Your thoughts on Sebring?

[OversteerS2K]

I had a great time. Thanks to wOrd & jaball for letting me tag along on the drive down. George, Cory, Mike, Alan, & John, thanks for making it a fun weekend. I now know how to drive on wet concrete...

It was fast.

Post your comments and thoughts here....

[jaball77]

Sebring this weekend was:

Fast

A little intimidating

Grippy

Wet

Expensive (Especially for Dat :()

Hot


Would I do it again? Yeah, probably.

[PseudoRealityX]

4th gear is cool... especially the 2nd time:)

Manual steering rack MR2 turbos don't turn as fast as power steering MR2 NAs, but are FAST when you're used to driving cars with ~110 whp. 10 cones in 3 runs....I so rule.

Rain sucks, but once you're drenched, it doesn't really get any worse.

The event went pretty darn well considering the lack of "usual staff" people.

My car IS legal.

My car IS good at speed maintence courses.

I don't understand why I cannot take a passanger. It was never announced that passangers weren't allowed on sunday. I did see other people riding on Sunday, and the course was CHANGED because of the precieved risk of an accident. I didn't myself see a saftey issue involved, and am not upset, but would like some sort of reasoning from the people who made the descision.

Thanks to Matt for letting me drive his MR2.

Thanks to everyone else who gave me a break as far as worker chief. I don't think Jeremy has to worry about me trying to take over his worker spot;)

[jaball77]

My car IS legal.

Was someone giving you shit about your MR2? Seems like there was a bit of friction this weekend... :dunno:

[PseudoRealityX]

Yeah, one of the timing/registration people was saying that my car couldn't be legal with the times I put in on Saturday...

IMO, it wasn't in the nicest tone, and as much as it might have been a compliment to my driving, I didn't take it as such.

Unfortunately, my plan to back up my times with BETTER times in the BS MR2 failed....oops:) Manual vs power steering makes a much bigger difference than I had thought...

[OversteerS2K]

Was this the same guy that decided NOT to invert the order for Sunday and let us (in the stock run group) wonder if we'd get a dry run? And as to the MR2T, you know you could have won BS in your ES car, so don't worry about the cones....Your raw time was about 4 sec. over me and more than 2 over the firstplace M-3 that I never saw...guess he ran early to avoid rain? Hmmm.

What kind of illegal set up could you possibly have? He must have either been in ES, had a buddy in ES, or was just ashamed that his higher horsepower car was many seconds behind a 125hp car.

Great job on Sat. you really did smoke some seriously powerful cars on a course that was meant for serious power.

[PseudoRealityX]

Nah, it was all the car. The course wasn't too obvious about who was going to be fast. The course was speed maintence....especially on the back side. Until the entrance of the 2nd slalom, it was a drag race....so the higher HP cars should have built up time there, and they did.....Ian did beat me by over a second, as did the other S2000s and Kipta although dirty. For example, Ian bounced off the limiter in 3rd, so thats 97 mph. Myself, I JUST went to 4th, so about 80-81 mph when I had to hit the brakes. Basically a quarter mile, since I trap 81 in the quarter, and Ian traps 100 IIRC.

Then get through the first slalom cone and it was basically start adding power until the turn around....again, I got BARELY into 4th, probably ~ 77 mph into the turn-around.

Then the backside....all 3rd gear, all speed maintence, nowhere for a high HP car to use it's power. Keep in mind that my 3rd gear is your 2nd in the S2k. You may have been able to grab 3rd once, but I doubt you could have held it for very long....But then it was all about the same speed, and was just setting up for stuff, and carrying speed through it. The MR2 is pretty narrow, and transitions well due to the mid-rear setup, although not as well as an S2000...

Anyway, I guess he thinks I've got cams, or some internal work....you can clearly see the from the engine bay that there's no bolt-ons or anything. Hmm, maybe I should actually clean the filter???:) (been at least 18,000 miles since the last time)

Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of that guy from my experiences this weekend. One more reason not to venture over to Palm Bay to run at a crappy site and now with non-friendly people.

[jaball77]

Yeah, one of the timing/registration people was saying that my car couldn't be legal with the times I put in on Saturday...

