SCCA Solo C Street Discussion

[Biggins]

Originally Posted by 86_Freak

For those that have tried both, is there a noticeable difference between the 225's and 235's?

Marginal difference... I'm sticking to 225s, but if I were doing all ProSolos, I'd probably squeeze 245s on there.

Originally Posted by NJ10

So, who's going to sign up to be the guinea pig to test out the nexens with a $1000 contingency?

That's a great payout, but the payday is for a Pro championship. I'm always curious about a new tire, so we'll see if anyone tries them to see if they'll work. I'm still sticking with Kumho for now due to their contingency.

[SeanRTR]

Originally Posted by NJ10

So, who's going to sign up to be the guinea pig to test out the nexens with a $1000 contingency?

Not me, I bought a set of 225/50/16 RE71R's, for my heavy 16x7 Sparco rims. $450 for 4 new tires, had to do it.

[ryan t]

Originally Posted by SeanRTR

Not me, I bought a set of 225/50/16 RE71R's, for my heavy 16x7 Sparco rims. $450 for 4 new tires, had to do it.

Im soooo tempted to do this. I wondered why nobody was trying it.

[Briankbot]

Originally Posted by SeanRTR

Not me, I bought a set of 225/50/16 RE71R's, for my heavy 16x7 Sparco rims. $450 for 4 new tires, had to do it.

I was thinking about this also and am very curious to see how it works for you.

[SeanRTR]

Originally Posted by Briankbot

I was thinking about this also and am very curious to see how it works for you.

Only problem is the weight, which for these cars is a serious downside.
1lbs heavier tire, to go with my probably 3-5lbs heavier rims (Sparco tire rack discounted 16's vs lightweight RPF1 17's). Slightly taller tire, and surprisingly wider tire.
Hope to have them on for a bullshit local on Sunday.
I got the tires second-hand, but they are brand new. I guess it's extremely common for people to buy these tires and then have to resell because they run much wider than what they anticipated.

[Locust]

Sooooo how complicated is C-Street / D-Street / Whatever-Street classing going to be once the 2017 BRZ comes out?

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...ru-brz-preview

It's getting an upgrade package with Brembo brakes and 17x7.5" wheels.

[bslate3]

Today was a fun day at the Equipe Rapide Mirrorcross pre Pro Solo at Mineral Wells.

I'm looking forward to the CS battle next weekend!

My best right side. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OFtLWWl_xY&feature=share"]ER Mirrorcross 5-29-16 - YouTube[/ame]

My best left side. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_cHouohiaQ&feature=share"]ER Mirrorcross 5-29-16 - YouTube[/ame]

[JimR]

Originally Posted by Locust

Sooooo how complicated is C-Street / D-Street / Whatever-Street classing going to be once the 2017 BRZ comes out?

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...ru-brz-preview

It's getting an upgrade package with Brembo brakes and 17x7.5" wheels.

The RX-8, ND MX-5, FR-S, and BRZ have all won CS in national-level Solo/ProSolo so far this year. Several other things have trophied in CS. Proposals are still open for comment, and we're not done with the 2016 calendar, especially Nationals. I think we're still waiting for the dust to settle with the options already out there.

A modest power bump for 2017, even with a broader curve tune to blot out the dip, might be negated by the need to shift more often with the higher final drive. Neither the Mazdaspeed Miata or the RSX Type-S were much more successful in stock form against the base models due to their gearing, despite pretty big peak power advantages.

Rule book drama is usually self-inflicted. I bet the performance differences for all the 86 variants will be hidden within driver noise.

[renfield90]

DS is kinda dead. Sending the first gen BRZ and non-TRD FRS would liven it up considerably. I didn't count last year but in 2014, twins made up over half of CS, which by themselves are on par with or larger than DS was either of those years.

I think only one 2017 BRZ trim comes with the 7.5" wheels. Would be interesting to leave that in CS and see how it does. Does the 2017 FRS also get 7.5" wheels?

[DocWalt]

DS is getting insane with the new WRX, at least here in Philly area. There's one guy that's literally rofl-stomping us in one out of nowhere. Last Philly event I was he PAXed a second clear of everyone else (bunch of national trophy winners) and raw timed me in STX by a few tenths... lol I was at another event Sunday where there were probably five DS WRXs, so idk. Maybe it's just a northeast thing?

Also, the performance pack BRZ (or w/e it'll be called) will have the extra weight to haul around because of the brembos. no advantage at all for autocross there, but the extra half inch of wheel width may make enough of a difference. I'd expect the shorter gearing to hurt the 86 a little, but if the torque curve is flatter it'll be more like the ND in acceleration anyway...

[86_Freak]

After Spring Nationals at Lincoln this past weekend, I'm unsure if I'll stay with the FR-S this year or go back to the kart. I'm getting impatient with myself as I was always battling for the top 3 positions in KM but am struggling to even get into the trophies in CS. I'm sure more seat time in the FR-S will help, but it's hard to break the driving style I had developed while in the kart.

Although, I did have a light bulb moment after day 1 at the Tour. I had been running 28 psi front and 25 psi rear all year, but after talking to a couple other FR-S competitors, I realized I was way too low. I raised the pressures to 35 psi front and 32 psi rear and it completely changed the car, it was actually driveable now.

