I found this interesting comment in www.corvetteforum.com in the kill section. Does anyone know anything about this?
Quote:
I find some of the prior talk of "soft" M5 handling quite amusing, given the fact that this particular "family sedan" is classified up in Super Stock by the SCCA.
For those who do not know, that is the fastest stock category in sanctioned road-racing, which means the M5 is considered directly comparable to the C5, ZO6, ZR-1, NSX, Lotus Esprit Turbo, Mazda RX-7, MKIV Supra and other worthies in total performance: that means acceleration, cornering, braking. It is the first sedan to make it into this select group.
Originally posted by PhilSeastrand: I found this interesting comment in www.corvetteforum.com in the kill section. Does anyone know anything about this?
I don't know yet but I will on May 20. I'm driving in an SCCA Solo-II event. I'll let you know what category they put me in. SS seems pretty high though. I was guessing in would go in the AS class.
The Beast is indeed classed as SS by SCCA. I drove in an event today and the beast did okay even though this was my first autocross in it. We had four runs and each one of mine was better than the last. I guess the tires heating up and getting more familiar with the course helped. It was a pretty short course with only one decent straight where I could get some speed up.
I placed behind a Z06 and another C5 corvette by about 1.5 seconds. The Z06's time was about 27.1xxx and my best was 28.4xxx. Considering the weight of the car and the fact that this was my first autocross in about 5 years, I felt pretty good about it.
The front end plowing was awful. On some corners it was all I could do to get the car to turn. I had my tires up to about 44 psi but I was still scrubbing rubber off the front tires around some of the corners. The car handled beautifully through a short slalom and of course, the straight stretches were no problem.
All in all not a bad way to spend a Sunday. I'll be driving in June and hope to fair better. My goal will be to beat that Z06 next time out. Not bad for a four door family salon!
What have other owners done to elliminate the front tire plowing?
Dinan stage 3 plus wider wheels and more rubber on the front. 275's will work on Dinan 9 inch wheels (and some of the 2 and 3 piece wheels with 20mm offset) and the Dinan steering limiter. There's a thread going on whether 275's will work on the OEM rear 9 1/2 wheels. If they don't, I think that 265/35's will work (see my April 14 post for details)
IMO, going faster in a corner often reduce the dreaded understeer. I've had situation where I thought I missed the brake point and were thinking that I would probably go off the track but managed to take the corners without understeer.
Lesson learned, at least for me, was that I could go considerbale faster in the corners than i thoght possible.
I think that is pretty awesome the car was classiified SS. This is done by an unbiased group of car and racing experts and says more about the Beast's abilities than any 0-60 or 1/4 mile stat. While the Beast is quick in a drag race, this reflects it's true design purpose which is the cornering, braking and accelerating between corners, not stoplights. I have the M5 on the track a couple of times and it was fast and fun.
Many thanks for all the replies. I won't have time to do the Dinan mods before the next race but I'll try Johann's suggestion of more speed in the corners. I was trying to use the gas to scoot the rear end around on the corners where I was experiencing the understeer but it only seemed to make it push more. Maybe I can try getting on the gas to break the rear end loose BEFORE the understeer starts.
As I said I only had 4 runs to try this with. I'll have to get in each heat next time to make sure I get enough seat time to perfect the corners.
Thanks again for the advice. Has anyone else done any autocrossing? I'd be curious to know what other cars were in your class and how the beast faired. Especially if you have before/after experience with the Dinan mods.
Erm, as I understand it, the only difference b/w Stage 2 and 3 is the camber plates, and the dinan spec plates are NOT adjustable. if you are using your car for these purposes, it's DEFINETLY worth it, from my limited knowledge, to go with stage 2 and then either buy or have ajustable camber plates fabricated for you.
M5 classified as Super Stock by SCCA
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