Street Mod questions

[Shit Luck]

Well I am not planning on going to nationals, but I am also not pulling my turbo kit off and wasting all that time and money I already have invested just to be able to compete in a class and make the car no fun to drive. Competing street mods are looking like 50k plus.

Especially when I can buy a legends car and have 20 plus tracks within 3 hours. And maybe spend a total of 10k for the car and season.

[e1_griego]

Like I said, if you're not looking for that level of competitiveness, then buy some baby r-comps and you're most of the way there.

With 245 A7s, ~380whp and 2550# I can be top 3 raw times with my local club in my 240. (~120 drivers).

[Locust]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

Well I am not planning on going to nationals, but I am also not pulling my turbo kit off and wasting all that time and money I already have invested just to be able to compete in a class and make the car no fun to drive. Competing street mods are looking like 50k plus.

Especially when I can buy a legends car and have 20 plus tracks within 3 hours. And maybe spend a total of 10k for the car and season.

If you feel like you have to spend $50,000 to compete in Street Modified then you are really misunderstanding the sport. Easily 95+% of your improvement at autocross will come from just getting experience and buying a good set of tires. When you start doing things like CF parts, slotted rotors, etc. you are chasing hundredths of seconds.

Take one of these and you'll see what really goes into being good at auto-cross: http://www.evoschool.com/

Right now you're just blindly making statements that are rather insulting to the sport.

It sounds like you haven't even looked into what your local clubs run. If you were in Washington I would tell you that we have a Novice class that runs for a full year (8 events) where the only requirement is that you are on street tires 200 TW or higher. After that we have an Intermediate Street Tire class (IST) that has the same requirement that you can be in for 2 years before you even need to pick an actual car based class. And locally here if you want to run SM in our Non-stock PAX class you can add a street tire index if you don't want to run R-Comps. That's just for our SCCA club. I could go run at two other clubs in the area and have extremely favorable classing where they don't care if I put a turbo on the car. My Evo has all kinds of SM parts on it but I can run in a sedan class with lightly modified cars at one of the clubs if I want to.

Please go do some research on what your local clubs offer instead of asking for advice and then badmouthing the sport when you don't get the exact answer you want.

You said you got beat by 3 seconds at your first event. That's the wrong way to look at things. Have you had any track experience before? You have less than a full year of autocross experience and you're worried about SM classing? Very wrong way to look at this. Many long time autocrossers could straight time you in far slower cars due to experience alone. You should be getting as much seat time as possible and just trying to improve your technique.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Locust

If you feel like you have to spend $50,000 to compete in Street Modified then you are really misunderstanding the sport. Easily 95+% of your improvement at autocross will come from just getting experience and buying a good set of tires. When you start doing things like CF parts, slotted rotors, etc. you are chasing hundredths of seconds.

Take one of these and you'll see what really goes into being good at auto-cross: http://www.evoschool.com/

Right now you're just blindly making statements that are rather insulting to the sport.

It sounds like you haven't even looked into what your local clubs run. If you were in Washington I would tell you that we have a Novice class that runs for a full year (8 events) where the only requirement is that you are on street tires 200 TW or higher. After that we have an Intermediate Street Tire class (IST) that has the same requirement that you can be in for 2 years before you even need to pick an actual car based class. And locally here if you want to run SM in our Non-stock PAX class you can add a street tire index if you don't want to run R-Comps. That's just for our SCCA club. I could go run at two other clubs in the area and have extremely favorable classing where they don't care if I put a turbo on the car. My Evo has all kinds of SM parts on it but I can run in a sedan class with lightly modified cars at one of the clubs if I want to.

Please go do some research on what your local clubs offer instead of asking for advice and then badmouthing the sport when you don't get the exact answer you want.

You said you got beat by 3 seconds at your first event. That's the wrong way to look at things. Have you had any track experience before? You have less than a full year of autocross experience and you're worried about SM classing? Very wrong way to look at this. Many long time autocrossers could straight time you in far slower cars due to experience alone. You should be getting as much seat time as possible and just trying to improve your technique.

