Live Sockets Battle Series - GST Impreza vs. C-West S2000

[GarySheehan]

The event coverage of the Live Sockets Battle Series at Auto Club Speedway just became available. This was the grudge match between the GST Motorsports Subaru Impreza L and the famous carbon fiber C-West Honda S2000.

Most of these "battle" events typically are lead-follow for a single lap. The gap between the cars is measured as the cars cross the starting line and the gap is measured again at the end of the lap. If the gap at the end of the lap is smaller than the gap at the start, the car behind won. If the gap got bigger, the car in front won. This is done twice, with the order inverted for the second lap, and the combined times determine the winner. No passing is allowed.

The GST Motorsports car and the C-West car are so different in the way they get around the track that neither myself nor Tyler McQuarrie felt that the no passing rule would work for us. The C-West car is really fast in the corners and the GST Motorsports car is really fast on the straights. So, because both Tyler and I have lots of roadracing experience and both cars were built for wheel to wheel racing, we worked with the organizers of the event to make this a heads-up, anything goes, wheel to wheel battle.

This video shows exactly how things went....

http://www.livesockets.com/view_video2.php?id=191

Gary Sheehan
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com

[MikeK]

"Gary with a 3 second lead" (less than a second)
"Gary beat him by a mile almost" (about 50 yards)
"Gary has about a 4 and a half second lead" (a second at most)



worst ... commentator ... ever!

Great vid, but that commentator has mental issues.

[Dean]

Come on, the poor guy is trying to describe a race between two completely different cars... Of course he is going to sound schizophrenic...

Cool video Gary. Thanks

[zpeed]

I would love to see the S start in the front from the infield and see what happen. How much the Im catch up. Can you tell I'm driving the S2000.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by zpeed

I would love to see the S start in the front from the infield and see what happen. How much the Im catch up. Can you tell I'm driving the S2000.

I think the race is the classic battle of power vs. handling... which really boils down to "if the powerful car is in front, the nimble car will lose". Hell, even if the powerful car is in back, it's always easier to just blast by on the straights than it is to make a hard pass in the corners.

My guess is that on any other track, that S2000 is the faster car (maybe even on this course as long as the S2000 isn't forced to follow the L in the corners). But in a race situation, the L is easily the better car for winning with. It's the same thing all the old Porsches used to do to the fields of other better handling cars... slow-in, fast-out made them impossible to pass unless you could get by their blocking under braking.

[GarySheehan]

Originally Posted by sperry

I think the race is the classic battle of power vs. handling... which really boils down to "if the powerful car is in front, the nimble car will lose". Hell, even if the powerful car is in back, it's always easier to just blast by on the straights than it is to make a hard pass in the corners.

My guess is that on any other track, that S2000 is the faster car (maybe even on this course as long as the S2000 isn't forced to follow the L in the corners). But in a race situation, the L is easily the better car for winning with. It's the same thing all the old Porsches used to do to the fields of other better handling cars... slow-in, fast-out made them impossible to pass unless you could get by their blocking under braking.

Well, to the car's credit, that was THE first hotlap I'd ever driven on the Hankook 91 tire. It has so much more grip than the BFG R1 that I left a lot of time on the track.

Second, the GST Impreza never blocked the S2000. There was one place where Tyler got really close, but it turns out that he had a braking issue at that corner and just about damned near hit me accidentally. Other than that, there was no interference between the cars.

Finally, in the time attack, on the 3rd hotlap I've ever turned on the Hankooks, our laptime was over 3 seconds faster than the S2000.

Considering the car wasn't set up for those tires and I had no practice time on those tires, there is quite a bit left in the car.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com

[Dean]

For a tighter course, is there any rear wing and front splitter left to provide more down force at lower speeds?

[GarySheehan]

Originally Posted by Dean

For a tighter course, is there any rear wing and front splitter left to provide more down force at lower speeds?

A new splitter and undertray is being developed currently. There's lots of rear wing left as it was trimmed out quite a bit for the oval.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com

[cody]

Awesome!

[sperry]

Originally Posted by GarySheehan

Well, to the car's credit, that was THE first hotlap I'd ever driven on the Hankook 91 tire. It has so much more grip than the BFG R1 that I left a lot of time on the track.

Second, the GST Impreza never blocked the S2000. There was one place where Tyler got really close, but it turns out that he had a braking issue at that corner and just about damned near hit me accidentally. Other than that, there was no interference between the cars.

Finally, in the time attack, on the 3rd hotlap I've ever turned on the Hankooks, our laptime was over 3 seconds faster than the S2000.

Considering the car wasn't set up for those tires and I had no practice time on those tires, there is quite a bit left in the car.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com

I wasn't implying the L is slow or that you were blocking. Just that given two cars of equal speed, the brute force car that's faster on the straights tends to win races over the finesse car that's faster in the corners, if only because it's just plain harder to pass in the corners than to run past someone onto a long straightaway.

If I had to make a bet, I'd definitely pick the L in that race... the S2000 is at a disadvantage in a passing race, even if it were the faster car in raw lap times. We see it all the time at HPDEs with good drivers in Miata's being held up by new drivers in Vipers in the twisties, then getting left behind on the front straight. And if you were leaving time on the table in the L, then clearly the S2000 is in trouble.

[GarySheehan]

Originally Posted by sperry

I wasn't implying the L is slow or that you were blocking.

YOU KNOW THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE IMPLYING!!!

I know what you're saying. I just wanted to point out that the situation I was put in really did the car a disservice. The car is much faster than that, but it's impossible to drive a car at the limit without understanding what the limit is. I'd need at least a couple hotlaps to figure that out.

Originally Posted by sperry

Just that given two cars of equal speed, the brute force car that's faster on the straights tends to win races over the finesse car that's faster in the corners, if only because it's just plain harder to pass in the corners than to run past someone onto a long straightaway.

Yes, that's true for the most part. As a matter of fact, I'd even take a slightly slower laptime car with more power because of the advantage (I've been there). The tough part about that is if you make one little mistake, you're done.

Originally Posted by sperry

If I had to make a bet, I'd definitely pick the L in that race... the S2000 is at a disadvantage in a passing race, even if it were the faster car in raw lap times. We see it all the time at HPDEs with good drivers in Miata's being held up by new drivers in Vipers in the twisties, then getting left behind on the front straight. And if you were leaving time on the table in the L, then clearly the S2000 is in trouble.

Exactly. And I think at a different track we'd still be strong, because there is more development coming online. New suspension and additional development on these tires.

Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.garysheehan.com

[A1337STI]

It looked like the S2K was in over its head trying to fight with that L Old imprezes kick ass!

Gary do you know how much your Imp weights?