The 318ti's and my, last hurrah in G Street

"Trunk Impaired 318" (matteocscaptura)
10/06/2014 at 19:09 • Filed to: None

Yesterday was our final autocross of the year and boy was it interesting. The day started off busy as my dad and I were doing tech inspections for what would be our largest turnout of the year. Unfortunately one of the most bullshit cars in GS showed up, a Focus ST, and even worse is that it was being piloted by someone who knew what they were doing. To make my hopes of at least winning class even worse was the fact that it was no more than 50 degrees and let me tell you, Hankook Ventus RS3s do not like cold weather AT ALL. As evidenced by me failing to save a fairly straight forward slide seen below. (And ignore my horrible slalom while some fucks were still given)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3csqlN…

After our morning runs I was second to the FoST by just over a second which seemed like an impossible margin, and after the first two of my final three runs I had only closed the gap to about three quarters of a second. Then, at the line for my final run my favorite rival? mentor? I don't really know what to call him actually, came up to me and told me that I needed to go faster, naturally I blamed it on the tires but he said it looked like I was holding back. Now usually Im the person who turns tires into the most amount of smoke during the course of the day so I was gonna show him. And somehow, I did. On my last run of the year I beat out the FoST by just over a tenth of a second, cementing my class championship victory for the year and achieving 2nd overall in PAX, it didn't even look good either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Cr8Q…

However this was bittersweet because it was also my final time competing in GS. My dad and I had plans to move to STX next year but having just learned that the 318ti will be in HS next year we're seriously considering staying in Street category because we would just murder PAX. But thats a topic for another day.

DISCUSSION (13)

Kanaric > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 19:38

Switch to Kumho Ecsta XS, they are just a far better tire. They stay mostly the same through an autocross, don't become too slick, and cold weather doesn't affect them nearly as much as other tires ive used.

On a 318ti can you use those wheels that had the 225 tires on those cars? I think it was like some kind of a competition package of some kind?

Trunk Impaired 318 > Kanaric
10/06/2014 at 19:41

I love the RS3s and so far their cold weather performance is the only negative thing I've experienced with them and we're running 225/50/16 which was the stock size for the sport model

Kanaric > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 19:46

Speaking of using wheels from the other trims. The Honda Civic Si Mugen is in HS with you, the Fiesta ST, and the Mini Cooper has dominated that class for quite a while. IDK how they will perform compared to your car but a lot of people in HS are butthurt as fuck about that Fiesta and Mugen

Trunk Impaired 318 > Kanaric
10/06/2014 at 20:03

Im very butthurt about the FiST since its usually a better performer than the FoST but Ive never even seen one anywhere near my region and the same with the Mugen. As for the Mini, our car can usually keep up with the Cooper S because of RWD and a great handling chassis. But the SCCA has really messed up classing both the FoST and FiST, not to mention the Boss 302 getting moved to FS, like WTF.

Kanaric > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 20:07

Fiesta shouldn't have moved. Or it should be in a class between HS and GS but it's clearly something that shouldn't be in HS IMO. Mugen SI are rare. That generation civic SI is not a bad car, i've seen them post similar times to a Fiesta ST when in the hands of a good driver.

The Boss 302 REALLY grinded my gears because I have a GT and I was planning on running it next season.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the "street" class, always ran ST. What are the rules with street? If you have a Civic SI and a Mugen is on t he same line as you can up update/backdate to Mugen suspension and things like that?

Trunk Impaired 318 > Kanaric
10/06/2014 at 20:10

Theoretically yes but theres a lot of grey areas plus now that its Street and not Stock anymore you can do a few upgrades that you never used to be able to.

Kanaric > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 20:12

Last time I went stock things were a lot more strict with that, lol. Makes me almost want to find a cheap civic SI and build my own mugen car. Those mugens are super expensive used, like $20,000 still.

Brian Silvestro > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 20:18

My car is also coming to HS, so you're screwed. Go to STX

Trunk Impaired 318 > Kanaric
10/06/2014 at 20:20

Prepped civics can be absolutely crazy. I saw a heavily modded 4th gen civic last year that ran less than a second off of the fastest kart, absolutely ridiculous.

Trunk Impaired 318 > Brian Silvestro
10/06/2014 at 20:28

Unless you're coming to my region Im not too worried about it, nobody anywhere near me has a FiST, plus Ive shown that the 318ti is a pretty competitive car when set up right an driven at its limits. And if you don't win PAX next year you should be very ashamed of yourself, if you can get a Boxster to 2nd you should be able to kill it with the FiST.

Brian Silvestro > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 20:51

Yeah I plan on conquering AutoX next year. Should be fun.

Trunk Impaired 318 > Brian Silvestro
10/06/2014 at 20:57

Winning is always fun.

Brian Silvestro > Trunk Impaired 318
10/06/2014 at 21:00

ALWAYS