GTiR's in motorsport

[donnydave]

Just wondered how much success GTiR's are having generally in motorsport - any level?

Now we all like to hear stories of how awesome the Pulsar is, beating off all sorts of other stuff.... however if anyone was wondering, one event you can probably check off your list that Pulsars aren't very good at - Autosolo. I thought the Puslar could be handy at this, course made out of cones on an airfield, slow tight corners and lots of short busts of acceleration from low speeds. Max speed probably only 40-45mph.
4wd, lots of power, nice long 1st gear should be good, right?!

Wrong! On standard suspension with standard wheels and tall tyres it was a bit dissappointing! I had to take my R888 off as they are MSA list 1b and not allowed so I was on Uniroyal Rain Experts. The Pulsar's weight really showed, sharp changes of direction in particular (which is 90% of the course). Oh and the slight tendency to understeer didn't help either. Sadly I was easily beaten by a Saxo, a 106 and a Clio.

Final excuses - Most of the other cars had been bought for 500 quid off eBay and the owners didn't appear to care if the cars wouldn't make it home, and it was my first event...... and also it turns out I'm not very good!

Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare though

I've decided that even though this event was a bit of a failure for the Pulsar, I really like the format so I'm on the lookout for a 1.3 K11 Nissan Micra which should be a lot more competitive, and I won't feel bad about killing it

Just because everyone loves a photo, this is the beastie in question.

 

[The Doc]

Try putting a front lsd in the car, disconnecting the front arb and putting a whiteline rear arb on .

 

[murty]

i have had a great amount of success in drag racing in 2014 my first year sportsman et champion Jdm-Drc runner up, car points champion (the first non american car to win that award) 2015 a late start from me saw me being JDM-DRC 3rd and Sportsman 6th. 2016 sportsman champion JDM-DRC 4th.

i wont bore you with all the details here but full 2016 report can be found here http://www.gtiroc.com/index.php?thr...rd-year-what-makes-a-champ.90066/#post-534543 with links to 2014 and 2015 reports.

quick stats
standard turbo, standard gearbox, full weight and fat driver 1.2 bar boost and occasionally 60 shot of nos

pb with out nos 12.5
pb with 11.8
0-60 3.6

 

[PobodY]

Try putting a front lsd in the car, disconnecting the front arb and putting a whiteline rear arb on .

For a cheap and cheerful fix removing the front ARB is a good way to dial-out understeer, but may not get past an MOT tester (if that's an issue).
In fact any way to soften the front suspension and stiffen the rear will give more front-end grip (and ultimately less rear-end grip). - Obviously there's a bit more too suspension tuning than that, but if all you're trying to do is make your car behave slightly better, it doesn't need to be complex.

Ultimately it's a 25-year old car and it shouldn't be too surprising when it's out-performed by more modern machinery.

 

[The Doc]

Saxo also weigh about 800kg and a gtir stock is about 1200kg ans the gtir has smaller wheels and narrower tyres with a taller side wall than a saxo.

 

[Richard_Sideways]

I've been doing auto-solos in the 'R for a few years now and got a couple of class wins under my belt. My prep work is basically increase the pressure in the fronts and more in the rears to help the back break loose. Donnydave, what event were you doing?

 

[donnydave]

Hi Richard I did Debden near Saffron Walden last weekend.

Maybe its not the car, perhaps I'm just not very good! Even taking into account penalties for cones and going the wrong way, I was a long way off the class leaders, like 6-8 seconds on a 40 second course. When you compete do you give the car absolute death? The other competitors obviously didn't mind the prospect of walking home, but I just couldn't bring myself to abuse my car as much as the others were doing to theirs

 

[johnny gtir]

Jim done very well in auto x only beaten two year in a row by a buggy out of everyone but won his class hands down both years.

Saxo and 106 very nimble little cars on super tight cones anything more the R will wipe the floor with them. Phil did his hill climbs and was very competitive

 

[The Doc]

Phil won championships for years and dencon in hillclimb

 

[PobodY]

Wasn't Phil competitive in a really standard class; he had to keep the full interior IIRC?

