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SWortham
My roommate is going to co-drive my car with me at this Sunday's autocross. I fully expect he'll be cranking out faster lap times than me in no time because he's good like that. It should be a great experience for me to learn from his driving, and it'll be fascinating to see what my car is capable of now that I've sorted out the suspension to my liking.

I'll report back here with the results. smile.gif
Bobzilla
Cool! Racing Sunday?

I'm still looking for another driver, but that may be next year.
SWortham
Yep, I'll be racing at the Texas Motor Speedway infield road course. There will be cones on track of course, and it tends to be a slalom-a-thon, but still it's one of the coolest races of the year.

This is the first time co-driving my car with someone. But my roommate is a very fast driver. He's capable of outperforming many of the veteran autocrossers. We'll have to wait and see how quickly he adapts to my car, but he seemed to get the hang of driving an Evo to its limits in no time so I don't think he'll have a problem. I just need to come prepared and maybe we can get good 'ol Blue Thunder a podium finish.
Silentwolf
Cool. Good luck.


Wheres this located?
SWortham
Texas Motor Speedway is in Fort Worth, TX.
Toecutter
Good luck Steve! Are you taking video?
SWortham
Yep, I'll post it up on YouTube. You'll all get to see (at least my roommate's) mad driving skills. wink.gif

I've got a nice in-car mount and a wide-angle lens for my camcorder now.
Bobzilla
I thought you were a Texan Steve-o. What's this "You'll all" crap? You know how it's supposed to sound down there. . . tongue.gif

haha.gif
SWortham
^ Texas is a big place, and I'm a city-folk, yo. tongue.gif
Bobzilla
haha.gif Y'all are as hard to decipher sometimes as our Aussie friends! But I enjoy both of ya's. biggrin.gif
SWortham
Yesterday was a long day. We had an amazing 225 people signed up for this event. That's gotta be a record of some kind. Unfortunately that meant that we only got 3 runs.

But anyway, I drove before my friend did and I had the challenge of trying to figure out how to drive the car through the slalom with the new setup. Just before the race I had turned the damping way up to where I think it should be. I had literally never driven the car like that before so I didn't know what to expect. Well... the car turned-in better than ever... almost too good. I was oversteering through the slalom, the tail was sliding out on me and it was tough to keep it tidy so I nailed a few cones.

When I got around to the long sweepers the car felt excellent. I was amazed at how neutral it was and how incredibly predictable it was at the limit. I got all 4 tires screeching through the corner just right. It's a much better feeling than the simple modulation of understeer that I had to deal with in previous setups.

Unfortunately I never really got the hang of the slaloms in the car and since there were so many slaloms on the course, that killed my times.

But my friend, on the other hand, is good like I was saying. He beat my best time of the day by 5 seconds and got 2nd place in STU! I think he officially confirmed for me that running the stock springs on this car is not the handicap so many people make it out to be.
Toecutter
Excellent! Please post the link to the videos when you get them up.
Bobzilla
Don't forget your other thread about your results.
SWortham
QUOTE (Toecutter @ Jul 16 2007, 10:01 AM)
Excellent!  Please post the link to the videos when you get them up.
*

Will do.
---------
QUOTE (Bobzilla @ Jul 16 2007, 10:14 AM)
Don't forget your other thread about your results.
*

I won't. The official results haven't been posted yet though, and I honestly don't know what place I got.
silet
QUOTE (SWortham @ Jul 16 2007, 10:56 AM)
But my friend, on the other hand, is good like I was saying. He beat my best time of the day by 5 seconds and got 2nd place in STU! I think he officially confirmed for me that running the stock springs on this car is not the handicap so many people make it out to be.
*


It took me quite a few years to understand this point. I thought that the exotic suspension setups had a tremendous advantage, but realized this true for dedicated race cars. If you get in the car and drive it home, a whole set of other rules apply.

A close friend decided to upgrade his suspension to a race setup. This guy had minimal performance knowledge, but could drive any car to limits like no one else could... and still can. He was really disappointed with his new suspension and swapped it out to a street performance version. Watching this guy drive showed me how much I didn't know and that's the point were I got better. Still no where near to this guy's skills.

You are lucky, because now all you need is to forget anything about what the car has and just focus on making up those 5 seconds. That should be your next goal...
SWortham
Yep, I'm loving the setup I've got now. It really does ride AND handle better than a stock STI. And seeing how my friend was up against some of the best STU drivers in the country and he got 2nd place, it proves that the car is capable. It really handled amazingly well out there. It all comes down to the driving at this point.

I want to drive with the BMW club, or S2000 club since you get more runs with them and I REALLY need more practice than I've been getting. I feel like I become rusty too quickly and it doesn't help that I've been skipping some events.
SWortham
Here's a clip of the best run of the day in my car...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-HhkxAkpjM

Too bad I wasn't behind the wheel when it happened. There are some things you can't pick up by watching the video and you have to feel it yourself. But you can kinda see how quickly the car snaps and turns in. The turn-in is absolutely amazing for a 3,300 pound car.

