For Autocross fans. Show your stuff!

[Daisywagen]

This weekend there were 2 different clubs running their events at Evergreen Aviation in McMinnvile, OR. BCA hosted the event Saturday and WMC hosted the event on Sunday. Great courses that were quite different both days. Saturday's course was a bit more technical. That's where my Mustang and I do best against the competition. Sunday was more of a wide open course, which is a real departure for WMC. They are known for really tight, technical courses. My data logging equipment was not connecting to the GPS Sunday so I was only able to get one video. I flipped the tires front to back 2 events ago to get the last bit of life out of them. That is what concerned me about Sunday's course. It was a power course. The grip in the rear is nowhere near as good as the fronts at this point. I found their limit at he corner the high horsepower cars were spinning on during the morning session. It is off camber right where you have to tighten up the sweeper before heading across the lot. I went in a bit faster than the previous run and the GT started to go around backwards. You can see the corner worker start to run. That's never a welcome sight when you are the car causing them to run. Anyway, I got it straighted back up immediately and only missed a gate. I did take it a bit easier after that run. I had just been working a deal on a new set of tires with America's Tire on Friday. I'll probably pull the trigger today and get them on their way here.

Saturday's course with BCA. I PAXed 11th at this event running with a tough crowd.

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Sunday's course with WMC. This is the same event Daisywagen run. He ran the morning session. I ran in the afternoon session. My best time was a 34.300 second run. I placed 7th in PAX at this event.


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Wow, that’s a fast run, cool to see how they setup Saturday, it looked way more technical than Sunday.

 

[threewagons]

For your first time Autocrossing you did very well. You're not afraid of the right pedal. 200TW tires would help with the run times. I have run on Pilot Sport AS 4S tires in my BMW 335I and as you said, they are very predictable and precise for a street tire. Your seating position is good as is your hand position. You don't let the wheel spin through your hands to catch up which is a very good driving habit to maintain. You always had a grip on the wheel.

Thank you! It definitely took a couple runs to get my hands positioned well. My instructor had told me not to feed the wheel so much, and keep my hands at 9 and 3, but I let him take a run in the car and then he understood 3.5 turns lock-to-lock on a long car means a heck of a lot of wheel turning

You are a bit late everywhere. It snowballs when you get into the slalom where you are barely making it around the cone by the 3rd/4th cone. As you get more comfortable and build up speed on course it will get really difficult to keep from knocking down cones in the slalom. Especially, if the course designer offsets a cone or changes the spacing.

You're absolutely right, during the novice walk the instructor said that we should be done steering by the time we even get to the slalom cone, to "back side" the cone. That's way easier said than done!

At the schools they will teach you to keep it tight. What you have to realize is that is a generalization. It works great for low polar moment, short wheel base cars like a Miata, Porsche Cayman, Mini Cooper etc. For your high polar moment, long wheel base Volvo planning on at least 2 elements at a time is essential. Sometimes, a little wide coming into a corner will allow you to cut back in quicker to get in position for the next element. IOW, 3 moves ahead is the key so you aren't having to use so much steering angle.

Yep, my instructor said the same thing before we drove, it's almost always faster to take the shorter distance. After we drove he told me something similar to this. He wanted me to focus on finding the lines that allowed me to get on and stay on the gas as much as possible because my car's biggest strength is acceleration.

Experiment. Don't worry too much about the time you are running. For most people that makes them overdrive the car. Concern yourself with learning what keeps the car most composed while pushing it hard. I learned a lot over the years by just watching a few National champions that ran with the same clubs I ran with. They always looked like they were out for a Sunday drive. Super smooth, almost no tire squeal.

Will do. I saw a guy in a BMW 2002 do this yesterday. It was so smooth that it look slow but the times were great.

It's very hard to have things in your mind you want to try, and then keep them in mind while you're running. I'm sure it just takes a lot more seat time.

Thank you for all your input! I can't wait to go out again!