Heh... I've thought the same thing several times about Elliott in that goddamn NX2000!

My one trip over to Palm Bay wasn't unpleasant at all... I didn't like their screwey run-while-you-work system, but the people I talked to seemed civil enough... And I'm glad I saw Jerry Stein drive his Escort before he sold it :-)

[OversteerS2K]

*Palm Bay* Yeah, you're not missing much there. We went once and the work assignments where you had to: 1) work the course 2) get to your car 3) stage in a "traffic jam" line 4) take your run , and 5) walk back out to finish working....It made no sense after running the West Coast style events and we bolted after one run (found out later I left a 2nd place trophy there, dooh!).

I never realized how much faster Ian was. I probably got 1/2 way through 3rd (Sat.) on the way out, which was in the high 80's. On the turn around I had such little grip that I tried first gear the first 2 runs. And you're right, on the way back I touched 3rd, but it was only for a few thousand RPM's. On the 3rd run Warren (don't knowlast name, but the expert in the red S) gave me some good tips, yelled at me for resting my hand on the e-brake, and would have given me my best time were it not for dragging a cone around a rear wheel well (smelled good melting on the rotor). I did take your advice and asked Ian for a ride. He didn't seem too happy to comply and told me to ask Warren... I mean, he wasn't ugly about it, but maybe his co-driver was close in time after the second runs. I still haven't seen the Saturday times. I don't know if I was 3rd or 13th.

I've heard your car idle and with any type of aggressive cam lobes you'd be able to tell the difference audibly. The timing sounds normal, at least to me.

Oh, one last thing...how "dirty" is that red 911T ? It may be nice to know if I get beat by a small amount in Octobers G'Ville events.

Even wth the disorganization I can honestly say it went pretty smooth. Myonly bitching point was running last both days. What event organizer was in the first run group both days? Oh, and having my trophy instead of air and a promise would have been nice...But if Ian's car was working I'd have been in 3rd anyhow without one.

[PseudoRealityX]

uhhh, yeah.....Kipta's 911 is umm.... special...

Nobody knows the details....but yeah, it's probably not too B-stock...

Anyway, it's just a local event, and Kipta IS a great driver. He usually gives Ian a good run for his money.

Ian probably didnt want to give a ride because his sway bar bracket was jacked up....and he was trying to make sure he beat Greg Habn and Kipta both of which were FAST, but with cones.

[0HP930]

If I turn off my boost controller and run stock boost (which will be my car's equivalent of traction control) I wonder if I can get away with staying in ASP?

[OversteerS2K]

I don't know how that works. I'm sure that following the rule book to the letter would put you in SM. But in a local event maybe just telling the other guys in ASP (and them being O.K. with it) would work. I guess they'd have to trust that the boost is the same.

I want do an air routing system from one of my fake brake ducts into the factory air filter box. It would improve performance (throttle reponse) on the street, could be closed off (taped up or a panel could be placed over the opening), but would make my car illegal. I doubt anyone would notice and the 1 to 2hp. wouldn't help much, but if I won a competitive event I'd wonder if without it I'd have been 2nd or 3rd, or whatever.

Another, and much more expensive, way to look at it is to just push the limits of SM and make it a monster. There are all kinds of nice mods waiting in that class.

[PseudoRealityX]

Originally posted by 400HP930
If I turn off my boost controller and run stock boost (which will be my car's equivalent of traction control) I wonder if I can get away with staying in ASP?

It's illegal by the rulebook, but you'd have to talk to the rest of the ASP guys...

And since there really aren't any, why not just go play in SM2, where at least you have some competition?

[sloaccord]

yeah, come play in SM! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


buy me some race tires

[sloaccord]

and sebring was fun. i didnt really like that they treated jesse rudely, but hey whatever. i'll kill em for a 12 pack of vanilla coke, if ya want.
i managed to get third twice when i didnt screw up and was able to hold my speed through the slaloms and everything else that wasnt "point 'n gun it". works out to a little over ninety. that was definitely fun. all in all, i'd give it a 7 out of ten fun rating.

[Muddy]

Originally posted by PseudoRealityX
Yeah, one of the timing/registration people was saying that my car couldn't be legal with the times I put in on Saturday...