Mike's driving was just about spot-on though. He kept it very tight to the cones in most places. And I think it's obvious by the tire screeching that he pushed the car to its limits. He thinks there was still some time left out on course. We also may have been better off dropping the tire pressures a tad. But I think it was a very impressive run nonetheless.
Silentwolf
Whats the suspension setup?
SWortham
- Ohlins struts (damping adjustable)
- Stock springs
- RCE lowering camber plates (3/8" lower in the front, without reducing travel baby)
- Group N rear mounts
- Whiteline 24mm front/24mm rear adjustable sway bars
- Kartboy front & rear endlinks
- alignment: -2.1 degrees front camber, -1.6 degrees rear camber, 0 toe all around
- 245/45-17 Bridgestone RE-01R's
Toecutter
Good for 2nd place in a car that wasn't his... he's a good driver indeed. Very nice! The car looks like it handles real well too. Although, I can see what you mean by getting loose in the slaloms. It looks like he pushed it to the aboslute edge there. Maybe you went over the edge a bit? It looks like it sticks like stink on the sweepers...w00t!

However, what is he doing with the shifter between 00:43 and 00:45? Seems like a bit of coasting there.

Also, what camera mount are you using? It looks quite steady.
SWortham
QUOTE (Toecutter @ Jul 17 2007, 09:57 AM)
Good for 2nd place in a car that wasn't his... he's a good driver indeed.  Very nice!  The car looks like it handles real well too.  Although, I can see what you mean by getting loose in the slaloms.  It looks like he pushed it to the aboslute edge there.  Maybe you went over the edge a bit?

Well on my very first run I think I was probably going about the right speed through the slaloms but I wasn't placing the car very well. I just wasn't keeping it tight enough so I ended up nailing like 5 cones on that run. On my next run I slowed down a bit in effort to keep it clean. The trouble was that now I was simply going too slow and the cumulative time I lost through the slaloms ruined my times. Mike, on the other hand, was pushing to the absolute limit and keeping it very tight as well. He has some video from the passenger side of the car showing just how close he was to the cones, and running over the bases of quite a few as well. It's truly impressive he was able to do that in my car. He had literally never driven my car at all until this day.

QUOTE (Toecutter @ Jul 17 2007, 09:57 AM)
However, what is he doing with the shifter between 00:43 and 00:45?  Seems like a bit of coasting there.

Yep, good eye. He couldn't find the gear. The side-to-side spring tension is pretty weak on my shifter. So when you're flying through a corner, your muscles are all tense from having to hold yourself in place (since I don't have a harness), then you tend to exert more energy than is necessary to shift from 2nd to 3rd. The tendency can be to shift to 5th. That's one thing I told him about before hand that's hard to get used to.

QUOTE (Toecutter @ Jul 17 2007, 09:57 AM)
Also, what camera mount are you using?  It looks quite steady.
*

It's a camera mount designed for the STI that mounts directly to a vertical support beam behind the rear seat.
Toecutter
QUOTE
So when you're flying through a corner, your muscles are all tense from having to hold yourself in place (since I don't have a harness)


So am I to assume that a harness is soon on the agenda?
SWortham
QUOTE (Toecutter @ Jul 17 2007, 10:21 AM)
So am I to assume that a harness is soon on the agenda?
*

Definitely. Actually I think I'll be getting a Recaro Sport seat and a harness. That's basically the same seat that's in the Evo, and it's soooo nice. It's lighter than the stock seat, holds me in place so much better and is more comfortable as well.
Bobzilla
Your seats wouldn't have side airbags would they?
SWortham
QUOTE (Bobzilla @ Jul 17 2007, 10:30 AM)
Your seats wouldn't have side airbags would they?
*

The stock seats do. But no the car wouldn't if I replaced them if that's what you mean. That's the one crappy thing about it. For that reason I'd replace the driver's seat and leave the stock passenger seat as is. Well.... that and it's cheaper to buy one seat than two.

I'll just have to fool the airbag system into thinking an airbag is present in the driver's seat. Fortunately, the Subaru owners before me have already figured out how to do that. Just takes a 3.3 ohm resistor.
Bobzilla
Your stock seat is better than mine, no? I bet it would look great in my car (hint hint)
SWortham
I don't know if I'd go as far as to say they're better than the Elantra seats. Honestly, even though the side bolsters may be bigger, they are too far apart. And I'm not sure they hold me in place much better than a leaned-back Elantra seat.

The stock STI seats are one of the most pathetic parts of the car. I could never figure out what they were thinking in designing those seats. They are extremely firm, but they're springy. The springs in the seats act like a trampoline which, quite honestly, is extremely annoying. But I think I'll hang onto the stock seat anyway for when I sell the car years from now.
Bobzilla
Oh well, at least I can dream!
Toecutter
QUOTE
The springs in the seats act like a trampoline


And here I thought that all the STI guys were just boppin' with the music!
Silentwolf
Solution? http://www.recaro.com/index.php?id=1391®ion=3&L=2
SWortham
^ They don't have an approved solution for the STI yet. And I may waiting a long time in fact. They have universal racing seat w/ airbags solutions as well but again the legality of them is an issue in the U.S.

That's why I'll probably just buy a Recaro Sport...


There's just one other possibility. The '08 STI might have better seats when it comes out. If Subaru has listened to their customers surely they'll have replaced those seats, perhaps even with some nice Recaro's. Then I could buy some '08 seats (w/ airbags I'm sure) and be done with it. I'm sure that won't be cheap though.
Silentwolf
Recaros aint cheap either tho. I'd love to have a more supportive seat but i prefer to keep my airbags.

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