(2010) SCCA Practice AX March 28 - Registration Open Until Wednesday Night

[agreatham]

I'll be in STS this year in my red Miata. Feel free to come by and ask questions to me or any of the guys in the class. We are always willing to help people get just fast enough, but once you start beating us youre on your own!

I'm going to take you up on that. I'm running number 142 in BS, blue E46 M3. I'll be bugging you and AJ so be warned.

[Reach]

It took me half an hour of reading the rule book to figure out what damn class my car's supposed to be in for 2010 and I'm not doing any more research.

Yes, it is confusing! i just had a conversation tonight trying to figure out why a z4m doesnt qualify for the same classes, but back to the topic at hand.

Mike, look at STU. a fasttrack last year made us ellibile for it. In BS you'll be racing S2000s and Corvettes on race tires. Some of them may have significant weight advantage on you as well. In STU you'll be againt other M3s and STi and Evos in street trim and on street tires, no race tires allowed in the steet touring classes. AND the pax. i highly encourage you to swith.

[joenationwide]

I'm going to take you up on that. I'm running number 142 in BS, blue E46 M3. I'll be bugging you and AJ so be warned.

No problem. Anytime!

Yes, it is confusing! i just had a conversation tonight trying to figure out why a z4m doesnt qualify for the same classes, but back to the topic at hand.

Mike, look at STU. a fasttrack last year made us ellibile for it. In BS you'll be racing S2000s and Corvettes on race tires. Some of them may have significant weight advantage on you as well. In STU you'll be againt other M3s and STi and Evos in street trim and on street tires, no race tires allowed in the steet touring classes. AND the pax. i highly encourage you to swith.

STU is a lot of fun, and you don't need to run race tires. I think Z4Ms can run STR, so theres a place for everyone who doesn't want to swap wheels/tires at the event. I love autoxing/tracking on street tires, and it helps you be a better driver without masking mistakes with R comps.

[woodym3]

No problem. Anytime!
STU is a lot of fun, and you don't need to run race tires. I think Z4Ms can run STR, so theres a place for everyone who doesn't want to swap wheels/tires at the event. I love autoxing/tracking on street tires, and it helps you be a better driver without masking mistakes with R comps.

No, I'm afraid (or glad) that Z4Ms and S54-engined Z3Ms are not allowed in STR.

[agreatham]

Mike, look at STU. a fasttrack last year made us ellibile for it. In BS you'll be racing S2000s and Corvettes on race tires. Some of them may have significant weight advantage on you as well. In STU you'll be againt other M3s and STi and Evos in street trim and on street tires, no race tires allowed in the steet touring classes. AND the pax. i highly encourage you to swith.

Alright, I'll switch. If you're messing with me, I'm going to stick a potato in your tailpipe. And I'll mess up your exhaust, too.

[Nick325xiT 5spd]

I think I remember Nick or someone else calculate an STU prepped E46 M3 should be able to get down to 3090lbs. This means no sunroof, ltw seats, ltw battery, no spare tire, ltw exhaust, ltw wheels, and some other things. I saved about 150lbs on my E36 M3 in STU trim, got down to 3000# even, and Mike Neary was at 2950#! Send me a PM and we can chat about it off-line.

Before I put the stereo in, I had my M3 down to 3,211. No sunroof, stock seats, magnaflow, Fikses, Deka ETX30L, GC front sway, 3/8ths of a tank. STU legal seats would save another 80lbs. right there. You could lose a bunch of weight on top of that with a single 3" exhaust. A lighter battery is another 10lbs.

...in case anyone is wondering where the ~3,090 came from.

The big key is to avoid the sunroof. That's 40lbs. that isn't going away.

At present, with the stereo and the stock exhaust back on, I'm around 3,300.

[Reach]

Since when do you not have a sunroof? *jealous*

Maybe instead of buying your car piece by piece as I have, I should just swap you. But I call dibs on keeping the Cinnamon interior, its yummy.
Looks like we'll have a nice little paddock for the afternoon session on Sunday. I'll see everyone there!

[Nick325xiT 5spd]

I spent a lot of time finding an M3 with no sunroof.

[agreatham]

I went home thinking I did horribly ... until I saw the results. I set a modest goal of not being the last in my class and I placed second to last! I can't imagine how embarrassing it must be to be slower than me. Anybody want to guess who placed dead last in STU today?

[woodym3]

I'm sorry I wasn't able to stay around to watch STU Mike. Besides beating another M3 whose driver will remain anonymous for now, what did you think of that course?
I made the mistake of letting son Brian co-drive my car in the STR class (a select group of 2-seaters with mild modifications and street tires). He dominated. Noel's video will show how badly I beat him for what I assumed would be 2nd place.
http://www.youtube.com/user/gol737?f.../0/NI4lnV6aYKk
But an S2000 and an MX-5 nipped us on their final runs.

[Nick325xiT 5spd]

The course was wild. I hope we get more like that. It was about as fast as a course can be at Fedex and still be safe (and SCCA rules compliant), and the extra room that the designer (Lee Piccione, I believe) was able to use due to the removal of the concrete barriers was definitely additive.

[Reach]

I'll take my lumps! I had 3 spins, and subsequent DNF's, due to nothing but my own avarice. Cooler heads prevailed on the day, and my poor showing is a good reminder to not over-drive technical parts of the course. My last run I really thought I was turning in an excellent time, before sliding out to the wrong side of the second to last cone on the end slalom. I had to come to a full stop and swing the car back around. That was the worst feeling I've had on a course since I started doing this!

The more I place badly, the better advice I get from you guys. If I was winning you guys wouldn't keep helping me get faster.

-The Reach, aka, reigning STU practice session loser.

[woodym3]

The course was wild. I hope we get more like that. It was about as fast as a course can be at Fedex and still be safe (and SCCA rules compliant), and the extra room that the designer (Lee Piccione, I believe) was able to use due to the removal of the concrete barriers was definitely additive.

Yes, a very fast one minute plus course, yet no need for 3rd gear. I was thinking most clubs would kill for a venue as big the area that only contained the final slalom and finish.

[joenationwide]

I went home thinking I did horribly ... until I saw the results. I set a modest goal of not being the last in my class and I placed second to last! I can't imagine how embarrassing it must be to be slower than me. Anybody want to guess who placed dead last in STU today?

Looks like somebody had some off course issues, thats a bummer. I guess you two will be battling it out this year?

I'm sorry I wasn't able to stay around to watch STU Mike. Besides beating another M3 whose driver will remain anonymous for now, what did you think of that course?
I made the mistake of letting son Brian co-drive my car in the STR class (a select group of 2-seaters with mild modifications and street tires). He dominated. Noel's video will show how badly I beat him for what I assumed would be 2nd place.
http://www.youtube.com/user/gol737?f.../0/NI4lnV6aYKk
But an S2000 and an MX-5 nipped us on their final runs.

That course was fun! It was a little challenging getting through that uphill section in a sub 100whp miata, but once up to speed, it was very exciting! Just 0.4 sec away from breaking into 59s on street tires!

The downhill was awesome, it took guts to really burn through there. And the pinch coming out of the showcase was nice to help the little cars. Also, the final sweeper into the final slalom was great. I miss running in STU, but I'll take a good finish in STS. And out-PAXing Brian doesn't hurt either, eh Woody? (BTW- I already teased him about that.)

[Biggins]

I guess the STR times are just lumped into PAX this year?

It appears the shake-up in classes this year is putting some different cars/drivers at the top on the results, hmm...