On day 1 of the Tour where I ran 28 psi front/25 psi rear, I was 8th and was 1.126 seconds off the fastest time. On day 2 where I ran 35 psi front/32 psi rear, I moved up to 5th and was only 0.510 seconds off the fastest time.

The winning car at the Pro and Tour was an RX-8. The driver owns an ND but doesn't want to risk breaking the transmission, so he is driving somebodies RX-8 and almost dominated the field. After talking to him, he said he wasn't sure if he could of gone faster in the ND over the RX-8 for the type of course. The courses had a lot of sweepers with the majority of them being decreasing radius and only a couple of offset transitions. I'll upload videos tonight or tomorrow.

[JimR]

C-Street has a good mix of cars of similar layout and capability. There is a little bit of course dependency, but the iron chef ingredient still looks like the driver. Two and three cars can reliably run at the pointy end of CS, possibly five or six if hot shoes were still campaigning them.

I don't see what is broken here. Everything that is winning CS can be duplicated with mass-produced, modern cars and readily available prep parts. Nothing in the 2017 BRZ spec sheet suggests a car that would upset the CS apple cart, either.

DS is inhabited by boosted, camber-limited cars with completely different drivetrains than ours. Total weather and course dependency. Then consider that someone is proposing that two nearly identical cars run two different Street classes based on a byzantine, brain-hurting heirarchy of asterisks and exeptions.

High level view: C-Street is fine, most of need to drive better, and complicating Solo to get a participation trophy isn't winning.

[Briankbot]

Originally Posted by 86_Freak

After Spring Nationals at Lincoln this past weekend, I'm unsure if I'll stay with the FR-S this year or go back to the kart. I'm getting impatient with myself as I was always battling for the top 3 positions in KM but am struggling to even get into the trophies in CS. I'm sure more seat time in the FR-S will help, but it's hard to break the driving style I had developed while in the kart.

Although, I did have a light bulb moment after day 1 at the Tour. I had been running 28 psi front and 25 psi rear all year, but after talking to a couple other FR-S competitors, I realized I was way too low. I raised the pressures to 35 psi front and 32 psi rear and it completely changed the car, it was actually driveable now.

On day 1 of the Tour where I ran 28 psi front/25 psi rear, I was 8th and was 1.126 seconds off the fastest time. On day 2 where I ran 35 psi front/32 psi rear, I moved up to 5th and was only 0.510 seconds off the fastest time.

The winning car at the Pro and Tour was an RX-8. The driver owns an ND but doesn't want to risk breaking the transmission, so he is driving somebodies RX-8 and almost dominated the field. After talking to him, he said he wasn't sure if he could of gone faster in the ND over the RX-8 for the type of course. The courses had a lot of sweepers with the majority of them being decreasing radius and only a couple of offset transitions. I'll upload videos tonight or tomorrow.

Hey Jared, it was nice to meet you. You are welcome for the tire pressure tip, even if it helped you bump me back a trophy spot on day 2 of the tour! The little bit of Scion money coming my way from the Pro helps make up for it though.

Give the FR-S some time and get the TRD bars. Maybe run the Strano on the front with the TRD rear or go even stiffer on one end. Anything to speed up the weight transfer on the car will probably work well with your kart driving habits. Dan sure was fast in that RX-8 and there was something about the tour courses that threw a lot of people off. It made me realize I still have a lot to learn about certain elements on National type courses. I am looking forward to your videos to see what you were doing with your car. See you next time!

[SeanRTR]

The guy at spring nationals in the RX-8 can wheel, no doubt about that. On the right course, the RX-8 is still a force...although everyone has ditched these cars because they're kind of shitty/impractical/weird.


As mentioned, I got my 16's back on the car, with a discounted set of 225/50/16 RE71R's. The event went well, with some very competitive C-street competition, I was able to take the win on the new tires, by a very slight margin. The car felt great, very responsive, balanced, easy to drive. New tires didn't seem to have the same grip as my 'worn-in' 225-47-17's, but that was to be expected. I'm anxiously awaiting to get more runs on these tires to see their true potential. I'll be another local event this Sunday to see how it goes. My last set of Bridgestones was much better on the second heat cycle, but really not up to full speed until well after 40-60 runs...
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCjO3lzNbls"]Sean Grogan May 29th 2016 - YouTube[/ame]
(this finish resulted in a few 'incidents' into the grass, when the timing lights were actually placed 50 feet down the long road at the end)
Results:
http://www.nworscca.com/attachments/...e3_results.htm
(10th on index out of like 100~)


16's



On the drive home from the event I ended up in downtown Toledo looking for a bar, and was reminded how screwed up my front suspension is, making all kinds of clunking in the front end over low speed pot holes, substantial bumps. I just couldn't take it any more, so removed the 22mm perrin bar and tried out my TRD 21mm bar, hoping the sway bar bushings were the root of my problem. 100% problem fixed. It's amazing how much the slightest of front sway bar free-play can result in the most horrendous and obnoxious sounds from the front end. The bushings 'looked' okay, but after 65,000 miles, with never being re-lubricated, they were toast. They were really toast about 30k miles ago. Advice, if you have poly front sway bushings (and everyone in this thread probably does) don't be lazy like me and let them go un-lubricated. Grease them every 20-30k miles at least. Turn in response seems improved in the round-abouts with the 21mm front bar, and balance seems much better. Hopefully I'm not giving up too much in the slaloms. We'll see how Sunday goes.