Mr_Bill's DSP AutoX Build - 2008 MS3

[Mr_Bill]

Originally Posted by 2008MS3H Bill you are my hero! The information you provide is fantastic and i read your thread several times looking for insight. I plan on saving some money so I can make a few auto-x events hopefully later this year if not, then next year. Do you have plans to run anymore chump car events this year?

Glad the info is useful...just hoping to see more MS3's out at events and maybe a few will decide to run in DSP. As for Chump Car we're getting ready for the 24 hour event at VIR in August and also plan to be back at Road Atlanta event in December, will you be running either of those events?

[2008MS3H]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bill Glad the info is useful...just hoping to see more MS3's out at events and maybe a few will decide to run in DSP. As for Chump Car we're getting ready for the 24 hour event at VIR in August and also plan to be back at Road Atlanta event in December, will you be running either of those events?

Actually we will be at both of those events. I will have to come track you down when we get up there. I think we are leaving Friday morning to head to Virginia.

[Mr_Bill]

Highlands Sports Car Club Day AutoX - June 17th

A few days late on posting this, but I was able to get some more seat time and practice last weekend with the Highland Sports Car Club near Asheville, NC. I enjoy running these events because it's only an hour drive from my house, plus you typically get 6-8 runs and the club does a really good job with course design on such a small lot. The only changes going into this event was the addition of the Schroth 4-point harness to help attach my ass to the car during all of this bumping & turning. I never really noticed it too much driving, but watching video you can see just how much I'm moving around in the car...so I figured a harness couldn't do anything but help out. Installation was fairly easy and straight forward (takes 1-2 hours to bolt everything in) and it did make a big difference in feeling more connected to the car and getting more feedback from the tires. I really wish this was something I had purchased earlier...

For this event I ended up trying a different tire combo with the 245/40R18 BFGoodrich R1-S up front and the same size, but older R1 compound on the rear axle. I knew this would result in some oversteer but really had no idea how much to expect. Starting pressures were 38 psi square...

My MS3 along with the CSP Miata


With the day series set-up you get 3 runs in the morning followed by 3 runs in the afternoon. On my first run I took it a little easy since I didn't know how much sliding to expect, but I was actually surprised that the cold R1's weren't as bad as I expected. Sure...there was some oversteer when driving hard on corner entry, but it was pretty progressive and easy to control, plus the different compound on the rear really helped out with corner rotation. With the way this course was set-up I was really able to take advantage of the faster straight sections since the R1-S is so good at putting the power down and it allows me to drive pretty hard into the corners with some late braking. For each run you could feel the rear of the car become slightly more stable, and after 3 morning runs I had the fastest raw time by almost a second. The biggest issue holding the car back was understeer on corner exit of the slower/tight corners which forced me to wait before getting the power down for the fast parts.

In the afternoon I drove pretty aggressive since I was just trying to better my fast time of the day. The first 2 runs I went a little overboard and took out some cones due to over-driving. I also made an adjustment to the front compression of the BC coil-overs by reducing it from the maximum of 30 (0 being the softest, 30 the stiffest) to 10 and you could feel an improvement regarding the corner exit understeer. With the ability to put the power down earlier I was able to pick up a half-second improvement on my previous best...only to be knocked out of 1st place on the very last run by the CSP Miata which saw him pick-up almost a second. The only good thing about it was that the car was driven by a fellow test driver at work who was also running the R1-S tires.

The 1-2 finish on the new BFGoodrich tires had some people talking, and I can say that my experience has been pretty good so far. The tire has a noticeable improvement in grip and also seems to wear better than the Hoosier A6 after 15 runs.

Highlands Sports Car Club - Day Series Event #3
PAX: 3 / 60 (2nd fastest RAW)
DSP: 1 / 1
PRO: 3 / 7

So after trying out the different tire compound set-up, and making some compression changes to the front struts, I would like to get a chance to run a test/tune event where I can try the older R1 compound with the 285mm wide R1-S tires and see how they handle on a faster course. Fortunately the Atlanta region will be hosting a few test & tune events coming up in preparation for the National Championships in NE, so hopefully I can take advantage of one of these events and experiment with the car set-up.

