NOT Another...Yes...another auotx build thread
- Thread starter csamsh
- Start date
MISSED Opportunities
OK...so I did a little impromptu autocross last weekend. I decided Friday to drive down Saturday to autocross Sunday. I went and "helped" out at Vorshlag and got to spy on their TT3 Mustang...pretty cool.
Dictionary definition:
help
/help/
Verb
Make it easier for (someone) to do something by offering aid.
My definition:
help
/help/
Verb
Make it easier for (someone) to do something by drinking some free beer
The splitter on that thing is ridiculous. That is all. Won't steal Terry's thunder.
Anyway- the autocross. Well...it was fun, that's the story we'll stick to.
Map:
Very similar to event 5, which I did ok at. I was a couple tenths out of first in STU.
I ran in heat 1, so temperatures weren't too bad yet...they were really pretty ideal. The surface was very gritty on the first run, so it was kind of a coasting/drifting run. It was kind of fun in the fact that it was very easy to perfectly balance power oversteer coming out of corners and smoothly transition into the next element, because the tires weren't really gripping yet. All that said, it was slow (56.7XX), and I knew it was slow. I thought there was a 54.5XX out there for the car and I if I could nail it. The second run, I massively overdrove it but still managed to drop a couple tenths.
Video runs 1 and 2: (uploading...give it time)
Runs three and four I coned the slalom, so there was some 9/10ths ing going on there...still matching my mid-56's. I eventually (after run 4) figured out a different place to downshift back to second in sector 2, which was probably worth about a second from the time I was wasting heel-toeing in what was effectively the middle of a straight. I knew I had one chance on run 5 to put it together
Run 5: Ok let's do it. Slalom: coned. fuck. There goes my chance to do anything today. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE: a C3 corvette with ignition problems had crapped out in front of me, and the run was red-flagged.
RE-RUN!!! The autox gods were smiling that day. BUT, stupid me, I forgot to stop and spray my tires before taking my free run. This was painfully obvious at the end of the slalom, when I tried to yank the car over to do the little kink section at the end of the "first straight" and the car was a howling, overheated tires mess. Most of sector one was completed with opposite lock, and was the slowest sector one of the day. I knew the run was blown, so I coasted sector two.
So, what did we get out of all this? I didn't complete a single sector of a single run at what I considered to be a "good speed." There are a few things to attribute this to:
1. Lack of experience. I need more seat time, and I need to plan more while walking the course. I was in immense pain from a hurt (might be broken...I have a doctor's appt) foot and was barely able to concentrate on where the cones were, much less where I was to be shifting. Unfortunately, I can't make experience happen, so I just need to stick with it and try to learn something from every event.
2. I hit too many cones. Not much more to say here.
3. Overdriving. I need a test session with this car, to really learn where its limits are NOT while competing. It's hard to learn when you're trying to set a time.
I truly believe I could have managed a 54.5XX on this course, which would have put me in contention for the class win. Oh well...there's always next time. I was actually raw-timed by an FS 5.0 California Special. I think all he has done is some better tires (Pilot Super Sports? Not bad tires... I ran on them for a while) and Koni Yellows. I talked with him for quite a while...turns out he started racing before I was born...yikes. Anyway- I *should* be able to do better.
Texas SCCA Solos #5 and #6 have been interesting tests of Mustangs in STU- both of the courses have been very friendly to AWD. The same STI has won STU both events, and the same ASP Evo9 with inexperienced drivers has been effectively the fastest "street car" at each event. Faster than Madarash (running street mod) at #6, and faster than a couple different vettes at #5. I would really like to run this car in STU at events without so many 180 degree turnarounds, and see how it does.
COMMENCE BENCH RACING
Problem: Does the Mustang have enough tire in STU?
I'll try to answer this with data (both real and "fake") rather than "I don't feel like it does."
We've discussed before the prep level of my car for STU- any mods beyond what I already have are not going to do much other than aid driver ergonomics or add power. The rear axle has enough immobilization done to it so that a Watt's Link would probably be an incremental (though a good) change. The tire/wheel setup I have is just about optimized. The wheel could be wider, but I have the best tire size and compound possible for STU at the moment. I could switch to 3.31's instead of 3.55's, and eliminate a shift, and help manage torque. Basically what I'm getting at- the car could be better, but not by much. There aren't any more "holy shit this is a different car" mods to be done for ST classes.
