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SCCA Solo National Chamionship wrap up #8 STF

6K views 24 replies 12 participants last post by  mk3-hershay 
#1 ·
The SCCA or Sports Car Club of America Solo National Championships 2013 was a test of man and machine. The temperatures were blistering hot both days I ran and keeping both the car and myself cool and hydrated was an uphill battle. I had light-headedness and severe muscle cramping despite drinking over two gallons of liquid both days. I stayed away from large amounts of alcohol which would have contributed even more to my dehydration.

The first day of competition brought the long and fast East course with several pin turns and a few slaloms and sweepers. The car felt great and was able to take most maneuvers at no less than 50% throttle with minimal stab braking. After my first run I went to talk to my beautiful wife to make sure she was ok and also to check that she recorded the run from the sidelines, she was and did. Upon returning to my car to check tire pressure and temperature I noticed that my rear exhaust hanger was gone and the tailpipe was an inch off the ground and swinging freely. I quickly attached four zip-ties to the pipe and connected it to the tow hooks in the rear and hoped it would hold, it did. So I bled my tire pressure down to the optimal pressure went out and picked up over a full second on my second run landing me squarely in second place!

My Third run brought overheated tires which I failed to check the temp and spray them down with water to cool them prior to my last run on the East course. Also had a decent amount of "other people's rubber", OPR, caking my rear tires on their contact patch. I simply bled the tires down to the optimal PSI and went on my last run but was a full second off my previous best run, due to lack of traction both under braking and cornering.

The end of first day competition had me Second in my class of twenty-four and a half second out of First place with the last (7th) trophy spot being about half a second behind me. Very tight competition to say the least. Now this is where the mistakes start.

At the end of the day 1 I should have been scraping the OPR off my rear tires which I failed to do. The car was low on fuel and I needed to get a gallon and a half to make it through the next day of competition. I chose to go to Shell to get "premium" fuel and was shocked to see they only offer 91 octane fuel! My car is tuned for MINIMUM 91 octane, and runs like crap with significantly less power on anything but 93 or higher octane, but I was stuck and had to fuel with what they had.



Day two brought the West course which was slower and more technical with slaloms, sweepers and high speed lane change type maneuvers. It also brought clear skies, 95* temps with 95% humidity or at least that's what it felt like. The track surface was easily over 150* which will instantly heat and overheat your tires. I went out on my first run with the usual plan, smooth fast and clean, give them something to think about. But after the first four maneuvers the tires were overheated in the front and the OPR on the rear tires caused me to lose the rear end sliding out from under me at high speed, I lost control of the slide and almost came to a complete stop. Now I am behind the 8 ball and NEED to have a fast clean run on my second if I hope to hold onto a trophy spot.

Second run had Aaron Williams in my grid spot spraying down one sides tires while I sprayed down the other side tires with water to cool them off. We talked about keeping it in line and some driving technique as well as him threatening me if I didn't "clean it up", it was just what I needed. My second run was clean and free from slide/spin outs and I put down a competitive time. My god it was hot, I almost fainted after bending over to check my tire PSI EVERY TIME I bent over, not good, felt sick to my stomach and had random weird cramps everywhere.

Some time later I went to take my last and final run of the SCCA Solo National Championships with everything to lose. Was in second on day 1 and my second run of day 2 put me back into 6th place of 24 in class. I had to pick up some time and keep myself in contention. With more pit help from Aaron and words of encouragement I managed to pick up a few tenths on my last run despite the lack of grip and held onto the 6th of seven trophy spots in the class.

This was long time coming, me taking my car I built in my moms driveway with love sweat blood and tears, bringing it to the National Championships and proving that I had not only turned a grocery getter family sedan into a competitive racecar, But that I myself can pilot a car to a trophy at the biggest stage in Grassroots Motorsports.
 
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#4 ·
Thanks guys!

