thought i'd update here as well:

first event went.. just okay. not thrilled with any of the runs i put down but did decently pax-wise. still much to work on with steering and just getting on the right line, and taking the slaloms better. big error on my fast run costing me at least half a second near the very end, but it is what it is. the asphalt at gateway just does not have much grip at all.


Full write up:
http://r56hs.com/2014/04/27/st-louis...1-home-opener/


Fastest counted run:

 

long time without an update - probably not motivated much due to poor performance at the last few events. here are the latest results

http://r56hs.com/184-2/

and the last event's run:


http://r56hs.com/2014/05/18/stl-solo-event-3-05182014/

 

Nice, much better. Both hands on the wheel with little shuffling. You were smoother in most of the turns and it didn't seem like you were over driving the course while at the same time it seemed like you were able to keep power on. I couldn't tell too well from the video, but could you have been closer to some of the cones?

As for braking...get better pads with more bite...Carbotech AX6 comes to mind. You can run those on the street. I found street pads wouldn't cut it for autoX.

Also, are you left foot braking?

 

thanks for the input!

i'm glad, i don't feel like i'm getting any better. of course still a lot to be worked on and a lot of time left out on that course, but i was fairly happy with my driving today. i definitely could have been closer to the cones, especially in the slaloms.

I have actually just recently started thinking about getting some better pads - and the carbotechs would most likely be my choice. I'm on the stock brake pads right now, I'd like to change the fluid first though.

I'm not left foot braking, I've been thinking about starting - I don't know if I want to "start" doing it yet - if I want to get comfortable/happy with my driving first, or if I want to bake it in from the start, etc. do you LFB?

 

Kyoo - I have to chuckle a little about your question if I LFB. When I learned to drive that was one of the first things my father taught me. Being on an automatic it was easy to do and it worked really well in traffic as it cut the reaction time to about a 1/3rd of the time it took to move the right foot off the gas and onto the brake. But, I am not proficient at it with a stick and I don't do enough autoX to get good at it. On the track at 100+ it just seems to be one more thing to keep track of when I am still learning other things. Lastly, it kills the turbo boost. As soon as you hit the brake in the S, the turbo boost disappears even without changing the gas. So the official answer after a long story is: sort-of. Hence:

But you, on the other hand, should learn it. As an exercise I do it to check the brakes before going out on the track. You can practice it the same way on the street (a quiet one that is straight). Get into 3rd gear and then LFB without moving your foot on the gas. Learn to modulate the brake the same as you would with your right foot. That is the biggest part of doing it. For autoX where you are probably in 2nd all of the time, it will work the same way. Now I said that I wasn't proficient at it; I didn't say I didn't do it.

You will love having a gripper pad. It will make braking soooo much nicer.

 

ahh gotcha. Yeah I'll see. I lfb on my automatic daily driver but the pedal is super wide and it's very easy. Not much room down there in the MINI, I'd probably want some "driving shoes" first.

I'll consider the pad at some point, but given that I've got 4 yr free maint on the MINI I think they replace my stock pads for me?

 

Personally, I like the stock pads a lot, other than the horrific dust generation. I think the Hawk HPS's we're running now are actually a slight downgrade, especially on initial bite.

I left foot brake, but my co-driver doesn't, and its a toss up every week as to who wins. I started doing it after nationals about 2 years ago and it now feels very wrong to not do it while on course.

 

Overall, the MINI stock stuff is pretty good. But the pads are still still street pads, with all of the street pad limitations, and they don't have the bite that a true race or autoX pad has. The HPS pads are a street pad which is basically a direct replacement for the stock pad, although Hawk advertises them otherwise. My experience with the HPS is that they are no better than the stock pad except for dust. I am not surprised that you think they may be a downgrade for autoX.

The HP Plus and the Yellow Stuff are much better. They have much more initial bite than the stock pads and they can take more heat. The Yellow Stuff took a little bit of heat to work well, though, and they didn't take well to being "jumped on". They did better with a little light pressure at first, then added pressure. But this does you no good on a course where you need to get on the brakes and off quickly and have them do what you want, quickly. The other thing that I found is that they are not too linear. As they heat up, they grab more, so you have to constantly adjust the brake pressure to keep from over braking.

Now this is going to sound crazy to most people, but I run my track pads (full race pads) for autoX. This has been either Carbotech XP10s or Wilwood H compound. And, no, they don't need heat to work. They both work fantastic cold. Great initial bite and they are very linear no matter how hot they get. In other words I don't have to adjust brake pressure as they heat up.