My next event will be with the Central Carolinas Region on July 14th...barring any 105 degree weather that makes me question my sanity about standing in a parking lot for 10 hours. After this my calender will be pretty much booked with the remainder of the American Le Mans Series beginning with the event at Lime Rock Park on July 7th. For the remaining races this season I'll be working with the new Dempsey Racing P2 Lola prototype that is driven by Joe Foster & Patrick Dempsey (pic below)...

[2008MS3H]

@Mr_Bill
What is it that you do lol?
I heard that Dempsey Racing was running a new car in ALMS - just didn't know it was an LMP. How have they done so far?

[Mr_Bill]

Originally Posted by 2008MS3H @Mr_Bill What is it that you do lol? I heard that Dempsey Racing was running a new car in ALMS - just didn't know it was an LMP. How have they done so far?

The normal day job is working at Michelin's Proving Grounds south of Greenville, SC, but I also spend some time working with our race support program in the American Le Mans series. I'm currently in my 3rd season with race support where each ALMS team in LMP1/LMP2 & GT running on Michelin has a designated tire engineer that works with the team to optimize the tire's performance (through compound, pressure, camber, etc.) while also collecting data to feed back to the race tire designer's in France.

I spent the early part of this season working with the Aston Martin Vantage GT car (ran out of the Prodrive shop in the UK) before they returned to Europe for the rest of the World Endurance Championship series and will be with Dempsey Racing's new prototype effort for the rest of the season. They're running a new Lola LMP2 coupe (have to run a closed cockpit prototype due to Patrick Dempsey's acting contract) for most of the remaining races this year and plan to run the full season next year (+ Le Mans) with Mazda's new diesel engine for the class. They are doing OK so far considering the goal for this season is just to get the team infrastructure in place along with getting the drivers (Joe Foster & Patrick Dempsey) up to speed with how to drive a Le Mans Prototype vs. a Grand-Am RX-8. Here's a pic of the car during last weekend's race in Lime Rock where they finished 3rd in class...

[beachshoer]

I'm sure you earned it, but you sir are one lucky son of a bitch! I'm jealous.

[2008MS3H]

@Mr_Bill that is so awesome - any chance they are hiring?

[Mr_Bill]

Things have been pretty quiet lately with the MS3...my last event was over at Z-Max Dragway back in July but since then I've been on the road every weekend.



SCCA Central Carolinas Region - ZMax Dragway - July 14th

Biggest thing I tried at this event was softening the front compression (down to 5/30 on the BC coil-overs) and running much higher rear tire pressure (started at 37.5F / 50R). Both of these adjustments did seem to help a little with rotation, and as the front pressure started to creep up I would bump them back down to ~38 psi. With these BFG R1-S tires the car feels awesome through slaloms and lane changes that require small steering wheel angle...biggest area where I seem to lose time is through long sweepers which can be associated with the front weight of the vehicle. The tires are still great for warm-up and provide consistent grip throughout all 4 runs.

Driving wise I was pretty happy with my last run and felt it was an accurate showing of where the car currently stands vs. the competition. With only getting a few events in a year vs. a bunch of guys in the Pro class who are prepping for Nationals I can't really complain. Suspension still needs to be upgraded in order to become more competitive, and I'm hoping to get something done this winter for an improvement.

CCR Points #5 - ZMax Dragway
PAX: 26 / 175
DSP: 1 / 6
PRO: 21 / 35





Moving forward I hope to attend a few events before the year is over...just trying to figure out what works with my schedule between the Atlanta/CCR/SCR and Highlands Sports Car events. For this winter I would like to upgrade suspension/get a lighter battery/and an engine tune but this will probably depend on whether I can make any National Tour events in 2013. Hopefully the schedule will be out before too long so I can figure out if the South Georgia Dixie event conflicts with the 12 Hours of Sebring again...if not I would like to get the car prepped up and go for the win.

[Spirry]

Would be glad to send you some timming tables. Thats the biggest thing with e85. Will make a big difference with heatsoak and overall torque.

[Mr_Bill]

Damn...been so long since I've posted to this thread that WebShots doesn't even exist to host my images anymore. Time to do some updates...working on getting the pictures back right now and will post about 2013 plans soon.