Obviously this guy is a retard who has never seen what a good driver can do and would rather accuse strangers of cheating.

I have been less than impressed with the east coast organization. The run while you work is the dumbest run/work schedule ever, I don't understand why both the east coast and martin like to use this format. The last straw for me was the last Valencia event I did. I got three 29 second runs and was finished by 1pm. I was so PISSED that I drove an hour and a half for that BS.

[SUV-ETR]

Well, I'll take it as a compliment that I refused to consider doing the East-coast-style run/work order. :D

Seriously though, that system does work somewhat well when you have a VERY small course that you can get on/off of quickly. They essentially have NO downtime for worker switch-outs. It also gives you the ability to make major changes to your car between runs, though I don't know of too many people who actually utilize it.

Anyway, it has it's advantages, and I don't think it's that big of a deal as long as the site is small enough to allow it. It won't happen at FSF or Lakeland as long as I can help it...they're too big. And it will NEVER happen at G'Ville...that's just plain nutty.

97mph at Sebring?!?! I'm all about high-speed autocrosses, but that's pretty damn fast! The only other time I've gone that fast was at Roebling...and that was an almost-straight section of roadcourse just before the finish line where you had a half-mile to coast to a stop if you needed to. That would have been 4th gear easy in the VW...maybe 5th...EEK!

Neal

[PseudoRealityX]

Originally posted by SUV-ETR
97mph at Sebring?!?! I'm all about high-speed autocrosses, but that's pretty damn fast! The only other time I've gone that fast was at Roebling...and that was an almost-straight section of roadcourse just before the finish line where you had a half-mile to coast to a stop if you needed to. That would have been 4th gear easy in the VW...maybe 5th...EEK!

Neal

And both times I hit 4th, I was at least 90 yards for anything "hard". I'd say it was safer to go 90 there than at Roebling, since it was perfectly straight, and not in the middle of turn 4 (IIRC). I saw cars almost losing it after the finish at Roebling, when they tryed to get on the brakes early. Kiko for one...the Dana BMW for another....but I disgress....

If you watch Jamal's videos from Saturday, 97 was attained right before going into the 2nd slalom, and close to that right before the turn-around.

Fastest speed on the "dangerous" side was ~ 70 for me....so maybe 80 for Ian.... and that was brief, the rest of it was 55-60 and where Dat has the accident, probably ~ 50.

[OversteerS2K]

Where can I see Jamal's videos?

[w0rd]

Originally posted by OversteerS2K
Where can I see Jamal's videos?

It's linked from the yahoo group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cfrsolo2/
If you aren't a member, there are 800 messages waiting for you over there.

here are the links...

http://www.fastjam.com/autox/cfr_seb_sat.avi (10 megs)

http://www.fastjam.com/autox/cfr_seb_sun.avi (13 megs)

[PseudoRealityX]

definately join that group. There is usually decent discussion about events and other autocross related stuff.



All the cool people are there;)

[OversteerS2K]

I joined. Actually I renewed a dormant membership. The last time I was in there, only a few posts per week were taking place.

I tried these video links from TR and Yahoo.The video part is some water fall type stuff, but the audio of Jamal running is there in the background. Very odd. I also looked for some "not guilty" verdict from Neal about the whole drag racing at the Fairgrounds thing, but found nothing.

Once I can figure out how to convert my analog in car vids I'll have a few entertaining runs to post (my spin at FSF, Cory <black D-SP GTi> taking out the entire slalom at Sebring).

I'm going to try posting all of my Gainesvile pics from 5-4 on the yahoo site. They're maxing out my allowed memory at Roadrunner. I removed the link a while back, but http://web.tampabay.rr.com/solo2/ has some G'Ville pics of many TR members and check out the "S-2000 really really flyin clip (3 or 4 seconds due to space available).

[flmcoupe]

You need DivX to view these videos. Sorry. Go here (http://www.divx.com/divx/) to download the latest version.

Jamal

[OversteerS2K]

Thanks, that worked. Wow the Bat Mobile really sticks. If I used those steering inputs through the slalom I'd have been the second Honda missing a front end...

Fast run Sunday. Smokin' :)