Hey who else is coming for the fun at Nationals this year? This is my first one! whoo hoo! I have NRF ....Nationals Rookie Fever!

I see J is signed up. Is Brit still planning to go? Any other teeners going to attend?

https://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/eve...A2D9F971EB7FA2B

I will be there in Tom Berry's STX BMW (That's my ride this whole year). My teener is not ready for Nationals yet. I'll find out this weekend at the SoPac Divisional if I'm anywhere close to ready as a driver. See ya there, Grant!
Mark D.

Very cool! That should be fun!

Went last year, skipping this year. Maybe if in a stock car, You know get in turn the key and go.

In race cars and karts the level of work is so much that I never had much time enjoy the social festivities. 4 Square, bar B que, beer drinking.

Last I spoke with Brit about the Nats he was running the numbers for going. They are substantial.....glad it's his money & not mine.

Im hoping he will go! However its much more cost effective to grab a co driving seat. I'm psych'd to be driving the Boxster at an event of this caliber! As you indicate JP I will likely get trounced but I have always wanted to go to this event.

Where are all of the autocrossers?

Leeds signed up yesterday-Don't know if Greg can make trip this year-

Early registration ends July 29th-Doubles in price after this date.

I see beautiful, well prepared cars all over this site.Any post that has setup or suspension questions is jumped all over with responses -Where are the cars?
Where are the drivers?
I know economy sucketh-this might be as good as it gets.
JJackson

Maybe we can take up a collection to send Britt and JJ to Nationals in a 914.

Or since I see HAM Inc lurking there could be a sponsorship. even thou there is nothing type IV about these 2 cars.

Good God no. Take a knife to a gun fight?????

Without a doubt JP. The only fast 914 is a HIGHLY modified 914.

We started the install tonight of our sway bar with bearings.(Thanks Bruce)
The bar was made by speedway engineering.Sweet setup.Always ran weltmeister bars.Done all the math on the differences between the bars.
Through all of the years, yes the car did end up Highly modified. JJackson


Sure hope Brit finds the finances to make the trip.

Why can't it be a highly modified T4 914? Can anybody say D Prepared?
BTW, I like my Speedway bar. I completely bypassed the Weltmeister option and saved money in the process. Mine is a 1" hollow bar. What size are you running.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Mark D.

.876" -Speedway
.866 Welt

Twist length 30" speedway
35" welt

Good looking bar.
Look forward to seeeing DP car.
JJackson

Im with you JJ lets get some 914's out there! We arent going to see people develop cars to a national level if they dont show up. Half the battle is just learning to drive at national level regardless of what car is under you. It will become abundtly clear to you when you run at this level that car is a small piece of the puzzle. Yeah you arent going to run a sooped up T4 competitively in XP or EMod but you could potentially place well and learn a little bit about high level AX comptition.

If I wasnt running the Boxster I'd be game to drive a 914 in any class. I dont know why 914 drivers are so shy about high level competition. A guess all the BS goes out the window when you run at a well attended national level SCCA event.

And bottom line for me I'm looking for either a 914 or a Boxster to go after that Datsun in FP this year. I honestly dont care who beats him! We need a Porsche to win FP this year. Wish we had more help!

The Boxster did well at Pro Solo in CO. Top of womans class and 2nd in Race tire class off first by tenths. Less than 2 seconds of Zust Lotus in another class. Not bad for stock powered 2.5 boxster.

I think it has something to do with time and money
I'm doing my best to get there next year with a 914 but it is going to be close.

If I had the time this year I would fly out and drive but I will be at a trade show during this

Hope you make it next year.
Saw progress posts-looking good.
I'm just trying to get somebody to attend Nationals that might be on the fence-just a shove in the right direction.
In recent years-our numbers have really dwindled.
Our cars can still be competitive in SCCA competition.In the good old days, we were competitive with a good setup,a few tricks,minimal bolt on performance enhancers, and a half ass driver.Those days are gone at the higher end of National competition-
I personnally like competin' more than polishin'
I recommend a trip to nationals to everybody that enjoys autocrossing.JJackson

The toughest part of most any SCCA AX is gettin' er' done in 3. That is one reason PCA/Porsche folks stay away and why national level SCCA guys excel at these events. At our local SCCA events, we'll get 4-6 runs but only the first 3 count....."Only 3 runs" the Porsche guys complain and never learn to deal with it.

