Question about comp school

#1

Hello all,

I am finally ready to do the comp school, and plan on doing so in Nov at CMP.

I am unclear about the specific requirements for my car though.

My car is not yet legal for spec E30, but is prepped to meet the general requirements of the CCR.

Does the car have to meet the guidelines for one of the sanctioned series to be eligible to be used for comp school (as is required for enduro) or is meeting the general CCR guidelines sufficient?

I appreciate any advice, guidance, comments, criticism that any of you who have completed this process can offer me.

Thanks,

Mike Taylor

#2

Your car does not have to be SpecE30 compliant, it just needs to meet the generic NASA safety specs for a race prepped car. Cage, kill switch, window & right side nets, seat, harness, etc.

I’d be happy to help with other questions, especially if you are easily obsessed by minutia that no one else cares about. Day phone 912 921 7538, Scott(at)Gress(dot)org

Me and rackeu (Al K) might be the closest guys to you. We’re in Savannah. Welcome to the madness.

#3

I’m one of the three or four Mid Atlantic Region Comp School instructors and while every Region has their own way of doing certain things, it’s always a good experience.

My quick advice is simple. Go fast enough to show the instructor(s) that you can drive at-speed but keep it under control. In about 25 MA Comp Schools, we’ve only had two classes where all the students passed. Almost all the failures were due to either driving too slowly, or driving above that racer’s skill level.

Bottom line - the instructors will be asked if they will want to race with you. If so, you’ll pass. If not, you’ll fail.

Good luck and let us know how you do.

Carter Hunt
Spec E30 National Series Director

#4

MikeT wrote:

[quote]Hello all,

I am finally ready to do the comp school, and plan on doing so in Nov at CMP.

I am unclear about the specific requirements for my car though.

My car is not yet legal for spec E30, but is prepped to meet the general requirements of the CCR.

Does the car have to meet the guidelines for one of the sanctioned series to be eligible to be used for comp school (as is required for enduro) or is meeting the general CCR guidelines sufficient?

I appreciate any advice, guidance, comments, criticism that any of you who have completed this process can offer me.

Thanks,

Mike Taylor[/quote]

Having just gone through comp school earlier this year, you should be good with any car with a current Nasa log book and tech. Your car doesn’t need to be SE30 compliant to get a log book (it could slot into GTS2, for example), but you are correct - it DOES need to meet CCR.

Make sure you have your medical papers and all personal safety equipment too (helmet, hans, suit, shoes). Also, don’t stuff the car into a wall :wink:

good luck and drive clean!

#5

Make sure you have someone to help work on your car. If something needs to be done you won’t time to do it yourself. If it wasn’t for the Drivegear team of Jonny Allen and Paul Poore it would have been a very short and disappointing comp school for me last weekend.

Bob

#6

rsott59 wrote:

[quote]Make sure you have someone to help work on your car. If something needs to be done you won’t time to do it yourself. If it wasn’t for the Drivegear team of Jonny Allen and Paul Poore it would have been a very short and disappointing comp school for me last weekend.

Bob[/quote]

Don’t let the absence of crew deter you from comp school. Almost none of us have crew. Running the risk of making everyone puke…What we have is each other. And that’s enough to surmount about anything. Go to Comp School in the SE, bring a friendly smile, beer, and park in the SpecE30 area and things will probably work out. You may have to work your ass off if you have serious mechanical issues, but it’s all good.

#7

Scott, thanks for showing the “pay it forward” attitude.
We’ll get Mike on track to be on track. Just re-read what Carter said several days ago and do the right things to pass the comp school.

RP

#8

I’ll second what Scott and Robert said. Bring the car to the school in good condition, in compliance with the GCR, and paddock with the Spec E30 crowd. If you have problems we’ll help. A good attitude, thick skin, and beer & goodies will go a long way with this crowd.

#9

Ranger wrote:

[quote]rsott59 wrote:

[quote]Make sure you have someone to help work on your car. If something needs to be done you won’t time to do it yourself. If it wasn’t for the Drivegear team of Jonny Allen and Paul Poore it would have been a very short and disappointing comp school for me last weekend.

