Les Davis wrote:
Gwen Baake wrote:
Actually, I drive the Mini because that's what I started autocrossing and I liked it, so when I bought a new car I stuck with what I liked. I went to the ITR when I started driving with Grab and Go, and that was fine too. When I started driving I had no idea about pax.
My thought is that if you don't like PAX times, don't look at them. Stick with raw times. But, don't be pissed when you get raw timed by a 17 piece parts car Miata!
And, anytime you want to jump in Tiny and beat my or Feinberg's raw times, feel free. And what most don't realize, or understand is that we never show up with what even resembles decent tires. We are always on corded, trashed, flipped, or track cast offs. We're there for seat time and to work on something in particular. Just think, if we'd been on good stuff, add about 1.5 seconds to Feinberg's time and he'd have been competing for FTD in the little PAX SUX car.
I realize that is why you own the MINI and didn't mean to be insulting, they are great little cars. However, you yourself stated the that the car had less than 100 whp and though I'm not completely sure where I was going originally at this point with the original statement, it was probably something along the lines of if you choose to race a car with less than 100 whp and your not forced there by economic reasons there must be something crazy involved in the decision like a rule book or PAX, two things I couldn't care less about.
I'm not really pissed about losing to a 17 piece (I think it is 35 actually) Miata, I told him that morning that it was his day to beat me, I knew he would be quite the challenge on that course. I've driven Frank, Frank effing rules, in fact if my only goal was to get the fastest time on course I would pick Frank over my car on at least 60% of our courses.
There is no way in hell I could jump in Tiny and approach Feinberg's times, I'm very well aware of this. Jim is a significantly better driver than I am, he has proven this to me countless times over the decade I've known him, beyond that I can't drive a FWD car to save my life, the mechanics of them simply do not work in my brain, I might could figure it out if I were ever so inclined but I have zero interest in doing so. I would love Jim to jump in my car and show me what its capable of however. And as for tires, yes, I'm also aware that you "Nats" folks don't run your "good stuff" at our events, do you realize that the vast majority of us "local yocals" don't run on what you consider "good stuff" either, in fact, I've only experience the "good stuff" two whole times in my entire 15 years of autocrossing. I'm currently running on V710s that are over a year old, would you even run V710s? We'd all probably be faster on sticker Hoosiers and doubt anyone was running them this weekend.
Les,
Thanks for responding. I appreciate a good discussion with two obviously different opinions. I certainly wasn't offended by your Mini statement. Shoot, you were there when I wrapped my first one around the tree at an autocross. You were very supportive that day. And, you know I love me some Mini.
Where we differ in our philosophy is that I do enjoy the "rules" and appreciate the pax. Until there is a "spec series autocross", where everyone drives the same car, preped to the same level, pax is the current best way to take the car out of the equation and make it about the driver. I agree, it's not perfect, and this year HS got hit about the hardest of all the classes. Maybe that's one reason that I like competing on the National level so much. At National Tours your entire class is the same sort of car, if not the same exact car. As it happens, the majority of cars in HS are currently Minis, which is an extra challenge. I have very little natural talent. I am a decent student. What little I have accomplished has come from an incredible amount of studying data and videos, seat time, seat time, seat time, a bunch of schools, two very good instructors and co-drivers, and a lot of help from a lot of good people who have been willing to give me advice. I'm very fortunate, and I know it. This is a sport that I love and I'm just working to do the best that I can while I'm involved in it.
About the tires-Chuck mentioned our fronts looked pretty good, so I looked it up. They stopped being "National tries" some time ago. They've been used as fronts at a bunch of local events since then, all with at least 2 drivers and, for the most part, five runs. They were flipped at some point during that time. So, fresh, they were not.
Actually, the reason we don't run Kumhos is contingency. They may, in fact, be a little faster than Hoosiers from what we've found. You just don't have the opportunity to bring home as many new ones.
One of the reasons I'm constantly encouraging other club members to come to National events is that it's an opportunity to compete in your specific class with drivers from across the country. What better way to meet drivers who enjoy the same sport, and find out what your actual level of ability is (no pax) compared to them? All of us may do this for slightly different reasons, but the bottom line and primary one should be BECAUSE IT'S FUN!
_________________
SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
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, should be a PAX monster though, at least for this year.
I didn't find them particularly grippy on the damp course and somewhat worse when I was mistaking the Miata for a boat