autox practice round.

[chrisw]

It's not the boondoggle, but it's almost that time of year!

SFR SCCA autocross Round 0 will be held at Oakland

http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Results/2005/Championship/round0_info.html

AS, STU and SM run in the morning, while the rest run in the afternoon.

Hope to see ya there!

[vtluu]

Yup, I'll be there. The car will be aligned and corner-balanced next week and hopefully your sponsor ;) will have received my new wheels and I'll have received my right-hand tires. Gonna be a busy week! :)

[Bullet]

I'll see you guys there... :D

[vtluu]

I'm not sure if I'm going. I have fresh R-comp tires and no wheels to put them on at the moment. I ordered Enkei RP-F1s from Gruppe-S early last week and after twice failing to return my calls, today I finally got them to look into the matter and apparently the wheels are on 45-90 day backorder. Thanks for nothing Gruppe-S! (Real great sponsor Chris... well I guess it worked out well for you, since they've effectively eliminated at least one of your competitors. :roll:) Aaargh, I'm pissed!

[chrisw]

What happened to the Kosei rims? Or was that someone else?

sucks about the rims

[vtluu]

What happened to the Kosei rims? Or was that someone else?
They were backordered too, and I decided that 17x8 rims were not quite wide enough for 255-wide tires (they do fit but they're not ideal). I guess I can just run on the Falkens for the time being, but it's annoying having a stack of R-comps in my garage that I can't put on my car.

I'm thinking about the 17x8.5 SSR Competitions (15.5 lbs) but haven't convinced myself to pony up the $400 a rim yet...

[chrisw]

what about some 5-zigens? or are those too heavy for you?

[vtluu]

Too heavy.

I just took a look at my accounts (CC, bank) and with the CCs paid and money still in the bank, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy the SSRs from Tire Rack. I should have them by Monday or Tuesday (so I'll be able to run the new wheels and tires at Laguna anyway).

[vtluu]

A couple photos of my Evo with the new "touring car" style numbers and WORKS decals:

http://imagenode.com/image?i=97

http://imagenode.com/image?i=96

There was at least one place where I know I could have driven better and must have given up a second if not two in time... but overall I shouldn't be too displeased with my results, given I was only 2 seconds behind my co-driver, Navid Kahangi, last year's ESP champion. I was thoroughly impressed by his driving and his best time was less than a second behind the fastest ESP time--and running on street tires against everybody else's R-comps. :shock: He helped me sort out the new suspension setup and showed me how much potential is in my car... now I just need to improve the driver to realize it. 8)

[EVO GRIM]

So how much of a % better over stock handling Tam?

[chrisw]

Navid was silly fast in your EVO. Can't wait until he gets one.

Navid beat me by a couple hundreths, on street tires, with a passenger.... grrr..

like Tam said, It's time to improve the driver.

[vtluu]

So how much of a % better over stock handling Tam?
Hard to say in %, but the most noticeable thing is how the car stays flat through corners. The funny thing is it's hard for me to say exactly how handling is better, especially since it's been quite a few weeks since I last autocrossed with the stock suspension. Regardless of the suspension, I drive the car to its limits and the improvement shows in the lap time; should be about a second and a half or so. I think I'd have to autocross them back-to-back to better say what the differences are; I know what they are "in theory" but hard to say if I can "feel" them.

[chrisw]

That was just ESP....

The times are posted.

http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Results/2005/Championship/round0.html#esp

[turbotiger]

That was just ESP....

The times are posted.

http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Results/2005/Championship/round0.html#esp

I'm assuming Navid drove Tam's car again?
Nice times Chris, only .02 seconds off of Navid's time. You almost had him. Tam, if Navid was driving your car, keep watching him!
:D

Though that camaro SS in 1st is almost a full second faster than Navid & Chris's time!

[chrisw]

That was just ESP....

The times are posted.

http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Results/2005/Championship/round0.html#esp

I'm assuming Navid drove Tam's car again?
Nice times Chris, only .02 seconds off of Navid's time. You almost had him. Tam, if Navid was driving your car, keep watching him!
:D

Though that camaro SS in 1st is almost a full second faster than Navid & Chris's time!

No that sucked!!! :shock:

A) Navid was on street tires.
b) Navid had a passenger, I didn't...

But never mind :wink: , Navid does not have an EVO (yet) which gives me time to get a front LSD and power mods.

[vtluu]

No that sucked!!! :shock:

A) Navid was on street tires.
b) Navid had a passenger, I didn't...
Well, if it makes you feel any better, he was without a passenger on his "winning" run. On the other hand my clutch was slipping... :( But yeah, it was a real learning experience for me, to see how much potential is in my car.

[turbotiger]

A) Navid was on street tires.
b) Navid had a passenger, I didn't...

But never mind :wink: , Navid does not have an EVO (yet) which gives me time to get a front LSD and power mods.

If Tam was still using the ADVAN's, I wouldn't feel too bad. They're pretty damned close to r compound kuhmos. Unless you were on hoosiers, then resume feeling bad.

Have you been autoxing consitently the last few years since I last saw you on the autox? I'd be interested to see how much you've progressed since then. I know I've stopped autoxing since before I last saw you. I'm quite rusty right now.

I'll make it to the autox soon. After I finish breaking in the MR. I'll probably be competing in AS as there isn't a whole lot I want to do in the first few months on the evo.

[chrisw]

No that sucked!!! :shock:

A) Navid was on street tires.
b) Navid had a passenger, I didn't...
Well, if it makes you feel any better, he was without a passenger on his "winning" run. On the other hand my clutch was slipping... :( But yeah, it was a real learning experience for me, to see how much potential is in my car.

haha :lol: Navid told me otherwise....

[vtluu]

If Tam was still using the ADVAN's, I wouldn't feel too bad. They're pretty damned close to r compound kuhmos.
I was on Falken Azenis Sports. So should chrisw feel bad or not? ;)

[chrisw]

If Tam was still using the ADVAN's, I wouldn't feel too bad. They're pretty damned close to r compound kuhmos.
I was on Falken Azenis Sports. So should chrisw feel bad or not? ;)

The Advans are slightly better the falkins because they have no heating issues like the falkins. The grip of both tires is about the same.

R compounds are so much faster, at least a good 1.5 seconds I would think...

[turbotiger]

R compounds are so much faster, at least a good 1.5 seconds I would think...

Probably closer to less than a second on a 40 sec course when compared to the advans. Anything else is just driver skill. :lol:

You can always keep Navid from beating you by sabotaging Tam's car. :D

[vtluu]

You can always keep Navid from beating you by sabotaging Tam's car. :D
He doesn't need to, I'm already hard at work doing that myself. :lol:

My new wheels arrived, so I'll be running on an equal footing (read: with fewer excuses for sucking! ;)) next time. I wonder if I should invite Navid to co-drive again? :shock: