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2017 H-Street Set Up

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San Diego
#1
I see SportsCar has picked Mike King and his Fiesta ST as favorites for the upcoming nationals. It's been a while since we discussed the evolution of HS setup. Anyone have a clue as to what Mike is running? From the stickers, I assume he's running Bridgestones but maybe someone knows more. I'm guessing the best mod by far is the steering wheel actuator. :)
 


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244
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Location
Milwaukee
#2
Mike is a very seasoned veteran in solo. I'll be happy to keep up with him this year at nats.

IIRC, he's on OTS koni's, with 205/50-16 RE71R's. good alignment(unsure of his exact specs) and tightened nut behind the wheel.

My money is a good 4 way between King, Reno, Freeman, and Tilus. I'd be happy with a trophy this year TBH, but I'm shooting to be in the hunt as well. I'm usually within a tenth of Freeman at locals, so hopefully that translates to Lincoln.

Any way you slice it, it's gonna be a close, FUN battle on the concrete this year.

Anyone else making the trek out?
 


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Location
SLC
#3
i was seriously considering it, but it looks like i have stuff for work during that time. I am helping a friend start up a motorsport lifestyle company.
 


OP
R
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106
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San Diego
Thread Starter #4
By OTS I expect you mean yellow Sports as opposed to tuner shocks.

There hasn't previously been a consensus on swaybars...any progress on that?

I don't see alignment as very significant because there's so little you can do. The biggest change you can make is front toe, and I've run that in and out and not found it to be a big deal. A couple tenths of camber is in the noise.

Question -- Not sure of the reference to titanium swaybars. Same as any non-ST? Is this one?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAND-NEW-G...ash=item41bc417a38:g:nHgAAOSw-0xYgMR6&vxp=mtr
 


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Messages
24
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1
Location
ankeny
#5
I will be there this year. It will be my first nationals event. Not really sure where ill be in the standings.If its worth anything, I usually do pretty well locally. We dont have the biggest lots or the biggest group though. Im currently on RE71's, catback, and drop in filter. Figured id see how I do this yr and then look into shocks for next season.

If anyone has any pointers for a first timer, I would be glad for the advice. Or if anyone is crossing through Iowa and wants to meet up for the cruise down, I would be all for that.
 


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350
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116
Location
Austin
#6
Wouldn't the catback throw you out of H Street?

I am getting very excited for this, as a novice. Took Egg out this past weekend and got 4th/40 in Novice class. If it was in HS (currently using Cobb AP, will revert to stock tune), I would have taken the local trophy.

Looking into Konis and tires. The Minimum tread wear is 200, what do people like to run? On the NA turbo miata, I usually use BFG Rivals, my personal preference for that tread wear rating. Any preference on the FiST?

Are sway bars allowed? Any serious improvement to be had maybe even with just bushings?
 


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Location
Dearborn
#7
Wouldn't the catback throw you out of H Street?

I am getting very excited for this, as a novice. Took Egg out this past weekend and got 4th/40 in Novice class. If it was in HS (currently using Cobb AP, will revert to stock tune), I would have taken the local trophy.

Looking into Konis and tires. The Minimum tread wear is 200, what do people like to run? On the NA turbo miata, I usually use BFG Rivals, my personal preference for that tread wear rating. Any preference on the FiST?

Are sway bars allowed? Any serious improvement to be had maybe even with just bushings?
You can do the following in "Street" class:

200TW tires - Hot ticket are B'Stone RE71R's (need to be pretty precise/clean & tidy with your inputs) or BFG Rival S 1.5 (these let you get away with more sloppy driving)
Catback exhaust
Drop in panel filter
ONE sway bar
Dampers can be changed to OEM replacements. Koni's are the easy OTS option.
16x7" +40.5mm offset (this is the max offset allowed by the rules) - Enkei has +43mm offset RPF1's for a good price @ www.oakos.com

Not sure about bushing mods.
 


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350
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Location
Austin
#8
Reading through the rules, any bushings used for the swaybar can be used, including bearings. I love how forgiving Rivals are.. I should probably go that route until I am more familiar (still ~3000 miles)
 


M-Sport fan

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#10
I'm guessing the best mod by far is the steering wheel actuator. :)
^^^This is H/S legal??

OTS just means "off the shelf", or not re-valved (is re-valving also legal in H/S??), which I'm guessing is what you meant/implied by "tuner"?
 


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ankeny
#11
I ended up in 19th place at nationals. It was definitely a learning experience. Having only 3 runs per course really messed with my head and had me way to worried about hitting cones and blowing a run. Also, i was warned of the large course size compared to our local events. I threw everything id been told about minimizing distance out the window with the thoughts that more speed would be better due to the larger course size. After watching videos of the fast guys i relearned that minimum distance is still better. Day 1 on the East course I think i could of been top 10 for sure but I did a brake tap towards the end that was totally unnecessary. Instead I ended up 17th with hopes of improving on the west course. That wasnt the case. With the 1st 2 runs in I wasnt doing particularly well and decided to throw a hail marry on my 3rd run. I could of probably knocked .5 off my time easy if I hadnt decided to go that route. Instead I overcooked 3 corners real bad and took out a cone as well. I knew I needed to go big that last run and it didnt quite work out. Still had a blast and look forward to going back next yr. Something Im going to work on in the meantime is being fast right away. I find myself still improving bigtime at local events on the last few runs. I need to figure out how to read the course and lay down better times on the first 3 runs.

