SCCA T4 Build thread

[Pat]

Thanks for the response. The more I learn about SCCA the less I want to drive with them.

[femaledog]

I watched that Sunday video and I'm shocked by what's going on there. That kind of driving would never be allowed in my NASA region. Red FRS and Black RX8 could have totally avoided that collision, and then the red car is driving in the grass after that like he wants to bounce off an AI car in Gran Turismo for playstation. What is going on??

[Totemo_Hayai]

The red FRS had a left front tire failure due to contact which prevented it from turning right.



The rules for contact in SCCA, NASA, and ICSCC are all similarly vague. Contact also occurs pretty regularly with all of them. In most cases you have the opportunity to prevent someone from hitting you, but sometimes people will straight up run into you and there's nothing you can do about it. There's no perfect racing organization and "the rules" aren't much help because no one has bothered to write them down. Racing is still really awesome and history suggests that body repair doesn't have to be a significant part of the budget.

[rice_classic]

The ambiguity in rules is less of a problem than stewards unwilling to enforce them.

In the last ICSCC race 1 driver had two incidents in one race received two penalties including loss of a lap, fine and 3 event probation. The only other place I expect to see that level of enforcement is Vintage racing.

[femaledog]

Originally Posted by Totemo_Hayai

The red FRS had a left front tire failure due to contact which prevented it from turning right.



The rules for contact in SCCA, NASA, and ICSCC are all similarly vague.

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought maybe that was just the worst driving ever. An actual problem makes it much easier to reconcile with reality.

[Totemo_Hayai]

Stewarding in ICSCC changes with the wind. Most of the times people have hit me there have been no reports and no penalties. I think the only time a penalty was issued was when the other driver insisted it was my fault and forced the stewards to take action, ultimately penalizing him on top of his car being destroyed. I know of at least one instance last season where a clear punt went un-penalized. It's cool that ICSCC is a little more aggressive with penalties this season, but it has not been a racing utopia in the past and it's uncertain how long the emphasis on no contact will last. I say this as someone that has done most of their racing in ICSCC and will probably continue to do so.



SCCA may have penalized the black RX-8 had the later incident not occurred. It's certainly easy to see how it would be difficult to meaningfully penalize one car or the other after both incidents occurred and both cars are finish at least a lap down. They were both "reprimanded" not sure if that includes some form of probation.



What actually bothers me more than aggressive T4 drivers is drivers of faster classes that insist on racing in T4 races. Unfortunately, there isn't a rule against this and never will be. It increases the danger, frustration, leads to more contact, alters the outcome, and generally makes things not fun. Fortunately, there will only be T4 cars in the runoffs race.

[rice_classic]

Originally Posted by Totemo_Hayai

Stewarding in ICSCC changes with the wind. Most of the times people have hit me there have been no reports and no penalties. I think the only time a penalty was issued was when the other driver insisted it was my fault and forced the stewards to take action, ultimately penalizing him on top of his car being destroyed.

Indeed, in a volunteer org - the winds of change are always blowing. At least they penalized him though. I think the ICSCC is in great stewarding hands for the next 2-4 years.

Originally Posted by Totemo_Hayai

They were both "reprimanded" not sure if that includes some form of probation.

What actually bothers me more than aggressive T4 drivers is drivers of faster classes that insist on racing in T4 races. Unfortunately, there isn't a rule against this and never will be. It increases the danger, frustration, leads to more contact, alters the outcome, and generally makes things not fun. Fortunately, there will only be T4 cars in the runoffs race.

Reprimands are wrist slaps, they don’t affect results or contingency awards.

[rice_classic]

So I'm about to go on a 4000 mile round trip with all my toys so the SCCA Runoffs at Road America. This was a bucket list item for me and dad so he could see his son compete in a big event.

Unfortunately 2020 has a way of ruining things and dad's recent passing means I will be competing in this event in memoriam.

So without further ado - let's discuss prep:


HEAT
At my last race in Portland it was 98 degrees ambient when we rolled off grid and things got HOT. Prior to the weekend I had installed a Greddy Diff cover which worked awesome - when I changed the engine oil and tranny fluid it showed signs of being hot as is normal, but the fluid in the diff came out looking like it went in. However, this heat has me concerned with my axle - because I'm still convinced that heat is what kills these axles and there's NO way in hell I'm paying Cusco $$$$ for stupid aluminum shield.

Heat SHIELDS

Since the overpipe and front pipe are stainless I decided to wrap those to keep my feet (and trans) cooler. The DEI Titanium wrap is a lot better work with vs fiberglass wraps. Secondly I took some thin aluminum sheet I had laying around and figured I could fix it to the exhaust to keep the heat away from the Diff and the CV:



Shape to piping, cut tabs, start bending:






Now I should be able to enjoy long fluid life in my diff and long CV life as well.


