SCCA Solo C Street Discussion

[chucky12012]

Congrats to Dave on the win. With such a high speed course on day 1, he had to really drive the car well to stay on top of the RX-8's. I managed to stumble my way into the fifth spot, which given the drivers/cars ahead of me, isn't too bad in this case! Courses were very fast and a blast to drive.

Day 2 was tricky with the wet course, but by CS's third runs, most of the lines were drying up, except for the last quarter of the quarter which was still very slick. Side note, four different tires in the top five of CS. I don't think any of the top cars are fully prepped for 2015 yet either as Dave mentioned about his own, I think the only one might be the 2nd/4th place RX-8.

Here is my fast run on day 2 (ended up without data on my fast day 1 run for some reason). You can see on the last quarter of the course that it was still really slick. It looked like for heats 3 and 4, this last section actually dried up pretty well as we actually got some sun too.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux8hR-XKhRw"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux8hR-XKhRw[/ame]

And just to show the difference for those not there, here is the first run of the same heat on Day 2.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPgA7s8XSjQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPgA7s8XSjQ[/ame]

[7thgear]

so due to weather, any real feedback re:trd springs and the new bridgestone is tainted...?

[chucky12012]

Saturday was great weather really. I think at this point you can feel comfortable that the Bridgestones are very fast. I can say the TRD springs felt good with my B6's, car felt very flat during high speed offsets. SoloStorm seems to show me holding up to about 1.1 g's during sweepers and peaking at 1.3 g's during transitions from this weekend. I'm running Dunlop Star Specs, so I wouldn't be surprised if that would go up on Bridgestones.

I only had two events with my revalved B6's before putting on the TRD springs, so it's a bit hard to seperate the effects of the two different parts. I don't have much doubt that they improve the car a bit, I don't think it's leaps and bounds, but I expect there to be a larger impact in the fact that you can now change both sways, increase spring rate and adjust shocks as whole. Giving you the ability to tune the suspension where as before, we had what we had.

[YawMomentRacing]

Originally Posted by chucky12012

Congrats to Dave on the win. With such a high speed course on day 1, he had to really drive the car well to stay on top of the RX-8's. I managed to stumble my way into the fifth spot, which given the drivers/cars ahead of me, isn't too bad in this case! Courses were very fast and a blast to drive.

Day 2 was tricky with the wet course, but by CS's third runs, most of the lines were drying up, except for the last quarter of the quarter which was still very slick. Side note, four different tires in the top five of CS. I don't think any of the top cars are fully prepped for 2015 yet either as Dave mentioned about his own, I think the only one might be the 2nd/4th place RX-8.

Here is my fast run on day 2 (ended up without data on my fast day 1 run for some reason). You can see on the last quarter of the course that it was still really slick. It looked like for heats 3 and 4, this last section actually dried up pretty well as we actually got some sun too.

And just to show the difference for those not there, here is the first run of the same heat on Day 2.

The 2nd/4th place RX-8 is not fully prepped. It has the right wheels/tires but that's about it I think. I drove it during the Evo Advantage School and it felt pretty quick though.

[bslate3]

Have any BRZ guys tried out a 16mm rear sway bar instead of putting a larger front bar on?

I have the 19mm Perrin bar with stock shocks. It feels pretty good but it pushes in the fast steady state sweepers.

[Biggins]

Originally Posted by bslate3

Have any BRZ guys tried out a 16mm rear sway bar instead of putting a larger front bar on?

I have the 19mm Perrin bar with stock shocks. It feels pretty good but it pushes in the fast steady state sweepers.

What setting on the Perrin bar?

[bslate3]

Softest setting.

I just wonder if a slightly stiffer rear bar would be a better fit for the BRZ since it is more prone to understeer than the FRS due to the spring rates.

[xwd]

It's always a tradeoff. I tried a WRX rear bar early on and it's less understeer in sweepers, but in quicker transitions or slaloms it makes the car too unstable. I don't even like a larger rear bar with the STX setup.

[mpicher]

Originally Posted by cactus

You have to remove the hubs to get the ARP suds in.

Only in the back... there's a punchout for the front hubs.

[Simmons]

Originally Posted by YawMomentRacing

Here is my onboard video from College Station.

Day 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6k1rOiI_iI&feature=youtu.be

Day 2:

Just wondering if it was worth shifting to 3rd (except the finish) ?


Looking at the mph, wouldn't you have the same speed in 2nd?


Just wondering?


Nice driving .


Simmons

[YawMomentRacing]

The first shift was absolutely worth it. I didn't shift to 3rd on the first lap and hit the limiter right as I tracked out to the "cone wall" and basically had to coast into the corner on the rev limiter. This was a large portion of my time gain from Run 1 to Run 2.

The 2nd shift is debatable - I did it differently every run. First run I shifted to 3rd and left it in until the next "hairpin", the 2nd run I didn't shift, and the 3rd lap (after looking at data from the first two runs) I tried to get the best of both world which was to upshift then downshift early to mid-corner so keep the revs/torque up for the exit but still get more speed on the "straight" before the corner. My 2nd to 3rd runs were pretty close through that section, but the 2nd run was a touch quicker. I downshifted a little early and pulled a little too much speed out when I downshifted on the 3rd so it certainly could have been better. The third shift through the finish was worth it I think.

Managing the shifts is a new part of the "strategy" for me and it can pay huge dividends if you get it right and conversely huge penalties if it's wrong. Coming from a 75mph 2nd gear ESP car, this was not the case.

[chucky12012]

Yeah, there were three shift points on the day 1 course. With my current setup I was maxing out 2nd gear at about 58 mph, when I shifted to 3rd in all three areas I saw beyond 60 mph. Going into the hairpin I saw about 62/63 and the same at the finish.

[Simmons]

Originally Posted by YawMomentRacing

The first shift was absolutely worth it. I didn't shift to 3rd on the first lap and hit the limiter right as I tracked out to the "cone wall" and basically had to coast into the corner on the rev limiter. This was a large portion of my time gain from Run 1 to Run 2.

The 2nd shift is debatable - I did it differently every run. First run I shifted to 3rd and left it in until the next "hairpin", the 2nd run I didn't shift, and the 3rd lap (after looking at data from the first two runs) I tried to get the best of both world which was to upshift then downshift early to mid-corner so keep the revs/torque up for the exit but still get more speed on the "straight" before the corner. My 2nd to 3rd runs were pretty close through that section, but the 2nd run was a touch quicker. I downshifted a little early and pulled a little too much speed out when I downshifted on the 3rd so it certainly could have been better. The third shift through the finish was worth it I think.

Managing the shifts is a new part of the "strategy" for me and it can pay huge dividends if you get it right and conversely huge penalties if it's wrong. Coming from a 75mph 2nd gear ESP car, this was not the case.

Good to hear. The good thing is these cars are easy to shift compared to others.


You are probably missing having that HP/TQ the Camaro had also


Simmons

[YawMomentRacing]

Originally Posted by Simmons

Good to hear. The good thing is these cars are easy to shift compared to others.


You are probably missing having that HP/TQ the Camaro had also


Simmons

Yes, torque is nice....