New Board Member With Ls1 Swapped Mazda Rx7

[sciff5]

I have my first HPDE with SCDA on monday.

I had harnesses installed (albeit incorrectly and even I knew it, just to keep me firmly in the seat during autox and because the chance of flipping with street tires in autox is very very slim)

But I just put the factory 3 points back in the car and kept the lap belts from the harnesses just to be safe in case the factory belts dont tighten as they are supposed to after 20 years.

From the guys who have run with COM and SCDA is one better than the other or vis versa? Because I can run my car with SCDA right now at any of their events with my car the way it sits, where as COM requires more investment to fit prepared class.. a class my car wont be competitive in anyway.


Thanks guys

[962porsche]

safety is not about being competitive !!!!!!!!!! its about SAFETY !!!!!!!!! IF YOU WANT TO PASS TECH THEN INSTALL THE BELTS THE RIGHT WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm just not getting it when people want to do short cuts when it comes to saving there ass ?????? if your spending the time to install safety gear then why the hell not do it right ?

[sciff5]

safety is not about being competitive !!!!!!!!!! its about SAFETY !!!!!!!!! IF YOU WANT TO PASS TECH THEN INSTALL THE BELTS THE RIGHT WAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm just not getting it when people want to do short cuts when it comes to saving there ass ?????? if your spending the time to install safety gear then why the hell not do it right ?

In SCDA my car is not put in a rediculous class that requires a ton of extra safety equipment so it makes sense to stay there. I am just asking if there is really a reason to move to COM where many extras are required.

My stock seatbelts are back in the car so that passes SCDA rules. In COM I need a fire suit, a roll bar, harnesses (and if we're talking legit safety here race seats because factory seats with a bar is still pretty dangerous) and I'm sure other things that I'm forgetting.

Again I had the harnesses already so I installed them for use in autox, at the advice of an autox instructor btw, who said rollovers are really a non issue in autox and it would keep me in the seat more firmly. I dont use the shoulder harnesses on the street or plan to use them at HPDEs.

If my car was rotary powered with a decent sized turbo it would put down the same 350-400whp my car puts down now and not have the same restrictions.

So I ask again just for honst opinions of the 2 groups and if I'm really missing out on anything by sticking with SCDA. Feel free to PM me if you dont feel like sharing your opinion in public. I see COM as a great way to have a more competitive environment than most HPDEs but again my classification just classes me out of competition

[962porsche]

other then the fact that you don't care if your safe or not . there are other factor involved . DE is DRIVERS ED not racing . when you install belts to hold you in the car . well thats just wrong thats what a good fitting seat is for ! when and if you do crash do you think for a minute that the stock seat belts will be up to par ? i in no way want to put you down !!!! but you do have a lot to learn about real track driving and the things that can happen and happen real fast . scda is an ok club i at times run with them . i also run with track daze , nasa , pca , audi , asphalt , emra and others but by far i like comscc the best . we have rules for a reason insurance is just one of them . the other one is your safety . you have change the drive line in your car doing that puts your car in one of the upper classes were most all cars are heavily modified . now just becouse you don't feal that your car is never the less it does put you in a class were the other cars are . you had an off just in an auto cross now times that speed by 3 or 4 . when you race its not if your going to crash its when and how bad will the crash be . i get the fealing from you that getting safety gear is point less . i have no words to tell you how important safety gear is its just some thing i hope you never will need and don't have at the time its needed .

[sciff5]

Understood..

Please this is getting less productive. Your drumming on about things I did not ask about. This is my first HPDE and I plan to take it easy.

I am getting into HPDEs mainly because I found its too easy to overdrive the car at autox because theres no consequences. Everyone knows the consequences if you have an off track experience at a road course.

I also learned something about my car which was the point of the autox. My car will drift/power slide when its set up stiff and I'm running close to 40psi in the rear tires. That is great and easy to drive but its not fast, the rear is predicible but sliding around is not getting the power to the pavement but with this setup the gas can be applied to rotate the rear controllably. When I lower the pressure in the rear tires and soften up the rear end, it has more grip on corner exit which I learned, but when I tried to mat the gas to rotate the rear end a bit, it bit instead of slid, loaded up the supsension and snap oversteered. At the HPDE you can be sure I'll have the suspension in the stiff setting and the tires highly inflated to reduce its total grip but keep it very tame the way I had it most of the day at the last autox, where the car was loose all day but no one had a question I had a handle on it.

