The racing forum doesn’t see much action these days. Thought I’d share some media from last year.

im really trying to dial in the S this year for C Street class. If you’re interested check out the racing forum for more details. I think there are plenty of street cars that are way more modified but if your driving an S, chances are your into speed in the esses.

https://youtu.be/foISxMVIWGA?si=pNfkruqREpL97fGN

 

 

 

 

I have not made nats since 2019 unfortunately. I made it to Spring nats in 2022 but that was it. The S is pretty much buried in most classes now unless you do a really serious XA build or maybe BSP. But still fun as hell to autocross it. I made it to nats I think every year from 2014 to 2019. Super fun event. I remember before the ND came into STR, we had about 50 S2000's in STR, which was a blast. Then the next year it was zero (I was codriving an ND1 that year). I thought about going this year and just running it in XA and letting it land wherever just for the fun of going. May make it but depends on how much time and money I spend on TT with NASA this season.

 

I hear you. It kind of sucks not being competitive. I’m going to see how close I can get. I’m looking for personal improvement this season and maybe next, pull out as many tricks as I know to include unconventional and psychological warfare.

couple tips I picked up from nats.
1. codriver- even if it is just to keep heat in the tires
2. track mapping/data log- this goes with the fist bullet but you can use the data between your codriver to dial things in and compare course notes.
3. Don’t skip the test and tune day!

last one was on me. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal because I just run what I brung. The deal is, lets you get a feel for the surface as well as atmospherics to play with tire pressure. It’s kind of a free day, I just didn’t take the time off work and left my house around 4pm. I lost an hr from CST to EST, and got there just in time to setup my tent and get my car off the trailer.

I’ll be more prepared next time.

 

Don't read into the Test-and-Tune too much either though. If you've never driven concrete before, it's good to do. I also think it's good to do just to get into the swing of things. Both times I've been to Nationals, the cars have been pushier on the TnT course and I've heard others say the same. Don't tune around the TnT course or buy into it too much. Use your experience throughout the season to figure out what you like.

I also don't think that the modern crop of 200TW tires that are competitive benefit from heat. I haven't run the new Stones but I'm pretty sure they're the same. The Yoks and Falkens that I've run are best at ambient temperature unless it's like < 70 degrees or so. Either way, too much heat is more likely a problem than too little. A co-driver is nice for a few reasons but heat management is not one of them.

Good luck with psych warfare. You're gonna need to psych them out enough to make them quit or something. Them CS cars and drivers are fast. I suggest running as many national events as you can before going too. It's very humbling.

 

Nationals is fun, I spent a lot of time watching specific drivers mainly heitkotter in his stu 350z on day 1/2 run since i was running day 3/4. I learnt a lot that way to align my course walk to how it was driven.
Codriving I find is less for tire temp (except for off season cold climate stuff) rather its for spreading out costs and sharing data, you should get yourself onto petreldata solostorm for autox.
Test and tune I didn't find helped that much other than playing a bit with damping and just getting into the swing of things. I also didn't find Lincoln particularly grippy personally, but it was some time ago on older re71r and bfg rivals s., maybe b/c of how much opr is on course or whatever.
The grippiest site to date I've driven is crows landing which is kind of nutty.
Watching your videos, I feel like you need to get more comfortable staying in throttle and driving the car like you stole it. I see in your profile you're from Florida, see if you can get Ian Stewart to help you out, that man is fast.
As for psychological warfare, thats done the night before with drinks haha. Keep the beers flowing, whoever's the least hungover has the better shot at winning.

 

your right, depends on the tires. And yes, the CS class of tough. It seemed to me that the biggest benefit was the latter, comparing runs and data. How much speed and you carry through certain turns, can you brake later? That seemed huge to me. Something I’d like to add into my development.

 

I earned the nickname whisky truth Saturday night, shared a bottle of Makers with the guys that helped me unload the car. Overall I had a great time. Looking forward to the next. Don’t think I’ll get to Lincoln this year. Your spot on, I had made some changes to alignment and only had one previous event with new wheels/tires. I wasn’t ready or comfortable.