piknockout's STU Auto-x Build - '06 STi sponsored by Agile Auto *9/27 SCCA Nationals*

[Buster]

Are the whiteline endlinks adjustable to lessen the preload on the swaybar?

[piknockout]

The length can be adjusted, yes.

[Buster]

Cool, I had a long talk one night with Klevis from Icy/phoenix racing and he basically told my that the setup I was running was all wrong. Ride height, Suspension preload, and alignment were all wrong. So I'm trying to redo all of it. I do all my aligments myself at the shop I work at so putting it together is all I really need to worry about.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be looking into those.

[piknockout]

One thing to watch for, as I've now been told now that they're installed, is that the Whiteline spherical endlinks have a tendency to break occasionally, so just be weary. They also clunk a bit in the rear.

[Buster]

Originally Posted by piknockout

One thing to watch for, as I've now been told now that they're installed, is that the Whiteline spherical endlinks have a tendency to break occasionally, so just be weary. They also clunk a bit in the rear.

Ive got 04 STi takeoffs, Ive got plenty of clunk already lol. Do you think they are breaking because people are allowing too much preload? I could see if the were set too tight that they may snap at the threads but not if they are comfortable in between the bolts. Im just iffy about sphericals, my Perrins were shot in less than a year.

[cravej]

Hey Josh, Stay off of the cones!!!

[piknockout]

Yeah, well I wasn't the only one...I think all of STU was dirty, or at least just slow. We were fighting on raw time, not clean time.

[DPancoast]

very nice. love the wheels man!

[SpEcRv9]

Nice progress man!....I miss your sentra though, its always more fun to be the underdog!

[piknockout]

It was fun being the underdog and surprising people...but this is just WAY too much fun. It's just insane, I giggled like a 12 yr. old school girl all day yesterday.

[jjm4life]

having seen this thread, and being there yesterday, i was wondering if that was you. nice subbie, sounded badass. what were your times?

[piknockout]

Thanks! Times were 53.1xx +1, 52.898 +2, and 53.3xx +1. Couldn't keep it clean, but was more concerned with car setup and seat time. April 11th at Fed Ex is when I start getting serious methinks.

Called Steve Snow at Bimmerworks today. Ordered a set of Bridgestone RE-11's in 245/40/17 shaved to 6/32 that I will be getting mounted up on Thursday. I'll try and drive on them Friday to get a heat cycle in them, and then ready for Sunday's event.

I only shaved to 6/32 due to my own inherent laziness. The drive to events is roughly 50 minutes each way, so not bad, and I hate swapping wheels/tires at events. Also since these will have to be rain tires also, I wanted some tread to be there so I'm not sliding around everywhere. I'm not yet baller enough to have a dry and rain setup. Perhaps next year.

[piknockout]

Philly Winter Event #4 on March 22, 2009 at Citizen's Bank Park

Video: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoID=54628473

So this would be the maiden event for the new setup. The big question loomed: would the car do a 180 or plow through the first turn? To help with setup, Iman (bdi) co-drove with me to get some more runs in the car and help try to set it up. He also donated two wheels/tires for the event as the borrowed wheels/tires I had wouldn't quite fit in the rear. We were running the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec in 245/40/17 both front and rear, but the fronts were nearly done and the rears had been sitting all winter in Iman's garage. This could be interesting.

We had some good competition to compare ourselves to in Cy Lee running his Mitsu Evo 9 RS which just won the Dixie National Tour with Corey Ridgick driving the weekend before, with Cy finishing 2nd and running on the Bridgestone RE-11.

On the very first run, we made it about 3/4 of the way through the course until a red flag for a golf cart near the course. That's okay though, rerun! But an amazing thing happened on that first test run...the car actually felt REALLY good right out of the box. How did that happen? Perhaps it was the lack of "understeering fairies" on the car, who knows. But the car felt great. We only made two minor adjustments to the car all day, with one more click of rebound in the rear and a little lower psi in the rear tires. Car was fantastic and a blast to drive!

