[AlanBDahl]

I thought I'd create a thread to discuss this weekend's Crows Landing ProSolo and the FoST vs FiST battle. I don't really know whether we'll be in the hunt in SF or not or even how my unprepared FiST will do against Des's car with the 235s, sway bar and Koni orange rear shocks. Should be an interesting time and I'm hoping we can all do well!

 

[limbo]

: popcorn:

 

[Mr UFO]

You guys gotta smoke my brother! He'll be in the Tangerine FoST.
Wish I could go but I'm throwing all my $$ at the road courses.
Have fun!

 

[Des]

Update! Mark Scroggs in the Focus left us in the dust, but it really was the opposite of whatever a Fiesta course is: dragstrip launch plus two big digs and two gear changes for us, none for Mark. Plus, he's a terrific driver. (He paxed out second overall on a course that strongly favored raw speed).

Second through seventh were fairly tightly grouped, with three Fiestas in the mix. I think any one of us could have finished second.

Of the three, my car -- 235 Federals up front, 205s in the rear with a ton of pressure -- seemed to rotate the best; it really was in a very sweet spot, and I wonder what a driver as good as Alan could have done with it. Chris K's car, also with a staggered setup but using Dunlops, suffered from the heat; the Dunlops couldn't take four consecutive runs. Alan's car, on the 225/45 Dunlops, seemed to get a lot better with a bunch more pressure in back. I'm sure he'll chime in.

One other item of interest: The Focus wasn't nailing us at the tree. The fastest 60-foots were low 2.2s, and those were Fiestas.
http://sololive.scca.com/PS/SF.html

Mr. UFO, if Chris Smith is your brother, he kicked ass! Big improvement on Day 2.

 

[Smokin]

They had a Championship event too didn't they? I can't find results... And were your 205 rears Federals too or the OEM tires? And I assume they're the RS-R Federals?

So Alan, what pressures did you settle on? I have noticed with the increased heat of summer (85 deg) the 39F/30R are not rotating as well as it did in cooler temps (+/- 60s).So pumping them up is the next option.

 

[Cligedy]

Back before the season got started, Alan you mentioned trying to get the car up into 3rd gear to get the most out of the engine. Have you tried that on any of the faster courses so far?

 

[Des]

Tour isn't until the coming weekend.

Rears on my car were the OEMs, the Feds up front were the 595s.

 

[Cligedy]

Tour isn't until the coming weekend.

Rears on my car were the OEMs, the Feds up front were the 595s.

By the way Des, great job. Despite the flying FoST, you did the FiST folks proud.

 

[Des]

Thank you!

 

[Des]

Paxed results are up:
http://home.comcast.net/~paxrtp/results/pros/2014_pro_CrowsLanding.pdf
Fiestas at 40, 48 and 76 out of 205.

 

[Couldahadav8]

Hmm. I thought we might hear something from Mr. Dahl. I fear he might have traded his Fiesta in on a Focus.

Des, thanks for the information. I am getting a pair of Feds in 235's for the front. I might also get some 215/40/17 zii's to run on my OZ's and see how they compare. I think there is still hope for the Fiesta vs. the Focus. It won't be until we have a chance to see what the Koni's or other dampers can do along with front or rear swaybar changes that the Fiesta's real competitiveness will be clear.

 

[AlanBDahl]

Hmm. I thought we might hear something from Mr. Dahl. I fear he might have traded his Fiesta in on a Focus.

Not yet but I did take the week off of thinking about racing to decompress and cool down. I do want to do some same course car swapping with a local FoST driver to try and figure out what it was that sunk us. I also want to look at some in-car cams, I think that only my last two runs were any good, it was obvious that on the earlier runs I was pushing too hard and only once I slowed down and tightened my line did the times come down.


Next up is finding some rear shocks to get me by for now and preparing for the Packwood Pro as I'll be missing the NT for some family 4th of July activities.

 

[Des]

Crow's Tour update: Foci went 1-2-3, with me in third. Chris K's Fiesta in fifth (out of 10).

The Focus I grabbed had some deader-than-dead RS3s; on Day 1, I was nearly a second off; on Day 2, we swapped the worst tires to the rear, which was truly dumb, and I was three seconds off. Not sure I've driven a car more determined to spin.

So maybe the solution to our rotation all along was just to find some old RS3s for the back ...

Tour course was fast enough for four third-gear shifts in the Fiesta, but Chris's fastest run came when he didn't shift at all.

The winning Focus raw timed pretty much all of stock except for a couple of national champions in CS and AS.

The site is spectacularly good; this is destination autocross.

 

[Smokin]

Crow's Tour update: Foci went 1-2-3, with me in third. Chris K's Fiesta in fifth (out of 10).

The Focus I grabbed had some deader-than-dead RS3s; on Day 1, I was nearly a second off; on Day 2, we swapped the worst tires to the rear, which was truly dumb, and I was three seconds off. Not sure I've driven a car more determined to spin.

So maybe the solution to our rotation all along was just to find some old RS3s for the back ...

Tour course was fast enough for four third-gear shifts in the Fiesta, but Chris's fastest run came when he didn't shift at all.

The winning Focus raw timed pretty much all of stock except for a couple of national champions in CS and AS.

The site is spectacularly good; this is destination autocross.

And you switched to the Focus to be more competitive?

 

[Des]

Not exactly; I'm driving a Focus at national events this year, including Nats.

 

[AlanBDahl]

You're co-driving with Mark I assume?

 

[Des]

Nope, with Trevor Jones. Mark's not sure if he can get away. He'll be a big threat if he does.