Faust's H Street Flailings

[AspenForester]

Were you at Ojibwe last weekend?

I was! Finish captain of 2/5 (also radio) and 8/11/14

 

[M-Sport fan]

I was! Finish captain of 2/5 (also radio) and 8/11/14

GREAT to have some other rally workers/volunteers on here!!

I usually work start/finish controls, or help out with mid-stage radio points.

 

[faust]

I brought my Fiesta out to an event a few years ago. I don't really love DCTC as a venue, so I haven't been motivated to do any more. I'm also more involved in the performance rally circles, so I usually don't keep close enough tabs on the autoX schedule.

Still a couple non-DCTC events this year: Brainerd in a week, and Canterbury on Oct 10th & 11th. https://mnautox.motorsportreg.com/

 

[faust]

Back from an event at Brainerd International yesterday. It'd been over 20 years since I was last there (I think for an AMA superbike race), so it was cool to be back.



The course was pretty small -- best lap time was 35s. After the first heat, I was in 4th place PAX, with 3 of the top 4 in FiSTs. Perhaps the course suited our cars well! However, the fastest drivers were all in the other heat, so that didn't last. I ended up 16 out of the 41 cars with a PAX index (not including novices).

Once again, I realized that I still don't have a good sense for how fast the car can go. Had a good 3rd lap, and then my times started dropping off. Looking over solostorm I saw that it wasn't any particular mistake, I was just slower all over. So I pushed a little harder on my final lap, and despite overshooting a critical corner, I dropped .5 sec off my previous best lap. That put me 0.005s ahead of one of the other FiSTs (on RE-71s!), and 0.433 behind the top FiST.

Should be able to get to a couple more events this year. Then looking forwards to getting a set of RE-71s for next spring.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Not too 'shabby' LOL on 340 tread wear street tires!

 

[faust]

Second to last event of the year yesterday. The day started at 28 degrees, and warmed up into the 50s.

Back to the almost-a-road-course at DCTC. The course design used almost the whole track, resulting in the longest course I think I've driven -- FTOD was 71.6 seconds. I had a 81.008 run, but randomly hit a cone in the slalom. Best clean run was 81.633, which was still good for 11 of 22 in our PAX index class, 28th of 104 overall (by PAX again). Still working on consistently pushing the car hard enough around the course.

Started the contis at 46psi in front. Hit warm temps as high as 51psi, and the left wheel was still running on the sidewall at times! Really looking forwards to moving up to the RE-71s next year.

Our club photographer uploaded photos from the last couple events, here's my favorite from the last one up at Brainerd:

 

[Rexracer]

Wow, this weekend in 51 deg weather I started at 36psi, so as the tires warmed (it was a 5 lap ENDURO) I would be at 38 for the majority of the laps. 51psi... yikes.

 

[faust]

Final event of the season is in the books. It was another parking lot course. For some reason, I've done better on these courses, vs. the driver training circuit we usually run at (like last week). This course was plenty fast so I don't think it's just speeds. Maybe something about the elevation changes, idk.

Finished 10th out of 22 in our PAX index class, 30 of 82 PAX overall. We got 8 runs in, and this was one of those events where I got faster almost every lap. Then on the 8th and final lap, temporarily got lost in the sea of cones -- oh well!

Off-season ahead! Have a pair of Bilsteins waiting to go on the rear. May or may not get a set for the front as well. Will get my first set of 200TWs in the spring, probably RE-71s. Also thinking about some kind of minimal sim driving setup to keep from getting totally rusty.

 

[faust]

Video upgrade: figured out how to get the RPM & throttle position info to solostorm. It would be nice to get brake pressure, looks like that requires the right CAN bus magic.