[Mr_Bill]

Finally got most of the photos back up so this thread remains active. This winter has been pretty quiet regarding upgrades and modifications...the only real change I've made is installing a Braille 15 lb. battery in place of the stock one after it died out around Thanksgiving.



I bought the Braille mounting stand that fit this spec battery (B2015) and also purchased a tender to keep it charged when I got a week or so without driving the car. Installation of the stand was pretty simple, and after removing all of the extra boxing and the stock battery itself I would guess this upgrade saved around 20 lbs.

Most of the schedules for the local SCCA regions are out for 2013, and it looks like I'll be able to make more events than 2012. The American Le Mans schedule really doens't pick up until late summer so my best chance to hit up some events will be in the early going. I was planning on heading up to Charlotte Motor Speedway tomorrow for the Central Carolina regions first event of the year, but a weather forecast of upper 30's with rain/snow mixture are making me second guess this decision and I'll probably stay home. After just getting back from a month of snow testing in the UP of Michigan I've had enough of that shit. The planned early part of my schedule this year looks something like this...

Feb 16 CCR AutoX #1 ZMax Dragway in Charlotte (Weather)
Feb 24 CCR AutoX #2 Metrolina in Charlotte
March 24 CCR AutoX #3 Michelin Proving Grounds in Laurens, SC
April 3 Highlands Night AutoX #1 Asheville, NC
April 13 CCR AutoX #4 ZMax Dragway in Charlotte
May 1 Highlands Night AutoX #2 Asheville, NC
May 27 CCR AutoX #5 Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC

For the events at larger sites (ZMax, Michelin, CMP) I'll run the 285 front / 245 rear R1-S set-up with the modified fenders (which I'm hoping to paint this week so they at least look halfway decent). With the smaller sites I'll run the 245 R1-S front / 245 R1 on the rear as this helps with the extra rotation and saves wear on the larger tires.


As for upgrades moving forward, the biggest things I'm working on right now is finding a way to install the Whiteline LCA bushings that were recently purchased along with researching options for upgraded suspension. After upgrading the tire situation to the wider fronts last season the car has become undersprung IMO...and I think an upgraded system (with better strut performance) would be the biggest way to improve the car along with an improved front LSD (not planning on upgrading this until down the road). An increase in spring stiffness would also allow me to completely remove the FSB. Ideally I would like a coil-over kit with ~600 lb. spring rates, but it doesn't appear that there are any "off the shelf" kits for our car in this range. Everything is much lower or a good bit higher (like the KSport kit with ~900 lb. springs).

If anyone would have any ideas or suggestions for the next suspension system feel free to post them up...always open to input and I don't pretend like I know everything there is to know about this car.

Regarding the horsepower front...I really need to do some maintenance and clean up the valves as I'm sure the are pretty gunked up by now (I only installed the OCC about 3k miles ago) and I've read where the carbon & crap on the back of the valves can affect the tuning...so I don't want to spend some money for a good professional engine tune before getting them cleaned. After getting this taken care of I would eventually like to get a good tune (this is the area of the car that I consider my weakest as far as knowledge) and also include a map for the e85 option (Spirry I'm sure I'll be in touch). Look forward to getting the new season started and hope to see some of you around at the events.

[saitek]

Sounds like another good season for you this year. Not sure how the whiteline bushings are packaged but the OEM lca bushings just needs a torch to blow them out. Anyone with a press should be able to press the new whiteline bushings in.

You may want to look at corksport or AST since they already make shock bodies for the speed3. AST support scca and I am sure they will make you whatever shock/spring combo...for a price. Corksport seem like it's an off-the-shelf package deal but if you can find out who their supplier is, they might be willing to build you a set.

My speed has been sitting idle for a while but I'll make slow upgrades over the next year or so. Until then, I'll probably run in you at tour/pro events with the shifter kart.

[beachshoer]

Looked into AST myself. Not cheap. Was also looking at the Ksport RR set up with the super stiff springs but decided to dabble in adjustability first with some new koni yellows instead of full bore with coilovers. Im still getting used to the BNR in autocross.

Clean valves does wonders Bill. Done mine twice so far.

Good luck this season fellas!

[Crarrs]

Do the BC coilovers use a standard 2.5" perch? If so, you should be able to find any spring you'd need in the Eibach catalog.

