[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 7/19 FL Tour Up

Jordan, what kind of sound are you talking about? I notice a little knock sometimes when I reverse going into my driveway, but otherwise I don't notice anything.

The 3,110lbs is including the Sparcos. Most of the weight loss from last year is due to the Sparcos and removing the rear wing.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 7/19 FL Tour Up

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated some events, so how about I catch up here.

Philly SCCA Event #8 at Warminster on July 25th, 2010

Results: Final Results, #8 - Philadelphia Region SCCA 2010 Summer Event 8 MINI and BMW of the Main Line - Sun 07-25-2010

Video: YouTube - Philly Event #8 at Warminster Community Park 7-25-2010

Shane and I decided to head up to Warminster to try and get some additional higher speed/3rd gear experience. Jerry Enger was setting up the course for this event and likes to have some of the higher speed stuff. Knowing that Nationals would probably have some higher speed sections, this would be good practice. The threat of rain kept a lot of competitors away, so with the low turnout we would be able to get 5 runs.

I recently installed the 10mm spacers and was able to do some testing the day before at a DC Test and Tune. We only had to make minor tweaks to the rear rebound and the car was ready to go. Front end grip was fantastic, but that course didn’t have a lot of transitional elements, so this event would be a good test.

First run went well, putting down a very quick raw time of 50.529, but somehow managed to nick a couple of cones along the way. The turnaround was one of the tougher spots on the course, and I tried dive bombing into it and in the process had left it in 3rd gear for the entire 180. I could fix that for next run.

Second run I got it back into second before the turnaround, better acceleration out of it, and overall the run felt good, not much better on raw time with a 50.528, but found a cone on the run. The third and fourth runs would be much of the same, with both being mid-50s runs with cones.

With no clean runs, I had one chance to get it right. Shane was having some issues as well with the cones, and we all know I tend to choke in these situations. So on the final run, I manage to get clean through the first part of the course, although I got a little too deep after the high speed gate. Also ended up being a little off on the turnaround. The way back down the runway went pretty well, with the car feeling really good in the transitions, turning when/where I wanted without excessive oversteer, then coming through the lights with a clean run that was good enough to beat Shane. It was slower than my previous runs with a 51.118, but it was clean, so we’ll take that as a good sign of improvement.

Results: 1st in STU and 15th in PAX.

Overall very happy with how the car felt with the new spacers and happy that I pulled out a clean one when I needed it. It was a little frustrating that I didn’t go faster, but not folding under pressure was good enough for me.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 7/19 FL Tour Up

WDCR Event #5 at Fed Ex Field on August 1st, 2010

Results: User Log In (must log in to view)

Video: Camera battery died.

After not choking the previous weekend, I was hoping to build on my new found confidence this weekend. Walking the course, it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun, hopefully my runs would be fun and fast. Unfortunately I forgot to charge the camera, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. It included a really high speed offset slalom section that was 3rd gear for us (good thing we got practice the weekend before) as well as a section that went from pretty fast, to a decreasing slalom with the final cone being slightly offset to the bad side.

On my first run, I managed to DNF thanks to getting a little loose and missing part of the slalom. This was followed shortly afterwards by my fastest run of the day of a 55.964, but plus two…one of those being that offset cone at the end of the decreasing slalom. At this point I was raw timing Shane by about a second, so I knew I could do this.

Third run was more of the same though, slightly slower with a 56.255 but +1 on that same stupid cone. Shane dropped down a couple of tenths to a 56.808, and then on his final run dropped event further to a 56.081 with a fast, clean run. Could I pull out another clean run under pressure? Nope, I couldn’t. I managed to hit a cone early on in my run that I hadn’t been close to all day long. After that I pretty much overdrove the rest of the course and managed to miss that offset cone. No clean runs on the day, crap.

Results: 2nd in STU (luckily) and 51st in PAX.