 

[foodtruck]

Thanks for sharing! We lost our local pad recently so I'm living off others' autox videos lol. Run looks nice and tidy except maybe you could've locked in the first sweeper earlier and kept the throttle steady all the way through. FWIW, at some point I decided I could make the car rotate better by jabbing the throttle on and off but then turns out the car rotates all by itself with the right amount of steady throttle without any additional theatrics. I can definitely tell you couldn't apply too much throttle in aggressive turns due to slidy tires. RE71Rs are going to feel like an absolute blast when you switch to them. Apologies if I talked about the things you already know and/or are currently working on

 

[faust]

Thanks for sharing! We lost our local pad recently so I'm living off others' autox videos lol. Run looks nice and tidy except maybe you could've locked in the first sweeper earlier and kept the throttle steady all the way through. FWIW, at some point I decided I could make the car rotate better by jabbing the throttle on and off but then turns out the car rotates all by itself with the right amount of steady throttle without any additional theatrics. I can definitely tell you couldn't apply too much throttle in aggressive turns due to slidy tires. RE71Rs are going to feel like an absolute blast when you switch to them. Apologies if I talked about the things you already know and/or are currently working on

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

The traction on that lot was pretty dicey, especially with the cooler temps. The rear end was drifting if I lifted too much, and the other guy in a FiST spun out in the AM (he's on an old set of RE-71s). I'm sure you're right that I'd do better with smoother throttle management, that's an area for improvement next year.

 

[Rexracer]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

The traction on that lot was pretty dicey, especially with the cooler temps. The rear end was drifting if I lifted too much, and the other guy in a FiST spun out in the AM (he's on an old set of RE-71s). I'm sure you're right that I'd do better with smoother throttle management, that's an area for improvement next year.

Once you are on RE-71s, you are going to have to re-calibrate all your driving, there is just so much more traction available. But you can still turn a set of RE-71s into dust if you don't learn to feed in the power...

 

[faust]

Followup on RPM / throttle position in solostorm: it was only a week ago and I'm forgetting the exact steps, but basically it was a matter of

• going into Setup in the RaceCapture app
• turning OBD to 'on' (missed this step at first!)
• going to 'add OBD channel' or whatever it's called. Both RPM & TPS were options in the dropdown.
• 'write' that configuration to racecapture
• close the racecapture app so solostorm can talk to the racecapture hardware
• make sure solostorm is configured to get RPM & TPS info from RaceCapture

I think that was it. If anything's missing, I could dig out the tablet & see if I can figure it out.

 

[faust]

if the reports that the RE71r is discontinued are correct, looks like I'll need to find some other tire for next year. From currently available information, leaning towards 215/45r16 Falken RT660s. Sounds like they should fit with stock suspension, and maybe with a few heat cycles before autox they'll hold together.

 

[Rexracer]

if the reports that the RE71r is discontinued are correct, looks like I'll need to find some other tire for next year. From currently available information, leaning towards 215/45r16 Falken RT660s. Sounds like they should fit with stock suspension, and maybe with a few heat cycles before autox they'll hold together.

I have been watching the RE71r situation. I am guessing (hoping?) that if they are discontinuing, its because they will be bringing the RE71rs here. I can't imagine them just dropping a cash cow without a new one to take its place.
My fear is that the RS will be in line price wise as the AO52s... =\

 

[e1_griego]

As long as it doesn't wear like a052s.....

 

[Rexracer]

As long as it doesn't wear like a052s.....

yeah no kidding, 50% extra cost, 1/2 the life span, that would be bad

 

[M-Sport fan]

I wonder if they plan on expanding the available size range at all, for the RSes?

 

[Rexracer]

looks like there are plenty of sizes out now. And if you believe the sales puffery, they are not only faster, but have 5% longer tire life.
Potenza RE-71RS | Circuit Driving Tyre | Bridgestone Singapore

 

[faust]

looks like there are plenty of sizes out now. And if you believe the sales puffery, they are not only faster, but have 5% longer tire life.
Potenza RE-71RS | Circuit Driving Tyre | Bridgestone Singapore

Oh, I'd read that they weren't quite as fast as the RE71r. I guess we'll have to see, at least I'm in the north and can wait for people in warmer places to try them first.