"t0ast" (t0ast217)
07/24/2017 at 11:45 • Filed to: None
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"t0ast" (t0ast217)
07/24/2017 at 11:45 • Filed to: None | 1
| 3 |
Holy shit it was hot this weekend. With highs in the 95-105 range (+10 or so for heat index), attendance was down by 20%, if not more. Sticking it out proved worthwhile though. Saturday went pretty well, but I managed to snag my best overall finish to date on Sunday. The STR NC just turned past 100k miles on the way there too.
Videos are back to the Waylens, now with slightly improved franken-RAM-Mount mounting. It still shakes and rattles because I can only eliminate 2 of the 3 potential loose points in the mount’s design without an impractical amount of 3D printing and custom fabrication. I think I’m about ready to give up and sell it so I can just use the tried and true combo of action cam + bluetooth OBD and GPS + phone app for video and data.
Saturday, 7/22 - KC Event 7
2nd place STR (of 6), 10th place overall PAX (of 83)
This was a fun configuration, and even a little more-so when reversed on Sunday IMO. My last two visits here had the course left fairly wide-open and loaded up with a bunch of simple sweepers and slaloms. This time around they tightened up the course a little, utilized more slalom offsets and angles, had more technical corner shapes, and created some challenging transitions between elements.
The start of the day was a little rough (losing 2 runs to cones and/or a spin) but I got things mostly figured out by the last run. I knew I had it in me to go as fast as the first place STR time (from one of my usual rivals in the E36 M3), but I just couldn’t quite get the course and my car’s behavior on it figured out in time. If my last visit here was any indication, I’d just do better on Sunday.
Saturday Fun Runs
After the event wrapped up, a handful of crazies (read: me, the fiance, and 3-4 others) stuck around for fun runs which lived up to the name in spite of pushing me ever so close to heat exhaustion.
Fun Run 1: Traded cars with a NB STR driver, which was great because I had yet to pilot any other generation of Miata. He and his NB usually run a few seconds behind me, but we unfortunately didn’t get to see our times due to a system malfunction. It didn’t feel too far off from my car, just down a bit on power and grip, but it was definitely a lot more willing to rotate, which was a very enjoyable departure from my own almost-too-stable setup.
Fun Run 2: Stole the driver’s seat from my fiance to go see what his FRS could do and show him how I’d drive it. More on that a bit further below.
Fun Run 3: Hopped back in my car and managed to drive about 0.3 faster than the video above, but that was still about 0.1 short of the winning STR time. Oh well.
The NB STR driver also wound up talking his way into driving a not-ready-for-autocross-in-any-way V6 Cavalier convertible owned by one of the event chairs (who also has an XP Cavalier and a good sense of humor) just for the lulz. The verdict? “It’s... a car. Also, I think I’m making more power than that V6.”
Sunday, 7/23 - KC Event 8 (reversed course)
1st place STR (of 5), 4th place overall PAX (of 92)
Primed with what I learned from yesterday, I set out some reasonably fast times right from the start, albeit with cones on the first two runs (both being the first inside cone of the “box” area). Things really started to click after the 3rd run, and I got to exactly where I wanted to be on run 4, save for one stupidly overcooked corner. I simply fixed that error on run 5 and it all finally came together.
As you can see, I was pretty happy with the results. Even in terms of raw time, it was good for 3rd, with FTD being an insanely good STS CRX driver that ran about 0.8 faster (or 1.3 w/ PAX adjustment). Best I had done previously with either timing method was 6th and I usually tend to land near 10th.
As for the fiance,
He fared exceedingly well in Novice with a good 2+ second (PAX-adjusted) lead in his group on both days, though he has another 2 or so seconds to go before he can start catching the faster DS drivers. During my Fun Run in his car, I managed to show him a time almost identical to the winning DS driver (+/- 0.2 due to some slightly out of place cones), which seems to have helped considerably. He managed to shave over a second off of his best Saturday time right afterwards. The improvements carried over in to Sunday, with him starting off with faster times and improving even more throughout the day, but unfortunately his fastest run got knocked out by a cone.
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> t0ast
08/15/2017 at 16:58 |
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Looks like a fun venue and course layout! Must also be nice to be able to hit 60 in 2nd gear. Mine tops out around 52. Sure I enjoy being at redline more but it just means I am slower since shifting always takes up time.
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t0ast
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
08/15/2017 at 18:17 |
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It’s a pretty great location. I believe they used to do nationals there at some point too. It’s a little bumpy in some spots but the grip is excellent otherwise.
I can actually tickle 63 in 2nd :-) ... It’s nice in the sense that I’ll never have to worry about 3rd gear, but I do wish I had something just a little shorter since I hit the limiter maybe once out of five events. Guessing NB with a 6-speed for that 52 mph? I’ve watched that combo going around a few times I can’t imagine that being pleasant to deal with.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> t0ast
08/15/2017 at 21:05 |
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Yup thats my configuration. Its very fun at least to make more noise and as long as its not a super fast course, I can have a little advantage by being in the powerband sooner vs the 5speed NA/NBs. Almost never a time where I could need to shift into first at least. At least the VVT makes it feel alive through the whole range. When I drove a 1.8 NA, it was just way too slow feeling. Sure it was lighter but it was just kinda boring waiting for the power to come in.