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Old 07-14-2016, 09:17 AM   #91
Biggins
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bren View Post
Don't ever run in SSR.

I really haven't been paying attention, do the miatas still run away on larger national style courses?
I don't get that excited over Corvettes. I know they're the perfect autocross car, but they're not for me (I have autocrossed a C6, though automatic).

With a good driver in an ND, and there are many, they have won easily. With an okay driver, they easily trophy. Texas tour was 1-4 NDs with the first FR-S almost 4 seconds back who finished 7th/63 at Nats last year. Garfields crushed everyone at Wilmington Pro and DC tour. It's even more of a gap for a ProSolo.

It will have to be a higher speed transition course throughout with no slow 20-30mph stuff (like every FedEx course) and steadily between 45-62mph in order for other cars to have a chance.
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Old 09-29-2016, 10:22 AM   #92
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The Year of the ND

Since the season has almost come to a conclusion, it has been mostly proven that the ND Miata is the car to have if I want to be consistently competitive in my class. On lower speed and torque-friendly courses that we have locally, the FR-S would be very lucky to be less than 1-1.5 seconds back on a 60 second course. I might be able to close the gap to under a second, but it would require the best shocks ($5k) and fresh tires to reach the times of an average ND driver on decent tires. After driving the “stock” ND at a test-n-tune, I immediately went 1.1 seconds faster in it than I did in 15+ runs in the FR-S. Even though I did not feel “comfortable” in the ND, it is much faster and fits into places easier than the FR-S.

My goal for the season was to win some local events and get a trophy at Solo Nationals. I won a couple local events when the NDs were broken or missing, but I was thrilled to get on the “podium” at each National event that I did. Those events netted me some cash and tire credits for the first time ever! I did the Solo Nationals again this year in my car and picked my usual low number and was a single driver in what turned out to be the largest class in the history of the event (86 drivers!). This came back to haunt me on the second day because I was one of the first cars to lap on rapidly drying conditions which meant anyone with a higher number or especially a second driver was at an enormous advantage. Despite having a great performance on the first day and making the right call to switch to my “rain” tires, I didn’t stand a chance facing the wettest conditions of any driver at the event. I was disappointed with 36th/86, but I know I drove well enough to be top 20 if the rain stayed away or stayed consistent throughout all of the other drivers’ laps. Oh well.

Looking ahead, I still love this car. It still sucks to drive in the city, but I want to keep using it for autocross next year. I’m waiting to see if there are any classing changes, but I might get a set of Hoosiers to try them out in CSP/SM classes locally, or I might drop the $5k on shocks to give it another go against the ND, or I might just get a new set of tires and only run when I can. I have house projects, expensive vacations, and a new car for the wife on the near horizon, so I suppose I just hope I can make a decent number of events next season.

I’ve already sold an extra set of rims and some other extra parts, but it won’t be leaving my driveway anytime soon. In the meantime, I’ll be checking Craigslist, Autotrader, BaT, etc. for something else to try when the time is right. I’m starting to understand why so many autoXers change cars so often… as soon as the new shiny thing comes out, your car is obsolete.
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Old 09-29-2016, 11:54 AM   #93
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggins View Post
I’m starting to understand why so many autoXers change cars so often… as soon as the new shiny thing comes out, your car is obsolete.
Not necessarily (z06's) but yeah, pretty much.

Hard to believe they are going to let this car die off already, but I guess they can't really ignore the miata either. Maybe they'll do away with the rule allowing TRD stuff and drop the cars a class. Or maybe soon they'll get cheap enough to put in ES.
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Old 09-29-2016, 08:34 PM   #94
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Not necessarily (z06's) but yeah, pretty much.
89 Z51 had a good 20 year run. Remains to be seen if a C5 or C6 variant can match that.

Some people jump around cars in stock/street from boredom, too. If you can get three years of a car not being wrong for a class there, count yourself lucky. The RX8 was outclassed its first year, dominant for the next five and has continued being a contender for the past seven. Ironic that what's finally going to kill it after 12 years (ignore 2004) is the same car that may kill yours after 4(?).

SS and AS seem like they should be stable, but still a number of eligible cars to figure out on street tires. BS looks like a C5 class, but car's are coming that may upset that Apple cart. You know CS, but if the 986 S goes in, it could get interesting. Who knows about DS. ES, well, why? FS seems to change each year. GS has been ST the past three years and almost certainly will be again next year, but I wouldn't count on it holding on in 2018 at this point. HS, move along nothing to see there.

I think you see people stick in ST, SP and higher prep level classes longer because it takes longer to build the cars and car classing turnover is not nearly as constant and disruptive. Well, other than the ST classes anyway.

Can't believe they obsolete the twins in Street for next year.
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Old 09-30-2016, 10:54 AM   #95
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I'm confident that my car would be a blast in ST or SP form and even competitive, but I just don't have the budget to drop $10k+ on the car. It's already "the car" in STX. Rumors are saying that my car without TRD gets moved with the BRZ to DS, leaving TRD FR-S in CS. I think it is a bad idea, but The 2017 version of the FR-S/BRZ already seems like a marginally better car too.