Summit Racing selection, narrowed to 2.5" diameter, 6" free length
Eibach Coil-Over Springs - 2.500 in. Inside Diameter (in) - 6.000 in. Length (in) - SummitRacing.com

[justint5387]

I have a set of Koni double adjustable fronts and yellows rear if you are interested. Those came off our FSP car.

[grantmm]

AST... DO IT!

PS, how much did you spend on the braille? Moty design made my 3.5 lb 16 cell LiPo 550 CCA battery for 200. They make a 20 cell battery that weighs < 5 lbs now too. I ran that one for a bit but sold it to a friend with a BP FD RX7 build to help him out.

[Mr_Bill]

Originally Posted by Crarrs Do the BC coilovers use a standard 2.5" perch? If so, you should be able to find any spring you'd need in the Eibach catalog. Summit Racing selection, narrowed to 2.5" diameter, 6" free length Eibach Coil-Over Springs - 2.500 in. Inside Diameter (in) - 6.000 in. Length (in) - SummitRacing.com

The BC's use the standard 2.5" rear perch (or 62mm or them since they use those non-'Merican units) with a "v-shaped" rear spring but the bigger issue at hand is I have already went stiffer with a 6 kg/mm spring vs the 4 kg/mm that comes with the kit. According to BC their shocks are good for a +/- 2 kg/mm change without needed re-valving (since the shocks are compression adjustment only) and in the end it really isn't worth re-valving this type of shock anyways. Basically this "cheap" suspension has gotten me as far as it will go and it's time to step up and buy a proper suspension set-up for my car.

Originally Posted by justint5387 I have a set of Koni double adjustable fronts and yellows rear if you are interested. Those came off our FSP car.

Sounds interesting...do you have any other parts off your old FSP/STX suspension set-up or only the shocks?

Originally Posted by grantmm AST... DO IT! PS, how much did you spend on the braille? Moty design made my 3.5 lb 16 cell LiPo 550 CCA battery for 200. They make a 20 cell battery that weighs < 5 lbs now too. I ran that one for a bit but sold it to a friend with a BP FD RX7 build to help him out.

Total cost for the 15 lb. Braille was $168 and so far it has worked with no issues. Whenever I park the car in the garage for a week or more I just hook it up to a tender. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal on yours...I just went with the Braille since a few other guys have had good results with them.

[justint5387]

The plates and rear height adjusters are available too.

[Mr_Bill]

Central Carolinas Event #2 - Metrolina in Charlotte

After passing up on the first points event of the year at Z-Max Dragway since I didn't want to participate in the Snow-cross, last Sunday was my first event of the year as the CCR region held their 2nd points event of the season at Metrolina just north of Charlotte. This lot is much smaller than the open space of Z-Max, but the CCR group does a really good job of designing fast and fun 45 second courses with the limited space. I made the decision to try running the 245mm R1-S tires on the front and the 245mm R1 (old) tires on the rear to see how it would stack up vs. the "Pro" class at SCCA competition. I've had some good results with this set-up on slow, tight courses in Asheville and Clemson...so if it would keep me competitive then I could occasionally run this set-up and it would save the time and effort required for making the conversion to running the 285mm R1-S tires on the front...





CCR Points Event #2 - Metrolina
PAX: 44 / 134
DSP: 1 / 3
PRO: 20 / 24

While the massive amounts of oversteer due to the compound difference was beneficial for the slow & tight sections of the course, this set-up really held me back on the faster slaloms and corners. The rear tires were never able to get any temp into them and with this limitation (combined with tons of grip on the front) I basically got my ass handed to me in the Pro class and finished almost 4 seconds behind FPD on a 45 second course. So lesson learned...only way I can hope to compete is to bring the full 285/245 R1-S tire set-up.