From event 5:
Terry (let's say he can get a lot out of the car- proven mustang autocrosser- got 4th in ESP last year with room for more) placed 7th out of 9 in his XPro class. STU has a bad pax, we know that. Through some statistical methods (real ones, methods people use to make big-money decisions at big companies) I was able to bench race the session one course as 1.0X seconds faster than sessions 2-4. SO- that means a couple things:
-For simplicity's sake: let's say I'm 1.3 seconds slower than Terry in my car.
-Terry was 2 seconds slower than STX
Event 6:
-Terry was in an STX BRZ with Rivals, real shocks, sway bars, RPF1's. A pretty good ST setup IMO- not a lot left to do other than power, which will only make the BRZ faster. He ran a 52.9, half a second faster than the STX BMW's he was 2 seconds slower than at event 5.
-There was a 54.5 in my car with me driving, I was just never able to produce (see: point 1 on things I need to do)
-So- let's bench race a 53.2 for Terry in my car.
-That's .3 seconds slower than the BRZ, and on par with the other fast STX people (they did break something though...not sure how much time that was worth.
SO: using pax factors (and this is probably not valid, especially with STX and STU...but whatever)
My car needs to run a 51.5 to pax the same as that BRZ at event 6. There is NO WAY IN HELL that a watt's link, 3.31's, good seats, and more power gives my car 2 more seconds on that course. No way at all.
Conclusion: we need more tire. A LOT more tire.
END BENCH RACING
Next action for Shockwave: Oklahoma SCCA #6- Aug 25. Hopefully I'll have my big forgestars with 315 V710's by then. I wish the surface and field would be the same so I could do some actual comparing to these Texas events...oh well. I will run ESP and get some qualitative data on "how the car feels" with identical body/suspension/brake/power setups, only changing wheels and tires.
Next mods planned:
I still want to do power mods (headers, intake, short/light exhaust) for more fun and better sound. My car is too quiet.
I will put real seats in at some point.
I might try more spring. Even on street tires, I experience a lot of body roll.
I don't want to add too much more bar- I have tried that and it just makes the car "slippery." I'm thinking 750F/350R or 650F/300R. We'll see. None of that sounds very streetable/comfortable. HOWEVER- I can change my springs in about 20-30 minutes with jackstands and an impact wrench, so having "track springs" and "street spring" is not out of the question.
OK...so I did a little impromptu autocross last weekend. I decided Friday to drive down Saturday to autocross Sunday. I went and "helped" out at Vorshlag and got to spy on their TT3 Mustang...pretty cool.
Dictionary definition:
help
/help/
Verb
Make it easier for (someone) to do something by offering aid.
My definition:
help
/help/
Verb
Make it easier for (someone) to do something by drinking some free beer
The splitter on that thing is ridiculous. That is all. Won't steal Terry's thunder.
Anyway- the autocross. Well...it was fun, that's the story we'll stick to.
Map:
Very similar to event 5, which I did ok at. I was a couple tenths out of first in STU.
I ran in heat 1, so temperatures weren't too bad yet...they were really pretty ideal. The surface was very gritty on the first run, so it was kind of a coasting/drifting run. It was kind of fun in the fact that it was very easy to perfectly balance power oversteer coming out of corners and smoothly transition into the next element, because the tires weren't really gripping yet. All that said, it was slow (56.7XX), and I knew it was slow. I thought there was a 54.5XX out there for the car and I if I could nail it. The second run, I massively overdrove it but still managed to drop a couple tenths.
Video runs 1 and 2: (uploading...give it time)
Runs three and four I coned the slalom, so there was some 9/10ths ing going on there...still matching my mid-56's. I eventually (after run 4) figured out a different place to downshift back to second in sector 2, which was probably worth about a second from the time I was wasting heel-toeing in what was effectively the middle of a straight. I knew I had one chance on run 5 to put it together
Run 5: Ok let's do it. Slalom: coned. fuck. There goes my chance to do anything today. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE: a C3 corvette with ignition problems had crapped out in front of me, and the run was red-flagged.