I think you are missing the point....
I went to an event, got put into a class that I can't be competitive in and now my options are to spend money to modify my car to be capable in that class or tear my car apart to be in a different class. I understand that I am not at a point where I am a competitive driver yet, but why would I even come back knowing that I can't afford to be or have to give up on having an enjoyable car.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by e1_griego

Like I said, if you're not looking for that level of competitiveness, then buy some baby r-comps and you're most of the way there.

With 245 A7s, ~380whp and 2550# I can be top 3 raw times with my local club in my 240. (~120 drivers).

Thought about that, but I really wanted to stay with 200 Treadwear "street tire class". Just sucks that to be in a street tire class I have to give up on boost. I really enjoy the car now that it's boosted.

[Locust]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

I think you are missing the point....
I went to an event, got put into a class that I can't be competitive in and now my options are to spend money to modify my car to be capable in that class or tear my car apart to be in a different class. I understand that I am not at a point where I am a competitive driver yet, but why would I even come back knowing that I can't afford to be or have to give up on having an enjoyable car.

No I think you're missing the point.

Why are you not in a novice class? Does your region have no novice classes? Were you specifically told you had to be put into that class or you asked people what class your car is in with a turbo and they told you SM? I've never heard of a region that doesn't have a novice class. Ask people if there's a better class for you to be in.

Then again why are you even caring what class you're in? You won't be competitive in any class right now so why does being in SM even matter? Nothing is forcing you to spend money or "tear your car apart" to move classes. Just ignore the class you're in entirely and focus on driving. You're acting like this is a car problem but it's not. I've seen so many people just throw money at their cars because they think that's what they have to do to be good drivers but all it does is inhibit your growth.

You're trying to solve a problem right now that you won't even encounter until 2-4 years down the road.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Locust

No I think you're missing the point.

Why are you not in a novice class? Does your region have no novice classes? Were you specifically told you had to be put into that class or you asked people what class your car is in with a turbo and they told you SM? I've never heard of a region that doesn't have a novice class. Ask people if there's a better class for you to be in.

Then again why are you even caring what class you're in? You won't be competitive in any class right now so why does being in SM even matter? Nothing is forcing you to spend money or "tear your car apart" to move classes. Just ignore the class you're in entirely and focus on driving. You're acting like this is a car problem but it's not. I've seen so many people just throw money at their cars because they think that's what they have to do to be good drivers but all it does is inhibit your growth.

You're trying to solve a problem right now that you won't even encounter until 2-4 years down the road.

They don't have a Novice class, I had to look through the book and figure out my class.
I have spent my whole life at the races, not going to start showing up and paying to race knowing I can't be competitive now.

[Locust]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

They don't have a Novice class, I had to look through the book and figure out my class.
I have spent my whole life at the races, not going to start showing up and paying to race knowing I can't be competitive now.

Then why ever bother to start? I'm really sorry that you don't like autocross but I don't think anyone on here can help you.

There's no magic button to instantly be competitive. It takes most good drivers over a decade of practice and hard work to truly be good at it. You have the absolute wrong attitude about all of this. Racing is meant to be fun and you're making it sound like you can't have fun if you aren't winning.

Good luck dude. Seriously. I hope you find whatever racing enjoyment you're looking for because autocross doesn't seem to be it.

[strat61caster]

I skimmed through the thread again and I'm going to answer the only two questions posed by the OP throughout this thread (I ctrl+F for question marks):

1. Is anyone else in street mod?
I'm not.
2. What tires should I be looking at?
Depends on the rule set and where you want to class.

I'll be generous, and go to post 19 where you finally let us know you wanted a street tire of 200TW or higher, and here was a thread from a few months ago with tons of info on the latest batch of tires for this year.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82041
There are lots of other threads to look through if you have the patience to find them with lots of information, sounds like you want the fattest rubber you can run based on the rule book you are following. Good luck.

*Friendly advice, you can't seem to accept the fact that you've created this problem yourself which seems to be "I want to run competitive local autocross with my car boosted, help me" There is so many variables that this is impossible to answer. Based on what you've posted, you either take the turbo off and go down a class or spend the money to compete (assuming your driving skills are up to snuff which is questionable given the amount of AutoX experience you've claimed, while past experience in other scenarios will help, like @Locust says some guys spend a decade doing this before they run up front).

