SCCA Houston Region B Spec build :)

[RJay]

Fiat 500? Wouldn't you be better off racing the scorpion-badged version?

Mine's bone stock. with spare tire and tools and such. Also airconditioning adds a little.

[ilikerice]

The Abarth is turbo charged pushing 180ish bhp. That would slaughter the others with the rules that allow certain upgrades for all vehicles. Best was is to just add weight to even out the playing field.

[RJay]

I see the problem, bound to an average bph / weight ratio....
And it's cheaper to add weight than to add power.

A friend of mine had to ad about 140-150 lbs of lead to his Suzuki Swift cupracer last year, cause the caŕ's stripped out and he himself is little more than a twig....

[xnamerxx]

Well final weight on the car is 2430 so I have to add some ballast but not a ton.

[xnamerxx]

Almost looks like a racecar now.

[xnamerxx]

Well finished up my Drivers school, got my competition License and attended my first B-Spec race. Its been a long weekend but I finally have some time to reflect over the past weekend at Buttonwillow. We ran configuration 14 cw



The car performed about as well as expected, the weight and suspension are holding it back, spinning the inside tire on every corner aside from Riverside was extremely frustrating. High speed stability is still questionable, but somewhat easy manage if you keep the speed below 95. The car really needs some more rear roll stiffness ala TRD bar or something. The stability issue was probably tire or alignment related, haven't figured that one out yet.

I had 2 Honda Fits to compete against and the 5 second gap between me and the faster driver of the Honda Fit is likely something I wont be able to overcome with the cars current setup. While it was quite fun dicing with the slower driver, but its difficult in knowing I have a long hill to climb if I want to keep up with the faster cars.

All in all I'm finding it very hard to get motivated with this car as penalized as it currently is. A few tweaks to the weight and suspension, and it should be good.

[Larry@CFR]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

Well finished up my Drivers school, got my competition License and attended my first B-Spec race. Its been a long weekend but I finally have some time to reflect over the past weekend at Buttonwillow. We ran configuration 14 cw



The car performed about as well as expected, the weight and suspension are holding it back, spinning the inside tire on every corner aside from Riverside was extremely frustrating. High speed stability is still questionable, but somewhat easy manage if you keep the speed below 95. The car really needs some more rear roll stiffness ala TRD bar or something. The stability issue was probably tire or alignment related, haven't figured that one out yet.

I had 2 Honda Fits to compete against and the 5 second gap between me and the faster driver of the Honda Fit is likely something I wont be able to overcome with the cars current setup. While it was quite fun dicing with the slower driver, but its difficult in knowing I have a long hill to climb if I want to keep up with the faster cars.

All in all I'm finding it very hard to get motivated with this car as penalized as it currently is. A few tweaks to the weight and suspension, and it should be good.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have built & raced a Toyota Yaris in SCCA which only one other car/driver has done. Now we can use your & Jason's experience to lobby SCCA Comp Board for changes. Without another car on track it's impossible to have any data to prove our case. Good job building a car that ran the entire school and was able to compete, but I know you didn't feel competitive. Were the 2 Honda's schoolies or licensed drivers getting track time?

[Larry@CFR]

Haven't heard from FHT_Racing in awhile, how's the build going in Houston?? Saw Joe McClughan used Taake's TCB car for a B-Spec SCCA Major race last weekend and set the lap record. Unfortunately, no competition there but he ran well.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by Larry@CFR

CONGRATULATIONS! You have built & raced a Toyota Yaris in SCCA which only one other car/driver has done. Now we can use your & Jason's experience to lobby SCCA Comp Board for changes. Without another car on track it's impossible to have any data to prove our case. Good job building a car that ran the entire school and was able to compete, but I know you didn't feel competitive. Were the 2 Honda's schoolies or licensed drivers getting track time?

Well only one Yaris still has done it, he resurrected our car from the scrap heap.

Wow are those numbers small... Are those 8" high with a 1.5" stroke?

