hawkdog

I thought that's how much the OEM rims are?

smccurry

Stockers are probably about $1500 new, but why spend that much for stockers when you can wait until someone tries to unload theirs for a fraction of the price (for all those guys who upgrade to some aftermarket wheels). If you were to spend that much, you might as well spend $500 more and get a nice set of CE28N's in any color you like. They look nice, give you a bigger width, and are much lighter than stock. You could decide whether to run the stockers for the track and the Volks on the street, or vice versa.

markpaco

I was implying that you would buy them used. I don't know how much they go for but I wouldn't expect it to exceed $800.

Or you can get the JDM ones that look the same but are lighter. I'd only consider those if you plan on staying in AS though.

hawkdog

Yesterday's race was an interesting one....things are back to their normal pecking order, as Mark took the win in AS. I took 2nd.

I can't say I was a huge fan of yesterday's course. Too much slalom in my opinion. It took a lot of thinking and looking ahead to put up a good time. There were SIX (yes, that's right, 6) non-directional slaloms to remember. (Left, Right, Right, Left, Right, Right), Right?

People on the SCCA forum are saying it was a fast course, but I could never find a good rhythm. I was between 1st and 2nd gear for about half the course. I took 1 fun run afterwards and I thought it was faster, but it still turned out to be a 61.5. I think the 61.2 I put up in my 2nd run was about all I could do.

Time for some R compound tires and a sway bar I think....

I did find a set of '04 OEM rims in the mainland for $700 +shipping. Supposedly they're like new. I'll be getting some pics shortly. Is this a decent price? I'm sure shipping's going to be $150-200.

tru

for 04 thats pretty cheap. even with out tires. you can get pre-04 for about 3-400 with out tires.

smccurry

I can see why you didn't like yesterdays course Mike. I rode with Wendel for his first 2 runs and I could see that the MY04 was "in-between" gears for pretty much the whole track.
My car, OTOH, was in it's sweet spot the whole track. I loved the flow of the course because of it, but the crappy condition of the S-02's wouldn't allow for any grip. I was spinning wheels the whole way (it felt like I had a torque monster or something ). Handling was neutral though, so it was still fun to drive it. I hate not being competitive; finishing 29th is not going to cut it for me. I know I extracted as much as I could with the tires that I had though, so I'm not unhappy with my performance, just the results.

For those that are interested, here was the layout of the course:
Course was run 'clockwise' this month starting from the staging area for the 1/4 mile.
As usual, there was a kink engineered immediately after the starting line to discourage huge burnouts/fast hole-shots.
Then, 2 gates lined up on the left side of the course leading up to the beginning of the curve before the off-camber. This was narrowed with a wall of cones forcing you to maneuver towards the right side of the road before the off-camber.
The off-camber itself was left alone, leaving you with the decision of which line to take.
The top of the off-camber saw a gate on the right hand side, immediately followed by a 5(?) cone slalom. This leads to the guard shack.
Here, you find a directional cone in the middle of the road forcing you to the right. This makes the angle into the S-turn more severe and bleeds speed (but not by much!)
After the S-turn there is another gate towards the right which is also followed by a 5 cone double-wide slalom. You must then negotiate an Ewa box on the left side, though the opening and exit is so wide, it is basically an optical illusion and is really just another slalom. After this is a real slalom (4 cones?) with a directional cone at the end of it pointing to the right and immediately by another directional cone way off to the left which many missed (and dnf'd on).
Now you're heading towards the crossover, where they put the obligatory semi-circle to slow you down for the entrance to the hazard. There is a large triangle right in the middle of the crossover.
After the crossover is a straight shot up to a 4 cone canted slalom (from R-L). This puts you at the entrance to an unusual box which looks like this L7 but upside down. You blast straight though this at the diagonal angle and are met with, yes, you guessed it, another slalom.
This is proceeded with offset slaloms with 4 cones first on the right, and then 4 on the left.
You finish the course with another funky box that makes you do an S maneuver to the finish line.

Pnetr8R

thanks steven for coaching me during my first two runs unfortunately i dnf'd them both... however, on my last two runs i finished them with one cone each... therefore crappier times (71secs)
when i was working for heat four i realized why i was plowing through the cones on the slaloms... i am not using my brakes at all . So with my new found knowledge, during the fun runs, i ran 68 and 67.24 which was my goal for that day.

someday i'll learn how to drive...

smccurry

Mike: $700 does sound like a good price for such new wheels.

Some other observations:
Mark did restore the pecking order in AS, but this was due to him getting his race rubber (and getting some clean runs ).
Mark is a good driver, but so is Mike, and I think that all things being equal, the S2000 will beat the Impreza at an HRP autocross set-up (most of the track designs anyway).
I'm hoping that Mike gets his hands on a set of wheels to prove my theory.
Also, Mike managed to get 18th overall in an AS car with street tires 2 months in a row!! With the 1.5-2 seconds advantage of race tires, Mike would have cracked top 10 for both months.
We know that Colin used to get into the top 10 (often into the top 5) in AS with his S2000, but that was when the autocross was held at the airfield (I forget which one). I wonder if Colin will come out again in AS...

Wendel did well in his first run with me in the car. It's too bad that he dnf'd that run, because it was his fastest by far (low 69's). I don't think that the gate he missed saved him that much time. He seems to be getting more comfortable with his car.

Ken Van Orman, again showing his talent placing 2nd overall. This time in an STi.
Jason Tokunaga, really turning up the heat in SM2 in his Miata with 3rd overall!! There's going to be some serious competition in SM2 for me if he continues to show up.
A solid 6 of the top 10 came from the SM & SM2 classes!! Barry Lai (STi) with 5th, Gene Van Orman (M3) with 6th, Clifford Goto (Neon R/T) with 8th, and Steven Zane (WRX) with 10th (<---this guy is another one improving rapidly).
The BSP Nissan Z's were missing Joyce and Garrett, and the always quick Pat Olsen was also noticeably absent, as was our Team S2000 chairman James Nomura. We missed you Jimmy!

markpaco

Yeah, the only reason why I won last weekend was because of the tires. I think that I would be at least a second slower with street tires which would make Mike and I a real battle. I should have been at least a second faster (high 58s, low 59s) with the r compounds.

The course design was really good because it concentrated on smoothness and consistency. There weren't too many straights where hp cars could benefit. IMO, there should never be straights or near-straights in an auto-x; just have big sweepers. There is little sensation of speed in straight lines but you can multiply the effect with a turn.

Although many people would interpret this weekend's course as monotonous and boring, it really stresses patience and consistency.

On a side note, I've been having transmission problems with my Integra and had it pop out of 2nd gear 3 times in 4 runs. I have to source a transmission before april or I may stick to AS next season. So if anyone knows anyone with an ITR tranny, please let me know.

bdrift

glad you like the tires. they must've helped your gearing (longer for this track) as i was redlining top of second a bunch. plus they grip a whole lot better than my ra-1's. i think my 235 ra-1's have the same grip as the smaller 225's v700's. slip/slide/drift. oh well, i messed w/ the sway bar and gots 57.4 backed w/ 57.7 during the fun runs. that was after driving teresa's 240 to a 60.xx on my only run with her car and i think it helped me get back under control.

http://forumshawaii.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=135388

i'll drop 1200 for the motor/ecu i gots a b16 honda again.......vtec yay!! just for lapping sessions.

glad to see steve back out again, i like the color. is it silverstone or a mix of that and light suzuka?

b