Mine wet weighs about 2150 in Autox trim. I'm just waiting for the next fastracks for them to officially class all mirages(non-turbo) in FSP so I can get the 1.8 in there and ITB's with that trick carbon fiber air box That's my off season project. I would like to get about 150 HP out of the combo. That will make for too much fun on the autox course

 

Here are some from last Sunday, plenty of body roll! I got 7th place, and the competition was fairly close. 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th were all less than 0.1 seconds from each other. I just gotta work out some alignment settings and I'll be set.

 

I've picked up an experienced co-driver for the season and it's been great to have a direct comparison to go with. I still have a lot to learn as I'm at least a half second off his pace in the same car. It's been a great learning experience though. I just got a fresh set of v700s and I ordered a set of closeout as03 hoosiers because the price was right. It should be an interesting comparison between the 2.

 

Curt Luther did just that. He's not that experienced, but he has James Wilson codriving his '89 Civic SI right now. What better way to compare yourself than to have a consistent top 3 finisher driving your car? I might end up codriving James' Swift when he finishes it.

 

with that suspension you are gonna kill those new tires in just a few sessions. you have to get that bodyroll under control.

 

Yeah, I know. Rumor has it that Evo7 camber plates will fit my car, and I'm thinking about upping the spring rate to something like 600 in the front and 400 in the rear. What do you think?

 

Too much spring rate. I run 325F/250R in my mirage. With your weight, I would look at something in the line of 500f/400R max. What struts are you running brian? Remember that most "street" struts will not be able to handle that much spring. Heck, Koni's need revalved to run that much spring in them. If you overspring the car, you will go slower since you will have too much rebound speed that will go uncontrolled. Body roll does not kill tires. Bad driving(flat spotting), wrong air pressure(rollover), and not enough camber kills tires.

 

I have Tein SS struts. As far as I know, they are indeed a "street" dampener. So I should take your suggestions on spring rates. And it is definitely the camber that's killing my tires. I can only get -1.75 out of the fronts. If this rumor that Evo7 camber plates fit, I'll have that solved, but I'm flat broke so it might be a while before I get them. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

odd...I only get 2.2 degrees out of my front and have no problems. At least that is what the machine says it looks like more. BTW, In response to becoming a member of Grocery Getter Racing on SCCA forums, We could start a So-Cal Chapter....lol

 

Sounds nice. My famil has actually decided to go for the title Underdog Racing. I think your car is ok with 2.2 because it's lighter than mine and also sits a bit lower? Also, what tires are you using? I got pretty good tire wear with Azenis, but these BFGs are really rolling onto the shoulders.

 

Well, Tires are a different story. I run Kumho v700's in a 205/55/14 1G miata rim. I weighted the package on a shipping scale at 28.9 lbs total. I also have a set of newly aquired hoosiers (a03) that were mounted yesterday on my other set of rims. MY problem is that I have to run 5 MM spacers up front because I think my car was in a wreck in the left front. Without the spacers, I'll cut the tire every time on the drivers front. It's not pretty. It would do that even with the factory rims.

My car has been raised a little bit too. I now it at a 1.2" drop.

I think the main problem you may be having with the BFG's since it's only in those tires is air pressure. I would pump them up some. It's hard to say without seeing the tires and so on but, if one make is ok but another is not then I would strongly lean to that. I would start at the max rating and work my way down. I don't have any points of reference for you since everyone I know that runs on ST are using either Kumho or Falken's here.

 

That might be an issue. Max pressure for the Azenis was 52, so I usually ran them in the high 40s. Max for the BFGs is 44, which I use all of it in the front. Maybe it couldn't hurt to go a little over that since a 60 second run will never reach "hot" tire pressure?

Oh, I should say however that the BFGs grab much better and more predictable than the Azenis. My PAX index went up and my places are more consistent since switching.

 

You realize that a "max pressure" of 44 pounds is practically an industry standard, not because that's a realistic max pressure, but because all of the manufacturers test to 44 psi, and not much beyond that. The fact is that most streetable tires will easily handle pressures far beyond that.

On an autocross course, I would have no qualms about running any good condition modern radial at 50 psi or higher -- if the tire works best at the pressure. Watch your pressures carefully as the tire heats up. (I inadvertently ran one of my Toyo RA1 tires up to 59 psi recently due to not bleeding off air between runs...)

On the street, you should consider that running higher than the stated max pressure may expose you to liability issues if you are involved in an accident. It's very unlikely, but if you lose control in the rain and an accident investigator decides that your 48 psi tires were to blame, it could be a problem. That's up to you if you want to take that risk...

And to stay on topic, here's a picture from last weekend:

 

Are those 17 or 18" FN01's?

 

17x9.

Here's my codriver slamming the car into the first corner: