SCCA Solo C Street Discussion

[MarkR171]

Quick question... brand new RE71Rs mounted today. Drive them first on the street or swap them on-site at the next autocross event?

[TMF]

Originally Posted by MarkR171

Quick question... brand new RE71Rs mounted today. Drive them first on the street or swap them on-site at the next autocross event?

If you want to be competitive for your next autox event, definitely run them on the street first to get rid of the mold release. It will probably take a good 500 miles (I believe that's what most manufacturers recommend). If it's a test n tune, you could just wait and burn off the mold release at the test n tune. I generally prefer to put in a few street miles before beating on the tires at an event.

[Twinz]

My bigest fail at the national level was a set of brand-new, heat-cycled, and shaved RE71's at nationals last year.

I just wanted to shave the mold release off, so I only had tire rack shave 2/32" off. I didn't consider the crown of the tire and ended up with the middle 3rd sticky and mold release on the rest of the tire.

Launching: great!
Braking: even better!
Turning: WTF?!?! #$^/&*

[MarkR171]

Originally Posted by TMF

If you want to be competitive for your next autox event, definitely run them on the street first to get rid of the mold release. It will probably take a good 500 miles (I believe that's what most manufacturers recommend). If it's a test n tune, you could just wait and burn off the mold release at the test n tune. I generally prefer to put in a few street miles before beating on the tires at an event.

I just recently switched to CS in this car (I ran it once in STX but never had much intention in autocrossing competitively as it was meant to be just a daily.) Of course now it's registered for CS for nationals and I spent the past couple days installing TRD parts.

Don't really care about competitiveness for tomorrow's event (non-SCCA)... but I was just wondering if there was any harm to autocrossing it while brand new. Basically, I'm being lazy after spending the morning installing ARP studs before the tires were mounted and I don't feel like going outside to swap wheels tonight before the event tomorrow, haha.

[86_Freak]

Originally Posted by Locust

Consider that nationals is concrete and if you don't typically run on concrete and you come out with well-worn tires you're going to shred them up a lot faster than you are used to. My co-driver and I will be running a new set one local event before nats and then doing test and tune on site. Should be right around 40 runs total by the time we hit Tuesday.

Lincoln is pretty much local for me, about 3 hours away, so I typically run 4-5 events up there before Nationals, between Spring Nats, MidDiv, and a couple of their local events. I don't think auto-x has a home field advantage though......

[renfield90]

I set top pax twice locally on my BFGs last year. Once when the set was sticker new and once when the set had cords showing.

Just show up.

[SeanRTR]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuifybtvRMg"]Sean Grogan 2016 Heavy Metal Match Tour - YouTube[/ame]


Pittsburgh Match Tour, this was run 1 Saturday afternoon, 50.2 (ran a best of 49.7 on run 3 in afternoon)


Afternoon I ran 17x7 Enkei RPF-1 +42 15lbs wheels (Times, 50.2, 5x.xx (spin+cones) 49.7) 225-45-17 Stones
Morning I ran 16x7 +48 Sparco 17lbs wheels 225/50/16 stones (Times 50.3, 50.5, 50.3)


It should be noted that the 17's have about 80+ runs, and the 16's have 30 or less runs) Both with plenty of street miles.


The 17's were faster, but the car was much more loose, and harder to drive...more knives edge feeling. The 16's were slower, but much more forgiving, and easier to drive. The 16 inch tires are also 1-2lbs heavier. I thought the Sparco wheels were heavier, but I confirmed only 17lbs on Tire rack, but still about a 3-4lbs weight savings per corner on the 17's. The 17's are also more favorably offset moving them outward. I ran on Sunday and was only able to go 50.1 +1, and 50.3 clean again on the 17's, but I wasn't really on my game that early in the morning.


The ND there was all over the place with times, but he had the raw time to beat me, and the course should have favored his car quite a bit.


Still not sure which tire I'd run @ Nationals, or if I'll even go.


http://sololive.scca.com/MT/SATURDAY/CS.html


The on site karting available at this facility was worth the trip maybe more than the autocross...okay definitely more. Highly recommended. I ran a 79.4 in my best session, and plan to beat that next year. Not sure if I'd go back to autocross the FR-S there, but I do plan to take my road race car there for a regional event, and do some more karting.

