2011 Autocross Season- Event 2: Getting better every time.

[bluesunit]

Results speak for themselves. I was only D-stock driver for the day, so I have to compare using PAX.

Names obscured out of courtesy, but anyone marked as a national level driver can generally be found in the top few drivers at Tour events.

Surface: Asphalt parking lot. Reasonably flat. Lots of dust and sand.
Temperatures: lower 60's
Tires/wheels: Hoosier R6 take-offs, 245/35/18 square on Breyton GTS-Rs
Pressures: 39 front, 44 rear
Suspension: Bone stock
Alignment: Max negative in front, ~ -1 deg. in rear. ~0" toe all around.
Stability Control: Dead (see notes)

Observations:

R6s work fine on this car for local events. I received them with about 70% tread and have gotten about 30-runs out of them so far. Tire wear has been excellent. I will flip them before the next event and I expect to get another 30 runs out of them. Despite temperature, course conditions, etc R6 > street tire. Game, set, match.

Car is handling very neutrally with little tendency to much of anything except travel in the intended direction (good and bad). Attempts to rotate using the throttle results in a) the car pushing slightly or b) the rear tires spinning, but the car not actually rotating. Really odd behavior, but easy enough to control. Condition is probably not made any better by the fact that the brake-diff isn't working (again, see notes). I probably need more pressure in the front.

A couple of fast guys drove my car. All of our fastest times were withing a 10th of each other. General consensus was that the car is smooth and quiet to the point that it doesn't feel fast anymore, while at the same time praising the steering feel and feedback. I'd agree, the 135 is a no-drama machine when you are asking it to dance.

I think there was another 1/4 to 1/2 second left in the car. Definitely a sub-39 second.

Notes: I have a faulty steering angle sensor which causes DSC to be completely non-functional (including brake-diff when everything is off). Occasionally, when restarting the car, it will decide that every thing is OK and allow you to turn off DSC normally, and return the b-diff to service. It will then, inevitably, fail during the middle of your next run, causing hilarity.

Waiting for part to come in.

[MarkR171]

Nice work! How do you think R6s would work on an asphalt surface in 70-85ish degree weather? I see a lot of super cheap 245 R6s on ebay with plenty of tread so was thinking of picking those up instead of a new set of A6s. Do you think square 255 would fit?

Are you still using the stock front sway bar? Any plans to change? With the Hotchkis front sway bar, I get some throttle oversteer on corner exits if I'm not careful. DSC off of course. I'm also running exactly opposite tire pressures, but on street tires (44 front, 39 rear.)

On street tires in DS, I've been running times good for top 20 PAX. I'm hoping I can break into the top 10 PAX with Hoosiers next season.

Do you have the alignment pins removed for your front camber? If so, who did you take the car to to remove them? Or did you remove them yourself then take it to an alignment shop?

[pixelblue]

guys you know the R6 is not ideal for autox. it takes longer to bring up to heat. you will def get better results if you had the A6. just my .02

[MarkR171]

Aware of that, hence my question as to his thoughts. I could save a lot of money getting slightly used R6s for my first time using R-Compounds.

[bluesunit]

New A6's = $1200 for a set and you *might* get 40-50 runs out of them.

Used R6's = $160 for a set and you'll get 60+ runs out of a half worn set.

For local events, R6s are where it's at. When I'm a second behind that CSP Miata, I'll start looking at A6s. Also, our size seems to be pretty common.

Also, in 60 degree weather, they work fine. The car is so hard on the front tires to begin with, you get good, quick heat build up. In hotter weather, they will be even better.

255's would be pushing it even with spacers. I'm already rubbing on the shock body and front lower control arm with the 245s and it looks like I'm about a millimeter from starting to work on the fender lip. There's tales of someone at nationals running 275s on the front on Breytons, but I have no freaking clue how they pulled that off.

I'd recommend running a square setup. The car gets light in the front under power, which leads to push. Fatter tires/more grip only exacerbates this.

I'm on the Hotchkis bar. I really think not having the eLSD was hurting me yesterday.

I definitely need a bit more pressure. The course yesterday was heavy on left hand turns. I was rolling over to the point that I wore the "FOR COMPETITION USE ONLY" label off my right hand front tire

The previous owner of my car had his shocks replaced under warranty, so the pins were removed during that service. The dealer actually did it, and it looks like they went to town on the top of the struts with a grinder (very nice). I would have done it myself given the opportunity.

[aisthetes]

Nice work. Further proof that the 135i is already highly competitive out of the box. Tires and some camber really transform it.

[MarkR171]

Originally Posted by aisthetes

Nice work. Further proof that the 135i is already highly competitive out of the box. Tires and some camber really transform it.

at least on the local level, absolutely.

[bluesunit]

The "At the local level" is the important part. DS is such a weird collection of cars.