 

[2manyturbos]

Thank you! It definitely took a couple runs to get my hands positioned well. My instructor had told me not to feed the wheel so much, and keep my hands at 9 and 3, but I let him take a run in the car and then he understood 3.5 turns lock-to-lock on a long car means a heck of a lot of wheel turning


You're absolutely right, during the novice walk the instructor said that we should be done steering by the time we even get to the slalom cone, to "back side" the cone. That's way easier said than done!

Yep, my instructor said the same thing before we drove, it's almost always faster to take the shorter distance. After we drove he told me something similar to this. He wanted me to focus on finding the lines that allowed me to get on and stay on the gas as much as possible because my car's biggest strength is acceleration.

Will do. I saw a guy in a BMW 2002 do this yesterday. It was so smooth that it look slow but the times were great.

It's very hard to have things in your mind you want to try, and then keep them in mind while you're running. I'm sure it just takes a lot more seat time.

Thank you for all your input! I can't wait to go out again!

I'm glad your instructor described back siding the cone. That makes this easy. When you are approaching a slalom get the car in position to back side the first slalom cone. Be practically on top of that cone. That will give you plenty of time to do the same with each successive slalom cone. You were driving around the slalom cones vs slithering right through them like a snake. When you get it right, if the spacing doesn't change neither should your speed. (Ideally) There are two completely different camps on how to drive through a slalom section. I found this steady state version works for my Mustang the best. I think with your RWD Volvo you will find it also will work best for you. Here is a good example of what I"m describing. What looks like a slalom and then 2 other elements is really an 8 cone slalom with a slight offset and spacing change in a couple of places. This was a National Tour course in Packwood, WA 2022. Plenty of very seasoned National level drivers complained at how tight and technical this course was. They bitched so much the course was actually altered for Sunday. That rarely happens. It actually irritated me that it was altered. Technical courses is where I have a chance against the much hotter cars in my class because it really comes down to more emphasis on the driver instead of machine. Anyway, these National level courses give you plenty of rope to hang yourself. Course walks are "interesting". You can see who thinks the tight line is the quickest line vs. who thinks the fastest speed line is going to be the quickest on the clock. A: It almost never is. So, if you take a look at this run a couple of times you will see the slalom was near perfectly executed. I think I could have gone at a slightly higher speed. You only get 3 runs. 1 cone and that run is toast as far as time. Any gate penalty is a DNF at a National level event. It's a fine line between all out and all over. There are a couple of sweepers where I stay slightly wide and back side the last cone in the sweeper. Staying wide was intentional because if you didn't you ended up not being able to back side the last cone and ended up on off camber pavement that no car was able to stick to at high speed. There are a couple of mistakes in the line in that run. I lost at least .5 seconds. I stayed exactly on my intended line. Post run analysis after the day is over I can see where I could have made a shorter line that would have been quicker. Hindsight is always 20-20. Reading the pavement is critical. What exactly am I trying to make the car turn on? That is what caused my almost spin Sunday. I knew the pavement switched to off camber right at the end of that sweeper and just ended up 1-2 mph too fast crossing the transition. That's all it took. If the tires were fresh it still might have happened because I would likely have been running slightly higher speeds everywhere on course. The best mod you can make for faster times is the driver mod. Study your videos after an event and look for mistakes. Almost every run is sequence of things you could have done slightly better. In all these year of Autocrossing with a GoPro to capture the runs I think I have 1 run that was perfectly executed. The only thing I might have changed would have been attempting the same line at a slightly higer speed in places. That's where data logging comes in. If you get really serious about this looking into data logging equipment. No more butt dynamometer. It doesn't lie to you. Brutal truth. Yes, you were faster in that corner, however, you were on a longer line, therefore, the guy that went through those elements at a slower speed actually made it through those elements in less time. Thus, the saying "Slow down to go fast". That makes no sense. The saying should be, "Slow down to go quick".


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[JohnMc]

That's where data logging comes in. If you get really serious about this looking into data logging equipment. No more butt dynamometer. It doesn't lie to you. Brutal truth. Yes, you were faster in that corner, however, you were on a longer line, therefore, the guy that went through those elements at a slower speed actually made it through those elements in less time. Thus, the saying "Slow down to go fast". That makes no sense. The saying should be, "Slow down to go quick".

