jbrennen

iTrader: (1)

The past weekend saw some Evos in action at the SCCA's Northeast Divisional Solo II Championship.

Five Evos took part in the competition, with 7 drivers.

Congratulations to Chris (Trbo Dad) on becoming the 2004 divisional champion in ESP. Not only did he have the best overall time for both days, but also had the fastest run (in ESP) each day. A dominating performance, winning the class by 0.873 seconds.

I didn't have as good a weekend as Chris, but ended up bringing home a 3rd place trophy in Street Mod. I coned my first two runs on Saturday, meaning that I had to run ultraconservative on my third and last run to be sure of having at least one clean run. I ended Saturday in 5th place, but took fast time in the class on Sunday (by 0.294 seconds) to move up to a 3rd place finish, 0.940 seconds behind the leader.

Good to see the Evos show up -- equaling the 5 STis (also with 7 drivers) who came out to play. From this event, and following other events as well, it seems that the STi is doing better in autoX in classes where it is lightly modded (AS & STU) and that the Evo does better in autoX when more heavily modded (ESP & SM). I'm not sure how much of that is actual difference in the potential of the cars and how much is due to personal preferences of owners or availability of parts/tuning. I can't say that I've ever seen an STi competing in ESP or SM which is as aggressively modded and tuned as either Chris' car or my own car. Just some observations and food for thought...

Results: http://www.nedivsolo2.org/04divisional/results.html

jwtodd60

I'm not sure what exactly to make of the A Stock results. One one hand, based on the performances of Burak, Serkan, and Rob, all of whom I have run against several times, I probably would have had a pretty good shot at a trophy. I seriously doubt I could have beaten Burak (2d place), but I have beaten Serkan (3d place) a few times before, and I have never yet lost to Rob (4th place).

On the other hand, given that the Evos that did show up and run in A Stock finished 6th - 9th, it makes me wonder if there was some sort of bizzare anti-A Stock Evo karma in the course design. It looks like 8th & 9th were on the stock tires though, so maybe not.

Congrats to Chris and Jack and FT too. FT, if you ever do any power mods (assume all you have is exhaust still) and put on some "real" tires, you are going to be a real menace

Wish I felt like I was driving well enough to justify burning a whole weekend for autocross, but with the local autocross schedule shifting into high gear (events on 5 out of the next 6 weekends), I had to pick my battles. Maybe next year...

JW

jbrennen

iTrader: (1)

Despite the Toyo reference in the results, FT did run the event on Hoosiers.

So we should say that once FT gets accustomed to his "real" tires, he will be a real menace.

EVO8LTW

iTrader: (41)

There wasn't any anti-AS Evo karma. The AS results aren't surprising given the experience level of the drivers in their cars (two of the Evos had less than 5K miles) and tire compounds. The Vette and Burak/Serkan were on Hoosiers -- brand new ones for Burak/Serkan. I was on full tread Toyos in my second event in the car still experimenting with radically different tire pressures (and ultimately discovering that my car needs a lot more pressure in the rear to rotate). The last place Evo was on stock tires and those guys did not have a lot of experience running 3-run events. Finally, at least in my case, I admit that I drove poorly (misread the course a few times in ways that cost BIG time). I am fairly confident that a nationally competitive driver would have found 2 seconds a run in my car on each day. Add some fresh 245 Hoosier A's to my car with that good driver and I think the car would have been in contention for 1st.

FT@SELGP

I can say that we truly enjoyed the event tremendously; and Jack thank you for the pictures, they are awesome

There is no question that our ESP STi preperation anywhere near Chris'. We are moving quite slowly in that area, finding out every little piece one by one. Testing takes time of course But I believe we are close, suspension bits are about 80% done IMO, what is left is the engine. Cobb will be releasing the necessary pieces for the engine in the 4th quarter, then we'll have some fun. Right now we just have the catback.

In the AS class, the Corvette was truly awesome and very well driven. Burak just could not get comfortable with the tires. One issue is that the A3S04s have significantly more grip than his R3S03s, hence camber gains seem to be much more significant. And unfortunately, this is not a trivial problem to solve, especially with his driving style.

