NCAC 2014

NCAC.  It didn't turn out as well as I hoped, ended up 2nd behind a mildly prepped WRX.  I can place the blame squarely on my driving since on Day 2 I got my head in the game and beat the WRX, but it wasn't by enough to come back from Day 1 and I still left time on the course on Day 2.  I was getting faster each run by huge chunks of time (2 seconds on one of the runs!) so I was nowhere close to how fast the car was.  Even with pretty used up 275 width Rivals, the front end grip is tremendous.  Of course the rear of the car wants to slither around with any sort of throttle input but it is a Corvette on street tires after all.  It's a lot easier to drive fast when you don't have to keep catching the rear end of the car, or at least that's what I prefer, so that will be my primary focus in setting up the car for the 2015 season.  It was disappointing overall though, since I had success at NCAC last year in the paxed Tire class, taking the win against 23 other drivers, and Zmax is the site I am most familiar with.  Good motivation for next year I guess. Results: http://www.auto-x.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5502

Here's my two fastest runs, Day 1 and Day 2.  I'm pretty sure Day 1 I was just overslowing for pretty much every corner except one near the end.  I was hemorrhaging time in the high speed sections for sure.  Day 2 was better about carrying speed into corners but there was plenty more time out there.

I also distinctly remember being in the middle of a run and thinking to myself, hm, I am basically sitting on one of the side bolsters of the seat here.  The base C5 seats are so awful for autocross it's hard to fathom- I was sliding all over the place, having to use the steering wheel to hold myself in place, which is obviously not great for feeling the grip of the tires and what the car is doing underneath you.  Let's see, what other excuses can I find... No but that was really the biggest one, I am very glad I get to install a race seat in STU.  

As far as car setup for NCAC, I was running the Z51 front spring which is the same rate as a Z06 spring, along with an actual Z06 rear spring, Z06 rear sway bar (tiny bit bigger than Z51), Strano 33mm front bar, C6Z06 shocks, C5Z06 rear wheels all around with pretty beat 275 width Rivals at 29psi, maxed out front camber (2.2ish), no front toe, 1.5 rear camber with 1/8" toe in, and zero rake.  Otherwise bone stock, so basically a B-Street C5 with wider wheels.  2001 and up C5s got the Z06 rear sway bar and the Z06 rear spring is very close to the Z51 rate- I couldn't even tell a difference when I put it on, so the suspension setup is basically a 01+ C5 setup.  I was 0.4 seconds total (both days combined) behind a true BS '04 C5 on Penskes and ZIIs, driven by an accomplished driver, so I took a bit of solace in that.  The wider wheels make a big difference but he has been running that car for two years now so I felt it was a good benchmark.  Still lots of weight to pull out, race seat, a much more responsive and less mushy suspension setup to dial in, better shocks, race seat, more power, did I say race seat?

Also AutoxPix was there and my car made it into the NCAC highlight reel, check it out:

  Interesting to see how much the front end lifts up on throttle.  I think I'm turning a bit to the left there too so that lifts up the inside more, but you really can tell how soft the front spring is, and how little rebound damping there is in those Z06 shocks.

Next post: Winter 2015 full-tilt-ish STU build.