[xnamerxx]

Originally Posted by Larry@CFR

CONGRATULATIONS! You have built & raced a Toyota Yaris in SCCA which only one other car/driver has done. Now we can use your & Jason's experience to lobby SCCA Comp Board for changes. Without another car on track it's impossible to have any data to prove our case. Good job building a car that ran the entire school and was able to compete, but I know you didn't feel competitive. Were the 2 Honda's schoolies or licensed drivers getting track time?

Both were going through the school as well, one was a THR-W employee the other was a HPD employee. One was in the familiar Red TCB world challenge car, and the other was driving a Black Honda Fit. The red TCB car set a B-Spec lap record at the track and was a full 5 seconds faster than my race time although it was only 4 seconds faster than my qualifying time.

I'll admit I'm not the best driver, and running on old tires doesn't help my case either, and I know my rant was doom and gloom, but the chassis really isn't bad, the inside spin issues just need to be reduced and the car should fly on track...well fly as fast as a b-spec car can.

[xnamerxx]

Something like that, I pulled the out of the vinyl bin a few minutes before I left. The guy that normally makes that stuff for me had his machine break so I was left scrambling to get something on the car. Timing and scoring had a nice chat with me about that.

Also looking at that picture I think I'm almost on the rear bumpstops LOL.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

Both were going through the school as well, one was a THR-W employee the other was a HPD employee. One was in the familiar Red TCB world challenge car, and the other was driving a Black Honda Fit. The red TCB car set a B-Spec lap record at the track and was a full 5 seconds faster than my race time although it was only 4 seconds faster than my qualifying time.

I'll admit I'm not the best driver, and running on old tires doesn't help my case either, and I know my rant was doom and gloom, but the chassis really isn't bad, the inside spin issues just need to be reduced and the car should fly on track...well fly as fast as a b-spec car can.

Keep in mind that configuration is typically only used for the school weekend, so often times the records are/were very soft or did not previously exists. While the BS record is a 2:09 now, the HP record dates back to 1996 and is a 2:16.

Once you get to Willow Springs you will have a better idea of how far off the car is.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

Something like that, I pulled the out of the vinyl bin a few minutes before I left. The guy that normally makes that stuff for me had his machine break so I was left scrambling to get something on the car. Timing and scoring had a nice chat with me about that.

Also looking at that picture I think I'm almost on the rear bumpstops LOL.

You should be on all of the stops as soft as those springs are.

Did anyone trip over your front tow hook?

[xnamerxx]

LOL no but a few people jumped on it to see how sturdy it was.

Yeah the car riding the bump stop like that makes sense as to why the car was so loose going into Riverside. Diving in at 106 mph resulted in a very tight sphincter when the back of the car decided it didn't want to follow me. Jason in the black Fit even backed up a bit when I missed the apex by 10ft expecting a big crash.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

LOL no but a few people jumped on it to see how sturdy it was.

Yeah the car riding the bump stop like that makes sense as to why the car was so loose going into Riverside. Diving in at 106 mph resulted in a very tight sphincter when the back of the car decided it didn't want to follow me. Jason in the black Fit even backed up a bit when I missed the apex by 10ft expecting a big crash.

You got in to 4th gear?

[xnamerxx]

My 106 run I was on the speed limiter, after that I usually lifted somewhere around 100-105. I had to shift into 4th during Dog Leg and Sunset and the front straight. Like I said I had no complaints about power, I could pull on the Hondas during the faster portions of track, but they walked away from me during the twisty bits.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

My 106 run I was on the speed limiter, after that I usually lifted somewhere around 100-105. I had to shift into 4th during Dog Leg and Sunset and the front straight. Like I said I had no complaints about power, I could pull on the Hondas during the faster portions of track, but they walked away from me during the twisty bits.

Speed limiter or rev limiter? I thought the top speed limiter was 118 mph?

My math shows the top of 3rd is 91mph with a stock ECU, and 124 in 4th.

[xnamerxx]

The speed limiter is supposed to kick in at 112mph, the car really didn't want to go above 106 indicated, it kinda felt like the speed limiter was kicking in. Not sure if it was or not but it felt like it.