First run came through with a 53.147 +1, which would end up being the run I had to stand on for the day thanks to no other clean runs. It was good enough for a 2nd in STU (Cy pulled out a clean run 54.0xx) and 18th in PAX. Had the run been clean, it would have been good enough to take the STU win and finish 4th in PAX among some good company.

What I learned this weekend is that the car setup is right in the ballpark, thanks again to everyone who helped offer advise on parts and setup, everything worked well. I've ordered some RE-11's that should be here this week and will be testing out this weekend. I don't think I'll have a chance to give them a good heat cycle before the event, so the first real test probably won't come until the A.I. event on April 11th. I can't wait to continue tweaking the setup, but hopefully there's not too much more to do and I can focus more on driving.

More to come in the next few weeks.

[piknockout]

A couple of pictures from the last event. Don't mind the mismatched wheels, just got the RE-11's mounted last night on the FN01RC's...pics to come tonight. :D

[piknockout]

Bridgestone RE-11's shaved to 6/32 by Steve Snow at Bimmerworks in West Chester, PA. Amazing work. Getting tested tomorrow, but it's probably going to be wet and not a true test. First true test for them will probably be on April 11th, if it doesn't rain then too.





And a couple of mounted pictures...matching wheels now! :D

[piknockout]

WDCR Practice Event at Fed Ex Field on March 29, 2009

Video: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoID=54909768

Results (must sign up for a login for WDCR): http://www.wdcr-scca.org/SoloAutocro...5/Default.aspx

This event was supposed to be the day to test out the new RE-11's and see if they're worth the hype. But unfortunately Mother Nature did not agree with me, with rain falling all day on Saturday and into Sunday morning. When I arrived at the stadium, there was enough fog around so that the other end of the lot wasn't quite visible. The only benefit was that it stopped raining when I got there and everything was just wet. So no real testing of the RE-11's, but it was going to be a good day to test out some wet/rain settings, especially since it was a practice event...time to mess with stuff! To add insult to injury, STU would run in the first heat of the day...yay.

To setup the car, I turned the rebound down one click on all four corners from where it was last weekend and adjusted tire pressures to 34psi all around and left the DCCD in Auto. On the first run of the day the rear end wanted to kick out every time I got on the throttle, to the point that I was constantly having to countersteer to keep it going remotely where I wanted to. I also continued my dirty streak and knocked over two cones. First run time was a 61.558 +2 cones.

After the on-throttle oversteer nightmare of the first run, I decided to play with the DCCD a little bit, putting it two clicks back from full lock. It's a practice event, what better time to mess with stuff? I also decided to drop pressures down to 32psi all around. On this run, the car felt much more controlled and easier to point where I wanted to while still getting a little bit of rear kick out on throttle. Felt like a good balance overall. Some of the standing water was starting to go away and my overall comfort level with the car in the wet was getting better. Second run time was a 60.945 +1 cone...still need to keep it clean.

The third run was the time to go for it. The pavement was continuing to get better and I was continuing to feel better in the car. Left the DCCD on two clicks from full lock for the rest of the day. The car felt great, I had some good lines for the most part, and I was pushing the car hard. So hard in fact, and I was so excited that I nailed the next to last cone before the finish! So frickin' mad, why can't I keep it clean? I have issues. To make it worse, the time had dropped down to a 59.643 +1 cone and I wasted it in the final section.

On to the fourth and final run. I've had 6 consecutive dirty runs including the prior event. It was time to get serious and make it happen, especially with the course slightly improving with each run. I got fairly aggressive and really pushed the car, and in doing so got myself off line in the showcase turn, not getting behind the final cone and screwing up the next offset section (hence my disapproval at this point in the video). But at this point I just needed something clean and kept pushing it. Up to the final few cones I knew I was clean, and after coning that section on the previous run I took it a little slower through there to ensure the clean run and hope it was decent. Final result was a 59.557 CLEAN...FINALLY! The extra benefit, the time was FTD for the morning heats running in the wet!

