CosmosMpower

Congrats to Iain and Jon driving the yellow 04 representing DFW. I can't wait to see how bad they'll destroy my bone stock 05 this saturday at the S2000 event

christoc

Asher was at Nationals last year, just not in an RX8. I think an old Rx-7?

As I said all along, the 350Z can compete against the RX-8, it just takes the right driver. I've stated all along I know I'm not a top driver :D

As for cheap, you can't get much cheaper than my buddy who is picking up my 350 on Saturday, $15000 for a BS competitive car (I still think my car is more competitive than Carter's ) and two sets of wheels, trailer, tires, etc.

shinronin

whatcha movin' on to?

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

The number Carter told me, now they run with a full tank, is 400lbs more than my car in race trim.

clyde

Congrats to John V on turning the 3rd fastest BS time on day 2 to move up in to the trophies. I swear, he nearly drove the wheels off the thing.

altiain

iTrader: (3)

Thanks! We had a lot of fun in B Stock this year.

We had a decent showing, but we both know we're capable of more. Jon was .009 out of the trophies behind Hui on Day 1, but couldn't put it together on the East course and had to settle for 12th. On the other hand, I had cone trouble and had to rely on a "safe" run on the West course, which left me in 18th on Day 1. I moved up five spots on Day 2 when my game finally showed up, but it was too little, too late.

That's alright. I've only been driving a borrowed '8 since June. Now that Imp's car is sitting in my garage, I intend to walk the stage next year. Maybe if I'm nice pedalfaster will even give me one of those "I love strippers" t-shirts.

It was good to meet everyone, and save us a spot next year!

christoc

my 73 240Z, in SM2, if I ever get the engine in it :D

shinronin

mmm. SM2 money pit. :0) sounds fun. good luck. :-D

Asher

Thanks Dennis, you had quite the drive as well congrats! It was nice meeting you west coast guys as well as getting to see Eric and Buckley again.

Congrats to all the trophy winners!

McCalll

Well I felt pretty good after the first day, sitting 19th and only 3 tenths out of the trophies but then on day two I just didn't put together a good enough performance. Actually, let me revise that; I put down what I thought was a pretty darn good run and when I came through the timers it still wasn't even close to what it needed to be to be. Heck, it wasn't even good enough to be in the top 20. Just frustrating; plain frustrating. The West course design just wasn’t favorable to the car and showed its weakness. Sure if I would have had the R-compound tire crutch like BS cars I could have carried more speed into each transition and subsequently out but with ST tires I lost most of my momentum during all that tight stuff and since the car doesn’t have any ***** to come out of corners, I lost time. The M3s on the other hand have good low end torque and came out pretty well according to their drivers.

In retrospective, I'm starting to think that the RX8 is not a good viable nationals STU car, especially if you want to still drive the car on the street. Now I know that I still need to improve my driving but I think the car is holding me back. Sure, there’s more I could do to the car like $$ coil-overs, take about 100 more pounds out of the car, and make it even less streetable, but that’s the kind of stuff to get you 5 to 8 tenths faster, not seconds faster.

What it seems like that if I would have put together an awesome top tire drive and gotten a little luck, I might have been able to finish in the top ten and that’s about the best the car would do. Now if you want to fight for the win, I think a STi or Evo would get you there pretty close right out of the box. The winning STi was on stock wheels (7”), stock rear swaybar, decent coil-overs, and had no weight reduction (stock seats, huge battery, and A/C). With that kind of car you can do half a year of mild tuning on the car, drive it a bunch, and then put in a great drive and you could win instead of just being there in the bottom of the trophies. The M3 will take a bit of more tuning and a bit of more street sacrifice but it too can complete for the win. The RX8 will take even more of everything and then it might not be good enough.

I’m sure Mark might disagree but he’s already put a year of development into his car along with a lot of $$ and to that I hope he proves me wrong. I’m sure he knows what he needs to do now and will be back fighting next year.

Oh yea, big congrats to all the BS guys here and your great performances!!

mp5

I talked to Mark very briefly Wed morning and he was pretty positive about the car's competiveness. I'm sure he'll be back in 07 with a much better performance. I got a lot of respect for you guys trying to make it work in STU.

Sparky

ditto to that! Don't give up in STU. The S2k sucked it's first year running Bstock! Also, the one thing I definitely learned out there was how much more I could improve as a driver. Jason was 1 second faster than me per day! That's refreshing to know there is that much time to be had without spending a $.

shinronin

ditto, uh, x2! :0) depending on the course i can beat the rally cars in the philly region in STU with only wheels/tires vs. their coilovers, wheels/tires, and exhausts. otherwise i'm usually a little over a second behind. brian garfield of the DC region (he ran in f125 at nationals and placed 5th?) beat my time at a recent autox school on a full course by a little over a second. !!! i knew i'd left time out there and that was with just 1 run in my car. don't underestimate how much of a role driving kung fu plays. at nationals car prep matters a lot more where driving ability is more equalized than at a local or regional level, but you still have to drive yer **** off.

clyde

I had a great time all week with most of you. The ones I didn't, that's only because we didn't get a chance to talk. I'll miss competing with the lot of you when John and I go to AS next year, but one or both of us may try to hit some of you up for codrives at the odd event (07 SD Tour and/or Fontana Pro? I'm asking first... :eeps: ) as we're both going to miss the car when it's gone.

