Grassroots Motorsports: The Hardcore Sports Car Magazine

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Per and Kim competed at the SCCA Solo National Tour in Cecil, GA this past weekend.

Although Per coned away the lead on Saturday, he came back with a vengeance, moving from third to first in this tightly contested 12-driver class. Kim finished ninth in the midst of the ‘boys’ in G Stock.

You can find results at SCCA.org

We wound up 10th (Per) and 71st (Kim) on index out of 277 drivers.

Pictures will be posted soon.

Our 2008 season is shaping up well, with two top index finishes thus far. This past weekend we were down in Palm Bay, Florida for the festivities.

Here are the results from our event:
CFR #3 Results

We wrapped up our 2007 Solo season with the Central Florida Region of the SCCA. Per topped the PAX series for the third year in a row, taking the maximum 100 points at seven out of eight events. The one event that Per didn’t nail was taken by our favorite girl driver, Kim Schroeder. Kim’s season ended up a little short, as she wasn’t able to attend the necessary seven events for year end points.

You can see the results here: CFR 2007 Results

The autocross plans for the Schroeders is a little up in the air for 2008. We’ll be hanging on to the MINI for a part of the season, but aren’t sure that Nationals will be in the cards.

After 20 hours in a car, no matter how comfortable the car, you’re ready for a break, a walk or even a beer or two. We held off on the refreshments until we had walked both of the courses that we’ll be running on Thursday and Friday. They appeared to be a lot less sweeper-intensive than last year, with quite a few more slaloms and wiggly transitions. We like how the MINI handles wiglets like this, so we’re looking forward to driving the courses.

The MINI got about 34 mpg on its way up here, averaging, well, a little over the national speed limit. It’s now outside resting in the hotel parking lot, as this hotel doesn’t allow pets in the rooms, even if they’re small ones like the MINI. We’ve got a few days to set up our booth, get registered, teched before we pick up our co-driver Kim at the airport on Wednesday evening.

Stock class autocross rules allow for exhaust system changes downstream of the catalytic converter. We bolted on Alta’s 3-inch exhaust system last week. The sound is slightly more aggressive than stock, with only a touch of drone under load on the highway (up hills at certain RPM). The system weighs about 10 pounds less than stock. We’ll be dynoing this system shortly, once the weather here in Florida gets back down into the 80s (where we have dyno numbers for this car already)

We tried a new set of BFGoodrich g-Force R1 tires on the MINI this past weekend. The 235/40R17 measured out to be very similar to the more traditional 225/40R17 Hoosier, but the sidewall was a little more “bulgey” and as a result, what fit while the car was driving normally would rub under higher cornering loads. We’ll go back to the Hoosiers for this season and then try the R1s with some wider rims (with less backspace) for D Street Prepared next year.

The 235/40R17 BFGoodrich bulges out a little too much for the MINI, when mounted on these 43mm offset 17x7 Enkeis.

The fronts rub on the strut housing. This is after six autocross runs.

The rears rub on the rear control arm.

Per posted his seventh top index finish this past weekend for the season in Central Florida. We need to find a new site where the MINI and the driver has to work a little harder, this car loves fast transitions too much.

8/19 Deland Index Results

Our trip to Deland was successful yesterday, but a look at this video will give you an indication that there’s a reason why the MINI is so fast on transition-heavy courses:

GRM MINI on Youtube

This was a run that was faster than our best, but with one cone early in the run. You’ll notice that we also pushed in the 180-degree turn.

We took a spin out to Ocala for some testing of some new tires and a digital video in-car camera set up.

We’re trying out BFGoodrich’s g-Force R1 for autocross use.

We hope to get some in car video from the Chase Cam uploaded later this week.