Learning these types of things is why I was shaking it down at the autox.


BTW- looks like rain on monday.. this will sevearly handicap speeds. I'll prob just keep the car in 4th-5th the whole time to keep wheel spin under control and you can be sure I'll be easy with the gas.

Thanks for the input so far

[962porsche]

SCDA it not racing ! COMSCC is a competition club ! so is one better than the other ? thats up to you . i for one like racing . most of the non competitive clubs will not let you take your lap times . for alot of drivers we start with auto-x then do some DE's just to see what driving on real tracks is like . then we move on to time attacks and then to wheel to wheel racing thats if you like competition . i have not done an auto-x in over 20 years . speaking for my self i don't like going to a track for a day and only get 5 minutes of seat time . you state that you are going to highly inflate the tires and have the suspension in its stiff setting . i would maybe rethink that ? only in the rain do you over inflate the tires and then soften the suspension and maybe even drop the anti roll bars if your getting under or over steer . this is not an auto-x so what your settings are for that you can forget on a road course . that one minute lap in auto-x is only 2/3's of a lap at nhms . the tire temps will change alot more .

[cfossum]

Being that this is the COM forum, it is likely that most folks who read this are COM members and are therefore in favor of running with COM. Both SCDA and COM are fine organizations, but they are actually quite different. Ian (SCDA) runs a fine track event, although SCDA is run as a business, while COM is a non-profit organization run by volunteers. From a new member's perspective, it is probably difficult to see the difference there, but as time goes on you may see how the rules evolve within COM and how fairness is constantly evaluated. Since COM gets involved with the competitive side of driving, being fair and safe are much stronger issues here. I believe that if your car were stuffed with a larger turbo and was pumping out 400hp as you suggest above, then you may have similar safety requirements thrust upon you. It is not ridiculous, but for all members' benefit. Your car sure sounds like it would be a ton of fun to drive! It would probably be a long time before you would be competitive, but a very short time before you spin it. Being a street car though, I can certainly understand your reluctance to install a full cage. Perhaps it isn't the right car to start with.
-Carl

[John F]

Reminds me of trying to get started with my cobra. It was painful getting a full rollbar and a $500 firesuit (formerly required in SPA), so I drove in SCDA for awhile until I wanted to move up. It's not a bad way to go and if it works for you, do it. I found that all it did was set the hook

[962porsche]

the thing is you don't need a 500 dollar firesuit a 100 dollar one will do to start with .it may not fit the best but it will work . i have always looked at it like this . i can replace my car so if i crash O-well but i can't replace me if i crash so even if i drive a car in SS i would still want my ass to be safe !

[brucesallen]

wir=]th your car you are insane not to have 5 point belts and a roll bar for a DE. At COM we know these things. We will also time yopur laps during school and o9ur intructors who are all competition dri8vers will help yopu get the best lap times possible out of the car.

It is all about the fast lap.

I used to instruct for SCDA until they told me I could not because my Formula car scared them.

A COM driver recently beat a Lamborghini Superleggera $250k car's lap timne at Monticello in his Miata.

[John F]

with your car you are insane not to have 5 point belts and a roll bar for a DE.

Agreed! My car has always had 5 point belts, but I never saw a $100 firesuit

[nateh]

http://www.driversupply.com/cgi-bin/sto ... rce&pid=43

[962porsche]

see i told you !!!! out of the 4 suits i have 2 of them are the ones shown but in blue . i'm not going to say there the best suit but for the price there good . the only thing i realy don't like about the suit is when i washed them for the first time the red strip bled into the white the other thing is the zipper stops to high so its a pain when i have to go pee .

[boltonite]

see i told you !!!! out of the 4 suits i have 2 of them are the ones shown but in blue . i'm not going to say there the best suit but for the price there good . the only thing i realy don't like about the suit is when i washed them for the first time the red strip bled into the white the other thing is the zipper stops to high so its a pain when i have to go pee .

The suit may be cheap but that testimonial is priceless! ROTFLMAO

p.s. come to the BBQ, I'll give you a free serving of pulled pork!

[TroyV]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



....pulled pork..