New GridLife Touring Cup series
 

A Christmas present... new rules to benchrace over, sweet!!


I think it works well with STL and ST5 cross-overs. There's some other classes that I'm missing for sure. I like this rule-set more than the RM "club". Though I know this had a lot more thought put into it.

The pointy end of this class in a NA/NB would be something like Ryan's chassis, but ballasted up to 2265lbs with 166rwhp flat from a TSE kit :party: A more realistic combo could be Dan's ST5 car at 2250lbs, 205 or 225 R7s and a peak cap of 170rwhp. I think there's lots of combos that could do well, including some FWD ringers. I would suspect the class to be filled up of cross-overs for the first while, though.


I could easily see myself dipping into this next year for funniez since I plan bump up to ST5 next year.

Flat, 3" splitter
We're allowed 5" sideskirts, top of the fender wheelwell venting and behind the tire fenders cuts.
Plastic windshields allowed, but must be 1/4". That's cray cray. Carryover SCCA rule? 3/16 is allowed almost everywhere else.
Reads like we can delete bumpers/support, rad supports, etc, but can't partial tube frame. It'd be pretty easy to get my car under 2100lbs range with no bumper beams, TimeAttack style.

A Supermiata S2 with a big boy motor capable of a 160+ whp high power map would be fun to drop in, but it would be tough to get an n/a BP miata down to 12.5:1.
2100/165 on 205 R7s with an airdam and wing. Or pay the penalty to add a splitter.

I wish the Street tire chart started at 245, and went 265/285/305. We know that a 205 R7 is still significantly faster than a 245 Rival S, especially in a 25-35 minute race. Giving light weight cars a 205 R7 or a 4% Comp Balance credit with 225 Street tires is still not enough.

This series is doing pretty well, 30+ car field at the latest event at Gingerman. Field is spread out somewhat since prep for all cars isn't 100%, but it seems like there's several packs of racing going on/always somebody to race with despite how fast/slow you might be.

My current plan is to do GLTC at Road Atlanta Aug 23-25 this summer. Registration opens this weekend I believe. I'll be woefully underprepped, 135rwhp @ 2300lbs, splitter/airdam/wang, R7s. This will be an exercise of getting my feet wet with GLTC. I'm honestly considering GLTC to be my 1-2 W2W races a season and spend the rest of the time doing TT(4/5).


Pondering future setups.... ~170rwhp N/A @ 2250lbs or ~180rwhp turbo @ 2400lbs. Budget wise, N/A should be less expensive than FI in the long run. Though, FI has more a ceiling to run TT4 more effectively.

8800 lbs minimum weight and drop from a 315 to a 225 tire. Gee whiz, I'm gonna need a LOT of tungsten.

No purpose build FI cars have shown up and the folks in charge are already a little leary about what the parity will be like when they do. I suspect FI cars will be getting more weight and/or restrictors.

Relevant, sorta.... to FI dreamz

https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...7/#post1282529


I'm sure there's several ways "to skin the cat" here for super "low" power on a 6258 hot-side setup. Restrictor, timing changes, others I'm not thinking of....... but which route would be the most reliable?

EFR 6258 is overkill for this.

And, as far as I’m aware, TIRs work pretty darn well at putting a hard limit on power output.

You'd have to have a pretty dang small TIR though...like 30mm, maybe even smaller? Not sure how an EFR would play with a TIR but the rally guys have been running them on Subaru turbos since pretty much the beginning of time. A TIR combined with boost control and tuning might be the easiest way to have a safe power limit of 180ish hp. You can only pull so much timing before it starts to cause other issues like sky-rocketing your EGTs.


I’d also argue that a 180whp turbo setup is probably cheaper than 170-175 N/A, even in the long run. There’s a big difference in cost going from a 155-160hp N/A Bp to a 170-175 hp. Those other 15+ whp really start to get expensive.

As the owner of a 160-170whp BP, I agree on the FI being the more cost effective path at this time. *looks at build cost and weeps because going NA after turbo was supposed to be cheaper*

Oh hey, I did GLTC at Road Atlanta. Way under-prepped, but it was still a blast! I was at 135rwhp peak, ~2320lbs, 9LR prototype aero package of air-dam/splitter/ducting/wang, R7s, 800/500 Xidas. For actual prep on the class I would either need 40hp more or 530lbs less to be at the adjusted ratio for my car.



First w2w weekend and this is my fourth race. I was being really timid on passes and extra safe in place to avoid any 4-offs and such. My goal was to complete the race weekend clean.

Yes that's a mini-van, yes he waxed me, yes he has 280whp 3400lbs, no I couldn't shit around him at all. :rofl: Fun race on running down the FCP Euro Benz too.


If you're thinking about doing a GLTC, just go do it! You won't regret it.

6spd with a 4.30? Lots of shifting.

Free points way to wake up a dumpster motor that doesn't make power, mostly. ;)

Welp...

My 173whp N/A BP4W is going GLTC racin' this weekend.
2297lbs
3" splitter and Singular/APR GT250
225/45/15 R7 on 9.5" wheel

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9fb196f74f.jpg

Button: Many of the grips

saturday was a fun day...

sunday was a struggle...

GLTC does such an incredible job with coverage of their events. The livestream with multiple camera angles and good announcers is pretty insane for such an accessible club racing series. The Gears and Gasoline (and others) videos of time attack cars and racers are great too. GLTC looks like a blast. Having a year round racings schedule and so many different groups on the west coast makes it easy to get track time, but probably fragments things too much for anything comparable to take off out here.

Said it before, Grid Life is a media company that uses their events at race tracks to generate content. They are "events" in the sense that GL does a better job than any other amateur track event promoter and making them "must attend" events. The coverage, extraneous activities, social media buzz, graphics, branding. If enough buzz and hype is generated around a dumpster fire, you'll click and think about going. GL events are just the opposite. Well organized, fun, safe with the ability to make great memories for all that attend. The great brand exposure for all the sponsors being the engine that drives it all.

Considering we spend about 98% of our time thinking about cars, talking about them, wrenching on them, and only 2% driving them on track it seems like GL has a pretty solid plan.

They also have a good presence in iRacing and Forza, which is where the main announcer (Kyle) gets all his practice running SYMTV. I raced with these guys all winter in iRacing and am going to Alpine Horizon despite the ~20hr tow from Sac in part because of interacting with them in sim (and also getting to see Texas track homies). Pretty sure DJ got looped in via the iRacing league too and he won a race last weekend at MidO. I'm pretty much planning to drop my car off with TC asap and move in the direction of GLTC / ST4 so that once I move back East I'm ready to party. Great group of folks that have a good thing going.

I'm really hoping they run as a support series at COTA again next year for Super Lap Battle. Doing my best to finish the K swap and be dialed in by then so I can drive that event. This year I think there were about 20 entries. Increasing that to 30 or 40 entries would be an insane sight to see at an F1 track especially with the coverage they can provide there with the bird's eye view from the tower.