It's tough to be in the "silly season" right now and not have any clue what I'll do for next season. My tentative goal for next year will be the same as this year with the addition of hopefully qualifying for the ProSolo Finale. I'm not sure that will be possible in the FR-S.
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Old 09-30-2016, 11:17 AM   #96
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Originally Posted by Biggins View Post
I'm confident that my car would be a blast in ST or SP form and even competitive, but I just don't have the budget to drop $10k+ on the car. It's already "the car" in STX. Rumors are saying that my car without TRD gets moved with the BRZ to DS, leaving TRD FR-S in CS. I think it is a bad idea, but The 2017 version of the FR-S/BRZ already seems like a marginally better car too.

It's tough to be in the "silly season" right now and not have any clue what I'll do for next season. My tentative goal for next year will be the same as this year with the addition of hopefully qualifying for the ProSolo Finale. I'm not sure that will be possible in the FR-S.
The class changes will be known soon enough and that leaves plenty of time to decide and then do something (if something needs to be done).

If Finale qualifying is the same next year, you just need to do three events. Even I got in this year with 2 events, but not enough points for Tier 2.
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Old 06-20-2017, 11:27 AM   #97
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Fun/Reset Season

After some lingering disappointment at Nationals last year and a few minor tweaks, I’ve been treating this autocross season as a “reset” year to figure out what I want to do with the FR-S. I have always had a tough time justifying spending a large chunk of money on an autocross-only car when there are other hobbies, vacations, house projects, etc. I’m finding that spending what I consider big money is still quite a large part of national events to be at the top, and I haven’t been ready or able to drop $5k for shocks and buy tires every month or switch cars mid-season because mine is not the best one for the class.

Somehow, I’ve had more fun this season than the past two combined and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is because I’m doing fewer events but more selective about them? My surprise is that I’m still having fun even though I’m not even in the same ballpark as the winners/winning car in my class after getting accustomed to being at/near the top of my class for a few seasons. The ND Miata is a better autocross car and probably more fun on the street, but I never thought it was a better car for me to replace the FR-S. I had no goals for this season other than to put pressure on the Miata drivers and have handicapped myself by running on year-old 2nd-tier tires that are definitely off the pace of this year’s new crop. I have been thrilled to be within a second or less of the leaders at multiple events this year instead of disappointed.

After doing a couple national events with the most recent one in Devens, MA last weekend, I finally have a clearer picture of how I want to “finish” my car and just accept into which class it falls in future years. When my size becomes available again, I’ll make sure I’m on the best tires for Nationals. The only other things I have to “fix” on my car are the sway bars, an alignment adjustment from that other tech thread, find a less-droney exhaust for highway driving, and finally purchase the expensive MCS shocks. I then have two class options depending on which springs I want to run, but the ricer in me likes the car lower to run against friends with Miatas. We’ll see, but I like having the decent street-ability of the “stockish” class.

I’m glad I finally have a vision to complete my car, but it’s going to take a bit more saving to get there by next season. I’ve so far been able to sacrifice a little this year and still have fun!

The only problem with this plan is that I’ve given up on competitively doing ProSolos (drag race starts) with my car. I am convinced that my car is not competitive in street form, so I plan to hopefully find a car completely different than the FR-S but hopefully reliable to co-drive for ProSolo events.

I know this thread has turned into more autocross-specific ramblings than an actual long-term review, but I don’t really have anything new to add than what I’ve already said about the car in this thread. Now that I have all-season tires on the car for long trips and driving around town, it is much more comfortable and will easily get 33 mpg. I actually think 35-36 mpg on the highway might be doable. The trip to Massachusetts with my wife and two duffel bags including all the autocross stuff was VERY tight, but there’s no chance a Miata could have fit all that we did without a decent-sized trailer. We’re going to try that again to Nebraska this year, but we’ll see how that goes…

I still love this car and don’t see myself selling anytime soon. I might add an older 4-door Civic Si, new Civic hatch, TSX, TLX, FiST, FoST, Mazda3/6 or some other practical car that could fall into a boring autocross class and do a track day once-a-year, but I’m going to keep enjoying the FR-S and hope I continue having fun at autocrosses!
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Old 06-20-2017, 11:30 AM   #98
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Quote:
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I still love this car and don’t see myself selling anytime soon. I might add an older...practical car that could fall into a boring autocross class and do a track day once-a-year, but I’m going to keep enjoying the FR-S and hope I continue having fun at autocrosses!
I know someone with a Mazdaspeed he doesn't need.
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Old 07-18-2017, 02:07 PM   #99
Biggins
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New Rims!

I finally caved and bought the rims I've wanted since I bought the car. I love them, but my fancy brake pads seem to dust a lot more with bright silver rims.

This is the first set of rims that I have bought brand new in over 12 years, so I'm going to be pretty OCD with them for quite a while. They're wrapped in the BFGoodrich autocross tire du jour, but I'm actually more excited about the rims!
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Old 07-18-2017, 02:50 PM   #100
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I like them
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