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2014 Southeast-who is running what?


Red Tornado

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I am committing to doing st2 this year as gives me lots of tire flexibility and AI and AIX have just been empty.

Look forward to seeing folks at Barber. My year off is over so this year will be running in SE and with SCCA trans-am series Should be a fun year

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My plans are ST3 for the year and for the East Coast Championships.

 

So no ST2 upgrades?

 

With the rule changes I might be able to get into ST3 with a restrictor and a few poulds added. otherwise I guess ST2 if no other FFRC or OVR cars are running.

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My plans are ST3 for the year and for the East Coast Championships.

 

So no ST2 upgrades?

 

With the rule changes I might be able to get into ST3 with a restrictor and a few poulds added. otherwise I guess ST2 if no other FFRC or OVR cars are running.

 

 

My car is ST2 or ST3 legal with a reflash of the computer. With the current rule set, there is basically zero difference between the two classes. Given a preference, I will run in the slower of the two.

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My plans are ST3 for the year and for the East Coast Championships.

 

So no ST2 upgrades?

 

With the rule changes I might be able to get into ST3 with a restrictor and a few poulds added. otherwise I guess ST2 if no other FFRC or OVR cars are running.

 

 

My car is ST2 or ST3 legal with a reflash of the computer. With the current rule set, there is basically zero difference between the two classes. Given a preference, I will run in the slower of the two.

 

 

That's the one thing that bothers me about reflashes, some can be done on the fly. ST2 during the race, ST3 in the pits.

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That's the one thing that bothers me about reflashes, some can be done on the fly. ST2 during the race, ST3 in the pits.

 

 

With a back straight like Road Atlanta has, an extra 60 horses will be blatantly evident out of Turn 7 to Turn 10. I raced ST3 no-aero trim back in June in ST2 and it was plainly obvious where they had more horsepower on the straights and then more grip from aero on the turns. If someone is good enough to cheat and throttle it back enough to not let it show, they are a better wheelman than me anyway.

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Neither he or I can reflash that quick. Hell, he doesn't even know how to reflash it yet!

 

 

That's the one thing that bothers me about reflashes, some can be done on the fly. ST2 during the race, ST3 in the pits.

 

 

With a back straight like Road Atlanta has, an extra 60 horses will be blatantly evident out of Turn 7 to Turn 10. I raced ST3 no-aero trim back in June in ST2 and it was plainly obvious where they had more horsepower on the straights and then more grip from aero on the turns. If someone is good enough to cheat and throttle it back enough to not let it show, they are a better wheelman than me anyway.

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I going to come down and run ST3 with my 2011 Mustang at Road Atlanta in March. Depending on my job search maybe more in the SE. Currently my car is built to the SCCA Restricted Prep ASedan rules, but take out the restrictor I have to run I should be pretty close to ST3 with no aero.

 

Cheyne Daggett

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Starting with RA in March I will be running ST1 in my new Mustang. Got to add some weight to get heavy enough to get out of SU. I'll still be a slow old man but at least not worrying about Radicals, etc. All you guys in 2 and 3 will still blow by me. Some dicing and fun are what I look forward to again . Hope to see a bunch of you at Barber. I won't be racing, still testing the new car in DE4.

 

Tom Hennig

ST/SU Director, NASA-SE

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That's the one thing that bothers me about reflashes, some can be done on the fly. ST2 during the race, ST3 in the pits.

 

I don't know if you noticed but National has added the following to the 2014 ST rules

 

"Competitors must comply with any request by the ST Director to review and/or download ECU program “maps”

using the competitor's programming hardware and software, when such equipment is used by the competitor."

 

This will likely not come into play at regional races, but certainly will at the finals. I'm guessing that lap times will be less than what some are currently posting

 

I'm planning on running a few races in ST2, starting with Barber next month.

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  • 2 weeks later...
...snip...

I don't know if you noticed but National has added the following to the 2014 ST rules

 

"Competitors must comply with any request by the ST Director to review and/or download ECU program “maps”

using the competitor's programming hardware and software, when such equipment is used by the competitor."

 

This will likely not come into play at regional races, but certainly will at the finals. I'm guessing that lap times will be less than what some are currently posting

 

...snip...

It might help, but I suspect anyone who is used to doing even a moderate amount of ECU tuning can circumnavigate that provision if they were so inclined. I'm far from a pro with tuning software and it took me all of about 15 seconds to figure out how to "comply" with the rule while still being able to hide a second set of ecu maps, alternate values for various tuning parameters, and a trigger mechanism for mode switching from the software inspection process.

 

Granted, my quick hack could be spotted by someone with quite a bit of time, a good hex editor (to find those suspicious extra tables) and a de-compiler .. plus enough understanding of assembly language to figure out how, if and when those extra tables were ever being referenced.

 

With many multi-use software packages the configuration files can be easily modified. A few tweaks of the XML on whatever laptop that was handed to the officials could hide any of the the ECU settings someone didn't want to share with someone else. Even comparing the exposed settings to a pristine version of the software being used would only offer minimal protection.

 

A good example of this was that on my last "all-out" play car, almost 50% of the ECU settings were custom XML that I had to add in by hand, and also required my using a customized version of the car's core ECU program. If you pulled up my ECU code in a normal copy of the tuning software, the car's tuning tables appeared to stop at about 7,000 rpm, and all of the parameters seemed to be inline with a conservative, low-boost tune that could reliably be used in almost any set of conditions; it loaded up normally and looked like a mild street tune to anyone who pulled up my ECU code on their version of this tuning software.

 

The reality was that this was my "get me home", low-boost, fail-safe tune designed to let the car run safely even at WOT on 87 octane gasoline when traveling in the middle of nowhere. My all-out, E85 tune delivered almost twice the performance of the "get me home" tune just described, but all of the settings for that tune where hidden away behind custom settings that couldn't be interpreted without either my custom XML config file, or quite a few hours working with a hex editor and de-compiler. These settings included greatly increased boost, improved timing, significantly more fuel flow, an 8500 RPM engine redline and the expanded custom maps needed to make everything play nice, along with the map switching trigger and the ability force the car to always run the low power tune when started unless specific conditions over-rode that default.

 

Sorry about helping to drag this thread off-topic, but I just think all the interesting things we can do with a modern car's ECU and a laptop as hobbyists is amazing.

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Patience, grasshopper. Patience.

 

PCA club racing began monitoring this year, it is a modified AIM device that bolts on to your roll bar and plugs into you OBDII port or gets RPM off of a plug wire if non OBDII. I'm all for it!

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