Archman33,

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

If I start running the AWD Subaru, what should I watch out for when coming from a front-driver? What's the best way to get acclimated to the new drive configuration?

That's tough to say. A stock WRX will understeer like a FWD car. There won't be much difference there. I don't think there are any "ways" to get acclimated to a new configuration. You just have to drive it and feel what the car is doing and drive the car the way it likes to be driven. This goes for different cars of the same configuration. Being able to adapt quickly to different cars and different tracks comes partially from experience and partially from the driver's natural ability to "feel" the car.

What (in your opinion) is the best way to get started in racing? I visited a race-shop back home and they recommended starting with a used turn-key race-prepped Civic, and running SCCA events. I was thinking of sticking with the drivers' events for another year and then go for my SCCA license.

I know drivers that have done it that way and they always seem to be behind the curve. In my mind, it takes more finesse and car control to drive a rwd car at the limit than a fwd car. If you learn your racing skills in a fwd car, you will be lacking in your ability to drive the **** out of a rwd car.

The best advice I can give you is forget about owning a race car for a year or two. Take the money you would have spent on that and enroll in a professional open wheel driving school (I prefer Bridgestone Racing Academy - www.racef2000.com) and after taking their school, participate for at least one full season of the school's racing series. This way all of your focus is learning how to drive with professional coaching and NONE of your time will be spent monkeying with the car. This will provide you with a steep learning curve and coaching you cannot receive anywhere else.

Do you have any other miscellaneous tips for an aspiring race car driver?

Yes. If you can't afford a year of participating in a school racing series, you can't afford to race your own car for a year.

Also, racing against other young drivers in identically prepared cars is an eye opening experience. It lets you know how you stack up, driver to driver.

Finally, if you are serious about quiting the engineering job to become a race car driver, you'd better take some business marketing classes. Professional car racing is much more of a business than a sport.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.teamSMR.com

 

Williampreza,

The splitter is a one-off design. There is a steel framework that is bolted to the h-member that locates the splitter plank. The plank itself is made of the same white plastic that cutting boards are made of and you can get that at TAP Plastics. The air dam section is just a 5 layer strip of carbon fiber Dzus fastened to the steel structure. Finally, the air ducts feed two 145 cfm blowers that then feed right into the center of the front rotors for brake cooling.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.teamSMR.com

 

Archmann- here is a quote from John Felstead and his thoughts on the upcoming STi. Please pay note to his DCCD comments as they may keep your new STi on the track:


What do I think to the 2.5T STi? Well, this is all without driving it first, so it’s just gut feeling rather than knowledge.

To me, the most important thing about this car is not the 2.5T engine. That to me in the standard spec is nothing I personally am envious of and would prefer driving the 2.0T with the twin scroll turbo, as in the Japanese spec STi8. I think the 2.0T in this form will be a better combined track/road package in standard trim. The 2.5T is the perfect answer for the USA market place though; it suits your roads and whole driving mentality/experience very well.

Where the 2.5T comes into its own is when you start modifying it for extra power. 350BHP should be easy. It wont be as crisp as a 2.0T, that’s just basic physics, but it will be a fantastic engine package to mildly tune giving big power in a reliable way.

It’s a bit unfair comparing my car to this too, as mine is a low geared TypeRA with a 280BHP standard engine. Mine is a lot lighter, has some trick stuff like quick steering rack, big brakes etc. In a straight fight mine will win easily in a track situation. On the road mine will be faster, but yours will be easier to drive, or rather more relaxing with its higher final drive gearing.

Comparing the USA spec STi to an STi Type-UK however, and there is no doubt yours is a much better car, even with the prodrive performance pack 300BHP upgrade fitted. The main reason for this has nothing to do with the engine; it’s the transmition system.

What you guys have on the USA STi is something that until now was a TypeR/RA/spec C exclusive fit, the DCCD center diff and mechanical rear LSD. You also have the suretrack front LSD, which the UK car also has.

The DCCD is what makes these cars special. With a normal STi center Viscous diff and rear LSD you get a tendency to understeer and you cant balance the car properly on throttle. With the DCCD you get a 65/35 R/F torque split option that allows you to drive the car like it’s RWD, in other words you steer with the steering and you balance with the throttle. What a lot of people don’t understand is that if you are a really skilled driver, you can force this transmition system to go 100% RWD by making the rear wheels spin. As soon as you get the back wheels spinning all the torque transfers to the rear, now if you know what you are doing, you can then just keep the power on and drive it like a MK2 escort BDA. If you crap your pants and back off, instant spin.

This is why you hear the nasty stories of TypeR/RA’s being evil to drive, its because the people behind the wheel don’t know what they are doing and are pushing the car too hard and running out of talent.

You guys have a savior in this respect, you are getting an Auto DCCD, which wont let you be a plonker. You do have a manual override too though, so as soon as some of the boy racers start to play with that, expect some written off STi’s, it is going to happen! That’s not the cars fault though, that’s the drivers, and I guarantee you will see posts on here with “my DCCD caused me to crash”.

The other thing about the DCCD is the wet grip, it’s going to blow your mind how much grip there is when the roads are wet. The normal viscous diffs allow wheelspin quite easily, not the DCCD when you wind the diff lock percentage up. Before I bought my RA I used to read all the rubbish about never running the diff in anything but fully open on tarmac, that didn’t make any sense to me. So when I bought my RA I did some investigating of my own into what the Japanese manual really meant, and I was right, it is designed to work on all surfaces, you just have to modulate it depending on speed and conditions and what type of driving style you want to use. I have educated a lot of brits on how to get the most out of the DCCD; it’s an amazing system. I love the fact you can do handbrake turns too. You may not know this but when you pull the handbrake. It releases the center diff lock, so you can just dip the clutch, pull the handbrake and you get no coupling front/rear, proper handbrake turns just like the WRC car. Traction in the wet is just amazing with the diff lock high. You also have the suretrack front LSD, which is a torque biasing diff, which helps to kill understeer too. I haven’t driven an STi with the DCCD and suretrack, my own is a more conventional geared front LSD, but it should be superb, probably easier to get 100% out of than my setup.

I am intrigued as to how the Auto DCCD will work, if it were me I would have 2 separate maps in the controller, one for wet, one for dry. This is one area of the car I would like to know more about. I did look into running a custom built DCCD controller that was fully mapable on my RA, there is a lot I could do with that, especially under braking.