2013 San Diego National Tour

[xnamerxx]

So today was the first day of the San Diego National Tour, overall the event has been awesome and the STF class is starting to get pretty diverse.
I had some traction issues during my runs due to the dirty pavement and running pretty bald Toyo tires.
I'm 5th in class so far, but threw away a 2nd place run due to a DNF on a slalom, and at least according to my data I had a class leading run, but I'm not a solid enough driver to get that, and according to some course workers my car was carrying quite a bit more speed through some of the faster section of the course compared to the class leaders but that's just anecdotal evidence at this point.

Attached a video of my fastest clean run, this was one of the more difficult courses I've had to run, and overall I didn't enjoy it very much but.

http://youtu.be/N7Pk5_xJyoc

[Jason@SportsCar]

Did Joe convert his HS Mini from last year to STF trim, or did he just put street tires on? If the HS Mini is fast enough to win STF with just a tire change it may be time for you to change classes.

[xnamerxx]

no it was converted to stf has some garbage Coilovers but it's setup pretty well. my driving was pretty awful both days but both he and the Honda fit and Mazda 3 got a magic run today. I will say that sd surface sucks and mysetup didn't work here. el toro will be another good test Joe is running stf next week along with the fit and possibly joes current codrive.

[xnamerxx]

apparently the minis don't get power from bolt ons like the jap cars. joe was saying it didn't gain much speed from the suspension either but the balance was better. he was under the assumption that the eldc made that car.

[xnamerxx]

stf was running pretty close to str

[xnamerxx]

So recap for the weekend. I HATE!!! the surface of San Diego, I've run there dozens of times and this weekend was no difference, except the course was a high grip course on a low grip surface.

Saturday: This was probably one of the worse courses I've ever had the joy of driving, there were portions where 1st gear would have been a good gear choice for me and some of the Miatas were downshifting there because they had too. I really should have driven this on the Dunlops as the Toyos were next to useless here, I chose to take a wide line and was punished quite badly in doing so, since I would pickup marbles and lose complete grip on that wheel, mix in a my awful driving and you have a recipe for a pretty unfun course. I was able to put down a pretty quick scratch time but those don't count so its just a what if that will haunt me I'm sure.

Sunday: The course on Sunday was a little better because it flowed quite a bit better than Saturday, but it was still a pretty terrible course, it was very tight and in sections demanded that you take the right line to be quick. Now if you can imagine it, my driving on Saturday was even worse than my driving on Sunday, but I decided to switch tires out for my last run as a JIC measure since I was soo upset with the performance of my Toyos. The Dunlops were at least functional out there where the Toyos were not but it doesn't get away from the fact that I quite frankly could not put it together and put down a fast run. I think this direction really demanded you have a car that could put down some power, because the Miatas that were killing on Saturday were back of the pack Sunday.

Now for a sumup of the cars that I got the please to compete against.

Red Mini Cooper. This guy puts down some pretty serious Hp but his torque numbers were a bit lackluster, the car itself looked alright out on course but he seemed to have some of the same problems I had with Toyos not working correctly, and his times seemed to reflect that.

Blue Honda Fit - This was a car I was really interested in seeing how it performed since I've pretty much never seen one setup for autox. While his HP and Tq numbers aren't stellar, he has the great gearing of the Mini and launch control. This car tookoff like a rocketship on Sunday and he put down some pretty spectacular times in doing so although I didn't really get to see much of it beyond that, he was suffering from ABS/brake issues all weekend along with the crap bald Toyo tires.

Seafoam Mini Cooper - This was a relatively unknown to me, he had been running in H stock for many years but this is his first year in STF. From conversations I was able to gather, he's got a fairly set suspension, adjustable lower control arms and such. Both people piloting this car were veteran national competitors and were amazing drivers. Talking to them it appeared this was the first event where there Hankook tires worked really well, I'm not sure if this car worked quite well because of the lower grip surface of what, but it was really hauling the mail.

The Mazda 3 - If it was fully developed I could see it winning easily since Steve is probably one of the best drivers I know, and a royal PITA to beat along with his Co driver they are usually a big force to be recon with.

From what I've gathered about this experience, I suck at using the brakes and I should have trusted my instincts to use Dunlop tires, but I saw $$$ from using the Toyos so I stuck with it and it cost me in the end, live and learn I guess.

My overall guess as to how STF will shape up, I have a feeling on and power courses, it'll be a tossup between the Fit or the 07-12 Mini Cooper or the Mazda 3 or Civic Si, if its a technical course I'm guessing it'll be a toss between the Mazda 2 or Yaris, but those are only guesses. The Mini Coopers don't seem to respond very well to modifications like some of the other cars so its really an unknown I guess.

[xnamerxx]

Watching some of the Solo stream videos the Mini is one of the slowest accelerating cars in a straight line, nothing touches the Mazda but that Fit only edged my car by a nose when I was running the larger diameter Dunlops.

[NJ Drive]

Did Joe say why he's registered for the NJ Pro in HS?

[xnamerxx]

He's registered in HS for the Pro but he's flip flopping back and forth depending on whether a class can be made and how competitive he is. It looks like he's converting his car back and forth from STF to HS but from talking to him he liked running STF more than HS.

I'll talk to him more at the Pro next week.

[xnamerxx]

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

So recap for the weekend. I HATE!!! the surface of San Diego, I've run there dozens of times and this weekend was no difference, except the course was a high grip course on a low grip surface.

We figured out about ten years ago that if you want to go fast in SD you need new tires - does not matter if they are street or Rs, they just need to be fresh. The aggregate is so exposed you need a lot of meat on the tire just to get off the tips of the stones and get down to the grip. And the surface has certainly not improved with age.

[xnamerxx]

Yeah, my very last run of the weekend I switched to my Z2 just so I could have a run I wasn't angry about. With really cold tires I knocked over half a second off my time and it would have been over a second had I not gone sideways at the end.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

Yeah, my very last run of the weekend I switched to my Z2 just so I could have a run I wasn't angry about. With really cold tires I knocked over half a second off my time and it would have been over a second had I not gone sideways at the end.

Luckily El Toro is way more forgiving, anything will grip there.

[xnamerxx]

Yeah, I've got plenty of experience at ET, but for whatever reason I couldn't get the car to work at SD. Maybe it was the bald tires, maybe it was because I kept my car so stiff, maybe I'm just a bad driver IDK but I couldn't do it last weekend.

[xnamerxx]

So I had my car weighed at the tour and was having a hell of a time trying to figure out why it was 20 lbs overweight from the last time I weighed it.
Well dumb me forgot I weight it with my street tires on it and the heavier side exhaust, both of which add about 30lbs of weight to the car LOL

[Jason@SportsCar]

Nearly set for the Pro. Just picked up the car and tires... Now I just have to get a set of crash bolts and align it.

[xnamerxx]

I don't see the Hertz logo on the plate?

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by xnamerxx

I don't see the Hertz logo on the plate?

I go direct to the source.