 

[Richard_Sideways]

Hi Richard I did Debden near Saffron Walden last weekend.
Maybe its not the car, perhaps I'm just not very good! Even taking into account penalties for cones and going the wrong way, I was a long way off the class leaders, like 6-8 seconds on a 40 second course. When you compete do you give the car absolute death? The other competitors obviously didn't mind the prospect of walking home, but I just couldn't bring myself to abuse my car as much as the others were doing to theirs

I normally run in the Farnborough District MC solos. Have heard people talking about Debden before - is it particularly tight? I was out the other weekend doing their Autumn Antics Solo [pics here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/inmotionimages/sets/72157675238774056] which is a loose surface one - had a real attack of cone blindness that day so racked up loads of Wrong Tests. Really does depend on how the classes get carved up. If you're in a stock hatch class against old-school minis etc, you'll be at a disadvantage because of the lag, and the weight, but if the classes work out ok, you can be competitive, particularly is the layout is a bit more open than it can be sometimes. I never rag the car too hard - gotta drive home! Tyres get a bit chewed, but I'm mainly out there to have a bit of fun and give me a reason to still own the car. And for £35 for a days motorsport, you can't really go too far wrong. Keep toying with the idea of sprinting, but then you're getting 4 60-second runs in a day for twice the cost, plus having to buy all the safety gear, to run against people who've probably spent 10's of k on trying to win a plastic pot.

 

[donnydave]

Yeah Debden is tight, three of the four courses were entirely 1st gear. they widened the course in the afternoon. One course was slightly more open where you can get well into second gear (probably 50mph) I did make up heaps of time on the leaders on that section and was only 3 seconds down on the fastest time as I guess the pulsar was destroying them on the short straight.

I know what you mean about not giving it 100% though, that's a constant worry in something reasonably valuable. the guys in throw away French hatchbacks are always going to have an advantage in that respect aren't they.
Took me a few runs to engage my brain and be able to quickly process cones arriving in my vision!

 

[donnydave]

I am on the verge (seeing it tomorrow morning) of getting a lovely green K11 Micra, my latest plan is to go to the first autosolo in our area next season in both the Pulsar and the Micra, I'll drive the micra and try my hardest to kill it, and the wife will gracefully waft round in the Pulsar , then we'll compare times. For reference we shared the Pulsar at Debden and we were within 1 second of each other and in fact she was faster by 0.3s on one of the courses so we are fairly well matched, its classic aggressive vs smooth (guess which ones we each are!)

 

[Richard_Sideways]

Weapon-of-choice in most of the events I've done is the MX5. It's rare for a non-MX5 not to win the event overall. When you look at the overall times from the ones I've done, I'm normally somewhere mid-table, but these days, often 2nd and occasionally 1st in class which has things like 2L Golfs and Clios and BMWs in it. K11 would be a nice choice, see them out quite regularly and perform well with the 1300 engine.

 

[donnydave]

At Debden last weekend the over all winner was a Clio, second place was 106 quicksilver, not even an xsi or gti. I don't think there were any mx-5's in the top 5! There was one K11 Micra which was in the junior driver class where you have to drive with your dad on board and they were very competitive, they were top quarter of the final table I think.

It depresses me that the mx-5 is the obvious answer, but then your up against everyone else who has no imagination and also went for an mx-5

Our class was spoiled slightly by an E30 bmw with honda s2000 engine in it, basically a stage car on a shakedown. Awesome car but not really in the spirit of the event.

 

[Richard_Sideways]

I know what you mean about the MX5s - would be nice to see a bit more of a mix, although its quite interesting to see how different they are depending on the model and engine size. Theres normally ones with NA engines, turbos and supercharged ones, suspension setups and various diffs... plus its always funny when it rains and slicks the course up a bit.

 

[donnydave]

I was praying for rain but it never came. There was one bit very close to the edge of the runway so I kept purposely dropping off onto the dirt/gravel and dragging it back on to the course and managed to make about 10 metres of rally stage so the Pulsar was brilliant at one tiny section of the event

 

[Jon Olds]

Tried the front antiroll bar disconnect 'tarmac' rallying my mostly group A GTIR on snow/ice. Still wouldn't turn in
Jon

 

[The Doc]

Jon you seem to have that issue with yours yet phil and den didnt on the hills.

 

[Jon Olds]

I think snow and ice is a 'special case' as mine is quite driveable/chuckable/slideable on hot /cold tarmac up to about 10mm standing water.
But snow/ice its hopeless, at any speed.
It needs proper diffs , I am sure. All three.
Another problem. At the moment the std rear lets the rear inner spin when it three wheels, losing drive.
Anyway, I am probably off topic
Jon