Well the season has already started in the South but we're just about to get started up here.

Anyone running a DS Mini this year besides me? The Twins seemed to be pretty unstoppable at first glance but Sparks hasn't run into any trouble yet, so I guess until more information is out there the class isn't any faster.

My first national event will be the PittRace Match tour in a few weeks. As of this writing, DS has a whopping 18 entries. Next biggest class has nine. All Twins, a few WRXs, a lonesome Hyundai, and 1 Mini.

Those who don't know, my car is an '07 S, zero option except LSD car. I have PO installed OTS Bilsteins, Hotchkis competition rear bar, Kosei K1TS, and 215/17 RE71R. I'm on the regular sport suspension, not the JCW. I'll be starting the year off on last year's Bridgestones while the info sorts out on the new tires.

In prep for this year I blasted off some of the crap on the intake valves and started piecing together parts for a custom exhaust. Car feels faster, at least up top. Every little bit helps.

 

First event of the year and we were all a little rusty. Hit a whopping 8 cones and only had one clean run. Here's a side by side with one of my codrivers. Just a local but I think I took the DS win which is a nice confidence boost to start the year off with, have to wait for PAX results. Car felt like a rocket ship on such a tight course, and seems like last year's RE71 didn't lose too much grip over the winter.

 

Well Pittrace Match couldn't have gone much worse. We arrived to a soaked but drying asphalt pad on a cool day. I wasn't worried, I've driven the car in the rain before and it's actually been pretty amazing.

I was the first car on course, got to the first turn, and nearly looped it. The car has never been anywhere near loose, this was like driving on ice. Codriver said "it's not too bad." BS, it was terrible. Dropping rear pressures did nothing. Somehow managed to nurse it through the course in the trophy range and within striking distance of the lead.

Before the PM sessions we dropped the rear bar to full soft from full stiff, rotated the tires F to R thinking maybe the rears (from last year) were just cycled out. The skies opened up giving the course a fresh soak and delaying the afternoon runs slightly.

PM session was a dumpster fire. Just a waste of time. No amount of kid gloves could keep the rear behind the car. Final result we dropped to 8th and 12th of 20.

Sunday challenge rounds we had mostly dry pavement and the car worked better. Still a touch loose for me in spots but manageable. I wasted my one good drive of the weekend on the first run on the dirty, wet course and coned away a crappy 3rd run that would've barely snuck into the underdog challenge. Waaaay off pace. Bummer as that's likely the largest DS field I'll be seeing until Lincoln.

I'm hoping last year's tires are just done, fresh ones are on the way.

 

Hmm interesting. Do you also have the jcw tune? I'm surprised you're rubbing a 215. I know Craig wilcox's old ds mini ran 235s

 

I have an '07 that hasn't been reflashed, so it's slightly stronger than a JCW tune car.

Supposedly the 205 is faster on a Mini but the 215s are cheaper. No camber means it only uses the outside edge anyways, so the shoulder support becomes important.

I was contemplating trying the 225 Rival S 1.5, as they're supposedly tolerant of higher slip angles (I prefer to slightly overdrive) but not much info is out there how the sidewalls work slightly stuffed on to narrow wheels on camber limited cars. Plus I'm not sure if it would fit, the 215 RE is pretty tight on the inside even taking advantage of the wheel offset allowance like the Koseis do.

I don't think a 235 would fit nor would it be worth it.

 

A last minute hail mary to prep an SSR car failed, so I brought green tires and a ringer driver to the Peru Match Tour.

Course was fairly high average speed, a couple of long sweepers, and not many digs from lower speeds so not super Mini friendly. I had a crap Sat morning, but even my co-driver was a whopping 0.5sec off the pace of a couple of Twins with Nationals trophy winning drivers.

Saturday afternoon I picked up the pace to close enough to my co driver but the damage was done.

Sunday both DS Twin drivers dropped out. The car & tires felt significantly better, but neither of us went fast enough to qualify for the challenges.

Pretty disappointing weekend performance wise, again. Next weekend is the Toledo Pro where DS didn't make a class so I may jump to something else, or just run the car for the seat time. Looking ahead to the Bristol double event where there are huge DS fields registered.

 

Looks good. You're getting the key cones but aren't close enough to them. I think a ds mini has what it takes to win!

 

Well hopefully my season is turning around.

Headed down to Bristol, Tn for the double event.

Champ Tour first:



I had a fairly good Saturday, putting myself in P4 out of 15 and 0.200 out of 2nd. Went after it on day 2 and coned away a run 1 that would've been the fastest time in DS on day 2. Went after it on run 2 & spun. I then lost all my bravery and put in a safety run good enough to snag the last trophy spot. Oh, did I mention the reigning national champion in DS snagged 3rd?



Champ Tour I dug myself a hole in the morning with cone troubles, and only partially made up for it in the afternoon. Out of trophies. Most people bailed on DS for other classes.

Day 2 of the Match Tour, when it doesn't matter, I go out and find 0.8 seconds on the same course. Go figure.


