Upgrades October 22, 2005
I received some new upgrade parts last week:
- Whiteline Adjustable Front Sway Bar, BSF12Z
- Whiteline Heavy Duty Adjustable Rear Sway Bar, BSR36XZ
They were $315 delivered, which is a small savings over the Cobb Tuning set which has a fixed FSB that is not wagon-specific. The FSB is two-way adjustable and legal in SCCA Stock class, the RSB is three-way adjustable and would necessitate a move into Street Touring or Street Prepared. I am still sitting on a Helix catless up-pipe and catted down-pipe, which also would take me out of Stock.
My plan had been to put in the FSB in immediately, take the D-Stock win I’ve been expecting at Hialeah this weekend, and then put the rest on and start competing in Street Touring X. Hurricane Wilma’s scheduling changes have screwed that plan up. I can’t expect any D-Stock competition at IRCC in two weeks and I can’t win at a PCA event (unless someone loans me their Porsche), so my next shot at 1st-place trophy would be December 4th.
That just completely fails to make me happy. It’s a bit frustrating to hold back on performance mods for classing purposes — I want my car to be faster off the track, and those Helix pipes are big performance boosters. I’m very tempted to have them installed next week. There’s a Subaru tuner close to my office that quoted $385 for the labor…
Wilma! October 21, 2005
Just got the word that this Sunday’s event @ Hialeah has been re-scheduled for December 18th due to Hurricane Wilma. They put off the decision as long as possible because the forecasts have been all over the place (and mostly wrong).
So the schedule for the rest of the year now looks like:
Nov. 5th / 6th — Central Florida Region SCCA @ IRCC
Nov. 20th — Gold Coast PCA @ Panthers OR Evolution Performance Driving School @ IRCC
Dec. 4th — Equipe Rapide @ Panthers (Replacing November @ Hialeah)
Dec. 18th — Equipe Rapide @ Hialeah (Re-scheduled)
Autocross #8 October 17, 2005
Sunday was the Gold Coast Porsche Club of America autocross at the National Car Rental Center Office Depot Center Bank Atlantic Center — where the Florida Panthers play between NHL strikes. I procrastinated on registration and by the time I got around to it the X-Class (non-Porsches) pre-registration was full. Officially they don’t allow X-Class registrations on-site but I decided to go anyways — if nothing else I could hang and watch. My pit crew (aka little brother) pulled an all-nighter on X-Box Live and opted to pass, so I left all my gear (including the “track” tires and camcorder) at home so I wouldn’t be stuck loading / unloading all that stuff unnecessarily.
Luckily the PCA folks did let me register on-site. And the site is amazing. They set up the course on the parking lot immediately adjacent to the arena, which provided us with something unusual for a South Florida autocross: Elevation changes! The lot was probably 8-12 feet higher at the arena side than the far-end, plus each parking row was lower down the center for drainage. There was literally no section of the course that remained flat and level for more than a car length or three. Big time fun.
My run group was scheduled last and I ended up working the finish line during an all-Porsche group. It was interesting. The guys (and gals) in 924 / 944s, older 911s (pre-964), and Boxsters tended to post the best Porsche times. Most of the 993 / 996 / 997 drivers were just plain slow — too afraid of breaking their very expensive toys, perhaps — and I’m pretty sure I beat a few guys in post-930 911 Turbos.
For my runs I had pumped the stock tires up to 45psi front, 42psi rear — a bit lower than I’ve been running the Kumho MXs but much higher than the owners manual suggests. In retrospect that was a mistake, more sidewall flex probably would have been beneficial on this course. I took an instructor along for my first run. Mostly he just told me to look further ahead. “If there’s anything you lack, it’s not confidence.”
I went solo for the rest of my runs and my performance was very inconsistent, I’d pick up time on one lap and give it all back the next time. Two downhill, off-camber sections gave particular trouble to me — one was just ahead of a slalom, the other before a trick turn designed to cause an early apex. A second trick turn offered more trouble, this one aimed at causing a late apex — I tended to get all four wheels spinning through that one.
Didn’t do as well as I’d have liked, but I did have plenty of fun. No doubt I’ll be at the next GC-PCA event. With tires. And the camcorder.
Also, the ER folks have decided to add the site to their rotation and have already booked a December event. With points events happening close to my home occassionally I may just stop going to Homestead / Hialeah…
Zoom Zoom, bee-yotch!
This past weekend was a double-header of sorts. Saturday was Mazda’s Zoom Zoom Live event, offering the chance to beat up on pretty much every car that Mazda makes (3, 5, 6, MX-5, and RX-8) and collect points redeemable for prizes (150 = Bose radio). If you were willing to stand in the lines for long enough, that is. Mazda’s last event in this area cost money, $40 I think, and required registration well in advance so the lines were limited. Or so I’m told — I didn’t make the registration cut-off last time.
Upon my arrival I found some former co-workers at the “Matched Time” area, near the front of the 6 line, so I tagged along with them. The goal for this section was to run a simple course in exactly 30.000 seconds to win 50 points. I managed at 30.077 and saw someone else pull a 29.090 — neither was good enough for the 50. For my second attempt I went balls-out in a 3 for 25.xxx seconds. I was aiming for 23, and might have had it if I remembered to “downshift” after the first turn (stupid manumatic mode).
Then we waited about an hour in the MX-5 line, “Performance Experience” I think it was called. This was closer to a real autocross layout but still fairly simple (no slaloms). Target time was 28.2 seconds. It rained about 5 minutes before I reached the front of the line so the track was nice and wet and the tops were kept closed. I was happy that my head didn’t smack the roof upon my entry into the car, my sole complaint about the Z4 Roadster of my dreams (every time I get in one my sunglasses get knocked off my head, grrr). I imagine it’s humourous to see someone of my size squeezing into a tiny roadster, but while the MX-5 is a tight fit it is not at all uncomfortable (unlike, say, an S2000). Everything important is within easy reach. The short-throw shifter feels like a natural extension of the body. The clutch… not so much. I almost stalled the car every time I pulled up during staging, and I grinded second at the begining of the run.
Fortunately there was no need to shift after that. It was a fast course, 2nd-gear all the way, and with the fresh water on the ground I was sliding the car around every twist and turn. I found the car easy to control and managed a time of 28.8, but one of my buddies spun out. Twice. On the same run. We left after that — my pals had already done everything and I didn’t feel like standing in lines anymore.
A 1990-ish Miata is on my pre-Christmas shopping list. My brother will be starting community college in the spring and will need transportation, and I think a 1.6L Miata built to Stock or Spec Miata rules is the most fun for the dollar you can find in autocrossing. But now I’m wondering about it’s wet-weather handling. Is this a good car for an inexperienced driver in an area where rainy days make up around 45% of the year?