RE-RUN!!! The autox gods were smiling that day. BUT, stupid me, I forgot to stop and spray my tires before taking my free run. This was painfully obvious at the end of the slalom, when I tried to yank the car over to do the little kink section at the end of the "first straight" and the car was a howling, overheated tires mess. Most of sector one was completed with opposite lock, and was the slowest sector one of the day. I knew the run was blown, so I coasted sector two.
So, what did we get out of all this? I didn't complete a single sector of a single run at what I considered to be a "good speed." There are a few things to attribute this to:
1. Lack of experience. I need more seat time, and I need to plan more while walking the course. I was in immense pain from a hurt (might be broken...I have a doctor's appt) foot and was barely able to concentrate on where the cones were, much less where I was to be shifting. Unfortunately, I can't make experience happen, so I just need to stick with it and try to learn something from every event.
2. I hit too many cones. Not much more to say here.
3. Overdriving. I need a test session with this car, to really learn where its limits are NOT while competing. It's hard to learn when you're trying to set a time.
I truly believe I could have managed a 54.5XX on this course, which would have put me in contention for the class win. Oh well...there's always next time. I was actually raw-timed by an FS 5.0 California Special. I think all he has done is some better tires (Pilot Super Sports? Not bad tires... I ran on them for a while) and Koni Yellows. I talked with him for quite a while...turns out he started racing before I was born...yikes. Anyway- I *should* be able to do better.
Texas SCCA Solos #5 and #6 have been interesting tests of Mustangs in STU- both of the courses have been very friendly to AWD. The same STI has won STU both events, and the same ASP Evo9 with inexperienced drivers has been effectively the fastest "street car" at each event. Faster than Madarash (running street mod) at #6, and faster than a couple different vettes at #5. I would really like to run this car in STU at events without so many 180 degree turnarounds, and see how it does.
COMMENCE BENCH RACING
Problem: Does the Mustang have enough tire in STU?
I'll try to answer this with data (both real and "fake") rather than "I don't feel like it does."
We've discussed before the prep level of my car for STU- any mods beyond what I already have are not going to do much other than aid driver ergonomics or add power. The rear axle has enough immobilization done to it so that a Watt's Link would probably be an incremental (though a good) change. The tire/wheel setup I have is just about optimized. The wheel could be wider, but I have the best tire size and compound possible for STU at the moment. I could switch to 3.31's instead of 3.55's, and eliminate a shift, and help manage torque. Basically what I'm getting at- the car could be better, but not by much. There aren't any more "holy shit this is a different car" mods to be done for ST classes.
From event 5:
Terry (let's say he can get a lot out of the car- proven mustang autocrosser- got 4th in ESP last year with room for more) placed 7th out of 9 in his XPro class. STU has a bad pax, we know that. Through some statistical methods (real ones, methods people use to make big-money decisions at big companies) I was able to bench race the session one course as 1.0X seconds faster than sessions 2-4. SO- that means a couple things:
-For simplicity's sake: let's say I'm 1.3 seconds slower than Terry in my car.
-Terry was 2 seconds slower than STX
Event 6:
-Terry was in an STX BRZ with Rivals, real shocks, sway bars, RPF1's. A pretty good ST setup IMO- not a lot left to do other than power, which will only make the BRZ faster. He ran a 52.9, half a second faster than the STX BMW's he was 2 seconds slower than at event 5.
-There was a 54.5 in my car with me driving, I was just never able to produce (see: point 1 on things I need to do)
-So- let's bench race a 53.2 for Terry in my car.
-That's .3 seconds slower than the BRZ, and on par with the other fast STX people (they did break something though...not sure how much time that was worth.
SO: using pax factors (and this is probably not valid, especially with STX and STU...but whatever)
My car needs to run a 51.5 to pax the same as that BRZ at event 6. There is NO WAY IN HELL that a watt's link, 3.31's, good seats, and more power gives my car 2 more seconds on that course. No way at all.
