WDCR-SCCA Solo II at FedEx Field: Review

The Washington DC Region SCCA Chapter held their first Solo II event of the season, ran by Autocrossers Inc at FedEx Field.


The event was well organized and there were tons of cars on the grid. All eyes were on the provisional STR class; a class dominated by Mazda Miata/MX-5s.

My S2000 had some issues with oversteer early in the day, but we were able to dial out the problem with tire pressure.

AP2 Chassis:
Bilstein PSS Custom
OEM CR front sway bar
Cusco 4 point roll bar
Corner balanced and alignment

Tire Specs (Early in the day):
225/45R17 Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs w/ 36psi COLD (38psi HOT)
255/40R17 Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs w/ 34psi COLD (36psi HOT)

With the above specs, the car turned out to be too tail happy on slaloms and tight corners in the showcases. My co-driver Ryan spun out 3 times in a single run with the current set up (he wasn't very pleased) but I also feel that we have completely different driving styles that probably contributed to him spinning out. The car was set up for track, not for an autocross course. After a few more runs, I came to the conclusion that the rear had too much pressure, therefore I came up with the solution:

Tire Specs (Fastest):
225/45R17 Dunlops w/ 36psi COLD (38psi HOT)
255/40R17 Dunlops w/ 30psi COLD (32-33psi HOT)

This solved most of the oversteer issues for me at least and I was able to stay on the throttle longer. Ryan still spun out on his last run that could have turned out a faster time (67-68 seconds range if he was on track), but ended up in the 73 second range. My times were consistently getting faster throughout the day (83 seconds, 72 seconds, 70 seconds) when I hit my fastest time of the day at 69.43 seconds. The Miatas in the same class were able to pull off the fastest time in the class (66 seconds range).

Results coming soon...

More pics on Flickr