TVR Scott said:
In reply to spacecadet :
That's the Ultraleggera model, right? What's the size? 18x8?
What tires do you like for GS?
17x8 ET55 5x108 17.4lbs it is the ultraleggera
BFG's and RE71's are both great. pick a 245 or 235 of either one to get yourself started. no real point in cramming a 255 on yet if you're literally just starting. 235 RE71R will probably be the cheapest. pick whatever of the 2 tires is the cheapest in a 17" 235 or 245. I have someone else pinging a friend of theirs about these as well. but shoot me a messsage directly if you're interested.
Caught up with a old friend of mine, Erik, this weekend.
He's been doing One Lap for nearly a decade and both Sleepyhead and Mazdeuce know him. I've known Erik longer than I've known deuce and sleephead.
Erik comments to me on Friday over a couple beers that he never has been any good at autocross and only been to 3 events INCLUDING the times he competed at OLOA, despite doing track stuff for over a decade. So we concluded I needed to get "new" tires mounted up on the focus Saturday so we could go autocross Sunday.
This was the state of the tires on the race wheels as of Friday...
This is what prosolo launches an mineral wells rough asphalt do to 120 run BFG's... this was their sendoff..
the larger of the 3 missing sections is roughly silver dollar sized.
Mounted up 4 take off 255's from my buddy Phil and we were set to go for Sunday.
Erik arrives on Sunday morning and pulls this out of his helmet bag and goes... "you think this will fly as DOT compliant? "with a wry smile on his face.
Had to get a photo of him wearing it...
Erik and I had a blast, he learned a lot and wants to get out more to keep working on his autocross skills, the sea of cones was hard for him to navigate..
Erik owns one of the dumbest (but most awesome) One Lap cars ever made IMHO.
It's named "Evil" and it's 400+ whp backed by a sequential and a lot of real aero and development...
Luckily he didn't pay to build it... he's just the one who owns it now... working on finding a good photo of it...
THIS....... is “Evil”
Rear
wing makes 600lbs of downforce at 100mph.
One other thing I failed to mention is Erik has a couple class wins at OLOA. He's won SGT-2 SB in 2014 in Evil's brother Samael(named for the angel of death). 2013 class win in SSBGT1-SB in a Lotus Elise with a bunch of Mods, and He won Economy class in 2018 in an AWD swapped turbo VW rabbit... narrowly edging out Mazdeuce and Brian in the Blue civic. He has track chops, but has always let the autocross fall to other drivers basically every time.
I'm with spacecadet; pick up the 245 RE71R's and go. I ran 255 and then 245 RE71R on 17x9 Team Dynamics on my STX Cobalt SS Turbo and was faster on the 245's. The wear was also much more even across the tread. The 255's destroyed the outside edge much faster. I believe this was due to the tire being pinched and bubbled out on the 9" wheels.
Given that I had TD wheels, I'd lobby against buying them I had white 1.2's. The white paint chipped if you even looked at the wheel funny. I also managed to crack one where the spoke met the barrel after around 10 events. These wheels & tires were only used for autocross as I'd trailer them to the events. TD told me to pound sand when I asked about a warranty replacement as "motorsport wheels aren't guaranteed."
FooBag said:
I'm with spacecadet; pick up the 245 RE71R's and go. I ran 255 and then 245 RE71R on 17x9 Team Dynamics on my STX Cobalt SS Turbo and was faster on the 245's. The wear was also much more even across the tread. The 255's destroyed the outside edge much faster. I believe this was due to the tire being pinched and bubbled out on the 9" wheels.
Given that I had TD wheels, I'd lobby against buying them I had white 1.2's. The white paint chipped if you even looked at the wheel funny. I also managed to crack one where the spoke met the barrel after around 10 events. These wheels & tires were only used for autocross as I'd trailer them to the events. TD told me to pound sand when I asked about a warranty replacement as "motorsport wheels aren't guaranteed."
Appreciate your feedback on TD the quality seems to be a recurring theme across the web.
In reply to spacecadet :
Did your local guy buy those OZ wheels from you? I sent you an e-mail but never heard back.
I'm thinking about using my winter wheels for auto-x in the summer. They're 17 x 8, and I could have the Blizzaks removed in the spring and put back on in the fall.
What's the decision point going for 17" vs 18" tires? I see they're cheaper by about $30 a tire. Lighter weight for quicker acceleration?
spacecadet said:
THIS....... is “Evil”
Rear
wing makes 600lbs of downforce at 100mph.
One other thing I failed to mention is Erik has a couple class wins at OLOA. He's won SGT-2 SB in 2014 in Evil's brother Samael(named for the angel of death). 2013 class win in SSBGT1-SB in a Lotus Elise with a bunch of Mods, and He won Economy class in 2018 in an AWD swapped turbo VW rabbit... narrowly edging out Mazdeuce and Brian in the Blue civic. He has track chops, but has always let the autocross fall to other drivers basically every time.