Conclusion: we need more tire. A LOT more tire.
END BENCH RACING
Next action for Shockwave: Oklahoma SCCA #6- Aug 25. Hopefully I'll have my big forgestars with 315 V710's by then. I wish the surface and field would be the same so I could do some actual comparing to these Texas events...oh well. I will run ESP and get some qualitative data on "how the car feels" with identical body/suspension/brake/power setups, only changing wheels and tires.
Next mods planned:
I still want to do power mods (headers, intake, short/light exhaust) for more fun and better sound. My car is too quiet.
I will put real seats in at some point.
I might try more spring. Even on street tires, I experience a lot of body roll.
I don't want to add too much more bar- I have tried that and it just makes the car "slippery." I'm thinking 750F/350R or 650F/300R. We'll see. None of that sounds very streetable/comfortable. HOWEVER- I can change my springs in about 20-30 minutes with jackstands and an impact wrench, so having "track springs" and "street spring" is not out of the question.
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I hear you on the needing more seat time deal. I only have 15 total runs and am having a hard time telling where I need to improve. I've looked at my sections times and tried comparing to other STX/STU times, but it is folly. 1) I don't have any real suspension mods yet and 2) we S197's aren't competitive in these classes anyway 3) the other mustangs in these classes are coyote's and they have a distinct hp advantage. So I looked at the times of the other 2 3V Mustangs there this weekend and I raw timed them both ( FS and ESP cars ) by 1.5 secs. So maybe I'm doing ok, who the hell knows. By next event I should have my struts/shocks and CC plates in place ( already have lowering springs ), hopefully that will make a noticeable difference in feel and times.
You forgot to mention that you where in first after the first run for STU, which I thought was pretty cool. I do have to say it can be pretty disheartening to loose to low power 4 dingers. Knowing that they would be a spec in the rear view in a drag race, but them being 8/900 lbs lighter gives them the upper hand in autoX. Maybe I can feel better at a road track event where the added power will over come the weight disadvantage.
You forgot to mention that you where in first after the first run for STU, which I thought was pretty cool. I do have to say it can be pretty disheartening to loose to low power 4 dingers. Knowing that they would be a spec in the rear view in a drag race, but them being 8/900 lbs lighter gives them the upper hand in autoX. Maybe I can feel better at a road track event where the added power will over come the weight disadvantage.
Wanted to chime in on the last autocross Mark tested his 2012 GT in STU at...
http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/SCCA-Crandall-081813/
Mark forgot to mention that my wife, 2 time National Champion autocrosser, also ran a Mustang in STU. She raced in our 2013 Mustang GT that day. This car has $5000 in remote reservoir double adjustable shocks, lots of camber, and 295mm Nitto NT-05s on 18x10s. It also has Whiteline rear control arm Relocation brackets + Panhard bar, so there were a couple of things that were beyond what is STU legal (+10mm tire and the brackets).
Mark beat Amy in STU by .009 sec.
http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_results/tr13_6_final.htm#STU
That's no small feat! Sure, Amy was coning runs left and right (3 of 5 runs) but her fastest run was clean and on her 5th and final attempt. Maybe her car's tires were past their due date (NT-05s were never that good), but she was hustling around that course and stepping on cone bases, cutting good lines. She's been racing since 1993 and often matches or beats my times, but she's a bit rusty in Solo for the year. I might have put a second on her that day in that car, maybe.
Instead I was driving Matt's 2013 BRZ (which is detailed in the link at left) in STX, for the first time it was ever autocrossed. We basically threw a bunch of parts at this car, took some guesses at set-up, and went out there with zero testing. The parts didn't suck... custom spec'd MCS TT1 coilovers, 450#/in springs, Vorshlag plates, Whiteline bars, Enkei 17x9" RPF-1 wheels (15.8 pounds!?) and brand new 255/40/17 BFG Rivals. It needs a test day to get the bars, spring rates and other adjustments sorted, but we tweaked shock settings and tire pressures during the event and it felt pretty damned good.