I've seen some people using Solostorm (I think?) or Garmin Catalyst (bigger budget) and looking at feedback on a tablet between runs.

I certainly get lied to all the time (I'm sure) by my butt lap timer. Feels fast sure isn't always fast. Going wide and exiting a segment at a higher speed only matters if you have a fairly substantial amount of room in the next segment to carry that extra speed, which (it being Solo autocross) almost never happens, you're almost always going into another tight turn and you're braking anyhow, so going longer to go faster has a lot less payoff.

On the novice school days when I had 15 - 20 runs on the same course, yeah, I can eventually figure out a fast line, blind squirrel finding a nut and all, but in a real even, you've got to figure it out right away in a lap or 2.

 

[2manyturbos]

I've seen some people using Solostorm (I think?) and looking at feedback from it on a tablet between laps.

I certainly get lied to all the time (I'm sure) by my butt lap timer. Feels fast sure isn't always fast. Going wide and exiting a segment at a higher speed only matters if you have a fairly substantial amount of room in the next segment to carry that extra speed, which (it being Solo autocross) almost never happens, you're almost always going into another tight turn and you're braking anyhow, so going longer to go faster has a lot less payoff.

On the novice school days when I had 15 - 20 runs on the same course, yeah, I can eventually figure out a fast line, blind squirrel finding a nut and all, but in a real even, you've got to figure it out right away in a lap or 2.

Solostorm is what I am using. At most of the club events I run at there isn't time for me to take a look at the data between runs. At both events this weekend it went so quick between runs I barely had time to get out of the car and adjust tire pressures. We fit in 8 runs in about 1.5 hours per session with 25-30 drivers per run group. I need to get better at quick sneak peak analysis. At the National events there is approximately 1/2 hour between runs. People use tire covers to keep the heat in the tires here in the NW at the Packwood Tour event. Plenty of time to peruse the data. You really have to have your exact line figured out before making your first run. Then, check the data to see if you there is room for improvement.

 

[JohnMc]

We're at about 150 drivers in 3 heats. so we only get 5 or 6 (if everything goes smoothly) runs, and a bit more time between runs while they shuffle 40 - 50 cars through before you go again.

I'm borderline between shutting the car off and letting it cool a little, and just keeping it running and actively maintaining temps. It never overheats, and with a turbo under the hood I'd rather keep it going instead of letting things heat soak.

I hop out right away, put my hand on the tires front and rear, see if I can feel any noticeable temp gradient across the width.

I've seen some people spraying down the tires with water after each run. I gather the idea there isn't that cooler tires are better, more that the tires are more consistent run to run.

 

[2manyturbos]

We're at about 150 drivers in 3 heats. so we only get 5 or 6 (if everything goes smoothly) runs, and a bit more time between runs while they shuffle 40 - 50 cars through before you go again.

I'm borderline between shutting the car off and letting it cool a little, and just keeping it running and actively maintaining temps. It never overheats, and with a turbo under the hood I'd rather keep it going instead of letting things heat soak.

I hop out right away, put my hand on the tires front and rear, see if I can feel any noticeable temp gradient across the width.

I've seen some people spraying down the tires with water after each run. I gather the idea there isn't that cooler tires are better, more that the tires are more consistent run to run.