If I hadn't hit the wall....... and we didn't realize that the car was AWD until the last track day when we got to see a video of their autocross launch. We really wanted to beat them. The whole VE contingent are great guys. I remember the black car from my first year on OLOA. I was blown away, it was cool.
Not sure if you are still shopping for wheels or what your offset limitations may be, but Konig makes the hypergram in 5x108 17x8" with a +40 offset.
They weigh in around 16.5lbs and can be had for ~$160 a pop.
TVR Scott said:
In reply to spacecadet :
Did your local guy buy those OZ wheels from you? I sent you an e-mail but never heard back.
I'm thinking about using my winter wheels for auto-x in the summer. They're 17 x 8, and I could have the Blizzaks removed in the spring and put back on in the fall.
What's the decision point going for 17" vs 18" tires? I see they're cheaper by about $30 a tire. Lighter weight for quicker acceleration?
Did not hear anything from my local guy. Did not see your email.. May have gotten sent to junk by accident. Let me go look...
Reason to run 17's was because BFG's are only available as a 255 in a 17. I'm stuck with 245 BFG's in an 18, but I can get a 265 stones in an 18... we'll see what happens... next move is still TBD
Ironsides said:
Not sure if you are still shopping for wheels or what your offset limitations may be, but Konig makes the hypergram in 5x108 17x8" with a +40 offset.
They weigh in around 16.5lbs and can be had for ~$160 a pop.
I'll have to go look... the issue is barrel design... if the barrel has an inner diameter of almost 17" it will be OK... my OZ wheels are beveled and get smaller the closer to the spokes they are and that's where my problem comes from
I'm on an STH journey in my Fiesta ST as well, but will be stuck with 205's for a while. :(
I haven't had the LSD on an autocross course yet, but I am excited to see what difference it will make!
Got a Quote for the LSD install from Growler Motor Labs in Plano, TX. They were the original Cobb retail face that became Cobb-Plano and was eventually sold off when new ownership took over Cobb. It is owned by the gentlemen who ran the Cobb shop previously. SCCA racer and great guy. The Texas Street Touring Ultimate subaru crowd use them to build and tune their cars.
Quoted me $1700 installed (I supply the diff) with me dropping the car at the shop including an alignment.
Very reasonable for a dropoff service and what all is involved...
https://www.focusst.org/forum/focus-st-guides/7043-how-install-quaife-lsd.html
The link covers the whole install..
If I pay to have it done it will peg the whole thing costing in the $2400-2600 range...
Currently trying to figure out if Mazdeuce and I can fit it into our schedules to do it ourselves... I am not sure I can do it on my own..
and I still have yet to make a decision on wheels...
The real question is whether it will be faster, or just go the same speed with less wear and tear on the car.
Robbie
UltimaDork
4/5/19 3:57 p.m.
spacecadet said:
THIS....... is “Evil”
Rear
wing makes 600lbs of downforce at 100mph.
wait, WHAT! where can I learn more about that wing? It doesn't look very big so it must have great numbers.
In reply to spacecadet :
What clubs do you normally autocross with? I’ve only been to a few events with NTAXS but I don’t think I’ve seen your car.
In reply to skylarhagler :
I have yet to run an NTAX event... just doe to scheduling.
My season revolves around Houston SCCA Solo events, National Solo events and One Lap.
I run ER events up in DFW when I can and I run Texas Region(scca) events at lone star park on occasion.
Shoot me a message and we can catch up for a Beer or something sometime.
Solid, but crazy day of autocross today... capped off with the above photo.....
Weather was all over the place, delayed the autocross for over 90 minutes due to lightning and a brief tornado warning and it destroyed the course we setup at the Houston Police Academy with 60MPH winds and torrential rain. Then we put it all back together and finished the event.
Soon as the event ended I hopped into my car with Mazdeuce and pointed north to Red Oak,TX a small rural community about 20-ish miles south of downtown Dallas.
Our target was a 2012 Honda Fit I inspected for Seth on Tuesday. Clean carfax, red, automatic and base trim... clean little car and picked up solidly below market value. A solid find.
Along the way to Red Oak we cut off I-45 just north of Ennis, TX and followed back roads. Gorgeous curving roads with rolling hills... absolutely amazing... I had NO IDEA these roads existed so close to me.... And right before we got into Palmer, TX. We found this little service station and had to pull over for a photo. Looked to still be in use today as a small auto repair shop.
Mazdeuce picked up his daughters new trusty ride shortly after....and we parted ways heading in opposite directions.
Any day I get to chat with Mazdeuce for hours on end is a good day... I'm REALLY looking forward to One Lap in just over 3 weeks....