This car was hooked UP on this course, which had lots of slaloms and those three painful 180° turn-arounds (AWD heaven). At 2775 pounds the BRZ has a huge weight advantage on the 3600 pound S197s in STU, but with 166 whp it lacks a bit in the "go" department. I beat on that car like a rented mule, launching at 5500 rpms and taking it to redline several times on course. These cars have relatively low power levels (nearly 1/3rd the power to the wheels as my 2011 GT!)... but it didn't matter. In the end the BRZ was 3.6 seconds faster than Mark or Amy in STU and 1.5 sec faster than the winner in STU. That was shocking, and a little depressing. I mean, sure, I knew the BRZ could be faster but not THAT much faster than two well prepped STU S197 5.0 cars.
Matt, the car owner and Vorshlag employee, is a novice autocrosser and beat the 30 car Novice class handily in the same BRZ. So I guess we had it set-up well from the start. Co-driving the car with him in the last heat of the day (89°F) made it tight on driver switchover timing, we were frantically cooling tires between runs, and the car slowed down on my last 2 runs from both tire and brake heat (he had on the OEM pads and I was turning them to goo with my hectic Left Foot Braking). My best run with with a passenger, so I know the car had more left in it. I'm not a good "momentum" car driver, either... and still PAX'd 13th out of 121. And we did have a much cleaner course than STU, which ran in the 1st heat in cooler temps.
So yea, I do think this was still a good test point for the S197 in STU. It needs more tire than 295s, too. Sure, everyone can always drive better and Mark will only get faster as he gets more seat time and mods on the car, but Amy isn't new to this sport and she didn't bring an un-prepped STU car.
http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-Events/SCCA-Crandall-081813/
Mark forgot to mention that my wife, 2 time National Champion autocrosser, also ran a Mustang in STU. She raced in our 2013 Mustang GT that day. This car has $5000 in remote reservoir double adjustable shocks, lots of camber, and 295mm Nitto NT-05s on 18x10s. It also has Whiteline rear control arm Relocation brackets + Panhard bar, so there were a couple of things that were beyond what is STU legal (+10mm tire and the brackets).
Mark beat Amy in STU by .009 sec.
http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_results/tr13_6_final.htm#STU
That's no small feat! Sure, Amy was coning runs left and right (3 of 5 runs) but her fastest run was clean and on her 5th and final attempt. Maybe her car's tires were past their due date (NT-05s were never that good), but she was hustling around that course and stepping on cone bases, cutting good lines. She's been racing since 1993 and often matches or beats my times, but she's a bit rusty in Solo for the year. I might have put a second on her that day in that car, maybe.
Instead I was driving Matt's 2013 BRZ (which is detailed in the link at left) in STX, for the first time it was ever autocrossed. We basically threw a bunch of parts at this car, took some guesses at set-up, and went out there with zero testing. The parts didn't suck... custom spec'd MCS TT1 coilovers, 450#/in springs, Vorshlag plates, Whiteline bars, Enkei 17x9" RPF-1 wheels (15.8 pounds!?) and brand new 255/40/17 BFG Rivals. It needs a test day to get the bars, spring rates and other adjustments sorted, but we tweaked shock settings and tire pressures during the event and it felt pretty damned good.
This car was hooked UP on this course, which had lots of slaloms and those three painful 180° turn-arounds (AWD heaven). At 2775 pounds the BRZ has a huge weight advantage on the 3600 pound S197s in STU, but with 166 whp it lacks a bit in the "go" department. I beat on that car like a rented mule, launching at 5500 rpms and taking it to redline several times on course. These cars have relatively low power levels (nearly 1/3rd the power to the wheels as my 2011 GT!)... but it didn't matter. In the end the BRZ was 3.6 seconds faster than Mark or Amy in STU and 1.5 sec faster than the winner in STU. That was shocking, and a little depressing. I mean, sure, I knew the BRZ could be faster but not THAT much faster than two well prepped STU S197 5.0 cars.