Their tires are likely overheating. It's usually dual drivers that are cooling their tires at an event. I have to carry a sprayer bottle now because of running Advan A052s. The A052 tire is pretty much the ultimate Autocross tire. It is quick to temperature which also makes it quick to overheat. At Saturday's event I had to cool my tires after run 5. The grip drops off on the Advan when they get hot. I'm switching to the Bridgestone RE-71RS this season. I waited a year to see how they perform. They seem to have more grip than the Advan on wet surfaces and have almost identical lateral grip. They don't come up to temp as quickly as the Advan, which is also why they tolerate heat better. Everything is a trade off. I'd like to have about 5 sets of wheels and tires, race jacks and a pit crew for these events. At the 2022 Nationals in Lincoln, NE racers were actually switching tires between runs because the temperatures were climing rapidly and the Advans were overheating. If the daytime temps and surface temps are high enough, just about any 200TW tire will overheat with back to back runs right on top of each other. Saturday cooling my Advans resulted in a .3 second drop in time running the same exact line. I noticed on run 5 that my time was slower even though the run felt better. The 6th run also felt good, but, the clock showed a .3 second slower time. I cooled the tires the next 2 runs and got right back to where I was running time wise on run 4. It is suttle, not easy to detect without data logging or lots of seat time where you notice very slight differnces in the car's reaction to input.

 

[threewagons]

I found this steady state version works for my Mustang the best. I think with your RWD Volvo you will find it also will work best for you. Here is a good example of what I"m describing.

Thank you for sharing, it makes much more sense seeing it from the car. Definitely bookmarking that video.

 

[threewagons]

Doing 2 different events this weekend

 

[2manyturbos]

Doing 2 different events this weekend

Nice. I ran a double header with one of my clubs last weekend at Hoodoo Ski Area. The course designer wanted to challenge his group and incorporated both a curving slalom and a varying space slalom into the course. It was the undoing of many drivers. Especially the varying distance slalom. I worked that section of the course Sunday and my corner workers were resetting cones darn near every run. The course Sunday was Saturday's course run in the opposite direction. People had a very difficult time getting their timing correct in the slalom down by the lodge. The first spacing was 45 feet, then, 50 feet, then 60 feet. That's on Sunday. The reverse of that on Saturday. I posted the video with data logging so you can see the speeds in the slalom. I kept it as steady as possible so I could back side each cone. I only hit one slalom cone this weekend. That is out of 12 runs total. I did crunch cones on the T shaped spin cone setup trying to tighten up my line for the upcoming National Tour next month. I was using this weekend to work on running very tight lines. On Sunday the times on the course were on average, a second slower because of how that slalom played out depending on which direction it was run. It was a fun weekend. By Sunday I was worn out and was slower than I should have been. All the prep and travel to the event wore me out. 3 hours of towing up a winding highway until midnight and then up at 6:00 AM to get ready to run was too much. It caught up with me Sunday. This Sunday I'm heading up to PIR to run with the PCA. I'll be trying out my brand new set of RE-71RS tires I has installed yesterday. It will be an interesting day finding out how they perform compared to Advan A052s. Good luck this weekend. Remember, plan at least 2 elements ahead of you when doing your course walk and look ahead of you while on your run. Get some videos for us.

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[Daisywagen]

Nice. I ran a double header with one of my clubs last weekend at Hoodoo Ski Area. The course designer wanted to challenge his group and incorporated both a curving slalom and a varying space slalom into the course. It was the undoing of many drivers. Especially the varying distance slalom. I worked that section of the course Sunday and my corner workers were resetting cones darn near every run. The course Sunday was Saturday's course run in the opposite direction. People had a very difficult time getting their timing correct in the slalom down by the lodge. The first spacing was 45 feet, then, 50 feet, then 60 feet. That's on Sunday. The reverse of that on Saturday. I posted the video with data logging so you can see the speeds in the slalom. I kept it as steady as possible so I could back side each cone. I only hit one slalom cone this weekend. That is out of 12 runs total. I did crunch cones on the T shaped spin cone setup trying to tighten up my line for the upcoming National Tour next month. I was using this weekend to work on running very tight lines. On Sunday the times on the course were on average, a second slower because of how that slalom played out depending on which direction it was run. It was a fun weekend. By Sunday I was worn out and was slower than I should have been. All the prep and travel to the event wore me out. 3 hours of towing up a winding highway until midnight and then up at 6:00 AM to get ready to run was too much. It caught up with me Sunday. This Sunday I'm heading up to PIR to run with the PCA. I'll be trying out my brand new set of RE-71RS tires I has installed yesterday. It will be an interesting day finding out how they perform compared to Advan A052s. Good luck this weekend. Remember, plan at least 2 elements ahead of you when doing your course walk and look ahead of you while on your run. Get some videos for us.