Shane managed to finish 7th in PAX, so with a decently clean run I could have been in the top 10. An opportunity lost unfortunately. Hopefully I don’t do this again anytime soon, especially with nationals coming up in a month.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 7/19 FL Tour Up

WDCR Event #6 at Fed Ex Field on August 15th, 2010

Results: User Log In (must log in to view)

Video: YouTube - WDCR Event #6 at Fed Ex Field 8-15-2010

The last event before Nationals…so far in the last two I’ve managed to avoid a choke situation and choked on the other one. It would probably be better if I didn’t get myself into those situations to begin with, right? Let’s see what we can do about that. The course was another fantastic and fun one, with some higher speed stuff that I should have shifted to 3rd for, but left it in 2nd anyways.

First run felt okay, care was handling well, no major mistakes, but along the way managed to clip a couple of cones with a 62.588 +2. No biggie, 3 more runs to take care of that. Second run was more of the same, except that I went in a little too deep in one corner and pushed out, and also hitting a few more cones and finished at 62.444 +3.

At this point Shane was sitting on a clean 62.440, but coned away a very fast 60.906 +2. With Shane being so fast, I needed to get something clean down so that I could really go for it on my last run. Everything was going great until I got into the final short slalom before the finish. I got into it a little too fast, had to cut it hard to miss the cone, then cutting it hard back the other direction, and just when I thought I had it under control, the rear end stepped out completely on me and I was facing in the opposite direction of the finish. At this point I was completely frustrated, so I gassed it really hard while turning the car around, and in the process managed to do a very nice powersliding 180 to turn around and slide into the finish (see video for reference…although I think it looked better from outside the car). Ken Block ain’t got nothin’ on me!

So for the third event in a row, it was down to the final run. Shane finished his last run with a faster clean run of a 61.359, which was good enough for 3rd in PAX for the day. I had to get it done, no more choking. Everything was going well, got through the showcase quickly, coming up the hill to the right hander before the short slalom was solid, didn’t get loose through the slalom, and then went a little deep making the left into the finish. I lost a little time but managed to keep it clean! Not quite as fast as Shane’s run, but only about 0.4s back with a 61.796.

Results: 2nd in STU and 6th in PAX (thanks to some rain that impacted some fast guys earlier in the day).

While I would have liked to be faster, I was happy to pull out the clean one when I needed it. Small victories. But nice to finish on a good note right before Nationals, which is only a few weeks away at this point.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 7/19 FL Tour Up

SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE at the Lincoln Air Park on September 6-7, 2010

Results: SCCA - Results

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI0JsD2EWAE

This is what we’ve been working towards all year long, the SCCA Solo Nationals. I was a little disappointed with last year’s performance (23rd of 46) and was really hoping that I could make an improvement this year. Last year I drove too timidly and never really attacked the courses. I also made the mistake of walking the courses too much (probably 15-20 times each). I vowed not to make those same mistakes this year. But first, we had to get there.

Saturday/Sunday

Last year I had no codriver and drove out on my own, doing the drive over two days after a stay in Kentucky. This year I was lucky enough to have a codriver to share driving duties, and on top of that I was lucky enough to have a friend who was kind enough to let me borrow his Dodge Ram 3500 Diesel and 28’ enclosed trailer. That’s right, I got to pretend to be a baller this year!

Since we were towing noobies, we didn’t want to drive out on our own. We found some of our local DC peeps who were driving out on Saturday as well, and followed Eric Kremelmeyer, Pat Griffith, and Karen Kraus out to Lincoln. Safety in numbers. The trip was pretty uneventful, which is not a bad thing. We stopped just short of Iowa and rested for a couple of hours at a rest stop, then finished the remainder of the drive in the morning and got into Lincoln in time to get a paddock spot, get setup, and then go and watch the Pro Solo Finale Challenge. Afterwards we started getting the car ready for the practice course the next day and then relaxed and hung out with everyone…all on about 2 hours of sleep.

Monday

Monday was a pretty easy day for the most part. We were already set up on the car for practice runs, so no need to get to the site too early. Got registered, washed the car, and we were good to go.

With the site being on concrete, we needed to see how the car would handle on this surface. We haven’t run on concrete all year, with my only experience being last year’s Nationals. Last year the only change I made was changing the rear sway bar from full soft to full stiff, so we started off this year with that same change. On the practice course the car felt pretty good, but perhaps a bit too loose. It was definitely a little snappy, but not too bad. Shane rode along and agreed. Unfortunately before we could make any more changes, our practice session got cancelled thanks to a random storm that came through for about 5 minutes with some lightning. After some discussion we set the bar on the middle setting for Shane’s practice runs on Tuesday, tweaked up the rear rebound a touch, and the car felt fantastic. We were ready to roll.

