Hi guys,
I've been lurking around here for a bit, so time to come out of the closet, so to speak.
Yes, I have a 2012 model that I'll be setting up for STF this year. At this point, I've done exactly nothing to the car except drive it around town daily to get some miles on it (2300, so far). I did autocross it once on my old ST Civic wheels/tires (195 Toyos on 15x7.5" SSR's) and I'll admit it was underwhelming. In stock form, the acceleration is anemic. A lot of that is due to the gearing, which cannot be changed, but there's also a lot of room for improvement in the engine bay. Still making plans on what to do there.
Answering a question from upthread, I believe the optimal setup for the 2 will not be the staggered RS3/R1R that I suggested to the MINI driver at SCCAforums (and was quoted above), but instead an R1R "square" setup. The car can be made light enough, IMO, to allow the Toyos to work without overheating. That's my plan, anyway.
Speaking of weight, my prelims show an easy race trim weight target of 2100 lbs, eventually getting to 2050 by year #2 ($$$). A key factor in that is that the car can be run down to about 2 gallons without fuel starving. We tested that on a race track, and there is also a Mazda Service Highlights notice detailing how the fuel pump/tank/gauge works. In short, once the fuel gauge gets to zero bars, you still have a bunch of fuel left. So I'd start out the day at an autocross at that level.
We are currently working with the good folks at AST/Moton to have some dampers built. This is a busy time of year for them as they are a shock supplier to Grand-Am and the teams are all in winter testing at Daytona in prep for the first race in two weeks. Hopefully, they'll find some time in there for our shocks. Once those come in, we'll get cracking on the rest.
All of our build info will eventually show up at our web site at
HollisRacing.com. It's a Facebook page, but you shouldn't have to login to see everything (just to interact). For the moment, it is still all about the ST Civic, but we'll be adding the Mazda 2 stuff soon. Most of the info will be in the "Notes" section.
--Andy