get a rear wing or prepare to finish behind someone with one ...

 

I have a lot of respect for Eric's driving, but I've seen results from this year where O'Maley has beaten Eric by over 0.5 seconds on a transition intensive course. The ST Civic si is light, narrow, has an a-arm front suspension and as George mentioned, has a great tire-to-weight ratio.

This may sound like blasphemy, but if subjective classing doesn't happen in street touring, I'll seriously consider driving a civic si in STX. I just wonder how much faster one would get if you mount the 225/45/15 RS-3's on a properly sized wheel (8.5-9" wide).
I'm hoping the aero allowance in ST goes away for this very reason and I wrote a letter to this effect. We'll see what changes (if any) occur after this season.

 

I don't mean to correct you Chike but I am pretty sure the only places that Dave has beaten Eric this year on raw time was when Eric was carrying a cones on all of his runs. I have run basically every event where the two of them have run aside from Blytheville and can't remember any time that Dave straight up beat Eric clean run for clean run.

Hell I got straight timed by both Eric and Dave this past weekend in my car's STR debut.

 

Keith,

I stand corrected. I must have been looking at an older result from last season before Cline got the car sorted....

 

There have been two tours this year, if I am not mistaken, where an STX driver has "broken out" from the ST cars, and in both cases that same driver was also a good margin up on the rest of the STX field. So it can happen! I keep telling myself that...

Wing is in the garage, waiting to be installed.

This will be an odd year at nats for STX. Between the ST cars & the wings, it's like there will be three classes of cars - STX cars pushing the boundaries of this year's rule sets with wings, ST cars pushing the boundaries of this year's rule set by entering in STX, and then the cars that will be legal next year.

Not that I expect the results to be stratified as such - driver is still the biggest variable. But it will be varied field, that's for sure.

 

That says more about the STX field than anything else ... and yes I suck too

 

^Yup. And both those drivers were in BMWs, if I recall correctly.

 

Damn now I need a wing!

George what wing did you get? Pics!!

 

You going to Nats Mike? I'm not sure if aero is going to be around next season, so if you do invest in one, you may have to pull it (as well as your MS body kit) at the end of this season.

 

Yeah I should be at Nats. And I don't think I'll actually get a wing, just fancying the idea

 

It's a two-element APR wing. And, I agree with Chike - nobody should buy one!

 

Post some pics when you install it George

 

Something like this. You wouldn't believe the drag this thing adds.

 

^Yup, that's it. Looks good, KJ.

The drag is that noticable, huh? Hopefully that means the down-force is noticeable as well.

 

Not sure how much is downforce (what, maybe 45#?) and how much is the fletching we just put on the arrow....

It cost me 8mph on the front straight of the roval at AAA speedway.

 

Interesting. What speeds were you hitting on the straight?

Btw, the car looks great KJ! Wish Nats was in my budget for this season, would be nice to hang out with all the RX-8 STX'ers in Lincoln!

--Chike

 

117-118 w/o wing, per gps. This was on the dunlops, which hurt my entry on to the straight. Would love to do it again in someone else's car and race tires....

 

WRT drag vs downforce, sometimes you get what you pay for ....

 

Definitely true. And on a track, I'd pay for more. But at autocross speeds, it just isn't significant....

 

Forgive me if I don't know much about this subject. I've been autocrossing regularly for a long time, but I still don't know anything about suspension.

I'm going to get some springs during the Summer, and I was wondering why nobody makes them with "high" spring rates. It seems like most of the regular performance springs have a max rate of around 200 up front and 150 in back, and coilovers have over twice that rate.

I'd appreciate any thoughts about these springs in the URL below, which I'm seriously considering.

http://www.progressauto.com/products.../productID/616

 

Race Roots tried to get some springs with good rates made, even had some beta sets out there. But everybody pussed out and nobody signed up for the group buy.

 

Didn't they still make the "street" springs with rates higher than that?

Edit: nevermind, they were the Progress sport springs

 

Here's a nice video of today's event. Finished 1st in STX and only. 5 seconds behind O'Malley

http://vimeo.com/12897685

 

Finally got my shocks back on Friday. Whole new overall setup; different spring rate combination but still on the softer side, installed a rear bar, different front bar rate. Finished putting it back together at 1am this morning and then ran an event today. Didn't win, but for just out of the box from a computerized analysis I was pretty happy. Sweepers, turn in, and exit were pretty spot on. Needs transitional work. Oh yeah, I have to learn to drive now too, no more excuse Felt like I finally made some progress. Stayed on the Yoks as a baseline check. Can't wait to mount up the Kooks and give them a try ....

 

I recently bought Cito's car with these beta springs and I'm very pleased with them. I plan on tuning around these springs for the rest of the season