2018 is done. I attended just four solo events this year. Fuck.
The car and my performance often left me lamenting choices made. This SSC class, and the shit tires it comes with means that the car is very nearly one of the slowest cars in solo. This in itself isn’t the end of the world, but in a small club where PAX index is so important, the punishing index assigned to the class in it’s first year, was good reason for drinking.
Here’s to 2019 and a new PAX index that will set an expectation for lap times that are a little bit faster than a stock NB Miata, and a little bit slower than a stock FR-S. Yah… we all bought these parts to make the car slower.
This is supposed to be offset by a car that is at least more fun to drive. We can argue that is the case. There is more tunability with additional sway bar setting options, and real actual camber… but the car is still a long ways away from being fun enough to make up for a real lack of pace. Even on shit tires with the near 3.5 degrees of rear camber I’m running, it takes great care to create real rotation on throttle. A low power, momentum car this is… but it ain’t no MX-5. It doesn’t feel like a real Hachiroku either – although I wonder if a proper rear differential might change that.
It was not my intention to devalue the car though. The final event of the year was a special one… one that did go a long ways towards changing my feelings to positive.
We had a super SSC Gang Bang.
11 drivers in four different cars. Six of those drivers made top 10 out of 70 in PAX for the event. This result is vastly different from what I am used to seeing at our events. Pro racer Parker Thompson, took the top spot in my car! Parker isn’t a regular at SASC events (yet!), but in addition to him being there, four of the clubs regular top drivers (two jacket holders – Ryan being one of them) had jumped out of their regular machines, and into the SSC Party. No wonder twins dominated the result sheet.
I tried imagining some excuses for why four people in the same car blasted me, but they all sounded pretty lame. Getting pumped by 1.5 seconds doesn’t sit well. But if I’m willing to take it from anyone, it is Parker, who is an all round good guy about it and generally full of advice and feedback. Ryan, who was doing his first runs in the car, also got me.
Competition however, is what really adds meaning to a day of autocross. It actually makes me want for next time. Getting beat, with no excuses, just means that a win next time will have that much extra value.
This post confuses me. You start out so down on the car/class. But then the event at the end shows the car getting not only top PAX, but also 2nd raw time. This makes it seem like a fun, capable platform. Unfortunately, we have not had a single SSC car built locally yet. So I can not judge from personal experience. Hopefully you find your groove with it. It took me a few events to click with my Cayman. I couldn’t understand how people were so fast with them. Then one day, I went from being top 15 PAX to top 5 at every event. Good luck finding that click moment 🙂
Cheers for the comments Dave. That’s encouraging. I’m bored of the car, and would love to make some more fun changes (boy racer stuff). I think the car genuinely is a tough PAX car. It’s been a really really long time since neither Cam (2018 SS winner) or Ryan (2017 BS winner) won PAX. Both of those guys got me… so I’m obviously not as good as I’d like to think. And then… there is always another level. Parker but the beat down on us all, and that is inspiring, although also somewhat mystifying. The car is passively listed for sale on our local club forum… but I’m skeptical a sale will come given 8″ of snow on the ground.