And sure, my setup is as follows;
Suspension: H&R Race springs, Koni Sport (yellow) single adjustable shocks and struts, Eibach front and rear sway bars, SPC front camber plates, Massive Speed System upper strut brace, Massive Speed System Rear shock brace.
Alignment; front camber -2.5 Front toe -0.12
rear camber -2.4 rear toe 0.00
Engine; 2.0 Zetec, Massive Speed System Under Drive Pulley kit, K&N cone filter jammed onto MAF no snorkel, Massive Speed System spark plug wires, MSD coilpack, SCT programmer used to tune (my own custom tune), JBA shorty header, Massive Speed System custom made Magnaflow spun cat catpipe, MBRP catback exhaust, Massive Speed System Dogbone mount
Misc; SVT front brake system, Hawk HP+ pads, Enkei RS6 wheels, Dunlop Dirrezza Z2's in 225/45r16, Bridgestone RE11 in 205/45r16 (for wet days and shorter courses where more torque is needed {on OE wheels}), Corbeau 3pt harness

I think that is everything, if it is not listed it remains OE. Good luck to all who take the very formidable Focus to dodge some cones! STF or the new HStreet/GStreet is where I think the Focus will be most competitive. I am going to something RWD with POWER for 2014.
 
#5 ·
Re-reading my list shows the three hardest things to get, MBRP catback is no longer available (was the only one for a sedan at the time), Getting Massive to make you a Custom Catpipe using a Magnaflow spun cat, and lastly my tune was derived at the dragstrip making adjustments and taking passes repeatedly until I found the best A/F mix and spark timing with relation to my 1/8 and 1/4 mile times/speeds. Very time consuming but I picked up 1.5 seconds in the quarter with my tune over the SCT tune.
 
#6 ·
#9 ·
Thanks Mac! Good to know Zewerr, in other hindsight, the Bridgestones would have been the better choice of tires for the gearing and the heat resistance on Friday.
 
#10 ·
There is also 100 octane at a small Sinclair station in Lincoln. It was good meeting both of you (Bill and Chris) BTW.

I still can't believe how well you do with that thing. No matter what you put into it, its the nut behind the wheel.

I'm regreting not running my SVT in RTF. I was .4 seconds raw off of Jeremy Salenius' time this past weekend on a tight course with alot of digs out of corners. I probably could have done pretty well with the high speeds at nationals. I totally sucked balls in STR. Such a competitive class.
 
#13 ·
I still can't believe how well you do with that thing. No matter what you put into it, its the nut behind the wheel.
Thanks Sully, Thanks BriK and Thanks WRC Fan!!! The nut behind the wheel makes all the difference in autox! BriK, as a far as a build thread, no, never made one. This car has been pieced together over the last 6-7 years to make its current form. The camber settings for FWD vs AWD should be completely different I would think. As far as getting the rear to rotate with more negative camber my theory is the less tire on the ground the less friction to stop rotation. Add a couple of the biggest rear bars to stiffen everything up in the rear to aid rotation. I usually run one full turn off full stiff for my shocks in the rear depending on course and conditions and adjust rotation with tire PSI then shock settings. The front with the big bar and the struts full stiff does push so I usually run 1/4 to half turn off full stiff and again dial out push with tire PSI then softening shocks if still pushing. From there its just nailing braking and throttle points and drive the car.
 
#11 ·
Nice read and congrats on your finish. I might try to get to Nats in the coming years.

A couple points of your setup surprised me so would you mind explaining your tuning process and/or thought process? Qualifiers: I have a Mk3 Focus as a DD so I haven't researched anything on setup, nor am I aware if you have a bigger build thread with this info. I run STU in a front-heavy AWD car which is prone to understeer from the factory, so the tuning is probably somewhat similar. Enough qualifications.

My first question is on camber-- I'm surprised you're running so much in the back since I'd assume less camber would help the rear rotate more. I'm at -3.0 front, -1.5 rear at the moment.

Second is on swaybars. Logic is typically to go soft in front so I was kind of surprised to see both front and rear. Did you do it to help with transitions? Turn-in?

Happy to share my setup in return if it'd help anything.


