anyone prepped a car for SMF lately? I'm thinking about making my HPDE car do double duty and run SMF too

I'm 1.5-2 seconds off the pace of the civics here local, most of them are on hoosiers or rival S and I'm on 225/40/15 r-s4's, I was running an STX JCW but my buddies are all moving to STH next year so I am free to do whatever, I should win stx this year I'm a good bit in the lead

I think the only change for my track car plans would be leaving in headliner, carpet up front and the door cards. I have behind the seats already all removed. this might make running the fire suppression lines a little harder but not impossible

Tips on setup to compete with the civics? Not going to nationals, but locals are setup well. I'm thinking 949racing 15x9 up front with some 245 rival s 1.5's up front and 225's in back I dont think I can fit the 949racing 15x9 245's in the rear on an r53. maybe hoosiers half way through season.

Power wise I've got a dominator cam, 17% pulley, 550cc injectors, precat removed header, catback, LSD. I'm planning tires first then maybe a rmw head but I"m not sure how much gain I will see when I dont get over 6k rpm in 2nd very often at all at most events

 

If I read the rules right, minimum weight for a 1.6L forced induction SMF car is 2075lb. So step 1 would be to get about 400lb out of the car. Not sure if that's even possible. More weight out would be better so you can add ballast low and rearward.

Next step is tires. Showing up to SM with anything less than A7s is not a good idea. I would definitely try to get the new 275/15 up front, it's an inch wider than the 245. Makes the car wider but should pay off in sweepers where the car doesn't do so well.

Then I'd dial in the suspension. You'll probably need higher spring rates than your 200tw setup to take full advantage of the Hoosiers. No idea how much camber Hohos like.

SM allows aero, so next on the list would be a front splitter and rear wing.

It's an uphill battle though. I've seen the Kuhel CRX, Tipple's Civic, and the Haydu/Janusz car run quite a bit here in the midwest, and I've seen Jinx run in Lincoln. The Honda is the way to go, so much lighter, so much better suspension, and so much easier to make all the power you need.






An SMF lite Mini would be fun, but not competitive, so I personally would take any money that would go to big dollar mods and deposit it in the "next car fund" instead. IMO, YMMV and all that jazz.

 

I'm not going to nats so I'll never have to deal with them, how on earth could you fit a tire that wide on an R53 ? My plan is A7's but 245 front 225 rear

my understanding is SMF rules do not allow any interior stripping other than behind the seats, kinda dumb as they let you do damn near everything else

I'm 2.5 seconds away from first place here with one club, and I should take first in the other club as I sit, but there's less cars there. In the big club the top 3 are all 2 seconds faster than me and on hoosiers and I"m on hankook R-S4's

a7's are next year though, I already have the r-s4 square setup and a set of A7 takeoffs, 9kg/mm swift springs up front and 8kg/mm in the rear

some sacrifice to be made because HPDE is my primary focus

 

Looks like there was a full tilt SMF build back in the 2010-ish time frame. Google Tom Kotzian. Doesn't look like he runs the car anymore, but if you can get a contact he may get you some pointers. I can't find any info on the car, just photos.

 

Oh hey here's 275s on an R53.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3320935

 

damn that looks like a fun ride, I guess just trim and set ride height so it wont touch, still end up low because of the 15" tires are so small

I am not ready for 275 though, 245's for now, 949racing will have 15x9 wheels back in stock in august they are gonna do a preorder any day now

 

I messaged tom on facebook hopefully he's got some info.

the local guys I would race, I'm 2 seconds off their pace, I'm sure half of that is driver as I'm only on my 2nd year of autocross, just going to A7's will give me a big increase in speed.

I have too much -camber for re71r's now, I had to air them down to 28 psi hot to get the tire temp even across

 

I think I'm partially decided, 15x10 wheels up front, 15x8 in back, 275 A6/A7 up front and 245 A6/a7 in rear

cut fenders, if I can't get enough I could add a small spacer between shock mounts and the body, but I cant get too much there either without pressing longer bolts into the camber plates.

car drags all over anyway I'm ok with raising geometry a little

 

Reviving this thread out of interest. What did you end up doing @MrBlah ? Did you go with the the setup mentioned in your last post?

I'm currently running in SMF this year and am running A7s for the first time. It's quite a change.

 

I got away with 15x8 and hoosier spec miata SM7 same as R7 as my competition never moved up to A7s

I moved on to TT and HPDE instructing I dont autocross anymore