[Biggins]

Nice job Sean. It definitely looked like a course that would be very favorable to the ND. I couldn't quite tell, but it didn't seem like you hit the limiter anywhere? You're the second person who's said how awesome the karting is there. I just could not swing this event despite only being a a few hours away.

I did a local this weekend on the Kumho V720 and was back on my usual pace. I'm at ~65 runs now with almost no wear and they still seem pretty fast... no delamination or odd wear. I might bring them to Lincoln if I go this year.

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by Biggins

Nice job Sean. It definitely looked like a course that would be very favorable to the ND. I couldn't quite tell, but it didn't seem like you hit the limiter anywhere? You're the second person who's said how awesome the karting is there. I just could not swing this event despite only being a a few hours away.

I did a local this weekend on the Kumho V720 and was back on my usual pace. I'm at ~65 runs now with almost no wear and they still seem pretty fast... no delamination or odd wear. I might bring them to Lincoln if I go this year.

I was working corner 3 on Saturday and Sean had way better lines, earlier throttle than the ND...was pretty surprised to see the ND running times as fast as it did based on watching those runs. As far as limiter, I think I only hit 60 in an STX car, so not really an issue on this course.

[SeanRTR]

Originally Posted by jonesy

I was working corner 3 on Saturday and Sean had way better lines, earlier throttle than the ND...was pretty surprised to see the ND running times as fast as it did based on watching those runs. As far as limiter, I think I only hit 60 in an STX car, so not really an issue on this course.

Ouch, that's kind of what I was afraid of. I figured that guy would have fallen into a run at some point. With a more capable driver I could have seen myself losing by 1-1.5 seconds on that course, which is kind of scary.


You hit 60 on that course in an STX car? I don't think I even hit anything over 51-52 at most? No way was the ND ever close to his limiter, let alone me hitting mine.


Speaking of the ND, here's a quick spec sheet compared to the new Fiat 124 (same chassis)


Miata ND
2.0L NA
155 HP
148 TQ
2333lbs
exploding trans


Fiat 124
1.4L T
160 HP
181 TQ
2477lbs
non-exploding trans


Same(ish) gearing, same mechanical LSD, and same wheel.

[qoncept]

Originally Posted by SeanRTR

Miata ND
2.0L NA
155 HP
148 TQ
2333lbs
exploding trans

Fiat 124
1.4L T
160 HP
181 TQ
2477lbs
non-exploding trans

I was wanting to say straight up that the Miata should clearly be faster but... 181ftlbs out of a 1.4l turbo, from the factory??? Wowow.

[MarkR171]

Originally Posted by qoncept

I was wanting to say straight up that the Miata should clearly be faster but... 181ftlbs out of a 1.4l turbo, from the factory??? Wowow.

The Miata is faster according to the magazine tests. It's a laggy engine. Might be the better option if you can raise the boost and do mild mods, but in a stock class, the Miata is better.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...-tested-review

I used to own a 2013 Fiat Abarth (same 1.4 turbo) and while it had great character and noise, it was laggy if you weren't in the right RPM range.

[Locust]

Originally Posted by SeanRTR

Ouch, that's kind of what I was afraid of. I figured that guy would have fallen into a run at some point. With a more capable driver I could have seen myself losing by 1-1.5 seconds on that course, which is kind of scary.

That's kind of been my feeling all year with the NDs that I've seen at Crow's, Packwood, and locally.

Nats will be interesting.

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by SeanRTR

You hit 60 on that course in an STX car? I don't think I even hit anything over 51-52 at most? No way was the ND ever close to his limiter, let alone me hitting mine.

Yeah at the end of the slalom on the way out a couple times, most runs were 58-59 though, including my fastest run of the weekend. Pretty happy only being 1mph off the 128i at the end of the 3 fast sections, thought it would be a bigger difference coming out of those slow corners.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ_Rmjedfac"]2016 SCCA Pittsburgh Match Tour #182 STX Subaru BRZ - Top Dog Challenge - YouTube[/ame]