THSCC Forums

I saw the bylaws once, they do exist. I think I saw them... Maybe they were a mirage!

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Oooooooooo....nice effect Carl!!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

I hate to break it to you Todd but the tires I've been running on this year were purchased at the beginning of *last* year. They have at least 5k street miles on them and probably 25 events and were never shaved. They also have at least 3/4 of their tread left and it is unlikely I will come close to killing them before I move on to another set.

I bought 2 sets of 215's last February and stored a set away until just before nationals (the ones I've been using this year). I drove and ran on 1 set the entire year which amounted to 15k+ street miles and nearly 40 events. They were unshaved as well. That would make 1 set per year doing an abnormal number of events.

My total tire bill for the last 2 years of competition? Less than $600 which includes mounting and balancing. It isn't always the case that you need shaved tires or spend a fortune to be competitive even on the national level...

Needless to say, I've ordered a new set of 615's for nationals which will be my first set of shaved tires. I fully expect to use those tires for most of next year but I will not be driving on them to events anymore.

Jim
- anybody want to buy a set of "lightly used" 215's with 2nd-place-finish nationals mojo in them?

I voted Yes to keep the TIR class. Why? because once in a while i like to do an autocross with my daily driver Miata and that class fit the car just nice. Yes i got Azenis on my daily driver, because they are cheap, make the car fun to drive and have kind of decent tread life. The only other thing on the car are a set of Koni shock for basically the same reason than the tire. For obvious reason the autocross/track budget goes on the Porsche so the Miata will never get more than she got right now. With the Miata in open class i got basically no chance, but in TIR i can win as i did last year in one event. It's nice to have fun but it's much better when you win.

Patrice

But you make up for the old tires with a MAJOR dose of inner alien!!! I need the shaved Azenis so I can hope to catch you!!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

I voted to keep TIR class. Though I run in an open class, I'm grateful to everybody who decided to run in TIR class or X class this year, and not come splash around in my personal ESP pond. Thanks, yall!

History Lesson:
When we instituted TIR class about 10 years ago, we picked the 140 treadwear number as the lower limit because it seemed that a lot of OEM tires for sports cars and most of the perfomance tires listed in the magazine ads were rated around that number. BFG R1s and Hoosiers had ratings around 50, and there wasn't much in between.

WHY we instituted the class was a response to lots of folks complaining about the cost of R compound tires, particularly those who had been bitten by the track bug and were no longer autocrossing full time. Plus, some folks wanted to sleep late and not have to change tires before the event. So, TIR class was created for the cheap, casual and lazy autocrossers. Of course, this happy little low-cost, no-fuss, low-pressure class turned into something different when a handful of people conspired to make it a competitive class.

WOW.... has this been entertaining or what...

Keep TIR, KILL TIR!! The debate goes on and on. OK, here's my story. I voted against TIR. Brice, you might be interested in this, just my summation of my driving. Let's go back in time to 2000 and I just found out about this club. Well run with great folks, I had found what I wanted in a car club. No show and shine, you just come out and drive your car like you stole it. Great way to learn the in's and out's of car control.

I started life in a '70 Cutlass convert and drove it in FS for 2 years. Got my a$$ handed to me in every race. Didn't want to run tire, I wanted to run open class and see what I could do. No matter what I did to that Cutlass, it still drove like a pig...but I looked good doing it and I stayed on street tires the entire time.

About 3 years later, I won my first event. I can't honestly say I remember that day. What I do remember is all the folks in this club giving me a hand, helping me drive and learning the secrets to better car control. That's what I remember. Trophies are nice, but running with a well organized club is better.

No matter what class you run, have fun. If TIR is killed next year, you'r welcome into STS w/ open arms. Don't worry about where you place or what class you run, you're here to learn to drive your car better!!

ok, I'm done....

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

Who the hell does that?!?

Why is this such a big deal? Are these TIR guys paying the same money as the rest of us? Are they having a good time? Are they returning customers?

What's the problem?

Matt<---just bought a set of Falken 615s after 3 AUTOCROSS SEASONS and a few track days on a set of 215s....

You know, that would make an awesome t-shirt for the Evolution schools!

"Evolution: Release your inner alien!"

-or-

"Evolution: Get in touch with your inner alien!"

Or something like that.

Jim
- who needs to do an Evo school or 3 one of these days...

Nobody locally, but I know that there are people who are at the top of the ST* ranks that have a new set of tires for each big national event. Hell, some of them are spending as much on tires in a season as I did on my whole car!!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Ok, I just thought about something...

The #1 reason people say we should ditch TIR is that it reduces open class participation. But with there really only being maybe 9-10 regulars per event in TIR, how much is that really affecting open classes. I seem to remember or think that TIR in years past was huge, but not so today. Also, when looking at some past results when TIR attendence is above 10 cars, it frequently is due to those who usually run in Open class are running some non-autocross car for fun and just do it in TIR class.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Let's look at this a different way, Richard. Given the current state of classification with four discrete street tire classes, could one provide sufficient justification for the creation of a separate TIR class? There already exists an option for a PAXed class where those running a different car class can participate so as to not screw up a potential points battle (X).

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

The most interesting point brought up was by some of the fast new drivers that felt their participation in TIR hindered their progress.

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

How does it hinder their progress? They can still see how they would have placed in the open classes, they still know where they would be if they ran with "the big boys", its just that they have a group of people they can compete against thats more realistic for them. Perhaps we can place a limitation on TIR, if you trophy 3 times in TIR, you've gotta move to the open classes, to prevent people from hanging out there just to beat up on the NOV2 class as some have referred to it. . .

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

It's all about where you set your expectations.

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In need of car.