The Nuclear Option

A6's from Hoosier via TireRack.

Tire Rack offered great service as usual.

I wish I could say the same for Diamond Racing Wheels (link omitted)... but after an early February order with a quoted 1 week lead time, I finally got the wheels the day before the March 21st National Tour. Not only was this about 500% behind schedule, but getting information was like pulling teeth and the vendor did not follow through on commitments to shipping dates or even bother to update me when delays came about. There are several other companies in the US that can make custom steel racing wheels, and I recommend checking them out, as I will should the need to get custom hoops arise again. If I had it to do over, I would probably give Basset a try, or anyone else really.

When I showed up at the tire shop some of the locals expressed a doubt that the wheels would survive mounting unbent, so Diamond carried a bad reputation for structural soundness as well as less than stellar service. The expert technicians at C2 did excellent work and the tires went on with little bending in the rim.

The mounted Hoosier compared to the Toyo R1R and RA1

A6


R1R

RA1

The fitment was VERY tight, as I could pass dental floss between the strut and tire but not a business card. Some rubbing is expected under load, but it should be tolerable.

3/15 Practice

3/15 Practice

This practice was meant for test and tune and autocross novices weren't welcome. Matt took this as a sign that his father should come down and try it for his first time.

Despite being new to autocross, Bill was no stranger to performance driving and took too it quickly. His stock-tired M coupe couldn't quite break into the 60's, but from our view on course it didn't look like Bill was leaving too many tenths unaccounted for. The coupe looked like it could use a little more spring rate or anti-roll, but the BMW looked like a lot of fun and had a decent oversteer when crossing the traction threshold.

This ain't your daddy's station wagon... unless you're Matt

One pleasant surprise was that the intake yielded a noticeable difference in throttle response. Whether due to increased torque or simply a quicker response on opening, the power seemed more readily available on throttle opening.

Speaking of throttle response, the presence of the Shelby GT mustang made it the top of everyone's shortlist for the featherfoot award...

How wrong we were. Not to say the car was driven well, or even quickly, but the pilot's right foot was not lacking in weight. The Shelby's throttle followed the trend of other automobile systems and is completely digital. In fact, it's not so much a pedal as a touchscreen with an 1/0 icon. Or at least, that's what we inferred from the sounds it made as it lurched around the course alternately switching from engine braking to WFOT.

Carol Shelby is old enough to be quite senile and therefore forgets he has already written his name on the car several times in the course of a design. Here are a few of them, but the camera ran out of battery before I could shoot the front, passenger side or interior. The dashboard had the phrase "all work and no play makes Carol Shelby get Alzheimer's" several hundred times a la shinning.

There was a good showing of Silvias, I counted four in the morning group. Only one sported the OEM shift knob (JDM OEM that is)





The venerable Elise


Who wants to be armrest buddies?...
This car was not designed with the American consumer in mind... Thank God.


Update: CR posted shots of the SCNAX Practice...

...and used some for his photo project (scroll down)

Intake

In an attempt to close the power gap with the integras I decided a cold air intake was worth a try. After a little research I decided to go with TRD. In this case, TRD turned out to stand for Taiwanese Ripoff Development, and the blatant copy of the AEM design kept the price down to about $40 shipped.

I'll give it an 8 for shiny, and a 0 for including instructions...

Without a written guide gave it a shot and as it turns out, 90 minutes will turn this:

into this:

...with these left over:

Suggestions for the actual use of the mounting brackets are welcome, since they had no obvious use to me... until then, the zip ties should keep the whole thing from falling out of the car and taking the $300 MAF with it.

Also, possibly for lack of instruction, I cut the provided tubing to the wrong length (or perhaps there was not enough to begin with) and I had to use some left-over PVC for one of the vacuum lines.

Seat of the pants feel indicated a gain of no horsepower or torque, but my ass isn't calibrated to detect the claimed 5% increases.

I'll give the ripoff artists a C for the intake, a solid pass considering the price, and failing grades to Nissan for it's atrocious intake design (really? no slots on the worm drive clamps) and Home Depot for not selling tubing by the foot (it was a 10ft roll for $8 or go-fuck-yourself, so I chose the latter and feel like it was the right move). Go to Lowes, it's always worth the extra drive to avoid the Depot.

3/8 Event

Third event of the '09 season.

Ian scored a second place finish in SK1, beating out all but Jeff.

I managed a second place finish as well, although the climb to the top seems to be a little steeper in my case.

One bonus was finally being able to see myself on video. Now I know why I get dirty looks from the courseworkers.

The featherfoot award for this event goes to whoever brought the SRT-10 Viper coupe within 20 yards of the grid, but failed to race it. What a waste... which brings up an interesting point, does crawling around in a Lambo still beat leaving a Viper parked?