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Hoodoo course looks fun, might have to try and make it up there someday.

 

[2manyturbos]

Hoodoo course looks fun, might have to try and make it up there someday.

You should. EESCC will be back there next weekend, June 15th & 16th. They are the best organized club in the northwest. They don't post their events on MSR. Here is a link to their website. You sign up for their events directly through their website.

Emerald Empire Sports Car Club - Home Page

Emerald Empire Sports Car Club located in Eugene, Oregon featuring seasonal autocross racing. No experience needed, membership not required. Fun and safe for all licensed drivers. All types of cars from family vehicles to formula style cars.

www.eescc.org

https://www.eescc.org/Publications/2024Event3and4.pdf

 

[threewagons]

The course today kicked my ass. It was a super tight course, even the Miatas were struggling in the last slalom with 45ft spacing.

I had a really hard time getting the car to rotate, it kept pushing into corners. I bumped up tire pressure in the rear, but I didn't notice much difference. I think I need to turn in more gradually and not have such sharp inputs.

I installed BNE's QSRCs last week and the quicker steering ratio feels a lot better. I also switched to Redline synthetic PSF and the PS pump no longer sounds angry after a run.

This is my second fastest run, I actually ran my fastest run with an instructor (who happens to be a Solo Nats champ). She wants me to learn left foot braking so I can keep the RPMs up and minimize turbo lag, but said I was driving the car really well

 

[2manyturbos]

The course today kicked my ass. It was a super tight course, even the Miatas were struggling in the last slalom with 45ft spacing.

I had a really hard time getting the car to rotate, it kept pushing into corners. I bumped up tire pressure in the rear, but I didn't notice much difference. I think I need to turn in more gradually and not have such sharp inputs.

I installed BNE's QSRCs last week and the quicker steering ratio feels a lot better. I also switched to Redline synthetic PSF and the PS pump no longer sounds angry after a run.

This is my second fastest run, I actually ran my fastest run with an instructor (who happens to be a Solo Nats champ). She wants me to learn left foot braking so I can keep the RPMs up and minimize turbo lag, but said I was driving the car really well

View attachment 27267

You looked good out there. If you aren't already running a little tow out, add some for tomorrow. About 1/4 turn on the tie rod moves the knuckle out ~ 1/32". You can put it right back for the rest of the week. I used one of the yellow paint pens to put a line on my outer tie rod end and on the tie rod. That way I can put it back to Zero toe easily for street driving. Your 940 will rotate/turn in much quicker with some toe out. Your instructor is right on the money with her left foot braking suggestion. You can nearly eliminate your front end push if you learn to trail brake. I learned to left foot brake because many, many of the cars I have Autocrossed were/are turbocharged. Not only do you keep the car spooled, you can brake super late which keeps the front end loaded and makes the car rotate. It is not how instructors will teach beginner Autocross students to drive. If you ask these National Champions about trail braking, most are likely doing the technique. Not all your National Champions left foot brake. Some people can not get it right, or, don't want to learn it for some reason. It works for both stick and automatic equipped cars. All my braking, whether stick or automatic is left foot, except coming in to the stop box. Then, it's left foot on the clutch, right foot on the brake pedal. If you think about it, you are really doing the same thing with your right foot. You apply the throttle and brake with your right foot. Now, you just have to train your brain to do the same type of routing with your left foot. It's easiest to learn in an automatic equipped car and then make the transition to a stick car when you have lots of room in case your brain glitches. If you move up closer to the steering wheel than you normally drive it gives you more bend in your elbows for quick steering wheel action. It also allows you to lean your left knee against the door panel to steady your leg for left foot braking. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

 

[threewagons]

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I tried it out today. The first run was weird but after the 3rd run it felt pretty normal, I just need more practice to be able to do it more smoothly. It definitely helped to keep the engine speed up and start accelerating faster out of the corners.