Tuesday

After over-walking the courses last year, my goal was to treat Nationals just like a normal event, taking no more than 5 course walks (normally 3 walks). I took two walks on Monday night, two on Tuesday morning, then one at the mid-day break (ran 5th heat). I think that ended up being just right. We started our runs on the East Course (left side for the directionally challenged) which contained a section of giant walloms, some big sweepers, and high speed transitions with one pinch spot.

Last year I was too timid in my driving, this year at Finger Lakes I was too timid on my first run, so after discussions with my wife about how I tend to over think things, and that I’m not a thinker and more of a reacting type of person, the idea was to go out on that first run and just go for it. Cones didn’t matter, having a great time didn’t matter, just get the jitters out and get a feel for the surface and some of the course elements at a speed that mattered. And that’s exactly what I did, hitting two cones in the process and doing a few Ken Block drifts along the way. I wasn’t worried about how I did, wasn’t thinking about wanting to do well, just driving and having fun. I came back with the biggest smile on my face, what a fun course and I had fun doing it. My time was a 64.066 +2, the raw time being in the ballpark of some of the fast guys with some big mistakes on my part. I knew I could compete.

Before I went out on my second run, Danny Kao (one of our DC guys) offered to buy me a Sonic Peanut Butter milkshake if I dropped into the 63’s. Seemed like a good deal to me! The run started off well, I got through the tight spot before the walloms cleanly (unlike the first run), got out of the walloms and went to shift into 3rd, only to be met with a mis-shift…crap. I essentially coasted from the end of the walloms to the turnaround, losing a lot of time. I finished the rest of the run cleanly and without issue, finishing with a 63.513, good enough for 5th place at the time. Pretty happy with that, but knew I could go faster and knowing that some other fast guys still needed a clean one (Colin, Jung, Aytinc, Hale, Shane (my codriver).

On my final run, I got a little loose coming out of the slaloms that were after the first sweeper and managed to do a little drifting action unintentionally. At this point I did what I generally tend to do…I thought I was in trouble and tried to make up time instead of driving how I knew I should. When this happens, I end up overdriving and I didn’t really need to as my bobble didn’t kill me. I was still kind of okay coming into the fast 3rd gear transition before the sweeper to the kink, but went through this section too fast, drifting some more, then going wide into said sweeper. It was at this point my run was really screwed. Finished with a 64.203 and left the door wide open. Colin, Jung, and Aytinc all walked through that door, with Hale and Shane coning all three runs on Day 1 with runs that would have put them both into the top 5.

After Day 1, I would be sitting in 8th place out of 10 trophy positions. I should have been faster, but I was happy to be in the hunt for a trophy spot on Day 2.

Wednesday

Despite a successful Day 1, I tried to pretend like it didn’t exist. This was a new course, a new day, a new event. I was happy with how my course walk plan worked for Day 1, so I implemented the same plan for Day 2 with a total of only 5 course walks. The West Course wasn’t quite as open, with more transitional elements and tighter spots to sneak through. While the East Course was kind of a pain for the STi’s gearing, the West Course seemed like it would be better. The goal was to leave it in 2nd gear and see what happens. The previous day saw two spots where the car got on the rev limiter significantly and one where 3rd was required, the West Course had at least 5 spots where we were heavy on the limiter with no real clear idea on whether it was better to leave it in 2nd or shift to 3rd. Every high speed section was right before a braking zone, so no chance to put it in 3rd and leave it like there was on the East Course…definitely a disadvantage versus the Evo’s.

I stick with the plan to leave it in 2nd for the first run and I’m on the limiter everywhere, but I’ll figure out shift points after this run. Pretty solid first run with a 62.875 clean, no major mistakes per se, but need to find some speed with the right places to shift. The important thing here is that I now had a quality first run to allow me to get more aggressive for my last two runs. At this point I think I was sitting in 3rd as others had dirty runs. Obviously that wasn’t going to last, but it sounded good at the time!