After this result, and seeing a couple of guys at the events who were having a lot of success running the new BFG Rival tire, I'm seriously contemplating the move to STX class for future events. The original reason of going into DSP was to make the car go as fast as I possibly could...and I had a lot of fun competing with it, but now that the car has become too fast to compete in the open DSP class on a regional level the crazy PAX combined with not being 100% prepped to National level is really killing my chances of competing in the multi-class Pro class at CCR and other SCCA regional events. After doing the research it wouldn't require a ton of work to convert the car over to STX...swap out the intercooler, fuel pump and BPV for stock (parts which I have in my garage) and re-flash the ECU to a ST-legal map. I would then have the option of sticking with the 18" set-up (running a 245/40R18 tire on the current 18x8.5" TR Motorsport C2 wheels) or changing to 17" with some 255/40R17 tires and some new wheels. I would also be able to drive to events on my competition tires and spend more time learning the courses and working on car & driver improvements. Let me know if you guys have any feedback or opinions and I hope to post more soon about this possible conversion.

[Manny]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bill I would also be able to drive to events on my competition tires and spend more time learning the courses and working on car & driver improvements. Let me know if you guys have any feedback or opinions and I hope to post more soon about this possible conversion.

Get there earlier if you'd like to spend more time improving on your end. MS3 is pretty course dependent even in STX.

@tigermack;

[tigermack]

Yeah, the car is definitely course dependent. Especially with the limited gearing the MS3 has.

[Spirry]

Sounds like I should have kept the MS3 STX prepped for another season. Would have been nice to have a similarly prepped MS3 to compare and compete against.

Wish they had that tire size last year. Would have made third a little more usable. Are the 265's still legal in stx? Wonder how the 255 rival stacks up against the 265 star spec.

When the car is heat soaked, I would bet money you can make the hp you are making now on a stx legal map with 75% e85. You would need to keep the fuel pump to do it.

I have read a few discussions about potentially banning e-85 in the st classes however. Hopefully they keep it.

I can shoot you my interpretation of an stx map if you want to use it as a baseline.

[tigermack]

265 is the max tire for 2wd in STX.

Oh, your package is on the way, Mr. Bill.

[justint5387]

Originally Posted by Spirry I can shoot you my interpretation of an stx map if you want to use it as a baseline.

Can you shoot me one?

[Mr_Bill]

DSP to STX Conversion

With the launch of the BFG Rival and the continued uphill battle of running DSP with this platform (which has been made even worse now with the addition of RX-8's), I've decided to change directions with the AutoX build and see if the car can be more competitive in the STX class. My next event will be this weekend with the South Carolina region at the Michelin Proving Grounds so I'm planning to try out the following...

First to "de-tune" the car from DSP to STX I'll need to:
- Swap back to the OE intercooler
- Swap back to the OE BPV
- Re-install the OE fuel pump
- Detune the engine to a STX legal map with the AP. Thanks to @spirry for the offered help on this topic.

Next, it was time for a much needed suspension upgrade and thanks to @tigermack and @justint5387 I'll be using some of their older FSP & STX build suspension pieces which include the Koni Yellow struts combined with the AWR front housing & custom rear perch for 2.5" springs. For the springs I've ordered a set of 800 lb. front Hyperco's with a combination of 600, 800 and 1000 rear spring sets to allow for some testing & tuning. The plan is to install the new suspension this Friday and run the square 800 lb. set-up with the FSB disconnected as a baseline.



For tires I'll using my 18x8.5" TR Motorsport C2 wheels and mounting a set of 245/40R18 BFG Rivals. This weekend will provide a good test to see how the new STX set-up stands as the Michelin Proving ground events typically pull 200+ competitors from the southeast...and with the addition of the newly paved black lake (1400 x 400 asphalt pad) it could be even more. I've taken Friday off work to spend completing this conversion and I look forward to posting my findings...if anybody has any tips or suggestions for this STX build feel free to chime in.

Wish I could have gotten started on this conversion earlier, but things have been pretty busy at work lately as I just got back from the American Le Mans preseason testing and race week in Sebring. Not sure if many of you follow the series, but business has picked up this year for Michelin with the announced withdrawal by Dunlop, and as a result we have picked up the BMW - Rahal team who I'll be working with while they run the new Z4 GTE (pics below) for the full season. The car showed good potential at Sebring and was running 2-3 in GT with 4 hours to go before some issues (broken strut on the #56 and loss of power steering on the #55 ) would drop the cars to 4th & 7th in class. If any of you will be at any of the events this season be sure stop by...