Matt, the car owner and Vorshlag employee, is a novice autocrosser and beat the 30 car Novice class handily in the same BRZ. So I guess we had it set-up well from the start. Co-driving the car with him in the last heat of the day (89°F) made it tight on driver switchover timing, we were frantically cooling tires between runs, and the car slowed down on my last 2 runs from both tire and brake heat (he had on the OEM pads and I was turning them to goo with my hectic Left Foot Braking). My best run with with a passenger, so I know the car had more left in it. I'm not a good "momentum" car driver, either... and still PAX'd 13th out of 121. And we did have a much cleaner course than STU, which ran in the 1st heat in cooler temps.
So yea, I do think this was still a good test point for the S197 in STU. It needs more tire than 295s, too. Sure, everyone can always drive better and Mark will only get faster as he gets more seat time and mods on the car, but Amy isn't new to this sport and she didn't bring an un-prepped STU car.
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jsimmonstx
forum member
I did my first autox event a couple of weeks ago, and I had to go into SM because of my relocation brackets, bump-steer kit, and aluminum drive shaft - no way in hell I'll be competitive in SM in a v6 auto (and I doubt a v8 manual would be much/any more competitive). I achieved my goals of clean runs and not finishing DFL. I was running on 255/45 Michelin Pilot Plus AS tires on 18x9-inch wheels.
This week, I got some Hankook RS3s and a set of 18x10-inch wheels to see if it would help me. I guess I'll see in a couple of weeks.
Ah well, I'm just an old guy out there to have some fun.
OK SCCA AutoX #6
Ok so I did another autox today, third event in a row with this same setup.
STU was a two-car class: me and my old nemesis, Sam Graff. I learned some things about Sam's car that made me feel better about losing to it. He's done swaybars, AST 4100's, camber plates, light wheels, runs on Direzza Z2's, turbo piping, exhaust, intake, etc. He doesn't know of any other mods he can do for ST, and he's been autocrossing for five years. Anyway, what all of this means is that I'm not being consistently beaten by some hack in a stock Subaru.
No, on this day, it was other hacks in stock cars that would beat me. I was raw timed by TWO Camaro SS 1LE's- the newer ones. I am impressed. These cars have better tire/wheel setups than me (285's on 11's in the back). They corner flatter than my Mustang. The dampers are good. According to one of the owners, the swaybars are bigger than ZL1 bars. They got an STU prepped car from the factory, all they're missing is camber plates. I really don't see how they wouldn't dominate F Stock if somebody made a 20" R-comp. You could run 315's on stock wheels....and it wouldn't need much else. They could walk away with it. They probably will next year anyway in F-Street. 315/35/20 Rival on the back, 285 on the front. Anyway, enough of me gushing about Camaros. One of them got me by almost half a second, the other one got me by a couple tenths.
My runs:
The course was weird- basically four "straights" with variations on the slalom connected by three different style of 180 degree u-turn. The car didn't really work on the first couple runs, but some play with damper and tire settings got it somewhat locked in by run 4. I settled on 5/12 front shock, 9/12 rear shock, 33 front psi, 32 rear psi. It was pushy, then loose, then looser, then ok in my succession of "tuning." I managed a couple pretty good-feeling runs for runs 4 and 5 (51.7X sec) but was a second and a half behind Sam and his 50.3. By run 6, the tires were so hot that the water I sprayed on them immediately evaporated, even made a little steam. I spun on a run, had a greasy run, and whatnot. Didn't improve on 51.7. I don't think I could have broken into 50's in any case. The car probably could have, but not me.
I now have a break for a while- I have a couple trips coming up, during which a lot of local autocrosses are scheduled. Next action is probably Oct 5 in Dallas for a Ford vs. Chevy drag race/autox/stopping distance challenge. I originally had high hopes for me doing well at this event, but that was when it was Mustangs vs. Camaros. Now, it's Ford vs. Chevy. So, the Corvettes will dominate, even if the drivers suck, because Corvettes are awesome. Oh well, I'll go anyway, and it will be fun.
Ok so I did another autox today, third event in a row with this same setup.
STU was a two-car class: me and my old nemesis, Sam Graff. I learned some things about Sam's car that made me feel better about losing to it. He's done swaybars, AST 4100's, camber plates, light wheels, runs on Direzza Z2's, turbo piping, exhaust, intake, etc. He doesn't know of any other mods he can do for ST, and he's been autocrossing for five years. Anyway, what all of this means is that I'm not being consistently beaten by some hack in a stock Subaru.