For my second run I decided that I would try 3rd coming out of the slaloms after the first sweeper and into the “showcase sweeper” right in front of the bleachers. It seemed to work well, but I also realized that I missed the opportunity to shift into 3rd shortly after the start as I was hitting the limiter just after the first left and into the first right and banging on it for quite some time…but I didn’t have to brake for the left just before that first sweeper. The rest of the course went pretty well, with no big mistakes. Finished my second run a couple of tenths quicker with a 62.661 and now sitting in 7th place after 2 runs.

Feeling comfortable that I had enough for a trophy spot, I just went all out on my last run. I was overdriving in quite a few spots, had to slow down too much in the far right corner after going in too deep, going a little wide into the following tighter right hander, and just generally pushing it hard. Despite making a lot of mistakes in the process, my time dropped another couple of tenths to a 62.465, but unfortunately +1 somewhere on course. Kind of interesting, but my codriver Shane ran the exact same time on his last run, down to the thousandth, except his was clean. After it was all said and done though, my 7th place trophy position would hold up! Great success!

Results: 7th Trophy Position out of 10 Trophies and 36 competitors.

A very successful trip this year and I’m definitely happy with the results. I know I could have been faster and have some things to work on, I know the car can get the job done and I need to learn how to drive it faster. While I ended up being the highest finishing STi in 7th place to a bunch of Evos, the STi can still get it done in the class. The gearing for these courses really hurt us, but primarily because I wasn’t willing enough to use 3rd more often and need to get better at shifting. Also a few off season mods should help if the testing proves to work out. Both Shane and John Hale were faster without the cones, which shows that there was more time to be had out there and the potential is there to hang with the Evos. And of course let’s not forget that Jake coned away the jacket last year despite the poor gearing…the car can do it, the driver just needs to do it better. But in the end I’m very happy and hope to build on this result for next year and hopefully get much closer to that top trophy spot.

Big thanks again to Hill and the crew at Agile Automotive Performance for all of their help to get the car where it is now…and where it will be in the future. Already looking forward to next year’s mod plan.

 

[jordanretro1223]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

Congrats Josh!!!

 

[SeaOfGreen]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

Very nice! How much damage does the cones do to he car when hit them?

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

You can see where I have some marks on the front bumper, but they should come out with some extra elbow grease and the right gunk removal product. I'm planning to get it detailed, but most of the time the cone marks wash right off. I tend to hit them more often than most though.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

Congrats Josh!!!

Thanks!!! :wave:

 

[SeaOfGreen]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

Thats good to here! Want to try some autox myself but always thought the cones damages the car. Seems like you been enjoying your STi =)

 

[JZeezSTi]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

Nice! Congrats Josh. Very happy for you dude. Its nice to see an STi out there representing for the rest of us who are lacking in skill and money to go to Nationals.

:tup:

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 9/27 SCCA Natio

I'll just leave this here for now.

I don't have any hard data at this point, just waiting to see if the corrupted MaxQ data can be salvaged *fingers crossed*. For this very limited test, we were only looking to understand the impacts to acceleration and top end speed since we couldn't do a true test. The best findings we had was that this 18" setup fit with no rubbing issues and no need to raise the car above our settings with the 17's. Below is more info on what we compared and how we did.

Baseline Wheel/Tire setup: 245/40/17 Dunlop Direzza Z1 (roughly 60ish runs - started full tread) on 17x9 et42 Rota DPT's (19lbs each)

Best time: 48.709 on my 2nd run, could have knocked off at least 0.8-1.0s with two more runs though as I had just jumped out of the Maryland FSAE car, which defies the laws of physics...the STi is a "little" different. It was the 4th run on tires - Shane didn't co-drive on first 2 runs, someone else did. No video unfortunately of that run, but it was not great.

Shifting: Ran out of gear very early in a few places, found two areas that required shifting to 3rd and could use it for a relevant amount of time.


Testing Wheel/Tire Setup: 245/40/18 Bridgestone RE01R's that are roughly 2 years old and a multitude of runs on them. They felt pretty hard/slick when we put them on. Wheels were TR Motorsports MT1 18x9.5 et45 at roughly 19lbs (and only $300 each on Tire Rack). I ran the 10mm spacers up front with this setup as well, so an effective et35 offset up front. No rubbing issues with this setup, but could have been from the lack of grip with these tires. Another note, Dunlops would have been wider and could possibly cause some rubbing.

