She's not a cone virgin anymore!

[MSP Pro]

Took her out to our first autox today. Temps in the low 50s and rainy off and on. First tried pressures 10 lbs over stock, but she just had no traction at all. Lots of push and a skating feel to her. Dropped pressures to 5 lbs over stock: 37 front, 34 rear. Started to hook up nicely. Times over four runs looked like this:

63.7xx pressures too high at 10 over
62.3xx pressures dropped to 37 fr 34 rr
62.15x + cones; too hot for final offset gate
62.050 almost into the 61s!!!

For comparison, a Toyota Celica GT on Falken Azenis (new tires) ran in the 63s at best. His third year of autox.

Hey, Greg! I LOVE MY MAZDASPEED!!!

 

[BlackMSP]

mods?

 

[scapamouche]

Welcome to the club I presume you were driving in DS or an equivalent....

I've got two events on my MSP so far.

I'm running in STX to hang out with all of my friends who run in STS in the same run group. I'm currently running about 2 sec slower than the faster modded WRXs in STX, and similarly slower than the STS hotshoes. I'll have azenis on the car for the next event, so we'll see how well they do.

I haven't tried running the pressures THAT low.... I was happy with 40psi front and 36 rear at the last event. There is still some understeer, but the tire temp distributions seem pretty good, and they're not rolling over too much. We'll see what kind of pressures the Falkens like....

 

[BlackMSP]

OK WOW IM STUPID! I thought you meant you were increasing your turbo pressure I was liek 10lbs over stock WOW what kinda mods would u need to do that hahaha...

 

[Micaspeed!]

Great showing! I will be doing my speeds first ax this weekend, will post results. I have more of a road racing background, and I think I spend nore time figuring out where to go in the sea of cones! Check out my post in the racing forum looking for more camber and caster!!

Godspeed!
Dave
www.delsingmotorsport.com

 

[MSP Pro]

Yes, running DS or a local TDS for street tires. I lowered the pressures because it was wet and the tires were skating pretty bad at 42 fr 39 rr. They seemed to hook up at 37 fr 34 rr. But it was so wet that I really didn't have to worry about rolling the sidewalls over too much.

There were about 5 WRXs out, but most were novices running in the 66s. One BMW 330ci, but also a novice running 66s. Chris Hartman ran a 61.7 in a borrowed WRX -- that's him on the cover of your SCCA rulebook. So, only 0.3 back from him on my first runs in the MSP made me feel pretty good.

If you run autox, let us know the results! Tuning the tire pressures is a lot easier when you have input from half a dozen guys. Fewer wasted runs trying out stuff!

Love the way our MSPs rotate, and the lsd is wonderful on the exits!

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

hmm interesting... i wanna know more about auto-x. maybe i'll go a few when i'm out of college and all settled down.

 

[scapamouche]

Face: Why wait?

Go to www.SCCA.org and follow the Solo II links to the Socal region (California Sports Car Club, I think) and find out when their next event is....

You'll get the bug even if all you do is go watch...

Pro: Well done! I've watched Chris drive before, and he's quite the hot shoe. Are you going to make the Tour or Prosolo at Atwater? I'm planning on doing one or both of those, either running in STX or getting a ride in someone else's STS car...

As far as my performance goes, I'm not used to having an LSD yet, and I'm definitely NOT taking advantage of it.... I still find myself lifting to rotate the car instead of considering more gas to pull is around, and I'm not using the extra traction on the exits.... I wasn't too happy with the car's balance at 45fr and 41 rear pressures, but I was happier at 40/36. By the next event, I'll have 225/45-17 Azenis on the car, and I'll start learning how to set them. I'm planning to start at 38fr and about 34 rear, and go from there.

 

[DistantTea]

I haven't had a manual tranny car in so long... I've been spending my daily drive to work practicing heel-toe... damn this car gives great heel-toe! Peddles are perfect.

Its absolutely killing me not to be done with break-in. I'm only 113 miles in.... ARG!

But we're going to order 225/45/17 Kumho Ecsta V700s for D stock as soon as Scapamouche gives the report on if his Falkens rub or not.

Any chance you could show the Schroth harness and shift light install? We're going to have the same setup on ours.

 

[scapamouche]

In all honesty, I don't think it's NEEDED to give an install guide!

My shift light plugs into the cigarette lighter plug and I simply routed to wires behind the dash and mounted to control box in the cubby right at the bottom of the canter console in front of the cupholders, and the display unit is mounted to the underside of the instrument panel sun shade (binnacle?) so that I can see it thru the steering wheel with me peripheral vision.

The Harness is mounted using the lower mount for the driver's seatbelt on the front left, and the rear driver's seat rail bracket on the right front. The rear straps are mounted using the two lower mounting points for the rear seat belts on the driver's side back seat.


On second thought, a picture tells a thousand words I'll get to work on getting some pics of the light and harness as mounted

 

[MSP Pro]

Be sure to let us all know which wheels and tires you used to fit the 225/45-17 to the car. I haven't been able to find a nice set of light (16# or less) 17x7 wheels with a +50 or +55 offset. Plenty of 17x7.5, but that boots you out of stock.

I put my harness in using a short metal flat bar with a 5/8 in hole in it to clear the right rear seat mounting hard point. Errr, I took out the seat, noticed the right rear mount point had a shoulder spacing it away from the body hard point, and measured that. A 5/8 in hole in the 2in x 4in x 0.090 adapter plate I made fits over that shoulder and swivels. Another hole in it mounts the belt hardware. This mounts the right seat belt. The left just mounts to the bolt holding the standard belt. I made small right angle brackets to mount the sub straps to the front seat track bolts, put snap in rings there so I could remove the sub belt when not in use.

I haven't put shoulder harnesses in yet. I'm debating whether to go with a harness bar, or rig up an extension to do a rear seat belt mount. Any good ideas?

No, I'm not going to make it to Atwater. But some locals are going down to San Diego for next weekend. Look for Jim Daniels in E stock; black MR2.