[beachshoer]

Good luck swapping classes! We bumped up to SMF which actually has a hair better PAX which I found funny. Then I started to really look at the cars that were killing at nationals in DSP. No way a DSP MS3 could keep up with those BMWs. I think SMF is a much better fit for a modded speed3. Please post review of those Rivals ASAP. They're taking over the place like tickle me Elmo and id like to see if they really are worth the money.

And yes I hate you a little bit with that damn job of yours. I've always found Le Mans pretty interesting. Hopefully we'll be heading to Atlanta next month to watch that diesel 6 race.

[Tweaek]

So how did the rivals do?

[Mr_Bill]

Originally Posted by Tweaek So how did the rivals do?

Haven't got a read on them in the dry yet, ended up running in 40 deg and wet conditions on March 24th (see write-up below)...will hopefully get a chance to run them in the dry on April 13th in Charlotte:

Central Carolinas Event #3 - Michelin Proving Grounds

A couple of weeks ago was the most recent CCR region event at the Michelin Proving Grounds in Laurens, SC, where I was hoping to get a good read on the switch from DSP to STX with the BFG Rivals, but the weather didn't cooperate with temps in the low 40's and rain all day. The new suspension pieces from @tigermack and @justint5387 were picked up on Thursday before the event but I didn't have time to get them installed...plus I wanted to leave the older BC Racing coil-overs on to give me a better read on the change. Thanks to @Spirry for the help with the STX legal map...I ended up just running with the 93 oct map for this event and will experiment w/ the E85 mixture this summer. For the next event in April I would like to change only the suspension before tinkering with the engine map changes in May/June.



CCR Points Event #3 - Michelin Proving Grounds
PAX: 19 / 133
STX: 5 / 11
PRO: 11 / 27

The asphalt lake (400x1400 ft pad) that is used for these events was repaved in November, so the flat surface provided a decent amount of standing water along with the cold conditions for trying out the new Rival tires...not exactly ideal conditions for a summer tire. The tires were brand new at the start of the event, and they definitely took the first run to scrub off any mold release and begin to grip up towards the end. Overall I was pleased with how they did in the wet...it took a few runs to figure out the best way to drive and I was able to shave off 3 seconds from my first to last run. Can't really get a good read yet on how they will compete in the dry, but hopefully that will be coming in a couple of weeks.

For tire pressures I started w/ 40 F 45 R and ended up bleeding the fronts down quite a bit to get the proper amount of roll w/ the lack of lateral G's in the wet. By the end of the event I had bled around 4-5 psi out of the front tires. I never really a big issue with hydroplaning, but the front tires would definitely lose grip if you went too large with the SW angle...had to learn to drive within the limits, but it was still a fun time driving in the wet conditions.

Next event will be in 2 weeks w/ the CCR region at the Z-Max Dragway in Charlotte. The plan is to install the new suspension pieces this weekend and hopefully see how the Rivals compete in STX in the dry.

[DuoofDeath1]

Wait, @beachshoer; we are in SMF now? I am confused. I know they were talking about changing things but I thought that was just no more r-comps in stock classes and you are now allowed camber plates in stock. What mod on our cars put us in SMF? Or are you talking about some other form of racing.

[Crarrs]

Originally Posted by DuoofDeath1 Wait, @beachshoer; we are in SMF now? I am confused. I know they were talking about changing things but I thought that was just no more r-comps in stock classes and you are now allowed camber plates in stock. What mod on our cars put us in SMF? Or are you talking about some other form of racing.

You can run any class you want as long as you don't have mods that are illegal for that class. You can run a stock MS3 in SMF if you want to, especially if you know the competition in that class is weak.

If he's running SMF instead of DSP, it's probably because the other cars in the class are not nearly as strong as the BMWs in DSP. And the PAX is actually easier in SMF (0.852 vs. 0.855 for DSP). Better PAX, softer competition, and more mods allowed? Hell yes!

[DuoofDeath1]

Oh ok. I thought he meant one of the mods listed on DSP got changed and he was pushed into SMF. I don't have a large group of competitors in DSP locally and I don't think I have any SMF. I guess if I am the only person that shows up for DSP then I might as well just run SMF to get the PAX advantage since I won't have any competition. lol

[beachshoer]

And because BNR turbo.

SMF does have better pax too but that's not why I run it.