Best Time: 49.326 on Shane's 5th run overall, 3rd run on this wheel/tire setup. Overall the tires were very slick and had a limited amount of grip. My best time was my 4th run (2nd run on these tires) with a 50.136 - video shows that I was a little too timid with the lack of grip and Shane ran much better lines in a couple of spots.

Shifting: The car still ran out of gear in all the same spots, but didn't run out as quickly. No real noticeable impact to acceleration, other than the extra RPM's needed at the start to get it going. Where the 17's required two definitive shifts to 3rd, the 18's could get by well enough with no shifting, although one spot was debateable as to whether 3rd could be used effectively.


The Verdict: Unfortunately, it's still pretty murky. I think until we can get more runs on equivalent tires, I don't know that we have a real answer. Our MaxQ data was corrupted when we pulled it afterwards and we're hoping to get it fixed. If so, then we can see what the actual differences were in top speed and acceleration to see what the tradeoff would be.

As far as making the car faster overall, I'm thinking with more power on tap next year that we can overcome the acceleration effects of the taller gearing. Also with more power, we should be able to get to the limiter in 2nd at a quicker pace, thus making the 18's a possibly better option, along with another 200 RPM's to help (at Nationals at least: 7400 to 7600).

I think that if I were only running locally/regionally then I would keep the smaller, cheaper, lighter 17" setup and not worry about it. More than likely there's not as much of an issue. But due to the speeds that are being displayed at Nationals the last two years, I don't know that there's much of a choice to go with anything but 18's. I know John Hale is a fan of them and had a raw time on Day 1 that would have put him right in the hunt for the top spot...looks like proof to me. I still haven't decided 100%, but it's currently leaning that way.

Oh yeah, and we can't forget the baller look of the 18's either. :lol:

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

I was talking to an engineering friend of mine and he did some calculations to determine the impacts of the wheel/tire change in addition to a higher RPM. Our top speed should have increased from roughly 54mph to 56mph using the 18's. For every 1000 RPM, we should be able to gain nearly 1mph. To maintain current acceleration levels with the taller tire, we need roughly a 4% gain in torque (rougly 14wtq based on current power/dyno). So with the plans for the off season, I think I can get the extra torque I need based on partially blocking the wastegate, keeping acceleration at least flat to this year, but gain 2mph with tires and perhaps another 2mph by increasing the redline. That should get us to about 58mph topping out 2nd gear. Sounds like I just talked myself into 18's.

 

[Thorium06]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

Sweet build, Im hoping to pick up an STi this winter for an STU build too.

I also have the TR MT1s on my current SMF car.

 

[Silverhks]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

congrats on the trophy!

did the 10mil spacer make that much of a difference in feel?
i hope you can recover the max-q data. we need to make up the gearing deficit on the evos.
btw after following the journal this i look forward to meeting you at an event.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

Thanks guys!

The 10mm spacer definitely made a difference. Better front end grip and better initial turn in. I see you're in TN, do you run any national events? Just curious where we might run into each other. If you ever get bored and decide to come up to DC, let me know. Great lot and great group of people.

SMF car? What are you running? Just curious.

 

[Silverhks]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

i am prepping an 07 for stu
i have not run national level events in a couple of yrs but plan to for the 11 season.
i have not looked at the national schedule just yet but we usually send a couple of drivers to the DC tour and pro. I hope to be there this year.

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

Nice! Unless something unforeseen happens I'll be at the DC Pro. They haven't had a tour here in a while, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Last year they had the NE Divisionals here at DC.

 

[T3h_Clap]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

those 10mm spacers had to help with inboard clearance up front as well. Unless you're running really short springs the 9.5 +45mm would be very close to the spring perches. (on a GD).

 

[piknockout]

Re: piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - 2006 STi sponsored by Agile Auto: 10/4 - 18x9.5's

I never checked the clearance unfortunately. We swapped them on in about 8 minutes in between runs. I do know that with the 10mm spacers they seem to fit just right overall.

I'm not sure of the spring length, but I'm guessing that they're 7" perhaps...whatever comes standard on the RCE Tarmac 2's.