Serkan on the other hand is suprising us quite a bit since the last two events; not with his better than usual driving, but his consistency between the runs. He does not listen to the car at all, he just drives with his gut feeling It served him well this time and I think he is ready to move up the ladder. I believe he will be placing higher and higher in WDCR AS class, and the question is "can he pass JT consistently?" I think it will be a nice battle as we are coming near the close of the season John

As for me, the Hoosiers were an amazing change frankly. I was not expecting this much higher grip compared to Toyos; yes we got new wheels and tires Friday just before the event Part of the issue was that I just could not find the optimal pressures. We tried every little bit of change, but still had significant oversteer under power. I think part of it was that we could not bring the rear tires up to temp fast enough, even though we would sping them at the start. But towards the end of the course, all tires were gaining about 4 psi consistently. But with only 3 runs, it is hard to nail the pressures Overall, however, the Hoosiers look promissing; being a "menace" is a whole different matter though

We are hoping to make a big push in 2005, and I am almost certain (and also want to) we will be moved to BSP. So, competing against Chris is one thing, but competing against Lee Piconne and Bob Tunnell and others is a whole different matter. I have to pick up my driving at least two notches, and have the car handle more consistently over different surfaces with a tad more power.

Jack always puts a smile on my face. I was working the grid on Sunday when Jack was running, and the SM fight was something to watch for sure. He is just amazing through the cones, his smoothness and how quickly he reaches the limits of the car and keeps it there. Subtle differences, but he know exactly where he is at all times. Well, at least that's how it looks from the outside

John, I can tell you one thing, we certainly missed you. There was a good mix of Evos in AS including an RS, but I think primarily due to driver inexperience they fell behind. I of course do not know their preperation levels. You would have added a wonder wild car into the top spots for sure. Now we have to wait until the 8th

Cheers.

jwtodd60

Burak and Serkan on new A3SO4s? Great, that's all I need. I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later. And I hear you on the pressures for the Hoosiers...at the last event, I was running out of room on my 0-60 psi guage. I am thinking that I will shift back to my old "lower rear pressures to get the car to rotate" approach.

Rob Grahm's performance was a little surprising, since he is both a novice and is on Toyos. He has been improving steadily though and was only about 0.7 behind me at the last FedEx event. I don't know if I can handle yet another novice climbing past me on the A Stock ladder.

How was the course? From the PAX results, it would seem to have favored GS & STS cars (5 GS and 4 STS drivers in the top 20). It hurts to see my benchmark (Burak) buried so far down too, 85th out of 194...

JW

FT@SELGP

LOL.

We were running out of range on our guage as well for Burak's car. On mine I was able to stay in the mid-40s, thanks to -4.0 camber up front I don't think the Hoosiers are reacting too well to not having a strong suspension setup and too little camber. Frankly, my early impression or thought was that it may be better to run Toyo RA-1s with stock suspension then Hoosiers. Of course, there is nothing conclusive at this time, but it is just a thought.

The Saturday course was much tighter than Sunday. The start was awefull for us the 4WD guys as we just could not launch and take the advantage. And the flow was broken a little due to one too many hard braking zones. To me it was... slalom, slalom, sweeper, slalom, sweeper, slalom, sweeper.

On Sunday the course was wonderfully enjoyable, much better flow with only 2 minor changes in the course and of course running it backwards. Everyone's times dropped on avg. by 2 seconds. And the launch was perfect for the 4WD cars for who dared to launch it of course

Mhyrr

Yep, sure was a fun event. I'm especially glad the rain held off both days!

The course surprised me, even though I helped set it up. It was fairly short, medium speed, with large, fast sweepers and a couple of little offsets. Saturday felt very unsettling, and the lot undulations did nothing to help my car, as it is very stiffly sprung. Sunday felt like a dream though, and the car just ate it up. My driving was definitely far better on Sunday too, and it was a personal milestone for me as well, 1st in PAX for the day. A couple of SelGP cars have grabbed that from me before

SM was definitely the most fun to watch this weekend, with lots of fast cars. It's always great to see FWD vs. RWD vs. AWD and being competitive. Jack, Chris Travis, and Frank Adams were particularly fun to watch.

I was suffering from "grass-is-greener" syndrome all weekend. Between Lee's M3, Rich's RS, Jack's car, and Frank Adams E36 powered E30 (which he mentioned may be for sale!) I was ready to sell both cars and do something else! Reality returned quickly though, as I still have plenty left to do with the Scirocco. Travis's Civic always gives me hope for FWD in SM too

FT, I can't wait to see how the STi does as you get used to Hoosiers (the new shoes looked great btw). I didn't look/ask, how wide are the wheels/tires that you got?