No, on this day, it was other hacks in stock cars that would beat me. I was raw timed by TWO Camaro SS 1LE's- the newer ones. I am impressed. These cars have better tire/wheel setups than me (285's on 11's in the back). They corner flatter than my Mustang. The dampers are good. According to one of the owners, the swaybars are bigger than ZL1 bars. They got an STU prepped car from the factory, all they're missing is camber plates. I really don't see how they wouldn't dominate F Stock if somebody made a 20" R-comp. You could run 315's on stock wheels....and it wouldn't need much else. They could walk away with it. They probably will next year anyway in F-Street. 315/35/20 Rival on the back, 285 on the front. Anyway, enough of me gushing about Camaros. One of them got me by almost half a second, the other one got me by a couple tenths.
My runs:
The course was weird- basically four "straights" with variations on the slalom connected by three different style of 180 degree u-turn. The car didn't really work on the first couple runs, but some play with damper and tire settings got it somewhat locked in by run 4. I settled on 5/12 front shock, 9/12 rear shock, 33 front psi, 32 rear psi. It was pushy, then loose, then looser, then ok in my succession of "tuning." I managed a couple pretty good-feeling runs for runs 4 and 5 (51.7X sec) but was a second and a half behind Sam and his 50.3. By run 6, the tires were so hot that the water I sprayed on them immediately evaporated, even made a little steam. I spun on a run, had a greasy run, and whatnot. Didn't improve on 51.7. I don't think I could have broken into 50's in any case. The car probably could have, but not me.
I now have a break for a while- I have a couple trips coming up, during which a lot of local autocrosses are scheduled. Next action is probably Oct 5 in Dallas for a Ford vs. Chevy drag race/autox/stopping distance challenge. I originally had high hopes for me doing well at this event, but that was when it was Mustangs vs. Camaros. Now, it's Ford vs. Chevy. So, the Corvettes will dominate, even if the drivers suck, because Corvettes are awesome. Oh well, I'll go anyway, and it will be fun.
2013MustangGT
Budget Boss
Just picked up that bushing from Vorshlag today. Those wheels look awesome.
Norm Peterson
corner barstool sitter
....actually they're all 18x11. That is the rear, but the front is the same width. Different offsets though.
Conekiller
forum member
I really want a set of those 18x11s for my car. Though I am curious how the 11" width up front would work for limited street use since I don't have tons of room to store extra wheels/tires. And by limited street use, it would be mostly driving about an hour or so to the event site and back.
Norm Peterson
corner barstool sitter
That's what I was hoping for, just that I couldn't see any way those would be fitting up front.
Will the pictured wheel even fit at the rear of cars running rear sta-bars similar to OE or do they require the Whiteline one?
Norm
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It's close. We are about to see if it will fit with the stock rear bar.
ArizonaGT
Road Course Member
Damn those F14s look good!
I don't think it would be bad. Don't hit anything?
I think "fit up front" is one of those things where you have to differentiate "fit up front just fine for autocross and the track" or "fits up front." We'll see.
Norm Peterson
corner barstool sitter
I hear ya. I can't get a finger between my 255/45's on 18x9.5 GT500 wheels and the struts and there's maybe an inch from the outer flange face to a plumb line dropped from the outer edge of the fender.
Norm
Norm
dontlifttoshift
forum member
....also waiting to see how the 18x11 fit at all 4 corners. Planning on 295/35-18s
That would be the proper tire for that size rim.(My opinion) With the correct offsets - front & rear it will fit. Size of rear sway bar (Stock design) being the determining factor, rear shock design & 2.5 degrees of negative camber in front. Might be able to get by with 2 degrees depending upon actual / physical tire size and configuration of rim.
I made templates and have taken many measurements. Don't know hwat offsets Volshag gave you but measurements from one rim manufacture to another seem to vary quite a bit. I'm sure they got it figured out though. 10 percent more rubber is quite a bit of an improvement & need for these heavy boats / high CD beasts.
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