National events are actually easy as they are so well organized.....just make damn sure you show up for run/work assignments ahead of time....and follow orders. A friend once got lost at the Nationals on the pit return road... bout 3/4 mile she said..... and got her fastest run thrown out. She is a past National champ in her class. Taint much slack there, eh?

Working the cones takes a bit of re-learning. Cones are numbered and reported to the station boss (who records them) by the runners. The runners have to be on their toes as the cars come every 20-25 sec (or less ).

I ran for cone #150 (among others) at Packwood one year. That SOB musta got whacked 30 times & got wiggled twice that much......tough on an old fart in 90 deg weather.
One thing I learned: Running a sneaker cone is to be avoided.

BTW, the Packwood NT is on this weekend & it's raining. Brit borrowed some 4 year old Hoosier rains but dosen't run tiil the first afternoon group. 286 folks entered this year...a good turnout ....just 1 less than the best I've seen. WTF is up with the Colorado NT?

Some of us Porsche guys have branched out and are now running SCCA type formats. Actually it's fun to challenge yourself to learn a course and then start attacking the course, corner by corner, all within 4 runs.

A great example of this was the WCR at Medford, where all the 914 folks had to run a 5 lap Enduro without practice using new parts added to the track. It ws fun to look at the split times to see where progress was made.

Challenging part about running with SCCA, AAS, UFO or others is finding the right class where you can compete without a total rebuild of your car.

Actually it's hard not to really like these groups. Nice people and lots of competition.

Story of my AX life. My 4th run was my quickest 90% of the time.
By the 5th I was over driving. Did that again at Medford. Some things never change.

National tour events are not expensive to attend. I didn't see a single 914 this year at San Diego.

What's Brit doing showing up to NT on old tires? He should still beat cars that have shown up his pax likely won't be good however. Was listening to event earlier today.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/SCCASolo

Knocking 5 seconds off your time with only 5 runs, in an unfamiliar/new car on a new course is pretty good IMHO.

Can't see anything on that link. Just a black screen with an uploading circle going around.

It's audio only & breaking up...pretty stable right now

OK, day 1 Packwood NT. 914s in 1 , 3......and only seperated by 2 tenths.

Brit said he struggled a bit with a mostly dry track yesterday.
It's raining like a cow pissin' on a flat rock in Vancouver this morning.
That dosen't bode well for Packwood.....anything can happen. I was gonna go up & watch but the house is nice, warm, & dry......color me wussie.

I drove up to Packwood anyway. It rained on the first 2 run groups. Drying for the third. 914s were 1,2 & 4 in XP. The track had dried out for the 4th group & the DP Miatas kicked booty.

Yep, That's why Autocross is such a bitch. Either really hot, Really cold, could be both in the same day with rain in between.

and you still only get 3 shots at the course each day.

A mostly dry track makes things a tad tricky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDdbKH2lzso

The second day lay out was much better than the first. The finish was awesome. It was off camber so you could drift all the way to the finish. If you got a little too have you would be spinning. I was in the first rungroup so we got rained on both days and had slicks or dead rains. We ended up using the rains but they were bad. The final run for the owner of the car I was driving he decided to take out all the rebound in his suspension and was 2 seconds faster than he had run before. Wish he would have done that before With the cars in our class and not having good tires we were expecting to go DFL but we ended up 8 and 9 of 11 I want my 914 back.

Brit drove very well. Leeds seems to not be pushing it hard. His car was certainly capable of more. Good showing for the 914s though.

Jeff Kiesel was there and his car is amazing. He was a very awesome guy to meet and he has a great family. I hope to be able to do the same with my family as he is with his.

Congratulations to Britain on some great runs.

The Where2Race Special does it again.

Congrats to Brit. Sounds like he has the beast under control now.