I'm anxious to see what the Evo/STi will do in BSP, provided they move there. I really feel they can be competitive there, it will just take a lot more effort. But that is as it should be, if having an FSP car has taught me anything, it's how much goes into fully prepping for SP. Most of the big FSP guys are a good 100-200 lighter than I am by doing tiny little things like a 4 lb lighter starter, an 8 lb lighter alternator, etc. The prep level is amazing. It will also be interesting to see what kind of spring rates the Evos end up running as well.

As far as the course favoring GS/STS, I don't think that's true, although it was a speed maintenance course, so it did not necessarily favor power. Jeff Macrae, Mark Chiles and Rob Foley are all big name national guys in GS, and Ron Shurie is no slouch when he's on his game either, often able to keep up with Brian Garfield. As for STS, Corey and Tad are both top drivers too, but they also have a VERY soft PAX IMHO.

FT@SELGP

Greg, while watching you, the though of shocks kept crossing my mind for sure; especially Saturday. The bumps were bad for stiffly sprung cars without enough shock adjustments. I had to keep at low range of compression in the rear to get traction for sure. Regadless however, I am always amazed how much you are throwing your car around and still able to look smooth; just amazing to me.

We got SSR Comps in 17x8.5" size. Then we first tried 275 tires, but they would not fit without 15mm spacers. With the spacers, we need to do significant fender alterations to fit; so we postponed that for a while. We then fitted 245 Hoosiers, and used 3mm spacer. That worked, but we still need to roll the fenders; during heat cycling, we put deep grooves on the side of the rear tires, even though we had raised the car by about 3/4". For the event, we raised the car another 1" (rear only) and that helped; but then the entire balance of the chassis went wacky and we just had too much shock travel.

So, at the end, we have the classis "fix one, deal with 3 problems" syndrome We still have few more chassis adjustments to make (rear camber being on the top of the list), and we should be pretty much done towards the end of the year.

I really cannot wait to compete in BSP with the well prep'd car; locally and nationally. That will really test us and hopefully the others, lol.

TheGVR4kid

iTrader: (3)

In AS would we ever be able to compete in the dry with a be-hoosier'd and competantly driven C4?

Silencer

iTrader: (4)

Hey, how come none of you A-Stock Evo's are going to the Nat's in September? I'm not, only because I do not think the Evo is competitive enough in the C4/993 ring.

jwtodd60

Let's see here...

1. I suck.
2. It's an awful long drive just to get my butt kicked. I can do that just fine at home.
3. You're probably right about that C4/993 thing. I predict someone named Kozlak will win AS in a 993 and win big. I'm hoping the 05 Evos will narrow the gap, not that it will do me any good because I will probably stick it out with my 03. Okay, maybe I'm not hoping the 05s will be that much better after all
4. Did I mention that I suck? Okay, there are plenty of drivers slower than me, but not many of them will bother to trek out to Topeka.

Enough self-deprecating for now...

JW

TheGVR4kid

iTrader: (3)

Is anyone not named Kozlak anywhere near competitve in a 993?

jwtodd60

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone else (of adequate driving talent anyway) has seriously campaigned one. I'm of the impression that it is a case of conventional wisdom saying that the C4 is THE car to have in A Stock and no one feeling like plopping down the coin on a 993 to prove otherwise. The reason I'm driving an Evo in A Stock is that I wanted a somewhat affordable kick-butt car that I could haul around two kids with on a daily basis, not because I thought it was the path to autocross glory. I was HOPING it would be, but I was far from expecting it to be. Having said that, I think the Evo could be a contender in AS in the hands of the right driver. One of our local hotshoes, Brian Garfield, posted a time last season in jbrennen's then AS car that would have PAXed #1 in a field of well over 200 cars with many very good drivers had it not been a fun run. Brian often PAXes #1 locally driving his Mini, so it wasn't like the Evo turned him into Superman or anything, but he was far quicker in it than Jack or I was. I'd love to see what he could do in an 05 RS or MR when they come out...

JW

conevadr

I couldn't make it down to divisionals, but I am familiar with getting beat by Alan in the aqua 'vette. He has many (~20) years experience, most of them in the 'vette. I don't know where he would rate nationally, but he is usually around 5th in pax locally.