I would advise a shift in perspective and just go have fun and learn, speak with the people running your local group and see what options there are to get you in a class that you can compete in, they generally want you to have a good time and to keep showing up.

I hope you figure it out, Autocross recently became a lot more fun to me now that I have found a setup that I like, I've done oval racing and track days and given that I like how this car handles with camber plates I'll be bypassing C-Street even though I can't really afford an STX build right now I can spend the next few months or even years having fun dodging cones and getting better, on a much smaller scale my situation is not so different from yours. I hope you can find some joy in it too.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by Locust

Then why ever bother to start? I'm really sorry that you don't like autocross but I don't think anyone on here can help you.

There's no magic button to instantly be competitive. It takes most good drivers over a decade of practice and hard work to truly be good at it. You have the absolute wrong attitude about all of this. Racing is meant to be fun and you're making it sound like you can't have fun if you aren't winning.

Good luck dude. Seriously. I hope you find whatever racing enjoyment you're looking for because autocross doesn't seem to be it.

I can have fun, but I am not going to pay to have fun... there are plenty of back roads to have fun on for free.
Besides even the guys that run street mod say the car can't be competitive.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

I skimmed through the thread again and I'm going to answer the only two questions posed by the OP throughout this thread (I ctrl+F for question marks):

1. Is anyone else in street mod?
I'm not.
2. What tires should I be looking at?
Depends on the rule set and where you want to class.

I'll be generous, and go to post 19 where you finally let us know you wanted a street tire of 200TW or higher, and here was a thread from a few months ago with tons of info on the latest batch of tires for this year.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82041
There are lots of other threads to look through if you have the patience to find them with lots of information, sounds like you want the fattest rubber you can run based on the rule book you are following. Good luck.

*Friendly advice, you can't seem to accept the fact that you've created this problem yourself which seems to be "I want to run competitive local autocross with my car boosted, help me" There is so many variables that this is impossible to answer. Based on what you've posted, you either take the turbo off and go down a class or spend the money to compete (assuming your driving skills are up to snuff which is questionable given the amount of AutoX experience you've claimed, while past experience in other scenarios will help, like @Locust says some guys spend a decade doing this before they run up front).

I would advise a shift in perspective and just go have fun and learn, speak with the people running your local group and see what options there are to get you in a class that you can compete in, they generally want you to have a good time and to keep showing up.

I hope you figure it out, Autocross recently became a lot more fun to me now that I have found a setup that I like, I've done oval racing and track days and given that I like how this car handles with camber plates I'll be bypassing C-Street even though I can't really afford an STX build right now I can spend the next few months or even years having fun dodging cones and getting better, on a much smaller scale my situation is not so different from yours. I hope you can find some joy in it too.

I thought I would be in something like stx... when I showed up and a fully prepped time attack cars and formula d pro cars are in your class it's a bit of a stretch. I wanted to see if it was a fun way to compete on a budget as its marketed, but the budget is bigger than actually racing at this point.

[e1_griego]

SM requires front interior and most cars aren't caged in SM since that's just extra weight. If you're seeing full-blown racecars in SM they're probably in the wrong class.


Aftermarket forced induction in a bolt-on, street tire class? There's been calls for it, and like locust said there are some clubs that run street tire SM classes, but that's not the case nationally.

[Shit Luck]

Originally Posted by e1_griego

SM requires front interior and most cars aren't caged in SM since that's just extra weight. If you're seeing full-blown racecars in SM they're probably in the wrong class.


Aftermarket forced induction in a bolt-on, street tire class? There's been calls for it, and like locust said there are some clubs that run street tire SM classes, but that's not the case nationally.

Dude there was an LS swapped 240 d1 car in my class, and some poor dude in a contour svt daily driver.
I guess I am just confused and frustrated because I have track time under my belt, but I see very little chance of having a platform that can compete even once I am up to speed.

If I go back to NA with full bolt ons I would be stx?

[e1_griego]

LS swapped s13 = XP.

SM only allows same-chassis swaps. Cross-chassis swaps bump you out.

Sounds like your club doesn't run a proper SCCA SM class.

Yes, n/a with bolts on and susp work (no metal bushings allowed) puts you in STX. If you're interested there are a couple threads in this section with lots of good info.