And if you don't think the brakes get hot on an autoX course, you can imagine my surprise when an Evo came into the braking zone at the end of a 30 sec autoX course and I could see the heat billowing out of the front wheel wells. Made me a believer. I wish I could have taken a picture.

 

^ lol i've got an evo, they are indeed heavy cars though.

you are definitely right about the brake pads i think. momentum car or not, when the car needs to slow down, it needs to do it quickly and efficiently. the only thing is my pads are free for the next 4 years.. perhaps next season i'll start swapping in brake pads for autox though

 

It is an easy swap. Just pull the two bolts from the back of the steering knuckle (not the sliders) and the whole caliper, bracket and pads come off. Do it this season, you will be glad you did...to help convince you to do it, I'll sell you my slightly used Yellow Stuff pads, cheap. PM me, if interested.

 

latest results here!

http://r56hs.com/2014/06/01/st-louis-solo-4/

see journal for write ups from nationals events, etc.

 

some pics of the tires after ~120 runs and 2k street miles:

 

That's a lot of heat cycles. I have to delay my report on the Hankooks until the end of June. I had no air and only 37 psi the first day. With 45/41 on day two the car was very driveable. Times were so-so, maybe due to mold release. We're going back to the original concrete site for the next two events so I may learn more there.

heat cycles = hard rubber

 

^ this is just hearsay, but it seems the z2's do quite well with heat cycles. i talk to the owner of SPS now and then and he said that they actually didnt pick up much if any time when they swapped their last set of very used (180+ runs) Z2s to new ones.

i think if these puppies last me another 50-60 runs i'll be quite happy. i may bump up the pressure i race on, i've been doing ~40-42F, ~43-44 rear. I may crank it up to 44F 46R. Thanks for the psi specs on the RS3V2s - keep us posted

 

Ok, I've thought about my performance with the Roadster S and Hankooks this past weekend on concrete and analyzed the data comparing myself to about ten drivers I know well. The improvement in relative times from my HS MINI was significantly more than predicted by stock or street PAX factors. That would seem to confirm that the Hankooks are two steps better than the Star Specs were.

The troubling news was that they didn't really come in until after another driver took two runs in my car from the double-driver lanes which run twice as often. It was around 100 degrees and it took 8 runs to get the tires hot. I started cooling with water after two solo runs to avoid cooking. I will concede that some of the improvement was due to me still learning the car and tires, but it felt just like tires that had become optimally hot.

So the tentative conclusion for now is that they are quick but it takes more than 300 miles to get all of the mold release off, and it takes two drivers to get them adequately hot.

We'll be back on smooth asphalt but not until late August. Sigh.

 

wow THAT hot? is it possible for you to get a temp sensor for the next time and see how hot it needs to be? my tires get pretty damn hot, i didn't think i'd need a codriver ever for street tires but what you say makes me wonder

 

They definitely require more heat than the Star Specs did. With those 90 degrees made the tires slide even if I watered them twice between runs. Haven't seen anyone with a heat gun or probe for years. The day before we had a large run group running in 80 degree heat in the morning and none of us solo drivers were getting any heat in the non-driven tires including ZIIs and Rivals.

 

pretty much operating solely out of my blog for a while now - http://r56hs.com/184-2/ has the complete event run downs so far this year. been meaning to update my thread too though.

still haven't decided whether to stay on these worn out kumho's for nationals, or switch to a newer set of tires, probably rs3v2s. i'll need new tires at some point, just not sure if i want to switch before or after nats. if i switched after nats i'd strongly consider the z2 star specs.

also got llumar window tinting - it looks okay overall, but around the dot matrix it's really so-so..

only 2 weeks til nats!

 

Sam, I will be waiting for a good news from NAT!
Looks like you prefer z2 over rs3 there, I'm also looking for my next(track) tires, pretty sure it will be either Z2 starspec or RS3 v2.
But can't decide to stick with 225 45 16 (available with z2 star) or move to 205 55(avail. Rs3)for track use.
225 feels sluggish at high speed...

 

actually decided to go 205/45016 rs3v2s. z2ss won't be legal until after nationals

 

Break a leg and have fun.

All the best,

Charlie

 

you gonna be there or what!

 

Nossir, not this year.

 

:( gotcha

 

Here are my interpretations for the lines at this year's Solo Nats. Hopefully I'm non threatening enough that you guys will be willing to give me some pointers (publicly or privately) about the line I (at least plan on) will be taking. Very excited for first time at nats! Shooting for having fun and not being dead last!

PS, I found drawing the lines to be a healthy exercise in understanding lines better. May be just me though.