The course today was very fun, the hairpin caught so many people by surprise, people underestimated how tight it really is. I found it was best to get just brake hard and slow down enough to take a tight line around it.

 

[threewagons]

 

[2manyturbos]

A spin cone or really tight corner like the one in your video is always quicker when you get the car slowed down and make the tightest turn possible. I get a kick out of watching people do their course walks planning their "Really fast" sweepers through the elements. Then, you watch someone in a Miata that has no power slow down and practically run over the spin cone and exit the corner about a second quicker than the "fast" approach. That is what I mentioned in the post above with the Hoodoo videos. I spent that weekend working on exactly that. In the Mustang there is no way I can see a spin cone on the right side of my car. It's all planning the placement ahead of time and hoping I get it right. A late model Camaro is even worse as far as visibility to the side. It's driving blind through a lot of elements. In my 335 BMW I can track the cones down either side of the car. They have great visibility out the front and side windows. The Porsche club event was the same way yesterday. I saw experienced club members coaching other members new to Autocross on their course walks telling them how to drive these wide sweeping turns thinking that keeping their speed up was all that mattered. I just keep my mouth shut, because, after all, I drive a Mustang. Those cars are only good for straight line drag strips. We had ~ 35 car in the first session starting at about 9:20 AM. It was just under 50 degrees out and cloudy. I had the brand new RE-71RS tires on which I had a 1/2 hour drive home from the tire shop and a 2 hour drive to PIR on them. They were still coated with mold release agent and had a very slick surface when the day began. That was the point of going to this event. Scrub the tires in on very smooth pavement and find their limit on an unobstructed venue. No Porsches in the morning session beat my time. In my bizarre PCA class of NPR (non-Porsche rear wheel drive) which consisted of 15 cars varying from a C8 Corvette to a NB/NC Miata I took 2nd place to a good driver in his BMW M2 by .74 seconds. He was on very new Advan A052s that have 3-4 events on them now. This coming weekend these RE-71s should be very fast. They will be scrubbed in and the rubber bonds reformed after a good heat cycling. We all got 7 runs in each run group. Mine were all clean and very consistant as soon as the first run scrubbed the release agent off the surface. The temperature went up to 70 degrees and the sun was out for the second run group. The grip was much higher for their sesson. In that session a friend of mine that runs a 2022 Camaro SS 1LE took top time of day, as usual. He is a National caliber driver. It took him until his 6th run to put down a run nobody could touch. He is one of the PCA club Champion drivers. He doesn't own a Porsche.

My fastest run from Sunday.

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[2manyturbos]

Picking back up where I left off. This was the 2nd event on the RE-71RS tires. They had a good heat cycling and were almost scrubbed in. They performed impressively I like how accurately they steer. I was in the first run group of the day with cool temperatures. The difference between the Advan A052s and the RE-71RS in cool temps really showed. It took 2-3 runs for the tires to come up to temp where they gripped the way one would expect a 200TW autocross tire to grip. I ended up 10th fastest time of day out of 72 drivers and 7th in PAX I was TTOD for my session until the last run by another driver in a turbocharged B Steet Prepared Miata on Hoosiers beat me by .209 seconds. Solostorm only recorded video of the fist 2 runs on cold tires. It data logged all 5 runs. On warm tires the speed just before the tight u turn around the island was 50 mph and right before the right hander at the finish was 60 mph. This lot always concerns me due to how tight it is with very solid objects to hit in the event of a mistake. Supposedly, this is the last time we will ever run there because the school district is changing their use guidelines. I won't miss this venue.