Also someone in the HouSCCA Group made this meme during our delay today , I think it's hilarious.
Also I did some minor maintenance on Saturday and I installed the Anchor points for the schroth quick fit harness that I got "used" for a steal.
Local autocrosser in Houston bought an RS a couple years back and almost immediately hated it. He purchased a Schroth Quick Fit G3 harness for it before he sold the car though.
Put it up for sale in our Local SCCA Buy/Sell group for $150($200+ off retail) almost 2 months ago and I never saw it... Old man buddy of mine saw it last friday and tipped me off to it and it had not sold! scooped it up and my friend picked it up for me.
https://www.schrothracing.com/products/quickfit
potato cam photo of mocking it up before the install.
It attaches to the driver seatbelt female input, driver side rear female input, and we had to install 2 male mounting points that attach to the seatbelt bases on the driver side front and rear seats.
Rear one mounts right on top of this seatbelt mount. The piece does tno come prebent from Schroth but the previous owner had bent it to prep for installing it in his car so I was saved a step.
Front one mounts on top of the driver belt base location. I have to stop and give Ford props though, they pre cut this hole in the carpet. When i had to remove this seatbelt on my Mazdaspeed 3 a few years back I had to cut it myself and it left some loose fibers Ford having pre cut this meant that it looks as OEM now as it did before and I'm pleased about that. The more I work on this car, the more I realize it's VERY well engineered at its core. Sure there are cheap parts here and there, but overall I'm pretty happy. The lack of a proper LSD would seem to counter this, but the reality is that the car has almost no torque steer, Compared to it's closest rival back when the car was designed prior to 2012,, the only car on the market making this kind of power was the Mazdaspeed 3 which suffers terribly from Torque Steer with its mechanical diff, and when you realize that i'm in the vast minority for this car's end user for the amount of abuse it sees in autocross... I'm pretty pleased.
also of note, I adjusted it again after this photo to make the belt sit more vertical, closer to the OEM belt position.
once that was done Mazdeuce wanted to sit in the car to feel how it held him in place..
Used the harness Sunday at the autocross and I'm pretty pleased. Seth has the belts routed through the inside of the headrest posts and this is find for him, and it means that it stays in place easily when getting out of the car in grid. I found that the harness was cutting into the back of my kneck.. I would like the straps further apart.. Seth and I already have a plan to work on this...
I also put new plugs into the car, idle felt a little rough(although this will be changed supposedly with my evap purge valve recall whenever parts arrive). Took the One Lap Accord to go across the city to pick them up.
Ford uses an 8mm head for all of the bolts and clamps you touch to get to the spark plugs. I recommend a deep 8MM socket, and a nice proper CV style swivel head attached ot it. The intake clamps adjusters are in awkward locations close to the Air filter and battery
Car does idle a little better now, but still not perfect, so I'll see what happens after I have the recall performed. I do have peace of mind knowing they have been replaced and I'm on to the next 50k miles with them.
You *need* to have the shoulder straps routed through the head rest posts. Otherwise you can slip out of the shoulder belts in a collision and not be restrained at all...
In reply to docwyte :
good point.
Their function is just to hold me in place in an autocross run and will never be used on the streets. that's the point of having the quick fit and i can pull them out when i'm done and put them in the autocross box.
If i'm concerned about hitting things at an autocross... there is something very VERY wrong with the course design or the site, or both.
I like those belts. After using a 4-pt harness at Octane Academy last week, I definitely like the planted feel.
What class will your Focus be in after all this?
In reply to TVR Scott :
once i start turning bolts and replacing parts... it will be STH, but i actually haven't changed classes yet.. it's still a GS car, i'm just running it in STH locally to accumulate Year end points in one class for when i run the audi at any local events..
Doesn't matter what you plan to hit or not. Despite all your best intentions, shiz happens. With a safety item, either use it as intended, the proper way, or not at all.
spacecadet said:
If i'm concerned about hitting things at an autocross... there is something very VERY wrong with the course design or the site, or both.
Do you wear a helmet when you autox?
In reply to docwyte :
It's not a safety item and not intended to be used as one by me..
The harness is to hold my upper torso more securely in place as i'm driving... so i'm not having to worry about supporting my body as it moves..
If I could properly install either of the CG locks I own I would have and been done... but the focus driver seatbelt buckle is designed in such a way that I cannot...
any illusion that this harness is safer is just that... an illusion... I don't consider it to be safer and the reality is that if i rolled over... it isn't... it's actually going to possibly cause greater harm and why I would never use these on track without a minimum of a 4 point cage in the back of the car...
I agreed that it was a good point to route them through the headrest... and I was planning to continue to do so anyway because it keeps the belts in a more manageable place when I unbuckle them.
but to be clear this harness IS NOT a safety item
