So begins the 2016 autocross season, and boy are we off to a great start! I’m going to try and keep the format consistent between all of my autocross event posts in the future, so hopefully the format below works:
Date: Sunday, April 17, 2016
SCCA Chapter: Chicago Region (Event #1)
Location: Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, IL
Weather: Sunny, Dry, No Wind, 70-80 degrees F
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Car: 2015 Subaru BRZ
Class: 345 STX
Wheels/Tires: 949 Racing 6UL (17×9)/Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R (245/40R17)
Brakes: Hawk 5.0
Suspension: KW V3 coilovers, Raceseng Cas/Cam plates, Velox LCAs
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Raw: 55.488 (1st of 12 in Class)
PAX: 46.388 (32nd of 177 Overall)
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Quite a few changes have taken place since last season, and as a result I am now running in STX in an “under-prepared” car. Whoops. This is obviously a result of my suspension changes, which I cannot run in C Street (duh.) To recap, the car now sits on KW V3 coilovers, and rides ~1″ closer to the ground. It also has Raceseng CasCam plates up front, and Velox LCAs at the rear, and this allows me to run -2.5/-2.0 degrees of camber front/rear. As a result of being bumped to STX, I figured now was as good a time as any to get my tire situation sorted. So for autocross, I am now running on a set of 949 Racing 6UL wheels (17×9, 17.4 lb), which are wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R tires (245/40) – essentially a dedicated autocross tire. For comparison’s sake, the stock Primacys were 215 section width. You can see a comparison of the size in the photo below. Not only have I essentially added an entire tire’s worth of contact area, but the rubber I’m using is WAY stickier. Grip for daaayyysssss!
So with those changes, I was really excited to see what the car could do. Granted, STX allows for a LOT more modifications than what I’ve got, so my car is still “under-prepared” for its class, just as I was in C Street, but I’m really hoping to be more competitive this season, regardless.
So how did things go? Well, I wound up taking first place in STX, which is kind of cool. More importantly, though, I wound up 32nd overall out of 177 entries. That’s a HUGE step up from my previous events, which usually had me right around dead center (if not worse) in the overall results. Considering some of the other dedicated track cars and karts that were in this event, 32nd is a damned fine result for my first time out on this setup!
There is still a LOT of work to do. First off, I really couldn’t get any sort of rhythm going at this event. These were literally brand new tires with 0 miles on them when I made my first run, and they were noticeably greasy (mold-release, no doubt). On successive runs, they got stickier and stickier, which was evidenced by the fact that I cut my time down by several seconds on the first three runs. As the tires kept evolving over the course of the day, I didn’t really bother to mess around with my pressures much. I kept them at ~32/31 PSI front/rear, but I’m told by most people that this is a bit high, so I’ll have to experiment more with lower pressures. I’m also told that the rears should be a few PSI lower than the fronts, which sounds about right since there was quite a but of untouched rubber near the sidewalls that I wasn’t using.
Also, I really need to figure out how to drive the car on these tires. Some corners I find I can take at a much higher speed than I am expecting, and so I lose time. I also need to learn that I can come on the power much sooner during corner exit. And then other times I get a bit TOO confident in the tires, and enter a corner a bit too fast. I’m really hoping to make it out to a Test’n’Tune event where I can put a bunch of runs down and try to sort things out, and get more of a rhythm going. You will also notice just how far from the cones I am in the video below. I was way too focused on managing my speed with these new tires, and kind of got distracted from actually getting a good line through the course, LOL.
Overall, this is a GREAT start to the season, though! The amount of grip these tires offer compared to the Primacys is hilarious. It’s really nice being able to thrash the car around the course without having to nurse the tires the entire time. It’s also nice to know that the limiting factor is me and my skills again, because towards the end of last season, the limiting factor for the car was the tires. I can now work on improving my skills as a driver, which is a big part of the fun. I can’t wait for the next event!