As far as setup. From what I saw, most of the fast guys were running a rear swaybar and at least rear koni yellow. Although the 2nd fastest fiesta was running on stock suspension. He was known to be a good driver in other platforms. Another interesting thing that I was told and hadnt heard before, The 2016+ cars have a bigger front sway from the factory. Only heard this from one person. He said another guy found out when he went to install the bigger base model sway bar and it was actually the same size.

Since being back I have purchased a rear bar and also rear shocks. I have done 1 event with rear bar only. Cant say I noticed a huge difference but I did get another 1st place pax. This was the first one since the first event of the year. Although Ive narrowly coned away 3 of them. After that event I installed the koni yellows in the rear. I mistakenly set them to near full soft instead of 1/4 turn from full stiff like i wanted. Been street driving it and it feels great. An entrance ramp I turn onto after work at around 50 feels totally different. Previously at that speed the car would really drift to the outside. Now it feels like the front end decides to bite alittle harder and I naturally run tight to the inside at the same speed. The first time this happened I thought my traction control cut power for a second or something. Next day it did the same thing and didnt see the light flash at me. Then i tried it in sport mode and it felt the exact same. I have a track day coming up sunday and im gonna leave it at the soft setting and see how it goes. Then ill probably switch to the stiff end for the last autox event.
 


Messages
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Location
Austin
#12
^^^This is H/S legal??

OTS just means "off the shelf", or not re-valved (is re-valving also legal in H/S??), which I'm guessing is what you meant/implied by "tuner"?
I think the nut behind the wheel is the steering wheel actuator :)
 


M-Sport fan

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#13
I think the nut behind the wheel is the steering wheel actuator :)
OK, I misread the snark implied for some tech I thought that maybe I did not know existed. [headslap]

(But, IF he is THAT great, maybe he should be H/S illegal as an 'unfair' advantage. [histerical])
 


OP
R
Messages
106
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Location
San Diego
Thread Starter #14
Rebuildable shocks may be rebuilt in street class to any specification. Tuner shocks refers to non-production shocks built up in a shop specifically for your vehicle. Also street class legal. Penske shocks would be an example. Shocks are nearly unrestricted except you can have no more than two external adjusters.
 


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Location
albuquerque
#15
Rebuildable shocks may be rebuilt in street class to any specification. Tuner shocks refers to non-production shocks built up in a shop specifically for your vehicle. Also street class legal. Penske shocks would be an example. Shocks are nearly unrestricted except you can have no more than two external adjusters.
What, if anything, would be a step up from koni yellows for the FiST while still remaining h street legal?
 


M-Sport fan

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#16
Rebuildable shocks may be rebuilt in street class to any specification. Tuner shocks refers to non-production shocks built up in a shop specifically for your vehicle. Also street class legal. Penske shocks would be an example. Shocks are nearly unrestricted except you can have no more than two external adjusters.
That makes NO SENSE to me at all as far as the rules go since the Solo Events Board always, without fail, seems to claim affordability as their most forceful driver of the rules in this class (i.e; setting the tread wear limits to 200, over the previous open/00 tread wear, $250.00 EACH + slick, no limits tire policy), and the disallowing of the majority of other costly mods, even if they do not effect performance all that much in an autocross scenario.

We all know that a custom built set of Penske dampers (EVEN IF just '2-way'!), or their equivalents, can run almost the new price of our whole car, so WHY give the wealthy, and well supported/sponsored that overt advantage?? [???:)]

It should just be any 'off the shelf', NOT re-valved, UNDER $2500.00 a set retail dampers allowed, IF NOT 'factory stock', if they do not want to be hypocrites about the whole cost factor thing driving the rules! ;)
 


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164
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26
Location
albuquerque
#17
That makes NO SENSE to me at all as far as the rules go since the Solo Events Board always, without fail, seems to claim affordability as their most forceful driver of the rules in this class (i.e; setting the tread wear limits to 200, over the previous open/00 tread wear, $250.00 EACH + slick, no limits tire policy), and the disallowing of the majority of other costly mods, even if they do not effect performance all that much in an autocross scenario.

We all know that a custom built set of Penske dampers (EVEN IF just '2-way'!), or their equivalents, can run almost the new price of our whole car, so WHY give the wealthy, and well supported/sponsored that overt advantage?? [???:)]

It should just be any 'off the shelf', NOT re-valved, UNDER $2500.00 a set retail dampers allowed, IF NOT 'factory stock', if they do not want to be hypocrites about the whole cost factor thing driving the rules! ;)
Makes sense. Would custom shocks also require some modifications to install? Doesn't seem like they'd be legal unless they bolted right on.
 


OP
R
Messages
106
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32
Location
San Diego
Thread Starter #18
I'm with you guys. I think the two biggest problems in stock, now street, are cost-no-object shocks and cost-no-object wheels. I'd like to hear the arguments in favor of those. "We should spend an extra $15k on our stock car because..."
 


Messages
105
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15
Location
Dearborn
#20
Anyone know the weight of these things? I have looked at multiple places, no one lists it. I'm sure it's just my poor vision

thanks
Check one of the Oakos FS threads. I think I've seen weights on there.


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