[DuoofDeath1]

I don't know how I missed the BNR is big bright letters in your sig. lol

[goose8935]

sickkkkoo

[Mr_Bill]

A few weekends ago I swapped out the BC Racing coil-overs for the new-to-me suspension that used to be ran by TigerMack & justint5387 with their STX MS3 & FSP MZ3 builds of the past few years. For springs I ordered a pair of 800 lb. 7" springs for the front (ID 2.5") with a set of 600, 800 & 1000lb. 6" springs for the rear...all from Hypercoil. The swap was pretty straight-forward, the only thing I had to watch were the rear springs to make sure they seated correctly due to their shorter length. After re-connecting the RSB and only jacking up 1 side at a time to change tires on-site the springs have stayed in place with no problems.





On top of the new suspension I would also get to tryout the new BFG Rivals in the dry...



So to update, my current STX suspension & tire set-up is below:

TIRES - 245/40ZR18 BFGoodrich Rival
WHEELS - 18x8.5" TR Motorsport C2
FRONT - Koni 8611-1256 Strut Inserts (set at full soft rebound & 5 clicks stiff for compression)
AWR Strut Housing
K-Mac Camber Plates
800 lb. Hypercoil springs (7" long)
MZ3 Stock FSB w/ Powergrid adjustable end-links (disconnected)
REAR - Koni 8040 Re-valved struts (set at 80% full stiff rebound)
800 lb. Hypercoil springs (6" long)
SPC Camber Arms
Hotchkis RSB (set at full stiff)


CCR AutoX #4 at Z-Max Dragway in Charlotte

Last weekend was Central Carolina's 4th event of the season, and their first day event at the big parking lot beside the Z-Max "4-wide" dragway beside Charlotte Motor Speedway. This event served as a great opportunity to try out the new suspension upgrades along with the BFG Rivals in the STX class. Overall there were 180 entries with a lot of fast cars, including the multi-time A-Modified National Champ to actually sets the PAX of 1.0. It was awesome getting to watch this car fly around 10 seconds faster than I could...





CCR Points #4
PAX: 35 / 180
PRO: 30 / 38
STX: 2 / 13

For tire pressures I started w/ 40F 45R and continued to bleed the front tires down to 40 psi between runs. This pressure seemed to get the right amount of sidewall roll without going too far. The course design and layout for this event was a blast and offered a good combination of fast & technical sections. For the tires they continued to gain a lot of grip with each run as they were still pretty much brand new...I'm new to the ST game but think this trend will continue over the next couple of events. I was really pleased with the progressivity and drivability of these tires on my car as they were very predictable with a lot of feedback and pretty slow breakaway when you did exceed the limit. With the large outside shoulder blocks the front firmness feels pretty strong through the slalom & fast transitions w/ the rear holding up pretty good for stability. Overall for this event the R-comps were the way to go with warmer temps and high grip level, but I'm looking forward to running these tires at some more sites to get more info on how they hold up vs. the competition.

The new suspension was also a huge gain and I pretty much spent the entire first run just driving in awe at the amount of rotation I was able to get. Disconnecting the FSB was a huge improvement as I was able to pick up the throttle a lot earlier for corner exit and actually never got the point where I was accelerating soon enough to be at the limit (this the biggest difference between my old suspension and will take some time to get re-adjusted). Each run improved by about a second and there was some more time to be had. Whenever I would get some understeer I was able to quickly blip the throttle and get some nice lift throttle oversteer as well. With the higher grip surface I could have used a little quicker turn-in (could be helped with more front rebound / compression) and some more entry / mid-corner rotation (could be helped with trying the 1000 lb rear springs) but I want to keep things the same for the next few events just to get used to driving this new STX set-up. I definitely left some time out there as the driver is the biggest limit right now.

Moving forward I'm pretty happy and look forward to playing around with this STX set-up and seeing how competitive it can become. The only major mod I could see saving up for in the future is an upgraded LSD w/ OS Giken, but that will not be coming until this winter at the earliest. Over the summer months I'm hoping to make at least 1 event a month to keep getting some more seat time and becoming re-acclimated to the car.

