Good job, Chike and your results mirror what Karl & I found this year - co-driving is pretty important to get the most out of the Hankooks at temps below 60F or so.

 

Agreed. Shawn and I are still trying to decide which car we'll be driving next year, but I'm glad to see that nationals will be moved up one week. If we decide to run my car in STX, we'll most likely stay on the 'kooks. Might get a fresh set of conti's for rains though.

 

If you are going to nats, I'd definitely stay on the 'kooks. As others have stated, they love concrete, and with two drivers you will have no problems keeping them up to temp, unless it is unseasonably cold.

 

All I know is...Cline Raw timed Jinx and Jay this past Sunday. It was on a runway course, his car is amazing at transitions.

He took FTP for the weekend out of over 150 people.

 

^A few more details? Who was driving what?

 

It would be the results from the NCAC at Old Sanford airport.

Class results: http://www.thscc.com/autocross/event...20Results.html

PAX: http://www.thscc.com/autocross/event...20Results.html

 

Development, development, development...

 

Jay was in his BS S2000 and Jinx was in his FSP Civic.

 

Straight-timing the current FSP national champ and a current B-stock national trophy winner in an STX car is just insane.

How did you feel you drove Mike? Did Chris beat you by an honest 6.9 seconds over two days, or did you leave a lot out there on 1 or both days? Heck you finished 10th in PAX, so I imagine you at least had a solid performance this weekend.

 

I put the stock rear bar on this weekend, which for a typical autocross course, it will be faster, but at such a high speed transitional course like Sanford, my car was back to its normal tailhappy issue. The courses were very fast and not a lot of room for error. I was happy with my 58.0 scratch time on Sunday, but on that course there was no touching Cline.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the insight.

 

With what spring rates?

 

Chris' note from the Triad forum:

Here is my video from Sunday. This is not my fastest run, but we did not get video of that. I got late in one spot on the taxiway and and a few places on the runway on this run.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoxZ06#p/u/6/SxRQ7_z7V70

There is a lot of extra video at the beginning and end, but Keith Marx posted it for me. I might try to get an edited version up at some point.

Triad had a great showing and we all had a ton of fun!

Thanks to everyone for all of their hard work.
__________________
1995 Black BMW 325is - STX 182
Mann Motorsports/The Racer's Market/B&S Decals-Graphics/Discount Tire

 

Still on the 560 front and 390 rear.

 

At nats, Chris was over 5 seconds off Jinx (127 vs. 121.6). Even Tovsen (top STX car/driver pair at nats, 125.6) was way off Jinx's time . I'm not trying to be dismissive, but is Chris's time for real? Did he really get that much faster in one month? Are we sure he didn't slip on some R-compounds?

Also, those results list Sept 2-3 as the date, I assume that was a typo.

If it's all on the up-and-up then yes, I agree, that's insane. But the results do make me go "hmmmm."

 

Chris has always been fast at that runway course. I made sure to check that he still had his Dunlops on there, and he did

He said he made some changes to the car such as replacing the motor mounts. But other than that nothing to make that much of a difference..

 

To further put the results into perspective, as Jinx is a contract hoosier driver, he replaces his tires when they have between 30-40 runs on them. So Jinx was on fresh Hoosier rubber for this event.

 

And Cline was on 270 run Dunlops

 

Yeah. There are a couple of cars in my region that belong to top notch drivers. But you can never judge by their times as they are constantly tweaking. A month before nationals, once guy was 1.5 seconds different on the 60 second course. Had he not changed back to his normal springs, a lot of folks would have gotten excited to finish so close to him.

 

Sounds like he is starting to get stupid quick like Sienkiewicz. I swear, one of those two guys will be a national champion in the next 2-3 years. Cline is a true "student of the game" who's always learning and finding ways to improve...while Sienkiewicz is just crazy talented.

I bet if Cline & Sienkiewicz took their current BMW set-up knowledge and developed an E36 M3 for STU, they'd be right there with the Evo/STi.

 

I've been saying this since Nationals.

 

As interesting as their test was, I've got to say I hope they did a basic skidpad test. I think there's far too many variables with these tires for someone to run around an autocross course and objectively say, tire x is faster than tire y in the wet. I'm thinking about Hollis' test back in February of Kumho Vs vs. XSs when I say this. Additionally, there shouldn't be as much issue with spring rates / setup due to the nature of how the wet tires will be used ("emergency" circumstances only).

 

^Agreed on both points. It all boils down to your own testing in your own circumstances.

Oddly, even though I live in OR, I have yet to do much wet testing, so I really can't say how the Goodyears compare to the RE11s & the RS-3s in the rain on the Packwood surface.

 

Chris had a broken motor mount at nationals that looked fine when at rest but under torque was allowing the drivetrain to twist to the point that the linkage was way less than ideal.

 

Nice to see some autocrossers here. Useful info here.