The Mini was plenty fast to compete for the top spot all weekend, the driver had trouble putting together a complete event. Let's see if the rest of the season goes like this.

 

Nice work! Great course. How was tomo in the nsx?

 

Not my first time seeing Tomo in action, but it's pretty surreal. Like I've said elsewhere, it's like he's playing a totally different game from the rest of us. It's something to behold.

I get to see people like Strano and Daddio run fairly regularly. Those guys are jaw dropping on course. Tomo *still* looks to be on another level from even them.

 

Ah well. Got smoked this weekend. I was a full second off the pace per day, and that's on a home lot.

I know Grogan and Kavka are both better drivers than me, and Dvorak got me by 0.255 at Lincoln last year when my car was fairly unprepped. I was right with Priebe Saturday on my safety run after coning the first two, then he just flew on Sunday. I thought I drove well Sunday too, but people gained on me.

On the bright side I got to see Tomo drive again, and saw Sam drive a 991 GT3 in SS.

 

Thanks for this thread Matt. I hope your season finishes strongly.

I'm changing from GS to DS in September, and might return to the National Tour next year.

I've a 2018 Works car coming in - just built in Oxford.

I'll be putting the crash parts on the front end, which amounts to replacing two shiny new hub carriers (a.k.a. knuckles) with alternate part numbers to bring negative camber into the range of -.9 to -1.0.

That still isn't much, but it surely has helped the current F56.

Having run Nats in 2016 against the Focus ST and the VW GTI in G Street, the prospect of having some parity in horsepower is making me giggle slightly in anticipation.

Thanks again, and I wish you fun in your efforts.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

OH YES, I want to see a DS F56 JCW. I was actually asking Ryephile about it a bit here. Looks like the 7.5" wide wheels were a typo?

Hope to see you in grid soon.

 

Amen.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Well, I was not only the only Mini in DS, I was the only fwd DS car at Lincoln this year.

I had my head firmly up my butt on day 1 and finished the day in 37th. A buddy's FR-S clutch failed right before his second run so I offered him my car, he's driven it before, and also luckily took a run in it on the practice course. He didn't skip a beat and went right into 7th.

Day two I found my mojo and was the third fastest of the whole class which bumped me all the way from 37th to a 9th place trophy. Co-driver got bit with some ABS ice mode but still held onto 8th. Put our best times together and the car went fast enough for 4th out of 58.

The Mini is very, very much still alive in DS.

 

First of all, nice driving! Your result has convinced me to prep my R56 as a secondary autocross car. I'm gonna be doing a lot of travelling between Boston and San Antonio next year taking care of my aging mom, and while I was there, I might as well have something to run competitively

And no matter what you did at nationals, your head wasn't up your butt nearly as far as mine was. My best day one run was with the TC on and I overdrove the snot out of day two trying to compensate. The result, I fell out of the last trophy spot by .25

I'm assuming your OTS Bilsteins are B6s? The Mustang has some not cheap double adjustable Konis but I didn't want to go the spendy route with the Mini.

 

Nice job! Congrats!!!! I wish I was able to drive like you guys. I had a bad day 1 too but it got better day 2. I was able to beat my co driver and move up 3 spots.

 

Thanks for the compliments. I actually put Koni yellows on the car mid this season since I didn't know the age of the Bilsteins - they were probably still called "Bilstein HD" at the time. Car seems slightly slower to turn in on the Koni, but a little more settled in big L-R-L type transitions. The Koni ride terrible though, even at soft setting.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll probably just go with the OTS B6 since my mom's house is right in the city and the roads around Brookline/Allston/Boston really suck. Undecided if I'm gonna throw on the JCW suspension bits since my car is also equipped with the factory sport suspension, but the temptation is there since everything will be off anyway.

 

you should get the b8 bilsteins. Those are better for autox. FCP Euro has lifetime warranty on them so you can get a new set and return the old one if it leaks instead of waiting for a rebuild.

 

I trophied in 2016 on just the Bilsteins that came on the car, RE71s, and a big rear bar. No need to overthink it or prep to the max.

Fun fact: The DS Camaro that smoked us all was basically zero prep. Stock shocks, stock bars. Just wheels/tires and a lighter exhaust. And a really good driver. Like really good.

 

I heard the B8s are designed for shorter springs, which my car definitely won't have in DS. The 5-10% (unverified) "more" damping that I've read the B8 has over the B6 doesn't sound like it'll make much difference. Especially since to me the stock sport dampers don't feel underdamped, more like damped in the wrong places

I've read Scroggs's DS thread over at camaro6.com, and other than tilting in the spindles for max negative camber the car is stock afaik. But I would put him in the alien category anyway when it comes to driving. We had an alien in a Gen6 Camaro in our class too

 

Yeah watching Mark on course - that was him, not the car, that was that fast. He did the same thing with a Focus ST in GS, and nearly did it last year with a 4-cyl Mustang in FS. He's that good.

 

What do people think of the 17 or 18 JCW in D street? On paper it should be competitive.

 

On paper and in reality are often two different things in autocross. Only way to find out is try it.