Ran against Simmons again yesterday. This time he co-drove with a good local guy, not a National Champ. I still did the deed alone more because I know the ZII's would offer my co-driver nothing but a bad experience. LOL!

Anyway, I lost again, but this time it was .5 seconds, so I drove better as we changed nothing on our cars. There were a lot of off-camber turns that both the MINI and the FiST hated. The slaloms were too easy and there were only a handful of power areas where his torque / low lag could get me, but then again Simmons complained about wheelspin.

If you look at the thread I posted in my "First Shots Fired" thread, he added a video overlay of him and then Grant Reeve (big time SSR driver) running the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhg3AxDgPZs&list=UU6752kawQFfCAJruVM0dtJQ

You can see smoke from the tires on Eric's run (top overlay). Grant was more patient. As you can see, there were a bunch of turns where one could hang himself because they weren't defined too well. Patience was key, and I lacked it yesterday because I could tell Simmons wasn't gaining much time, and I knew the car had more to offer... I had to wait until the wheels were almost straight before I could lay in power; I never have to do that in the MINI!

As a result, I had nothing. Being closer gave me hope that next year, on fresh tires, I'll be within 1/2 second. To me, anything within 3/10 second is "driver noise" and I can overcome that.

 

Interesting - I'm looking forward to seeing what Simmons can do with the FiST next year, I know he wasn't much a fan of the FoST.

 

Simmons almost rolled it yesterday. I saw the video on another forum and it was not anything ugly (i.e. tried to save something he shouldn't have).

He wants to sell it after 17 days of ownership. I have heard some say the Fiesta ST has good enough dampers from the factory, but this car may need a massive front bar and $$$ dampers in order to keep it happy. Somehow, I doubt a simple set of OTS Koni Sports will placate those body motions.

Glad Simmons is OK, glad the car is OK.

 

Happened pretty early in the run...

 

yikes - if it did that on cold street tires, i have to imagine it's possible on lincoln's surface..

anyway, nice job closing the gap a little. what year is your mini? do you have the elsd? again i'm really really happy with my rs3v2's, but with the r1r's coming out with a 200tw, i may give those a shot...

 

Wants to sell it after 17 days of ownership...

Sounds like the Simmons I know.

I didn't realize they were that roll-prone, though.

 

Thanks.

2012 No eLSD. My Justa has Sport Seats in cloth and OEM Sport Suspension... Now with used OTS Konis and an Alta 22mm rear bar set on full soft. No JCW stuff anywhere. I'm proud of that.

The Dunlop ZII's are driving me insane. Eric and I agreed that the event last Sunday (Round 1), although windy and a little colder, featured better grip than the lot we were on this past Saturday because the 11/2 event was on a lot with the older, original pavement. The lot was ran on 11/8 was resealed in August and IT ABSOLUTELY RUINED A PHENOMENAL SITE!!!

Rant done.

It took every ounce of what I've learned in 20 years to keep up with Simmons this weekend. Corner exit in the MINI was so bad that I had to wait until the wheels were almost straight before laying in full power. On a car with only 115 "torques", this was terrible! The car drove like a Sonata on course... That's how done these Dunlops are.

Simmons almost rolled it the day after we faced off, btw. He was fine at our NNJR event.

 

Hankook seems to be on the top of my list, but I'm hoping the Toyo is worth a shot and I would love to see Kumho back in the mix. Their contingency rocks, but that could be because nobody is running their stuff right now... If a zillion people switch, will they be so generous?

 

when the dunlops are done, they're ****ing done - i experienced that earlier this year. don't grip for ****, no matter what the condition. i didn't however, ever experience any one tire fires on corner exits with the elsd, so maybe it does do its job. i'm also loving how the hankooks are handling in the cold. maybe it's my setup.

the car's perfectly neutral right now, this setup, in the cold. on hot surfaces, car understeers. lincoln, forget about it. if i can get the car to handle in the hot weather like it does in the cold, i'm confident i can continue to drop time. time to play with some more settings...