Posted June 10th, 2010 at 12:00PMGoing back to street tires has been an adjustment I’m still working on. I’ve found myself seriously blowing some corners, and I believe it’s my expectations of instant turn-in from the r-comps clouding my judgement. The XS have high levels of grip, evidenced by the times I can still post, but they can’t be pitched into the corners like the V710.
At the first official event of the season, I placed 3rd in class, three-tenths of a second behind an e36 M3 on r-compound tires that I could still be beating with better driving on my part (the local, tight courses favor the MINI’s size and bulk). I was nearly two seconds off the blue EVO and the FTD winning CP Mustang, but posted the quickest times on street tires, for what that’s worth. I have video of all six runs, should be posting it to YouTube someday.
June 6th was our second event, and it alternated between blue skies and torrential downpours spiked with lightening. Things had to be shut down twice but with the low turn-out everyone still got their six runs. Conditions were disparate between run groups and morning and afternoon heats, but I was able to post the fastest time in the morning as the r-compound shod could not generate grip due to conditions (curious, since our last runs in the morning were pretty dry). In the afternoon I forgot how to drive entirely. I was nearly a second and a half slower than the EVO by the end, and the SSM CRX coned away a run with a similar time. His best clean was a tenth better than mine. So I had the third fastest raw time, but due bragging rights for this event go to the GS club racing prepped Dodge Neon .04 seconds off of me. I recorded my last three runs, which unfortunately showcase some lamer driving. Although one has me pegging a cone just under the camera and dragging it, with a course worker running up and snagging it finally at the finish. Worth a few laughs, hopefully they’ll be posted at some point.
A ton of photos were uploaded to Flickr of the June 6th event, with quite a few of the MINI I’ll need to sort through. Here’s one teaser. All of these pics of the car under load are suggesting to me that higher spring rates are in order.
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