The result: 1st in STU out of 11 and 23rd in PAX out of 172. Needless to say, once the sun came out and the temperatures rose in the afternoon and the course dried up, people started flying. Ian Baker in his STS CRX raw timed me by 1.5 seconds for example...oh yeah, and he happens to be pretty good.

Overall, still really happy with the car and with the way it feels. The next event for me is on April 11th with Autocrosser's Inc. at Fed Ex Field, hopefully it will be dry and I can have a chance to see what the RE-11's are all about.

A quick pic of our first heat conditions. And hey, I'm actually looking ahead!

[dt98gsr]

Nice pic! And glad to hear you got in a clean run

Must be nice to have the A3 and the Sti, huh?

[piknockout]

Thanks! It's not a bad situation to be in, but I (and my wife) worked hard to get where we are now. I love my wife too...when we went to buy her a new car last year, she got something cheaper so that I could get the STi.

[piknockout]

Autocrosser's Inc. Event #2 at Fed Ex Field on April 11, 2009

Video: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoID=55695310

Results: http://autocrossersinc.org/uploads/2009AI2.pdf

After getting the chance to drive the STi and the RE-11's in the rain, I was ready to give them a chance in the dry. Watching weather.com all week, Saturday kept bouncing between rain/no rain/rain/no rain for the longest time. Then on they day before the event, the call was definitely for rain, but ending by 10am. Since STU was running in the 3rd heat, I had a solid shot at some dry pavement, right? Oh how Mother Nature hated us on Saturday, with high 40's, rain, and high winds. What a crappy day to be outside, especially considering how nice Friday AND Sunday were. Oh well, time to get some more wet weather driving practice in. Hopefully that should come in handy in the future.

First run of the day was a chance to test out the course and figure out where the fast stuff was and where the tricky stuff was. Walking the course it was clear that Sam Strano is an evil course designer, would have been a blast in the dry. I completely overshot a couple of offset sections near the end of the course on that first run, but came through with a nice 74.862 +2. No biggie, still three runs to go and plenty of time to make up with some corrections. Second run, I screw up the same two offset sections again...and again another +2 on a 75.057 run. At least I'm consistent?

After screwing up the same section twice, I finally had it in my head to setup better for these sections. And this third run would be my fastest RAW time, setting up the offsets well, slowing down where I needed to, but definitely slowed down in a couple of other spots. Time coming across the line was a 74.789, not much faster but I'll take a clean run...or not. Ended with a +1 on the LAST cone before the finish. Really? WTF?!

Final run was time to get a clean one in as my RAW times were good enough, slow it down a bit and be more careful. Got it. Come through the finish with a 75.542 announced clean! Well, initially at least. Apparently hit another frickin' cone somewhere on the back side.

So now my number of coned runs for 2009 has drastically increased...not a single clean one out of four, taking me to 2 of 15 runs clean, or 13% for the year and 2 of 4 events with no clean runs. Apparently I have some things to work on, but I'm going to say it's getting used the extra width of the STi...right?

Final results put me in 2nd in STU out of 7, losing to my co-driver Shane who drove the car very well for his first time in the STi, congrats on the win! Thanks to the wet conditions, it was a Street Touring kind of day in PAX, still finishing in 7th of 104 in PAX even with the cone. Without that one stupid frickin' cone I would have finished 1st in STU and 3rd in PAX. Next time. My goal for the next event is to run at least 2 clean runs, doubling my clean run output for the year.

Next event is on April 26th at Fed Ex with WDCR, first points event of the year. Now's the time to make it count and start really focusing on driving the car fast, but clean.


Yeah, I know I'm on the wrong line in this pic, but it was first run.

[cravej]

I'm going to quote myself.

Originally Posted by cravej

Hey Josh, Stay off of the cones!!!