The ever-contentious SK2 class on grid

Arnel keeps a pre-race vigil next to his machine

3/7 SCNAX Practice

3/7 Practice

With the San Diego branch of the SCCA Solo National Tour only two weeks away, it was a very crowded practice. Several teams from Arizona made it out, some driving their racecar with tires in tow. This team didn't even have room for wheel chocks with two drivers and a two-seater full of racing gear, so the co-driver had to volunteer to hold the car still during tire changes.

Matt B. made his return after a hiatus due to a fibular fracture (a condition with which I am intimately familiar) and made a case for cheap tires by edging me out on Sumitomo HTR IIs.

Ian got himself red flagged by following to closely behind what appeared to be a walk-on from a Viking battle reenactment driving a Saabaru 9.2x.

Runs 1-6 for me were on the new Toyo R1R, my choice for practice tire this season.

In the afternoon I switched back to the Toyo RA1 that served me through last season. The setups are a little backwards since the RA1 is a 225 on a 6.5" wheel and the R1R is a 195 on an 8" wheel.

R1R

RA1

I felt much better on the old RA1 than the new and much-touted R1R. My suspicion is the R1R comes with a relatively high treadblock that lends itself well to shaving, and that in new unmolested form, they are quite squirmy. As a practice tire I will not shave them, going for useful life over peak performance, but I recommend cutting them down for anyone interested in competing with the new Toyo.

One highlight was watching a new contender for the "rich guy with the most undersized right foot" award. Last time saw the title taken by the Lamborghini Gallardo, but a very well constructed and race-equipped GT40 Replica threatened to take the title from him.

The usurpation was not to be however, as GT-40 managed a swift 100 second lap, from the lambo's 109.

Some may cry foul, since not all autox tracks are created equal, but I contend that any true featherfoot award should include at least a first-order coefficient for car cost and performace, and I don't think, as nice as it is , that this replica scored the 500HP and $200,000 figures put ip by the lambo. If I had to guess (and it is only a guess, since we got no hint at real capabilities) that even with an 8-Webber fed big block, this thing was only putting out middle 400 ponies, and that the whole project cost was nearer 100K than 200.

Notable cars that were driven in anger included a Japanese exotic, a race-prepped mitsubishi and an all-wheel-drive converted Mazda.

CR also showed up to take some stills, both film and digital.

One feature worth mentioning was the excellent course design, which had incredibly fun, diverse and challenging components, making it a welcome change from the last few, most of which had the same number of corners as a Nascar oval and a drag race start. This course had something on the order of 20+ turns in 60 seconds, and a fantastic 6-cone slalom.

Here's Ian getting very tight on the third cone...

And here he gets in touch with the rally-roots of the WRX with a little Scandanavian flick to help get around the sweeper.

2/15 Autocross Event

Second event of the season

Ian got his first try on the the Kumho Ecsta XS.

They stuck very well and were quite soft to the touch after the second run.

The two spikes represent the respective spins from the STi (on an powershift to third) and the S2000 (2-1 downshift on an intended 2-3 upshift).

Ian's door paid the price from the sideways assault on the course markers.

The good news is Ian was able to edge out long time nemesis Terri and move himself one Honda closer to a trophy. It looked as if some of the S2Ks were on treadbare tires, so the competition may gain in stiffness at the next event.


In D Street Prepared there were several players showing.

Warren and Jayson shared the Integra. I thought there may have been some strategy at play in the two-driver line, with the car owner gleaning the benefit of pre-warmed tires. If anyone wants to apply for the job of warm-up driver, I may have an opening coming up.

The consolation for us 3rd place finishers was the competition outside our class. Specifically, a bonafide supercar gracing us with its presence.

The Lamborghini Gallardo is a mid engine, five liter, ten cylinder all-wheel-drive Italian coupe that retails for somewhere near $200K. With 500 HP on tap it will exceed 200MPH, finish the quarter mile in under 12 seconds and get to 60 in under four.

Fortunately, experience and aggression made up for lack of funding and Ian and I were both able to edge out the supercar by 20 or 30 seconds.

It shouldn't go unmentioned that Ian's four door grocery getter weighs slightly LESS than the Gallardo. If Ian straps two children in the back and a co-driver in the front the two will tip the scales in roughly equal amounts. Light cars are SO 1900s.

In all fairness, I am extremely glad to see someone who bought such a capable machine showing interest in actually using it. I hope he returns frequently, because judging by his learning curve on the first four laps, he's gonna be dynamite when he figures out how to shift to second (as opposed to the dynamite the engine will become if he doesn't).