THSCC Forums

Gary,
To be safe, I'm planning to arrive at the site by 0700. If I remember the last time, the course will not be set up the night before the event, so we will need to be there EARLY, get tires changed, etc. Then be ready to walk as soon as the course is set up.

The site may not be open until 0700, so maybe getting there real early may save us some hassel because there is a parking fee, as I recall, and everybody has to enter through the "gate".

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Brad

The course will be set up the night before (both days). We are planning on having registration open the night before at the Coliseum for a few hours...and if the course is ready, it will be open for walking then (however, I don't think we will start course set up until about 6PM on Friday). From what I understand though, the lots should be open at 7 Saturday and Sunday morning and I am hoping to have registration open shortly after that. Stay tuned.....

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

Stephen:

How about security on Sat. nite?
Would it be safe to leave the trailer and car at the Coliseum?

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Brad

Sorry to be so vague about things...but I think so. We are supposedly paying extra for the lots to be watched those nights....so you should be ok. Again though...stay tuned and we will give you a for sure answer in the near future.

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Stephen Westerfield
2009 Infiniti M35 | 2007 Honda Fit Sport | 2005 Ford Mustang GT |2000 GMC Sierra |1992 Acura Integra LS | Super Westerfield Bros Acura Integra

Make sure that you bring your $3 parking lot entry fee in cash for both days, too.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Well, I've been running Dunlop SSR track-type r-comps on the 330i this year that are 4 years old (mold date) and full tread depth (7.5/32's, now down to about 6/32), so with those tires, I'm probably behind a good bit compared to the V710 or A6. You guys have me pondering some V710s now! I had bought the Dunlop's since they were cheap (120 each) and I figured they would be a good tire for my daughter to drive in her first full year of auto-x. Plus we could drive to the events on them.

I figured we'd switch to the V710 next season, but that plan may have to be advanced a bit now. She's on a vertical learning curve already so what's a little increase in the slope of the curve? LOL.

One other issue is that the Dunlops were only available in 225/40-18 whereas I can get the V710 in 245/35-18. I'll have to test fit the four tires in the car/trunk to see if we can make it to an event that way first.

Chuck Branscomb

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Two important questions...how long has your daughter been autocrossing and what are her goals?

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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

come on guys, my whole point is that it wasn't just for me, its for any stock car on street tires. . .

but thanks for the info

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

Chuck, I dont think we've formerly met, but I have noticed some smokin' times lately from you & the bimmer. Since I didn't know much about the Dunlops you were running, I thought they were street tires so you made me feel a little better sharing this information...

NCAC will be my 5th event this year on the V710s so I'll go ahead and make my excuse for slower times!

Hopefully the grip will last longer than my Hoosiers (SO4's) last year. The grip on those dropped off significantly after three events.

Her goals this year include "learning how to learn" a course (how to walk through a course, what to look for, what to put on a course map, how to review your runs/notes, how to mentally rehearse (both associated and dissociated) a course, etc.), learning how to transition a car from under power to braking to trail braking/turn-in to maximum loading to progressively adding power for track out and unwinding transition in the smoothest possible manner. She has a notebook with her other goals written out we went over, but I can't recall the others at the moment. Oh, one relates to learning how to do rich, detailed mental rehearsals of a course all through the day.

She's autocrossed twice on street tires in our old Volvo last year, and now this year she has done three events plus the chick's school in the 330i on the R-comps. Two years back she took the one day course at the BMW Performance Center and just a couple of weeks ago went back for their 2-day course. Her autocrossing this year really helped down there as she won 1st place in the auto-x competition part. She's had a lot on her plate this year since I've also been teaching her how to aggressively drive a manual transmission...that part (i.e. rev matched downshifts for those rare but critical 2-1 downshifts) is still early in the learning curve.

She's developed a pretty good feel for how the tires feel near the limit and beyond given her experience level. I've had discussions, classroom like, with her about how a tire works (three components of grip: deformation/mechanical keying, adhesion, ablation), what the tractive force versus slip angle curve looks like for street tires versus r-compounds, etc. Having her develop some understanding of how the tire responds near the limit on paper I think has really helped her on-course learning curve.

Anyway, to lessen the learning curve shock was one reason I went with the Dunlops, but I don't fully buy into the "r-compound worry" that a lot of people seem to have. The Dunlops have been a nice intermediate step.

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

LOL, yea, they are more suited to HPDE use, but I do know a number of folks who use them on the street too. They are very durable for a "60" treadwear indicator tire, and they wear much longer than one would expect. I have a set for my M5 that I've run in a number of track events and a couple of autocrosses plus probably 2k street miles, and they still have a ton of tread left. All-in-all, not a bad tire for HPDE but nothing like an RA1 for example. I would say they fall in between something like a PS2 and a RA1 in terms of grip.

The best thing about autocrossing with them is changing tires at home and not having to worry about that at the events.

I'm still learning how to drive the 330 in autocross events. It's been almost a 1/4 century (yikes!) since I've driven a car without a limited slip diff in competition, so that part has taken some getting used to again. I'm used to a lot more low-end torque also, so adjusting for that has taken some learning too. NCAC will be my 4th event in this car, so my fingers are crossed. I usually do much better on more open, high-speed type courses, so I’m not so excited about a parking lot course.

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I nominate Chuck to teach a class to the rest of us on all that stuff. I'd sign up.

Brett is running a fairly new set of Hoosier A6's on his Type R so he will be one to watch out for as well in DS.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

Of course we all know that to *truly* be the NCAC DS champion you will need to be faster than GS too.

It's a shame the SCCA didn't see fit to allow me to defend my title

Yeah it is.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.