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Street Touring Hatchback (STH) discussion/setup

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
Am at divisional in Beeville, Tx. They had a national event a month ago. Not sure if any of you guys made it.

Well, there's only 2 cars in my class. I beat the other one, but i had a humbling experience .

After we were done, we had fun runs, where you could ride with other drivers or have them drive your car.

So i got 68 seconds as my official best time.

I asked one of the best drivers who is usually top pax no matter what car he's in to drive my car. Keep in mind he normally drives a Miata and today co drove a GT4 (and was #2 Pax by .003s.

So he gets in my car for the first time and ran a 65.6. He got 1 cone, but still, without, he would've probably been at 66.

After watching him, i got a 66.9, but still nowhere close.
 

DerHase

Autocross Champion
Location
Hampton Roads, VA
Car(s)
2019 GTI Rabbit
@MonkeyMD when I was into autocross I took 2 years where I only codrove with quicker people and improved SIGNIFICANTLY. The second year I started driving other peoples' cars. Driving every prep level of Miata/Corvette/Civic etc really helps to make you think of different ways to look at corners and how you apply/get off the brakes and gas to eek out a few more tenths.

I probably suck now, but I'll be codriving a casually prepped STH GTI(not mine) next month so we'll see.
 

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
Not bad advice. Don't think anyone would want to co-drive with my slow ass 🤣
 

DerHase

Autocross Champion
Location
Hampton Roads, VA
Car(s)
2019 GTI Rabbit
Not bad advice. Don't think anyone would want to co-drive with my slow ass 🤣

Offer to buy lunch or dinner afterwards, etc to have someone quicker codrive with you(or pay their entry fee). I offered one of those a lot when I was slow and wanted to get direct help. It worked.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
And I'll tell you, FWD is a different animal. Find someone that's fast and comfortable in a FWD car.

Back in the day, I was the fastest of the Miata guys locally and could top 5 pax every event.

Moved to fwd and struggled. Went to ST and struggled even worse. I'm 4 years into moving to FWD and just starting to feel comfortable enough to put down for top 5 times.
 

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
I guess i shouldn't expect too much. This is only my 2nd year and missed half the events both years.

Still frustrating especially after today, just couldn't get a rhythm.

So it was day 2 and most were getting times about 1/2s more than yesterday's. Max was 1s with a few outliers. I was 2.5s off pace from yesterday. Had the biggest delta. Just could not get any faster no matter what i did.
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
I guess i shouldn't expect too much. This is only my 2nd year and missed half the events both years.

Still frustrating especially after today, just couldn't get a rhythm.

So it was day 2 and most were getting times about 1/2s more than yesterday's. Max was 1s with a few outliers. I was 2.5s off pace from yesterday. Had the biggest delta. Just could not get any faster no matter what i did.
Someday, you just don't have it. I coned all my runs except first run last event. Sometimes, you just have a bad day.
 

DerHase

Autocross Champion
Location
Hampton Roads, VA
Car(s)
2019 GTI Rabbit
And I'll tell you, FWD is a different animal. Find someone that's fast and comfortable in a FWD car.

Back in the day, I was the fastest of the Miata guys locally and could top 5 pax every event.

Moved to fwd and struggled. Went to ST and struggled even worse. I'm 4 years into moving to FWD and just starting to feel comfortable enough to put down for top 5 times.

I think I did well locally driving other random stuff one year specifically because I started in a slow FWD car (97whp Mazda2 originally built for STF).

Driving that thing you lost SECONDS when you were slow to get back on the gas, or brakes too much, etc. Once I got that down I think it translates to other cars exactly the same except you just need to learn throttle control.

My 4th year I drove all kinds of stuff(never the same car twice) and managed to pax 8th overall, including beating a decently competitive national level "almost trophy" driver in his own AS Boxster S by like a second or something also paxing decently high, top pax in a BS Focus RS, and IIRC 2nd in pax in a C5Z in Cam S, plus mostly other very non-competitive cars (Most fun was an SSP C6Z on Hoosiers and a Shelby Cobra replica also on Hoosiers).

Full disclosure our region isn't *tons* of top talent but a few guys regularly run at Nationals(Tom Bleh, Jeff Schmidt actually just won CSP last year, etc). Generally 50-60 people end of year actually qualifying for overall points? 8th wasn't great but given the circumstances I was happy and was definitely my most fun season IMO.

Also lots of gokarting helps a lot. I did a lot of that that year.
 
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MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
So here's video of my Day 1 official run of 68.017


Unfortunately didn't record my unofficial fun run of 66.9, but here's my 67.434.


And here's Day 2 where I couldn't get any rhythm going and the other STH car almost beat my overall. She definitely beat me on Day 2.


Any feedback would be welcome.
 

krs

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Car(s)
MKVIIS R
ha, the F bombs at the end. Been there done that. :LOL:

I only watched the first one so far, will check out the others later.

The thing I saw the most is the late turns on the cones. Most of them you looked to be starting your turn as you came up or past the cone, versus trying to back side them, or touch the cone with your back tire.

My last two events I mounted my camera outside looking down, and I was surprised at how far away I was from the cones. If I remember correctly you're just using a tablet for video, but may help to borrow a gopro or put one in the budget.
 

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
ha, the F bombs at the end. Been there done that. :LOL:

I only watched the first one so far, will check out the others later.

The thing I saw the most is the late turns on the cones. Most of them you looked to be starting your turn as you came up or past the cone, versus trying to back side them, or touch the cone with your back tire.

My last two events I mounted my camera outside looking down, and I was surprised at how far away I was from the cones. If I remember correctly you're just using a tablet for video, but may help to borrow a gopro or put one in the budget.
Did i leave that in. Oops. Yeah, after that run, i heard the announcer say he coned it, but he was taking about previous driver.

Yes. I noticed the late turn in. And when i rode with one of the hotshoe drivers, it became very obvious. After riding with him, i managed better turn in with a 66.9s time (no video). Of course he did a 65.6 first time in my car. Might have to get a go pro and mount on top
 
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GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
Cool course today. Tires are done, complete slicks now, but the V730's are basically good down to the cords.

150 runs and 60 minutes of track time. They were really consistent their entire life.

 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
Bad pic, but V730's wore very evenly. They were grippy to the end. RE71R's used to get sketchy under braking when worn, these didn't.

If I didn't have 3 drivers in the car next event, I think I could squeeze one more event out of them as long as it was dry.

20220711_082704.jpg
 

jmblur

Autocross Champion
Location
Massachusetts
Car(s)
2017 Golf R
How far off the a052 pace are those @GTIfan99 ? Given all the photos of the seam separation I've been seeing on rt660s I'm looking for alternates now (and a052s are completely unavailable)
 

GTIfan99

Autocross Champion
Location
FL
How far off the a052 pace are those @GTIfan99 ? Given all the photos of the seam separation I've been seeing on rt660s I'm looking for alternates now (and a052s are completely unavailable)
On an old gravelly wwII runway, I don't think much at all. At local events, you're good.

If you're going to nationals or run regularly on a good surface, it's half to a full second.

I see them as a more forgiving old RE71R.
 
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