Spec Twin?

[christoc]

Can't we all just get along?

Tony_r has his opinion, he can share it, no need to crap on him for it

I'm just anxious to get my first event in SSC going, even if the high will be 36 on Sunday

[tony_r]

Meh, it's not just me the hate is pointed at. I can take the heat, else I wouldn't have said anything in the first place. FU back, snowflakes!

[Twinz]

I don't think your negative opinions about the setup/class are an issue. It's a spec class that necessarily limits competitors' options. Its virtually impossible to make everyone happy, so dissatisfaction from some people is expected....


"I hate this" (paraphrasing here)Is not a problem to me.

"People who like this suck" (paraphrasing here too) is just condescending BS. Of course, if you seriously believe that people who enjoy this are noobs in a "Fisher price" class, then...well..

"Thank you for your input."

[chkltcow]

Originally Posted by christoc

Can't we all just get along?

Tony_r has his opinion, he can share it, no need to crap on him for it

I'm just anxious to get my first event in SSC going, even if the high will be 36 on Sunday

It's not Tony I have a problem with. It was the condescending attitude of "Anyone who likes this is obviously a mid-packer who is too dumb to know what fun feels like."

[Conecarver]

Originally Posted by tony_r

Meh, it's not just me the hate is pointed at. I can take the heat, else I wouldn't have said anything in the first place. FU back, snowflakes!

[chucky12012]

All of this drama will only make the events more intriguing, here's to a year of exciting national competition! Racing is always more entertaining when there are a couple of villains, lol.

[Open Loop]

I'm much more upset about the pax being way off than I am about the tire. (I recognize that the pax should be fixed next year and, right now, I am in it for the long haul, so I am really disappointed by that either). I'd rather be on the RE71R running times between CS and BS, but it's not like they put us on some flimsy all-season tire.


I am fine running ES times as long as the pax reflects it. I think its great when these high-letter street tire class participants out-pax everyone.


If the Falkens are a disappointment, isn't the lack of power even a greater disappointment?


I haven't had any warm weather autocross runs yet, so maybe that's why I have not yet had the sensation that I am bottoming out on the bump stops.


I am pleased with the package, and I was really happy with the DS setup I ran last year.

[Twinz]

Originally Posted by chucky12012

All of this drama will only make the events more intriguing, here's to a year of exciting national competition! Racing is always more entertaining when there are a couple of villains, lol.

I don't know if "villans" is the right term. This doesnt seem like top hat, mustache, and monocle stuff. The "This class is beneath me" vibe would fit better in a Right Said Fred "I'm too sexy for this class" music video.

[Twinz]

Originally Posted by imhereforthecar

Maybe off topic here, but how are you guys able to adjust camber and toe so freely? What I mean is, do you guys use a buddy's shop or have one of the DIY kits? I don't have those kinds of connections and I am new to autocross so I am at the mercy of what shops will do/charge, and it's an event to be without my car for part of the day.

For example, today I had an alignment done but they only put -1.9 and -2.1 camber in the front. Does it matter that it is not exact? And will not having at least the recommended -3.x hurt my times much? Since I daily drive the car in the spring/summer/fall they didn't want to add too much camber as they said it would be overkill for daily driving.

Sorry so many questions.

Depending on how much you autocross, getting to -3ish degrees up front can actually make your tires last longer. (Because they will wear more evenly when autocrossing)

I'm not sure about the time penalty for 2 vs 3 degrees though.

[tony_r]

It seems to me that most of the people who are happy with the setup are coming from CS/DS, or have no experience with the car, which makes sense. The car in that trim has a few really wonky things about it, so the expectation is that the car should still exhibit those behavoirs.

The problem, and I said this earlier, is that this car shouldn't drive like DS-plus with those weird quirks being an underlying issue still. It should drive like STX-lite, and it did for the most part on a better tire. And the added benefit was the PAX matched as well (not that it matters).

Here's video of the car with Rivals with soft/soft an basically no rebound:

You'll see that it doesn't do odd pushy things, it's compliant pretty much everywhere and, if you compare to the video below, it's noticeably faster. About the only thing you can observe is the rear exit stability on really high-g corners. That's the bumpstops.

Here it is with Falkens at the same site, soft/hard, 1 turn rebound front and rear:

Notice that the front gives up way earlier, that it pushes on high-g sweepers and kicks out on offsets. I don't think I drove particularly well this day, but still, the car is exhibiting issues that are because of the combination of parts and the tire.

We can have less travel on a better tire, or more travel on a worse tire. But having both no travel and a sub-par tire is making the car drive like it shouldn't. Those at lower grip asphalt sites will likely not have these issues, however I have seen the rear exhibit the same behaviour on asphalt. I think I watched someones video at Dixie and the rear got out of shape in the higher speed wallom.

[steverife]

Originally Posted by Open Loop

I'm much more upset about the pax being way off than I am about the tire. (I recognize that the pax should be fixed next year and, right now, I am in it for the long haul, so I am really disappointed by that either). I'd rather be on the RE71R running times between CS and BS, but it's not like they put us on some flimsy all-season tire.


I am fine running ES times as long as the pax reflects it. I think its great when these high-letter street tire class participants out-pax everyone.


If the Falkens are a disappointment, isn't the lack of power even a greater disappointment?


I haven't had any warm weather autocross runs yet, so maybe that's why I have not yet had the sensation that I am bottoming out on the bump stops.


I am pleased with the package, and I was really happy with the DS setup I ran last year.

Falkens + lack of rear travel makes the car handle like it makes a lot more power.

[Twinz]

I noticed that getting the forward weight transfer right was a little tricky at first. With the soft/soft setup, the car required a lift or brush of the brake pedal to get the front end to turn in. But if I transfered the weight to the nose too fast, it would wash out and understeer. The Rivals seemed to mask the issue where the Falkens made it more pronounced. I think the issue existed with both tires though.

The rear end kicked out on me on my day one Dixie video, (on the turn-around) but that was my fault. Johnathan had 8 tenths on me and my "smooth" attempt at closing the gap on my second run failed. I ended up overdriving on my final day-one run and that led to the car moving around a bit too much.

I think stickier tires make the issue easier to manage, but also expect more grip to apply more force on the suspension components and actually make full compression more likely. (More frequent)

The issue seems to boil down to frequency vs severity. (More grip vs less grip)

[tony_r]

Originally Posted by Twinz

I think stickier tires make the issue easier to manage, but also expect more grip to apply more force on the suspension components and actually make full compression more likely. (More frequent)

The issue seems to boil down to frequency vs severity. (More grip vs less grip)

The issue with the front, maybe. I didn't really notice the front having any issues, with response or turn-in. Maybe because however deep we were getting to the front stops was not enough to overcome the overall grip the tire offered?

The rear was relatively the same as it is now, just with a higher threshold. Even on bumpy sweepers I noticed that the rear would give up first.

I agree (freq vs sev), and the package is livable at less grippy sites.

[Roadphantom]

With all the SSC flaws I am reading about, it sounds like a good DS/CS twin on Falken could be as fast or faster. Or at least with just the camber bolts.