]

Best run on the 225's which was much smoother, but slower (double entry):
[ame]http://youtu.be/0dUeXUlbs84[/ame]

[bimmer635csi]

John,


I have 2 used tires you can have for cheap. They are 225/45/17s and have lots of tread left on them. I wish I'd known you were looking for them, I could have brought them yesterday. Oh well, maybe next month.


Cheers,
Chris

[AustinTX]

I'm not looking for used tires - I was just trying them out ahead of my next tire purchase. Still waiting to see what the best options are...