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Two weeks later WMC had their next event at Evergreen Aviation Museum. This was one more opportunity to get to know the RE-71RS tires before the SCCA Solo National Tour at Packwood, WA. The club tries to alternate who runs in the morning to be fair. On a typical day the afternoon runs are going to be the fastest of the day due to pavement temperatures being warmer. At this event I place 6th in PAX and 8th fastest time out of 82 drivers. The RE-71RS tires were working perfectly. It was 100 degrees out when I ran in the last session of the day. The RE-71RS is so damn cold blooded even with that air temperature and very hot pavement, the first run they did not stick. I went right over a wall of cones on the hard left hander at the end of the lot because the car refused to turn. Countless drivers hit that wall of cones or spun in that corner. The painted lines on the pavement were slick enough to start the slip and the slight off camber of the pavement kept the slip going. I was warned about the corner by two other super skilled drivers before I made my runs. The next 4 runs went perfectly. The tires were up to temp and the GT did everything I asked of it.

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Next was the Solo National Tour at Packwood, WA. There was something like 272 drivers this year. My class, F-Street consisted of 4 Camaro SS 1LEs and my GT. As expected, I finished last in class putting down very fast, clean, consistent runs. The Camaro SS 1LE and the 21-23 Mustang Mach 1 are the F-Street class ringers having been moved from B-Street to F-Street for the 2022 season. This year, just as in the 2022 and 2023 Packwood events the 1LE Camaros put down the same times as the fastest B-Street BMW M2s etc. Their move to F-Steet was one of the dumbest class changes SCCA has made in the 30 years I have been Autocrossing. That said, I had a great time racing with everone and drove my car very well. The RE-71s worked great and so did my GT. I ran in the 2nd run group both days. The 2nd group started at ~ 11 AM and finished up by 1 PM. The temperature was approximately 75 degrees when I ran on both Saturday and Sunday. For me, that is perfect. I had time to wake up and watch the morning group in order to verify what I had planned on my course walks. After watching the fastest drivers of the morning group I was convinced the line I planned was the fastest line for my car.

Saturday's course.

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" title="Packwood NT 2024 Saturday 2019 GT run 2 49.974 sec 7-13-24" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Generally speaking, Sunday's course at a Tour or the Nationals is Saturday's course run in the opposite direction with a minor change at he beginning and end. This year there were more changes than usual. It made walking the course 6-8 times essential to be right on the line, no mistakes.

Sunday's course.

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" title="Packwood NT 2024 2019 GT Sunday run 3 50.015 sec 7-14-24" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[threewagons]

I'm planning next steps for my 940.

#1 is a truetrac LSD

#2 is wheels and 200tw tires

I've heard of people running 17x8 on lowered 940s but I don't see any way they'd work without removing the fender liners at the very least. I'm not interested in doing that, and i definitely wouldn't roll fender or trim pinchwelds on this car. I believe I can make 17x7.5 work with minimal rubbing

I see 3 options for wheels/tires:
- Acquire extra set on hydras. Bolt on, no mods required. Cheap, easy. Downside is 6.5" wheel width and limited tire choices.
- Acquire some P2 wheels in 17x7.5. Use BNE spacers and extended studs I already own but haven't installed. The wheels can be found cheap. The big downside here is P80/P2 wheels are HEAVY compared to hydras. They range from 21?-29lbs
- Spend the money on 17x7.5 Enkei RPF1s and run adapters. They're comparable to hydras in weight (16lbs) and an extra inch wider. The downside is needing 32mm adapters and $$$

Is the wheel weight savings worth the cash? Am I going to kick myself if I run heavier wheels?

 

[JohnMc]

I've missed the first 5 events from the SCCA season here so far, for a variety of good reasons.

Maybe I'll make the next one in Sep.

Not a clue on the wheel weight's effect on performance, although I keep hearing from people that the (factory fitment) 17 in wheels on the Miata are making it slower. I would think it matters a bit less if the car is heavier, if the course is smoother, if you have enough HP (for autocross), etc.

I had some 'ultra high performance all season' General G-Max tires on the Miata before I put some 200TW RT660's on it. And it took a while to get used to the substantial increase in grip. The G-Max was no slouch, but the RT660's are just waaaay beyond that. To the point where the factory drivers seat is starting to be the limiting factor. It's just hard to stay put in the car and steer and operate the pedals as effectively as I'd want with that much grip shoving me around.