Solo II Pro Tour in Houston - No Celicas???

[DannyBoy]

Is anyone going to the pro tour in Houston this weekend? Looking at the entry list, there are no celicas (of any year!) registered - and there are 200 and counting cars registered. I'll be there, but my entry isn't up yet (had to pay the late fee... grrr). Kinda surprised that there aren't any GTs on the list considering how competitive the car is...

In any case, this is my first event outside of the local club... very excited! Two days and 6 runs isn't much, but I'm sure it will be a blast anyways...

dan

[DannyBoy]

In case anyone is interested, thought I'd post about the results.

I was pretty happy with how I did, 12/18 in DStock. Every other car except for one (a BMW 330 ci) was a WRX or a Type R, and the winning driver was a national champ. The course was much bigger and faster than the courses we get locally, which was a lot of fun - I almost hit 3rd gear on the 2nd day, caught me by surprise! I was finishing 3-4 seconds back from the top car in class (50 second course), and I was only about 2 seconds back from the WRXs that I run locally with and am usually farther behind.

I'm starting to learn how to really get around the course fast - getting used to/comfortable with the tail end swinging around in a slalom, and learning to get the power to the ground when coming out of a turn and not spinning the inside front tire excessively.

I was also talking to a Type R guy who was saying that some of them had advanced the timing by 2 degrees (factory spec is 16 degress +/- 2 degrees). He said it helped with low end torque and made the cam switchover less noticeable. Does anyone know what the factory specs are for the 2ZZ, and if this is possible? Does it have the same effect on the 2ZZ?

BTW, G Stock was dominated by a V6 Camaro, with a BMW 318 close behind. Next car was a Neon, 4.6 second back (2 day combined time).

Full results at http://www.scca.org/amateur/solo2/nat_tour/2002/houston/results.html

dan

[autxr]

Nice driving Dan! Sounds like you did pretty well for your level of experience! The objective for a first National level event is to not finish last. Hell, I have lots of experience and almost failed that goal at the Ft. Myers tour (kind of hard to make up a 12 second deficit after the first day).

Based on the Ft. Myers Sunday results (only Sunday) I would have trophied...

Anyhow, it is my understanding that advancing the timing by any amount in stock class is not allowed (factory spects only). If this is indeed the case, then the Type R's are cheating.

Regardless, it isn't an option on the Celica, not without tapping into the ECU or adding some sort of piggy back computer.

Keep up the good work!

Scott

[preparedcivic]

B18C's have a dinosaur-tech distributor, and if the factory spec is 16 degrees +/- 2, well then 18 is perfectly legal. My Civic spec is +/- 1, and when I was stock I always took advantage of the +1.

For better or for worse, with the Celica's coil-on-plug ignition, there is no distributor to advance. I suspect the ECU map for the spark advance is fairly aggressive with both the GT and GTS. That is probably a principal reason the 1ZZ makes 10hp more in the Celica GT than the same engine in a Corolla.

As for the Houston GS results, it's too bad Rob Carpenter didn't make the trip, as he was preregistered. Would have been a nice comparison between him and Ed Martens.

I'm sitting here itching for my 1st big event at Petersburg for the pro the end of May.

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by preparedcivic
As for the Houston GS results, it's too bad Rob Carpenter didn't make the trip, as he was preregistered. Would have been a nice comparison between him and Ed Martens.

Yeah, I saw that he was preregistered and was hoping to watch him drive. GH Sharp, who I've heard you guys talk about, was also there co-driving an S2000, but he ran right behind me so I never got to see him drive (well, I saw him driving to the start line in the rearview mirror, but that wasn't nearly as exciting). He took 1st place in BS, of course. Got to see John Ames in SS - that's one helluva driver!

dan

[CamaroFS34]

Hey, Dan, it was good meeting you out there. I, too, was surprised at the number of Subarus and the complete lack of Celicas.

Karen

[pitcrew]

Originally posted by CamaroFS34
Hey, Dan, it was good meeting you out there. I, too, was surprised at the number of Subarus and the complete lack of Celicas.

Karen

Well it was in TX, Subies are close as it gets to a big truck, besides it's hard to hang a gun rack in a hatchback. LOL