CRX and 2011 #12 index driver in XP

[Mike's Competition]

This one looks a little more concerning.
2011 #12 index driver in G Stock with a Civic Si.
Ran last year in Street Modified FWD, three events, not as quick as the 2011 times.
Now registered in XP with a CRX Si. Every possible part available. Easy engine transplants. Lots of information available about tuning them. Proven to be a quick autocross car.

 

[mmarshall]

Looks like it will be a fun season. I wonder what changes he has made to his car? In 2011 he was running around 3 seconds slower than the top times, but seems pretty consistent. I am guessing he was on A6's as he won GS several times. Aside from a full race rebuild of the car I am not sure how he would pick up 3 seconds. Either way I will leave it for you to fight over for event #1 as I have to work and will not make it.

BTW what did you do for tires?

Good luck tomorrow!

 

[Mike's Competition]

I talked to some people at the tech / lot cleanup today. The CRX is the Japanese import, right-hand-drive car. I did not know his name, or that he was also racing a Civic. I also did not know he had been a high index driver.
If he had not changed his plans, he was not going to do anything too wild with the CRX. It started out with one of the higher power engines that was not offered in the US. I wonder what tires he will be on, or someone was saying that the stickier, treaded, street class tires were better on that gravel covered lot anyway...

 

[Mike's Competition]

The CRX has the 160 HP Vtec engine. The suspension on this car was different from the US car, and he described it as the double wishbone suspension from the Integra Type R. He has a set of Japanese coilovers, probably single adjustable, and with a narrower range than the Koni/Bilstein stuff. He does not know the weight. It would be heavier because of the engine, but lighter because of the lack of steel beams behind the bumpers. Best guess was 2,200 pounds. He's on a set of the ultra sticky extreme-summer-performance-tires (street tire class competition tires). They have lots of tread left and he mentioned doing lots of PDX events in the car, so chances are these are not two year old tires from his 2011 season. There is a good argument that these tires are better for the grit covered pavement.

They have the run order set up for run three in the morning, then three more in the afternoon.
My new tires seemed to stick a lot better. I was going back through my suspension notes, trying to figure out the adjustments for the Hoosiers before the traction fell off. My biggest problem seemed to be chickening out and not holding the gas pedal down long enough through the open sections.
At the end of the morning, he was beating me by .174 seconds. He did not believe his car could go any faster.
Fore the second set of runs, neither of us could get back to our morning times. I think I had the start of a good third run, then spun the car in the middle of a pile of pebbles on the first hard left...
For me, splitting the runs into two groups is not producing better times. I should be able to build on the fourth and fifth consecutive run, while I am still in the mindset. And running one side of the row at a time is not giving my brakes enough time to cool between runs.

The CRX is probably going to be more of an annoyance to me for second place, than Mike. And I still expect Gary to kick all our butts two events per season.

I bumped into the Cobra group while running up the hill to shoot video. They left before the end of the heat.

 

[MPTech]

Bill, we enjoyed watching your runs. Very smooth.
I left about 1:00, how did the rest of the day go for you?

When I get my tuning and weight balance worked out, I want to take a couple runs on the course later in the season, but don't expect any competition from me, I'm just doing this for the fun and to get a better feel for the handling.

Thanks for the hospitality! Good luck this season.

 

[Mike's Competition]

Both the CRX driver and myself were unable to improve on our morning times during the afternoon session. It looks like 1/3 of the drivers did their best time during the morning, and chased themselves without success in the afternoon.
I was picking up over a second a run during the morning, and there was more to be had. .174 seconds quicker on the fourth run should have been easy. And if the CRX was at its limit like the driver said, that should have been a slam dunk. But getting back into the groove after down time just was not happening.
My index was 8331, which is a little short of my average from last year. That also means that the CRX dropped right into the middle of my average. I'll need to get recovered from the down season, used to stickier tires, and step my average up to my best results from last year, if I can hope to fend him off.

 

[mmarshall]

Bill, we enjoyed watching your runs. Very smooth.
I left about 1:00, how did the rest of the day go for you?

When I get my tuning and weight balance worked out, I want to take a couple runs on the course later in the season, but don't expect any competition from me, I'm just doing this for the fun and to get a better feel for the handling.

Thanks for the hospitality! Good luck this season.

Mark that is a good attitude to have about trying AX. Just come out trying to learn about your car and your skills. It really is a lot of fun. If we line up correctly you can ride along for a few laps to get the course stuck in your head so you can just drive when it is your turn.

Bill is now on the Kumho V710 because the Hankooks were not available in his sizes. Looking at the average times for event #1 they were very close on average to event #10 last year. Based upon that I would have been 2-3 seconds faster than the CRX so I think Bill is right that he won't offer too much competition for me. Now if it rains like it did last year all bets are off as the FWD is pretty fast when wet.

Also I noticed some of the fastest drivers have shifted around a bit to different cars. At some point this season I may find that I am the fastest car on the track!