SPARES

I figured I needed some spares so between myself and a couple others we are sourcing spare parts: Hubs/Bearings, Axles, ball joints, tie rods, transmission etc etc. Since I had new hubs I figured I'd put them on used the old ones as the spares.

I do like Timken - quite beefy.



Alignment
My rear toe was in, my front toe was out, and my camber settings weren't even side to side...
Now I'm at
TOE: Zero front/rear (maximize straight-line speed because Road America)
Front Camber: -3.4 (-3.5 is max for rules so I want to stay "within" as 3.51 would be illegal).
Rear Camber: -2.9 (I like a little more in the rear since this car has so little body role and with a bit more camber, I can easily manipulate rear rotational characteristics with a couple psi change in tire pressure.

It's also time to corner balance so out come the scales. My ride height was off, my toe was setup for shorter tracks and my general settings overall needed to be cleaned up.

I use this website called Autox to win for their setup calculator as it helps me get to my desired outcome fastest. Anything under a delta of 5.00 is considered pretty well balanced. I got it under 1.00! I also raised the rear since my ride heights were quite low to begin with. I expect these cross numbers to improve once I can trick the driver into losing 20lbs.


Oils

I put my typical 5w-30 high mileage oil in the engine, Motul 75-90 in the diff and Pennzoil Synchromesh in the tranny. I will likely drop the 5w-30 and swap out for 0w-20 before the race though. It should be cold for the race so thin is A-OK.

Finally - I will be revisiting the dyno for one last tune to squeeze out every last whp.


And just when I thought it was over - I need to prep the RV and the Trailer for 4000 round trip. Ugh.

[rice_classic]

https://www.scca.com/runoffs

So after a 2000 mile tow across the country - Totemo and I have 1 test day and 2 qualifying sessions in the books and we are 7th and 10th in T4 so far. First time at Road America for me - what facility, what a track!

The competition is incredible. 4 of the fastest guys either own performance shops or have their car built/serviced by one. Dynasty (BMW), Phoenix (86) and FlatOut (BRZ) and the Coinigy MX-5 is prepped by Advanced Autosports. There's a really good article on Michael Borden in the latest SCCA magazine.

As 2 budget guys that put together cars in our garage without prep by a performance shop - I feel pretty good about where we are.

We have 1 more Quali tomorrow before our T4 Race on Sunday morning 8:30am CST. We think we can be in the 2:40 to 2:42 range but not the 2:37s the fast guys are doing.

I have revisited the alignment on my car twice now as this track really likes to shake stuff loose and change your alignment, the curbs are pretty brutal.

More to come.

[Hades]

Congrats man, I'm rooting for you two! I'll be watching on Sunday, good luck!


EDIT: Man, that track is rough. That poor mustang in T2 :O

[rice_classic]

It is confirmed - we found more time in Q3. Totemo with a 2:41 and me with a 2:42 flat. I was trending a 2:41 twice with an interruption either in the kink or Canada corner.

A big shoutout here to FlatOut Motorsports and Nick L. for doing some coaching with us. We showed us his video and compared our data and with no other changes showed us both were to readily find 1+ seconds. We are hopeful to be able to break into the 2:40's and challenge places 5-8.

We haven't touched sticker tires yet and expect to find time in those as well. We have both chosen to start tomorrow morning (8:15am cst) on sticker A7s (instead of R7s) due to the long straights and an expected ambient temperature around 47f. With all this, we are hopeful we can find another couple positions prior to checkered flag. It's racing - you're always 'hopeful' right!?

The Dark Horse of the race will be Chi Ho from Dynasty who brought a 2014 BMW 320i which is in its debut at the runoffs. It has FI and lots of rubber and since it hasn't been seen yet, therefore the SCCA hasn't had a chance to 'BOP' it. We also noticed that he avoids the curbs, leaving time on the table so we suspect he could be much faster than his qualifying time suggests. Since the SCCA has BOP'd the 86 multiple times now, I'm personally hoping either Chi Ho (BMW) or Borden (MX-5) win so the SCCA will leave the 86's alone.

[Hades]

Awesome recovery from that bad luck at the start! You guys did great.

[Rampage]

I am looking forward to the onboards to see what happened at the start. It looks like you had a great drive up through the field though and a good showing for your first Run-Off appearance.

[rice_classic]

10th to 15th to 8th and then I had to defend for half the race. I don't think I was on the broadcast much Totemo was with his brilliant drive up to 6th and challenging the RX8 for 5th.

I don't know what it is about driving a Miata (or Mazda for that matter) that requires the drivers to drive into other cars - but it's very much a thing I've found.