Glad you guys got to see the "point and shoot" SPrite. LOL! Was he running in the rain? Must have been as his times usually are much faster compared to CP cars. SSM must have been in the wet as well? Mkees car usually is much faster compared to some of the cars running there as well.

CP cars must have been in dry because they were way too fast compared to EM and XP. I can usually hold that CP Mustang to a couple seconds in the street going Z.

Why would anyone call Jeff's car a point and shoot car? That thing corners very fast in the wet. Jeff had one dry run all weekend. The amount of rubber he has on there for his dry tires is crazy.

The CP cars ran in the dry. Not one was even close to that "Shelby" Mustang. The rear tires on that car are 27.5" wide They have over 4 feet of rubber under the rear of that car.

I felt bad for the fist 2 run groups. It was sloppy wet.
Kesiel was fast in the rain. His Goodyears had AVON A15 moulded into the sidewall. I would have liked to see that car run in the dry.

Brit & Adam were loose as a goose all both days.......something about getin' the power down. Not much heat in the front & blowing off the rears.....all new ones. In their 12 runs they used some interesting angles. Adam locked up on a cone stopped sideways just after the finish lights.....with no reverse. Bigger rear tiars are in the works.Why not?, they won 3 freebies from Hoosier. It sounds like an experiment is in the making.

He had one run on them the first day. He said he hates those tires but Goodyear was out of the tires he needs. So that was all he had for the dry. I guess it is a good thing for him he didn't have to use them again.

Congrats to Brit,Adam, and Leeds.Fantastic results! JJackson

Yeah I go to same tire shop that mustang goes to. It's depressing to see how big those tire are. Had my Boxster slicks sitting next to his once and made my 11 slicks look small. However I'm glad I don't have that tire budget! That's some expensive rubber!

Hey Britain - Now you need a national tire contract, so that you always have available what you need to make you competitive. Need someone to help you negotiate?

You usually have to commit to nationals for that and even then it's thin pickings for full sponsorhip in SCCA Autocross. Perhaps local tire shop with partial sponsorship is an idea? Its not like this is F1. Lol!

I duuno about day 1, I wasn't there. I was there day 2 and that is when I saw those AVONS on his car.....between his 2 & 3rd passes. You got any more factual reporting like the above?

The A15 compound is a soft rain compound, but built into a slick.

What Goodyear tires does he use?

Great big fat slicks. Not the new DOT-R

He had the Goodyears on when I was there at the start of heat 2 and it was never dry enough for him to switch. If he did switch I didn't see it as I was busy putting our stuff away, but if you say you saw them on there that doesn't change how he feels about them or how he did.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say to make you sound any more assholeish

I call em' like I see em'. If that leads you to name calling for a defense, so be it.
I never engage in a battle of wits with someone who is unarmed.

Classy as usual

Geeeze, you two sound like my ex-wife(s).


Get a room already ...

Fuck, talk about curve-ball ... An hour after i posted this my (last) ex wife sends me an email telling me she was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Fucking Murphy always gets the last word. And that's the one of the two i actually like! Damn it ...

Damn, sorry to hear that Andy. My mom was just diagnosed with that as well. I hope they are able to set it into remission quickly.

And yes, sorry about getting carried away with JP. He is like nails on a chalkboard to me..

Now that that unpleasantness is behind us...
I have a choice of 4 different tires that I can run at the big show. I'm already 90% sure which direction I'm gonna go, and some back-to-back testing in two weeks will be the final determination. However, I'm just curious as to everybody's opinions.

*Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec (what a mouth full!)

*Kumho Ecsta XS

*Hankook Ventus R-S3

*Bridgestone Potenza RE-11

BTW, this is for an STX BMW 325i. Make your picks.
Mark D.

I just bought a set of the RS3's in 225/45-17 for our Mini Cooper S. 99% daily driver. But within 3 hours of mounting the tires we were at an autocross.
grip was terrible until the flames wore off the tread. then it was like flicking a switch. Street tires should not have that much grip. Awesome tires. Remember to spray them between runs. It was easy to get over 150 degrees and that is too much.