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#15 ·
IMHO It sounds like you have that EVO set up lovely and exactly what my thoughts would be settings-wise for an AWD sportscar with springs. Are you running STU with it? One of my best friends has a IX MR, I love that car, he does not autox it though.
 
#16 ·
Thanks! I love the Evo as well; such a potent car. I do run in STU but only locally at the moment. I just got serious this past year and have been steadily moving up the ranks, so I think another year or two under my belt and I may feel confident enough to go to Nationals-- I don't want to make such a big commitment until I'm confident I can make a decent showing.


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#17 ·
I just posted some video from last weekend here http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=306676&page=8

you can see how my suspension setup works in the rain on sealcoat.

As far as Nats, you just got to do it. Even if you are not an alien just go do it! You will be more relaxed at every other event you ever go to forever because it wont be Nats, until its Nats again. This was my second time there, first in my car. I will go every year I can until I die. I love it.
 
#20 ·
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but...

What were you running for spring rates, STS-Focus? What was your car's curb weight?

I'm looking at doing some custom springs/dampers or coilovers depending on what I can get a could deal on, but I was thinking around 550 front and 700 rear. It is my DD so I don't plan on going any higher than that. Being my car is heavier I assume...I figured I'd be up on spring rates, but I wanted to get a basis off a well set up STF focus. Let me know.

Thanks!
 
#22 ·
What were you running for spring rates, STS-Focus? What was your car's curb weight?

I'm looking at doing some custom springs/dampers or coilovers depending on what I can get a could deal on, but I was thinking around 550 front and 700 rear. It is my DD so I don't plan on going any higher than that. Being my car is heavier I assume...I figured I'd be up on spring rates, but I wanted to get a basis off a well set up STF focus. Let me know.

Thanks!
You're on the right track with your F:R rate ratio. Those rates are probably a little on the high side for a DD, but I bet they'll be great for autox. (assuming the rest of the car is dialed in.)
 
#21 ·
All my suspension info was listed on first page, H&R race springs, whatever rates those are. Never had the car weighed, I never took this sport too seriously and still don't. Its all about the driver until you get to a certain level of competition. Thanks for the nod on being a well set up car, but JustinT did a build thread that was highly detailed and his codriver won spring Nats last year. If I was to follow a "formula" I would start with his. Good luck, keep dodging cones! (I still run my STF Focus as FSP in "Tire Class" for SP+ with 200tw with several local SCCA regions)
 
#23 ·
Hey, that's ok. Thanks for all the help! and you're welcome ;)

You're on the right track with your F:R rate ratio. Those rates are probably a little on the high side for a DD, but I bet they'll be great for autox. (assuming the rest of the car is dialed in.)
Hey you! There you are. I was scoping your thread but it was a little long for one sitting (at work of course). I figured those would be good, but I really do plan on keeping it as DD. What would suggest as a good balance between autocross and the street? I really don't mind a rougher ride, but I don't want to shake parts loose on my commute haha. Dial it down 50 or 100 lbs each? I'm sorry to bother the MK1 guys with my questions, but no one uses my car for STF. It's all about the ST in GS. I'm stuck with this for at least a few years so I'm gonna beat on it while i got it haha [grinking]
 
#24 ·
It's always hard to make recommendations for dual-purpose (street/track) vehicles. Some people are much more tolerant to stiff suspensions than others. Also, the model of dampers and how they're valved will play a significant role in ride quality. Something like 400F/500R would probably be a little more street-friendly, and would pair well with OTS Konis or Bilsteins. If you have them re-valved for higher rates, you might go with higher spring rates without sacrificing much ride quality.
 
#25 ·
I'm definitely getting some shocks and getting them revalved for higher spring rates. I was just looking at some coilover set ups and none of them are even close to what i think would be a good spring rate. Why do they set you up to fail with those? 450 in the front and 300 at the back? On a heavy FWD car? Do they want me to understeer into the next century?

But anyway some of those companies will change spring rates if you ask so I'm gonna see if it might be cheaper to do that because it's gonna be as much as a decent set of coilovers to get custom springs and konis revalved anyway.

Appreciate the help guys!
 
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