JCW Coupe any good in DS?
 

I used to autox fairly regularly in my old '07 with sport suspension and factory LSD. It was a ton of fun and felt relatively fast compared to the field in 2008 even though I am no expert driver.

I have a '15 JCW coupe that is set to arrive soon-ish. I was wondering if that car is competitive at all in DS? To my surprise I noticed the solo rules now allow port installed options for DS so I was also thinking of buying the JCW suspension.

Any JCW Coupe-ers autoxing with successes? I would like to hear them!

No it won't be competitive. But that's just IMHO. Even with the dominant TT just getting moved to BS this month the new WRX is still going to be a strong contender in DS. You might do pretty well locally but at a national level I think it'll be an uphill battle.

And yes the JCW suspension is legal and worth it from an auto-x perspective.

Yeah the new wrx I would expect to dominate. Makes sense. No national level for me, just some good head to head with local people. But we shall see. I have seen some really poor wrx driving around here.

You state, "I am no expert driver." Therefore you will have a good handling car with plenty of power and will have fun as you gain skills. I agree that you can do well at a local level. The problem really exist with our classification. I believe we should be classed in GS.

I suppose my main goal here is what is beatable so I have some goals. I can't wait to get the car. I am really stoked.

As an aside since I am lazy I haven't read the solo rule book for 14/15 yet. What would an aftermarket LSD do to me in classing. Would that then be STX?

locally, should be fine, nationally, probably not. lsd > stx, yes.

i agree though, this car should be put back in GS. write your letters folks

Locally probably everything is beatable. If you're just working on your driving then a mini will be a great platform to work on. You can use overall pax standings to chart your progress in your region. I don't see a location listed. Which SCCA region do you run with?

Yes an LSD will move you to STX.

I am in SFR. I used to run with a non-scca club locally that unfortunately shut down recently.

The current national championship car in DS is in SFR. But the car was run in "X" class last year. Quite a few people ran in DS but no one showed up consistently. I won in Sacramento against inconsistent competition. I changed wheels and tires for drivability but avoided the cost of go faster parts.

local SFR site (there should be a slush season coming soon):
http://www.sfrautox.com/?page_id=20

local autox forum (if you don't already know):
http://www.baautox.com/forum/index.php

Hahaha. So I am screwed. I know the sites. Thanks for the pointers though.

Any of you run HDPEs? If so which orgs.

If you're thinking of Mike Wood, he wasn't driving in DS (X or otherwise) much this year. I thought he'd just borrowed the car after his accident last year.

The Slush season is due anytime now, if we can get the scheduling problems sorted out. Another alternative is the BMW club, they class MINIs as well as BMWs, though the season is mostly over (just the invitation only finale next week). The future of Marina in general is uncertain next year though, so its not clear where the BMW club will run.

I run with Hooked on Driving.

Not in DS. There was no one who turned up enough this year to be eligible to win DS, or in other words you could have won by turning up.

I have run with HOD before too. Great org. Had a lot of fun.

I was writing about the car which was 1st and 6th at Nationals and 1st in SFR X.

The Nationals winning driver (Mike Wood) wasn't driving it at regional events most of the year, Justin Moore came 6th at Nationals and won X at regionals.

This is probably going to matter a bit more to me this year, as I was thinking of driving in X, not sure which car I'm going to use. It'd be even more fun if Mark Scroggs joined in in X, he won GS.

WRX will dominate the Mini in DS period. Consistently 1-3 seconds faster in my local area. I am in Chicago though and we have some stiff competition. It's really not even close.

I would have been much better off throwing some suspension on it and running in STX in my region.

I did have fun running against the MINI's when they showed though. Always had a tough battle with a JCW driver. I finally started touching hims times near the end of the season and I finally beat him this last event.

For the un-informed What is DS
 

I enjoyed reading the post conversations but would like to know what DS is?

DS is a stock Class in Scca autocross.

It stands for D Street now.

anyone else hoping they change the name back to d-stock now that we don't have the rcomp stock classes? d-street still just sounds weird to me

I thought they were keeping SSR.

They are. At least for the 2015 season

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The rules have a sunset rule, there has to be 35 entries at nationals to keep it, if it falls below that for two years, it goes away. They had 34 entries this year, so it could go away after Nationals this year.

I hope they keep SSR, it makes my life easier in the other car.

IIRC, there is statement in the Nov. FastTrack about the SEB and SAC being committed to SSR with no changes for 2015 and 2016.