Next Event - Highlands Sports Car Club Night # 2, May 1st in Asheville, NC

[Mr_Bill]

Also here is a good view of the course coming from a DSP RX-8 that finished 6 seconds faster than me (and 14th in STX at Nationals last year)...hence the reasoning of my bailing out on DSP and trying out this whole street tire deal. No way I could ever dump enough money into the car to make it this fast.

Mike Kuhn Racing Motion Lab Tuning RX8 AutoCross - YouTube

Mike Kuhn Racing Motion Lab Tuning RX8 AutoCross - YouTube

[Nliiitend1]

That rotard's got a serious case of teh fastz...

[Mr_Bill]

Last week I was able to score by first F(Pax)TD at the second Highlands Sports Car Club event of the season. This is a club that's based near Asheville, NC and holds 7-8 Wednesday Night AutoX events throughout the season with the same course utilized for each event so drivers can get a read on any set-up changes or improvements they have made during the season. While the competition isn't as stiff as a normal SCCA event, there are still a few guys who run some National Tour events and with the event site only 1+ hour away from my house it beats the hell out of my typical Wednesday night ritual of drinking beer, watching Wheel of Fortune and going to bed...

HSCC Night AutoX #2 in Asheville, NC

For this event I did not make any adjustments from the initial STX outing except for slightly increasing the front ride height to reduce a little bit of liner rubbing under braking. One of the perks of running street tire class was that I could drive back and forth from the event on the BFG Rival tires so I didn't have to change tires out in the dark before returning home. So the Rivals would have a total of 4 runs + ~100 miles of street driving going into this event.

HSCC Night #2 Results
PAX: 1 / 102
PRO: 1 / 6
STX: 1 / 5

During the first few runs I was at a disadvantage since most of the drivers already had one event on this course layout, but after the third run I was able to notice a few places to really gain some time and was able to pick up 8-tenths on my final run that would move me into first. Second & third were ~ 2-tenths behind PAX-wise with a STC Civic that usually beats me at these HSCC events and runs some local National Tours. For tire pressures I started at 38 F 50 R and continued to bleed the fronts down to 38 psi in-between runs. The tires took the first run to grip up (which ended up being a re-run due to timing issues) with consistent grip afterwards that still seems to slightly improve as the tires get more runs. The biggest thing that still stands out to me is just how easy these tires are to drive...I've only ran R-comps in the past but these Rivals are really consistent which makes it easier to focus on improving the driving line instead of having to also focus on managing the tires & SW angle.

The car still gets some really nice lift throttle rotation with the new suspension and overall I'm happy with how the new stuff is performing. This was a low-grip tighter track that seems to favor the 800 lb. square spring set-up, but for higher grip surfaces like Z-Max I can see where going up to 1000 lb. rear springs could be helpful. Right now the focus remains on getting as much seat time as I can with any efforts focused on engine HP with the STX-legal map. This summer I really need to clean these valves and do some general engine upkeep to get as much power as I can with the STX rules. Going to E85 fuel mixture will also be looked into. I also need to get a Go Pro camera so I can finally start recording all of these events.

Next event will be on Memorial Day weekend in either Atlanta or Carolina Motorsports Park, or maybe both with Atlanta on Sunday and CMP on Monday. I would like to get as much running in as possible before the summer months as June/July/August are going to be full with the sports car work, found out last week that I'll be traveling over to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June to help support Aston Martin's GT efforts with Michelin while they campaign 5 cars in this years race. Really wanted to check out this event and I'm looking forward to the experience. I was able to work with this team some last season while they competed in the early ALMS races and really enjoyed working with this group. These cars won the WEC race in Silverstone in early April and finished 2nd at Spa last weekend so they should be competitive and have a shot at winning the GT class in Le Mans. Things are also going well with the new BMW Z4's that are new to the Michelin tires this season. At Long Beach in mid-April the team was able to score a 1-2 finish after some great pit strategy based on the ability to run a little different tire compound that could last longer than everybody else (pic below). Currently the black #55 car is tied for the points lead w/ Corvette going into this weekends race at Laguna Seca.

[justint5387]

E85 won't be legal next year. Not sure, if it's worth it to go thru the trouble now.

[Tweaek]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bill Last week I was able to score by first F(Pax)TD at the second Highlands Sports Car Club event of the season.

1st out of 102 is still pretty impressive. Congrats! You do need a Camera, I'd like to see the car in action.