I was running Carbotech XP12/12 and that was a great setup. The ST47 work just as well but have a way lower consumption rate. I am not a fan of Hawk pads due to their dusting issues and wheel corrosion so I've never used them.

 

What about rotor wear? Does the ST47 seem to increase the wear rate on your rotors?

I just switched to ST43 F/R and am really liking them so far. Do you have any experience with these (st43) compared to the ST47s?

 

October brought the last VIR NASA event and the weather and turnout were excellent. TT5 is really growing and we had 7 cars in class and 5 in ST5. Things are looking very promising for next year. There were a ton of great S2000s that showed up for this event. I narrowly squeezed out two first place finishes which were good enough for another set of Hoosiers, pads, and other contingencies. One more event left at the beginning of November and then the season is a wrap!

 

I took a little 11 day excursion with the fiancé to Iceland and Germany right after VIR and we were able to rent a VLN V4 E46 for the day. VLN is a race series in Germany and the V4 class is setup somewhat similarly to what a Spec E46 is like in NASA. We had the car for the whole day at the Nurburgring and it was a blast but very sketchy at the same time. We rented the car for a public day where anyone just buys lap tickets and can drive. No tech, no instruction, and no qualifications required. This would never happen in the US and quite frankly this shouldn't happen in Germany either. There was a death on track when we were there. They cleaned it up and continued to run. There were incidents after incidents the whole day which in my opinion are a direct result of the lack of rules and procedures.

The track itself was fun but terrifying. As much as I have watched videos and played racing games on the ring, it is impossible to get down in a day. I would remember small section but couldn't put it together. I did go out with an experienced instructor for most of my laps to help guide me through safely and it was very worth it. The course is bumpy, fast, blind, and the elevation change is just insane. It was worth the experience but I think it is far from being the best track out there.

On another note, we did did 1700 miles throughout the country in our rental 2019 Fiesta ST and that car was a a ton of fun. It is a 200HP 3cyl turbo not available in the states. It made massive torque for that size engine and was a hoot on the autobahn. It cruised around 120-140 very nicely.

 

Just a quick update to the thread. Here are some "pro" pics I got from the Watkins Glen race that I really liked.




.
It's starting to get cold and Hoosiers don't like the cold temps in my garage overnight. I moved all my tires into my office to preserve them the best I can. I'd say this a good problem to have.


Finally, I am trying to address the massive understeer the car has at high speeds. I have no front aero other than my vents and the car runs a large 3d wing. I run the wing at 0 degrees AOA and the car still pushes like mad but I've been doing my best to drive around it.

A splitter would require me to add about 100 lbs to the car which I don't consider a viable option. The TT rules state that you can run an air dam with no penalty though. This is just a quick and dirty air dam setup I built that mimics what a lot of Miata guys have found to be functional. The goal is to reduce the amount of air that can go under the car and push everything over the car increasing front grip. It looks like crap but if the testing proves that it is effective then I'll build a nicer version of the winter. My last race is at Summit this weekend and we have 7 in class so I'm going all in!

 

Have you tried adding rake to the car? I had similar issues with the nose lifting above around 100mph and adding a dash of rake made it better. The lip/canards I put on the car recently seem to have also made a noticeable difference as well, even though I thought they wouldn't do anything. You don't have any points to spare to run a splitter? An alumacore splitter weighs WAY less than 100 pounds...

 

It's not a points thing for TT5. The splitter takes a .5 P/W hit which equates to about 100lbs.

 

God I hate NASA Greenbaum.

 

The dam forces air around the car. The splitter creates a flat surface...to be most effective a diffuser behind the flat surface ensures the air under the flat surface has a higher velocity and lower pressure. There is no rule that flat surface needs to be sticking out in front. If the car has a flat surface with diffusers under/behind the dam,

To work best the dam should be a smoothly rounded surface without exposed items. How much the details of the implementation affect its effectiveness will vary. To work best the dam needs to be close to the ground. The bump stop/bump stop suspension on many oval track cars are designed to drop the leading edge of the dam about 3/4" above the ground. When running the air dam close to the ground, having an extra replaceable strip on the lower edge. Five Star Bodies sells them as an extra part for oval track cars: Wear Strips for New 2019 Late Model Body by Five Star Race Car Bodies protect your lower nose in style!.

How stiff is the car, both springs and anti-roll bars? If you stiffen it you will be able to lower it closer to the ground and it will move around less resulting in less camber change and bump steer. The oval track cars need to dynamically lower themselves with soft primary springs (maybe 150 lb/in), stiff bump springs (maybe 1200 lb/in) and pull down shocks in part because they have to meet a minimum ride height rule after the race. If you don't, you can probably use a spring spacer to raise the car making it easier to get in on/off the trailer.