Nats is such a great experience, and the driving is only a small part of it. The people are what makes it worthwhile. I think that those were the worst two days of combined driving from me since I started in the RX-8. While I'm pissed about my poor driving, I drove home pretty happy because I really had a good time throughout the week. Thanks to all of you for helping make that happen.

I do have to rant for a minute, though...

The worst part of the whole week was getting John's call last night, telling me that they didn't show the Team WTF?! videos at the Conee Video Party. John was told afterwards that "pretty much anything with profanity was guaranteed not to be shown." I don't have an issue with that, but it would have been really ******* nice if that had been in the rules instead of used as an excuse after the fact. I'm still pissed.

If you want to see the newly shunned video, "Team WTF?! 2006: The Story So Far", it's available. The 2005 year in review was also on the submitted disc.

shinronin

jeebus, KC jumps ship and now you guys, eh? since this appears to be my role in this thread -- whatcha movin' on to? ;-)

Asher

I totally agree Clyde. I wish I could have talked to more people including you and John. I've followed your team WTF for the previous year and have been quite entertained by the videos. BTW I wanted John to know that his write up on bimmerforums for the stock M3 setup had helped me and I've passed it on to 3 other M3 drivers in my region that are benefiting from his efforts. B Stock has some good people!!!

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Wow that is a long drive...... Wish we could all race more than once a year. We get a good size group on the west coast at tours and pros but it is not the same as Natls. Congrats to Joe on the Pro win, that is his 3rd Prosolo Championship, he is way overdue for a Solo natl championship. Also great job by Carter showing BS is not spec RX8. Maybe we will see some more of the Z boys fallow his formula for success. Asher came out of the box very strong and I am sure with KC, John V and Clyde moving on he will be at the top on the east coast.

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Some pics we took: http://tinyurl.com/kw6j2

btw if you go spend the money to get a garage.

Check out the pants John.

DO NOT hit the big cones.

clyde

Uh, Clyde...

...and my wife says thanks for the pic.

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Sorry..... You WTF guys all look alike.

clyde

John and I are going to campaign his 2000 Boxster S. I'm selling my RX-8 to fund the purchase of a tow vehicle.

I also can't stop thinking about finding a salvage titled RX-8 that's been in a fire or flood for cheap and then hurting my wallet turning it into an SM car. Who knows?

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

What an experience. I wish I could have pulled off an Asher, but I guess I'll have to settle for 15th out of 36th, 0.5 seconds out of the trophies, for my first nats. I never had a good run on the West course. If I did, I think I would have found that 1/2 second. East course I got my game back (such as it is) and moved up a couple spots.

Anyway, it was great meeting altain, John_V, mp5, clyde, and all the others. What a great group of guys - too bad some of you are leaving the class. And, thanks to Pedal Faster for shuttling me back and foth to the hotel!

John V

iTrader: (1)

I'm glad I finally got to talk to all the B Stock guys, usually I'm so lost in the sauce I can't find time to go around and meet people. Somehow I never got to chat a whole lot with Asher.

The West course was an exercise in frustration for me. There were three fast sections and I kept losing the *** end of the car in each of them. Combination driving errors and not having the car set up quite right. We got it right for the second day, and I felt a lot more like myself. Bummer that I'll never feel as though I drove the RX-8 to its potential both days at a big event. Oh well... moving on I guess.

Asher, thanks for the comments about the M3 setup. I was kind of sad to see that nobody showed up in one, it was a car that could have done "OK" on the east course at least. I will never have a problem telling people how I would set up a car, but as GH Sharp would say, "OK, here's my setup - now are you gonna drive it like I do?"

Overall I'm pleased I was able to move from 15th to 7th and lay down a respectable time on the East course. Hopefully we'll both have more success in A Stock next year.

Good job to everyone, especially Jason and Carter who are obviously leagues ahead of the rest of us.

M23RX8

Hello all. Im new to the RX8 world (picking up my 8 tomorrow) but perhaps we'll meet one day like the rest of you have. Sounds like it was a great time. Does anyone have any pics they can share of the event (besides the few shown earlier in the thread)?

4D-Sport

Congratulations to all who trophied and even if you didn't, making the trip and competing in the event is worth a big thumbs up.

Jason, our team's applause for the consecutive National wins as well as your help with alignment settings and tire pressures at Atwater this year.

Barry

Team COOPER - Fight Neuroblastoma