FSP 1.1

Results from round one are posted.

I ran (three timed runs) and this was my best driving yet, both
in terms of my driving and course and organization.

The Oakland Coliseum parking lot is quite greasy and features mild
elevation changes. The course was moderately fast, with only one slow
corner. I counted 13 turns plus one short slow slalom and one 2nd
gear rev limiter[*] slalom. My best time was ~55 seconds.

The technique of rotating the car by tapping the brakes just after
entering a corner was working just right, and feels so much better than
scrubbing off my outside front tire under excessive understeer. I
started with tire pressures f: 38 psi and r: 35 psi for my first run, then
dropped 2psi out of my heated front tires. I usually make my first
run with a high pressure in the front tires to protect them in case I
overdrive them on an unfamiliar course. (Bridgestone 225/50/16 s03-pp).
I find that an isolated really slow corner between two fast segments,
such as the u-turns common on BMW-CCA-GGCs autox courses,
benefit cars with great brakes and acceleration over the small nimble
cars. The nimble and balanced cars benefit from sequences of
closely spaced turns where the exit from one turn is the entrance
to the next, so there's no straight to relax on and recover
control of the car.

I also experimented with seat adjustments. I put my seat (stock 1997
BMW half-leather sport seat, stock three-point seatbelt) at max low,
max back, got in, put on my seat belt, exhaled, tightened and locked
my seatbelt, then slid my seat forward about 80 mm so I could hardly
breathe. The poor man's harness.

The Toyota Starlet that set FTD was highly modified, and had a lucky
(and talented) driver. Due to timing malfunctions, he got in a couple
of practice (re-)runs which others didn't, thus had the spare runs to
to risk oversteering while entering corners. Done just right, this is
the fastest technique for a moderately powered car to conserve
momentum, but done wrong easily results in a spin or taking out some
cones with the outside rear tire. Especially on a greasy circuit,
once you put more than one wheel outside of the lines used by the cars
before you, you will lose some time if not go off course.

The Boxsters and S2000 rock. Many new Toyota Celica were there, and a
few BMW (the 540 was the most common model). A couple of well sorted
VW Golfs, one A3, one A4. Audi A4, S4, and TT. GM F-bodies have such
terrible throttle lag exiting corners, but a big engine and big sticky
tires makes them fast by the end of the faster segments. My ti will
never catch the Porsche 993 turbo and 996 turbo. Navid's tuned
e46 m3 might. All three of those cars can really put power down
during chicane transitions and are pretty to watch. The older 911 really
hang their tails out, just like they're famous for.

A couple of slammed Hondas with noisy exhausts were painfully slow,
but a some older Civic Si ran just great. And a Honda Insight was
well-driven on Kumho R-compounds. The old British Jensen and
trailered-in Lotus Europa and Elan (circa 1970) are nice to watch but
not particularly fast. A Volvo S80T6, a Lexus IS300 sportwagon and
many WRX ran. There was one thing that looked like a Formula car
(F3000) which wasn't that fast.

Also, the SCCA classification scheme is a bit out of synch with times
set by actual cars; HS is faster than GS. The sun came out and warmed
up the course for FS and FSP, so FS had a one or two second advantage.

(BS means 'B-Stock':
A are the theoretically fastest cars, B a bit slower, etc, down to H;
S means stock, where the main modifications allowed are R-compound
DOT tires and shocks.)

SCCA car classification table.

The m44 Z3 is in CS, the 328is, 328is are in DS, the 318is is in GS;
the ti can be entered as 'BMW NOC' in HS, and on street tires,
my ti can be run in HSN. In BMW-CCA-GGA, my 318ti is classed with
Z3-6cyl.

[*] Maybe not on the rev limiter for an S2000.

I'm getting addicted.