BMW Autocross #1 Saturday February 18th, 2017

[POS Racing]

BMW Autocross #1
When - Sat, February 18
Where - Mineral Wells Airport

In!

Register at - https://www.dlbracing.com/

[865]

Me too!

[Robert]

in

57 people for a BMW event at Mineral Wells that has got to be a record.

[jrj512]

I think they had a season opener there with 60 or 70 a few years ago.

[cone-cerned]

In. = 58

[OZMDD]

We've been hitting 50+ with walk-ups pretty regularly. Much more than that is too many for all the runs they give (10), kinda like NTAXS. Franco has really improved the overall experience with BMW events, and it's possibly the most laid-back of any group.

[ken o]

Cutoff is 65.

[Robert]

Cutoff is 65.

One spot left, we are at 64.

[OZMDD]

Perfect weather, no better place to start the autox season.

[cone-cerned]

I had a great time. It was my first time back at Mineral Wells in several years. I do like that place. Hell of a drive to get there, though.

[865]

I enjoyed it too. It was a fun, fast, course. My new STR car is a touch too tight in the rear. Five or six spins (I lost count), almost all at the first of the three gates (counting the turn) leading into the fast left-hander at the far right and back side of the course where it enters into the fast back-stretch. I either need to man up and avoid lifting in that situation, or loosen the rear end a bit. :)

[OZMDD]

Lose the rear sway bar.

[865]

^-- I'm going to try that. It's a racing beat sway bar.

Will removing it be a problem for track? Gary at TDR told me back in September that for track, an NC needs a stiffer rear bar and stock front.

[cone-cerned]

Just remove one sway bar end link. Leave the other end link and the sway bar attached. When you get ready for the track, install the missing link. Only takes a couple of minutes.

I still had my RB rear sway bar attached at the event. My plan was to run with the bar in the morning and without it in the afternoon, but I saw something shiny and forgot to unhook the end link.

[Davidss]

Gary at TDR told me back in September that for track, an NC needs a stiffer rear bar and stock front.

Are you sure you don't remember that backwards. Also there is no rule of thumb as simple as "all NCs needs X front bar and Y rear bar". The parts you would use for stock/autocross/track springs may be wildly different.

[865]

Are you sure you don't remember that backwards. Also there is no rule of thumb as simple as "all NCs needs X front bar and Y rear bar". The parts you would use for stock/autocross/track springs may be wildly different.

I'm pretty certain that I remember the conversation correctly, although perhaps not the exact words. It was just before Miatas @Hallett, and I was getting Hawk HP+ brake pads and Motul 600 brake fluid in preparation for it. I had ordered my Koni Sport shocks and Progress front sway bar, but it hadn't come in yet. I asked about installation for the shocks and front bar, and that is when Gary said that the bigger front anti-sway bar wasn't useful for track, and that a big rear bar was preferred.

That's also pretty much the current recommendation for C-Street autocross setup these days over on miata.net. If you read the last dozen pages or so of the C-Street setup thread there, you'll find people claiming that big rear bar, stock front bar (since you can only change one for Street class) is the ticket.

Seems non-intuitive to me, but what do I know?

[sammm]

^Agreed...we shall see come March 4th.

[OZMDD]

Having autox'd an NC for 4.5 seasons, I can definitely say that the rear bar is your enemy, and it needs more front bar in almost every scenario. On the track, a big rear bar only makes the oversteer worse.