Bob[/quote]

Don’t let the absence of crew deter you from comp school. Almost none of us have crew. Running the risk of making everyone puke…What we have is each other. And that’s enough to surmount about anything. Go to Comp School in the SE, bring a friendly smile, beer, and park in the SpecE30 area and things will probably work out. You may have to work your ass off if you have serious mechanical issues, but it’s all good.[/quote]

I may have left the wrong impression. I didn’t have a crew either. Like the SpecE30 crowd in the SE – the SpecE30 crowd in the Mid-Atlantic is always willing to step in and lend a hand. That is what happened in my case. The point I was trying to make was that you need to make sure someone is there to help you.

#10

rsott59 wrote:

[quote]
The point I was trying to make was that you need to make sure someone is there to help you.[/quote]

And my point was that this is unnecessary. Most everyone is happy to help. Without newbies, you see, it’d be me that comes in last.

#11

Thanks for all the comments. Good to know that the spec E30 community sticks together so well.

Carter’s comments raise one concern for me. While I think I am ready to do comp school from a driving point of view, my car is slooooow. Skeen drove it and didn’t get it under two minutes at CMP. (that was actually a relief b/c up to that point I thought it was my driving that was making me so slow, but if he can’t make my car do it then I don’t feels so bad) of course I now have to figure out where the power went.

Anyway Carter mentions that in addition to failing people for driving too fast, or beyond their abilities, which makes perfect sense, he also mentioned that people fail for driving too slow.

What exactly does too slow mean? If it means driving like your on the highway then I understand, but if it means absolute lap times that are slower than the pack then I have concerns for my performance. Can anybody shed some light on this?

btw, if anyone is interested here is a video a friend posted on youtube of me driving in the last LeMons race at CMP…I realize LeMons is a “unique” form of racing, but it is the only video I have of myself in a wheel to wheel situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBiFWLcqJg

Once again,

I appreciate comments,

Thanks,

Mike Taylor

#12

MikeT wrote:

Oh for god’s sakes pull yourself together. Just get to Comp School and drive as hard as you would for a DE. Don’t hit anyone and don’t go off track.

Start another thread titled “why is my car slow”, and give us the background on the issue. I’ll bring a compression tester to CMP.

#13

Ranger,

That’s the best advice anyone has given me yet…I just hate waiting…anticipation kills me…the longer I have to wait the more things I find to worry about…I do much better with all things when I just do it.

Mike Taylor

#14

There is a compression and leakdown test DIY on my website if you don’t want to wait.

#15

i just signed up for comp school at this event so you’ll have at least one slow-poke se30 “competitor” to keep you company. except that my slowness is driver-related, not car-related.

#16

Great to hear that there will be another e30 newbie there. It will be good to have someone else to battle with for last.

And don’t misunderstand my comment about being slow. I’m not suggesting that I’m a fast guy in a slow car, I’m just saying that the slowness of my car is preventing me from fully showcasing the slowness of my driving.

Scott, thanks for the link, I did a compression test on my car back in the spring, pressures were in the mid 120’s w/ less than 10% variance between cylinders, have not done a leakdown test…will do that…part of my problem right now is that the welder still has my car replacing my 4 point rollbar with a full cage and so I can’t do anything else to prepare the car right now.

#17

MikeT wrote:

[quote]

Scott, thanks for the link, I did a compression test on my car back in the spring, pressures were in the mid 120’s w/ less than 10% variance between cylinders, have not done a leakdown test…will do that…[/quote]

Since your compression test was fine I wouldn’t bother with a leakdown. Car’s weight is ok? Check that plugs look ok and are correctly gapped. Check valve adjustment, fuel pressure, TPS and throttle cable adjustment. Confirm air filter looks good and horn is in airbox.

Unless you find an obvious smoking gun, go to a local Dynojet dyno and take a couple ECU’s and AFM’s.

#18

Car was only partially stripped, so weight was undoubtedly part of the issue, now fully stripped

plugs/gaps are good,

have not adjusted valves in a while, that will be done before CMP

not sure how to measure the fuel pressure

as far as I can tell throttle cable is properly adjusted for full range motion,

air filter is good, have K&N cone filter (one of the things that is not currently se30 legal)

Planning dyno soon, but haven’t been able to get there yet.

When Skeen drove my car he told me he thought it was behaving like the O2 sensors were bad, have yet to change them. hopefully have that done before CMP also,

Thanks for the suggestions.

#19

back to the main topic though, do I have to have a passenger seat for comp school?

#20

No, you’ll be in the car solo the entire time.