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My buddy Jerry called middle of last week and told me he was going to Lynchburg with his wife and subsequently would be participating in Blue Ridge Racing SCCA auto-x. I decided to sign up. I had already ordered my V710's. When I received them, they were mounted on Wedsport SA-70 wheels. The wheels are 17x9 and weigh 17lbs a piece. I also had the tires heat cycled as I didn't know if I would have time to heat cylce them my self. I also orded a new Simpson helmet because I made use of mine late last year and I also ordered a set of Schroth 4pt harnesses.
I head down to my girlfriends on Saturday night. Where the auto-x is supposed to be is only 45 min from her place rather 3.5hrs from my place. On my way down Jerry calls saying the race has been changed to different location. Its now closer to my place than hers. Jerry now says he isn't going cause its too far. I decide to go anyways.
I wake up at 6am grab some McDonalds breakfast (mmm yummy), and dump 5gal of gas in (gotta make sure the weight is down). I show up at 830am and its freezing cold, about 30degrees.
I immediately get to work unwrapping my new wheels and tires and mounting them. This is my first time seeing them since I received them. The 17x9s can fit a much wider tire on them. I wouldn't be surprised to have them fit 265s easy. But for now the 245s work just fine.
Now that I have my tires changed, I hook up my harness, change my visor on my helmet and finally get to walk around to see the competition.
A quick list of what I saw: 06 Z06 on R compounds 345 rear, 305 front, a full race prepped Corvair, 3 full race prepped Civics, quite a few C5's ranging from stock to z06's on R compounds or Hoosiers. There is 1 Evo MR, 1 STI, a few WRX's, a Rabbit on tires as wide as mine and even a Skyline (Gts25-t).
I'm thrown into SM class. I notice the Corvair is in my class along with a couple K swapped Civics. Great.....
My group is the last one out. Fortunately I was able to walk the course twice. The course is shorter than I expected. But it should be fun none the less.
I watch the cars closely. This is one of only 5 points events this year for BRR, so the competition is fierce. Heat two I work the time slip booth. Not exactly where I wanted to be, but it was the warmest considering how cold it was. Finally shortly before 4 my group is up. The FTD at this point is held by the 06 ZO6 with a 30.87. If you haven't seen one of these cars in person going hard, they are fast!!!!!! 126mph trap is no joke, these things will get up and go.
My whole goal today was not to make a fool of myself and hopefully after watching the zo6, to maybe run a low 31. I have no intentions of winnign my class, I'm just hoping to finish well.
My first run out I go easy, pushing a little bit but more importantly trying to figure out the line. I cross the line and grab my slip. The time slip guy says I was really fast and I'm a 'contender.' I think he's just talkin about my class, but my time told otherwise 31.1, enough to get me 2nd fastest of the day at this point.
Now unknown to me there is a green ZR-1 that is fast also, but he's in SM-2. His 2nd run is a 30.9. I complete my second run and after I cross the finish, and turn around, I see people clappin with astounded looks on their face. The timing booth is really watching as I approach. I receive my timeslip, 30.20. Holy crap!!! I'm first in class and #1 overall!!!
As I line up for my 3rd run, a guy comes up and says what I just was amazing and wants a ride. Sure not a problem. He jumps in, we talk for a minute then I line up. The starting gate worker says I ran a great run. I proceed to tell him I have .3 left in the car. He says, "You're kidding right??" No I'm not is my reply.
He flags me to go, I start slippin clutch at 6000rpm and release. I axle hop my through the launch. I nail the first two turns and hammer down. My passenger screams out in ecstasy as I leap frog to the next turn. The rear end rotates and I mash the gas and pull through it. I nail both esses and romp through the finish. I complete my turn around and people are applauding as I go to get my slip. The timeslip guy won't give it to me, he tells me to look at the clock. 29.911 Are you kidding!!!!!!!!
I stage for the 4th and final run and people are comign up lookin at my car and askin questions, what suspension do you have (all stock), what turbo (stock) whats done to the engine (lots).
I nail my 4th launch but enter the first set of ess turns so fast, my reaction time isn't fast enough and I miss a gate. I probably could have made it, but I didn't feel like destoying my tires trying to make it.
I pull through and grab my slip then immediately head over to change my tires back to stock. I answer a few questions for people as I work. As it turns out, the green ZR-1 put down a 29.946 on his final run.
To think my tires never came up to temp and I never bothered to adjust the air pressure, I know I have a lot left in it.
We do the award ceremony and I take home FTD and SM first place. A few SM guys come up and say they never expected that out of me or my car. I proceed to tell them not to worry because I wont' be making anymore events, atleast not that I know of. They said that there is maybe one car in class (who wasn't there) that could challenge me.
This was a great weekend for me in racing. The highlight was obviously today.
Its too bad I'm leaving in August cause this could be a great season.
Results can be found here.
http://www.brr-scca.org/

 

2006 ZO6 on super wide R compounds (my favorite car that day)

Supercharged mustang on R compounds also (he was in SM2)


The Corvair running SM with me, look how wide those tires are!!


Tire pressures aren't even adjusted, this was really run what you brung!!


Turn in


Gettin ready to unleash hell


Ricer tearin it up. The story about me being a ricer is funny. I was talkin to come guys after I changed my tires. My car got brought up, they didn't know I owned it. They said it looked ricer with my stickers on it. I have the silver stripe so people now its me, the evotuners.net magnet (for obvious reasons) and Team Trinity sticker on the back window (the DSM club I'm in). Then they mentioned how they didnt' like my wheels. Sorry but they are 17x9 and weigh only 17lbs. They went on to add that my car is probably owned by some lucky kid who's Dad paid for everything and he doesn't know how to drive. I kept my mouth shut and let actions speak for me 4hrs later
How do you like my headlights??



He said the wing helped, SM2 Mustang


R33 Skyline that broke, I hope you like that repair bill

 

And I thought I did well...

Great job, Liam. V710s + stock suspension = pwnage?

 

Thanks Clay.
The 710s worked really well. I never adjusted air pressure or anything. My tires never came close to getting up to temp as it was barely 30degrees out.
I really can't wait for a bigger course. I'm not tuned...yet. And I'm still only running 17lbs on the stock 9.8.
I did need to either A, get a diff or B get a suspension to keep from axle hoping and doing one wheel peals.

 

nice rims on your 8 there

 

thanks. I purposely put a shot in there with the rims bein shown. lookin for feedback. glad you like. she needs to get lowered to so i don't look like i belong in the forrest somewhere

 

I love the rims, too, and I looked at them when purchasing my tires, but holy crap $330 each...I don't know where you get all this money, especially after the whole engine build/repair. If I was willing to part with that much cash, my V710s would probably be mounted on those exact rims right now. I need to pick another set anyway, because I need a rim wider than stock in order to accomodate a bigger tire in the future, and because I still need a nice set of light rims separately for drag racing with 255 Falken RT615s that will double as my daily driving tires. Then, the final set of rims/tires is for the Winter/snow (Rota Torque 17X8 with Blizzaks). I'm almost there, but I need to choose another set of rims and decide if those will be for drag or for autox/roadrace. It's an important choice, because I'd rather have my best-looking rims for daily driving, which means they are also my drag rims and still have to be light. Quite a conundrum right now...

 

I work 2 jobs now. Plus i did my tax return.
I wouldn't mind having the SA-70 as my street rim...somethign which I plan to switch to in the future. But I really have to be careful, they are wider than stock and the spokes 'poke' out. So its very easy to rub a curb with them. I have the 245s on there but they don't fill up the wheels that much. I can easily go with a 265 but I'm worried about suspension and fender rub at that point.