I am registering to do the Silver State Classic this Sept, 15th thru 18th. In addition to the individual competition they offer a "Team" challenge as well for teams of 7 to 10 cars. Who else wants to go?

We can run stock coupes in Touring. Verts would have to have a "competition" rollbar. 110 target speed, 120 max speed. Winner is the car that comes closest to a perfect avg speed over the 93 mile course.

You have to mount a 2.5 lb fire bottle in the cabin. Has anyone looked at secure ways to mount one? Under the front of the seat would be ideal. I have not looked yet, but I'm hoping to find we can add a mount under the bolts securing the front of the seat. You also have to have a current helmet.

I drove the course yesterday. It is mostly dead straight with some very gentle curves. There is one shortish section of a few miles where it tightens up, and I suspect I will slow down there, but that is followed by another long stretch where you can make up time.

Has anyone done any controlled testing to validate the MPH indicated, odometer mileage indicated, and how closely the cruise control matches your set speed over distance on flat ground?

Varies from car to car I'm sure. I'll post my test results here. You can't rely on these things alone and expect to do well, but they may be a good way to stay close to your target until you fine tune in the last few miles.

Does anyone know how close the Pilot Sports are to the OEM P Zeros in circumference?

What else should I be thinking about? I'm already planning to get fluid changes, inspection, and probably switch to the aluminum coolant pipes. The Pilots are brand new.

I'm starting a new thread about this since the one I started while still thinking about doing this filled up with a lot of very entertaining but not event relevant info about making passengers scream, etc.

Thanks.

 

F-Type Rs will probably be okay, but some cars actually run out of gas doing that event. I could see it becoming an issue at higher speeds.

 

The fire extinguisher kit from Jaguar mounts to the front of the seat. The kit fit beautifully but the bottle it came with isn't 2.5lbs. It came with a 1kg, but I put in a slightly smaller one because I kept hitting it with my foot getting in. I should probably go back and just be more careful :/

 

I'd use a GPS app, one that calculates average speed. Tire diameter will vary with temperature so any other method is unlikely to be as accurate. The only concern is how filtered the average speed is... To do it really right may mean using a dedicated rally computer, but now you're looking at spending $$$$ to possibly win a $2 trophy.

 

I live in Reno and would love to participate, but I’m not putting a roll cage in for it.

 

I will be there visiting relatives and dealin horses. Cannot participate but should be in the peanut gallery (w/Jag), locked n loadrd.
Let's posse up.

 

Sounds good. Give me a shout when the time approaches.

 

Within each "speed" class there are two sub-classes, one for those with advanced timing equipment (like rally computers), and one for "basic" timing.

"By opting in for Basic Timing, you are declaring that you will be using Basic Timing methods during the event. Basic Timing methods includes:
a. Stopwatch, wrist watch, hour glass, kitchen timer, etc.
b. OEM automotive GPS
c. Calculator (standalone, not part of SmartPhone) Consumer grade, off the shelf, GPS"

Even in basic timing though it looks like you have to cover the 90 miles within a quarter second or so of the perfect time to have a chance to win, so I'm going just for the fun.

 

Wait, can't you just use Google Earth to carefully measure the exact distance, then calculate the time that equates to your selected speed? Then, it becomes much simpler during the race since you're going going against time. Get right near the end a bit early and then slow down to make it exact. Granted, it does take away from the fun of it somewhat.

 

It SEEMS like it should be that simple, but the folks who win are doing things like walking the last ten miles of the course towing a surveyor's wheel to get measurement down to the inch on the specific line they plan to drive. Then they cross the line within a quarter second of perfect. You can hope to avoid embarrassment with a "seat of the pants" method like kb58 suggests, and that's all I hope to do, but I doubt you will be near the podium.

 

We are in Ely NV tonight. Tomorrow we run the car thru the tech inspection, then do a car show / competitor inspection thing, and there is a "Navigator Training" session we will both go to. I've spent and embarrassing number of days creating spreadsheets to define our "run plan" and a set of pre-calculated adjustments to use to correct whatever errors we make.

Our plan is to use cruise control the entire run, much more precise speed control than I can make manually. Then some soild stopwatch work and the correction tables will help us make precise corrections for specific durations, like "2 mph faster for the next 35 seconds.

It looks like my speedo is about 3 mph high at 118, and about 2 high at 90, which are the two speeds we plan to drive in the open and more twisty sections respectively. But even adjustment for that will surely leave us off pace by an undetermined number of tenths, so the corrections are the key.

How the usual suspects on the podium consistently get within a quarter second of perfect is still a mystery. Race is on Sunday, will post our results.

 

My brother is at the Virginia City Hillclimb this weekend. Funny that they run it at the same time as the Silver State Classic, though I suppose the two events are different enough that a participant in one is unlikely to want to run the other. If you want to see what the hillclimb is about, here I am running it in my mid-engine "Seven" in 2019.

 

I ran the Silver State Classic Challenge this weekend, and it was a lot of fun. Cool cars, interesting people, and the chance to do 90 miles at highly illegal speeds with the blessing of the NV Highway Patrol. The F-Type ran perfectly. No issues, stable as hell, even with a 20 mph head/cross wind. Easy as pie. Windows up, AC on, a cruise in the park. The course is so straight and flat that I never lifted, and I think I could have easily run 130 or more without any drama if the rules allowed.

We ran the first 70 miles at about 120 MPH, and the last 20 at about 90 MPH, with the intent to cross the finish with an exact 110 MPH average speed. The 110 avg speed class is the fastest you can run without a rollbar and 5 point or better harness.

We ran under the “basic timing” rules, which mean no rally equipment, no GPS except what your car may have OEM, no smartphones even. We timed with a stopwatch and ran a countdown timer as a backup. Hand held calculators are also allowed. To be in the hunt you need to cross the line within a second of perfect time, probably within .25 seconds to have a shot at the win.

The plan was to run down to “the narrows” at above our target speed and then run the twisty 3 miles and the remaining 17 straight miles at a slower speed. And I planned to use the cruise control for the entire 90 miles knowing it could maintain speed more precisely than I could with my foot. The plan worked great, the driver not so much.

First surprise, I could not set the cruise control for 120. One assumes that is faster than a gentleman to drive, I suppose. So we ran the first 70 without it, and actually did well in hitting our target times at our timing points. And, it isn’t really critical to be perfectly on time when you still have 20 miles to correct in.

Second surprise, our comm plan did not work, two old farts, and my navigator and I could not hear each other well. We used a mic mounted to my navigator’s helmet visor to broadcast Bluetooth to my hearing aids, but even that did not deliver clear sound. And he struggled to hear me unless I screamed. Next time we’ll use a real comm system like an instructor/student set.

Big mistake, I did not switch back to using the cruise control when I could have at 90 MPH. Which also would have been fine until I got distracted in the last couple of miles by a car passing us at speed and two cars with blown tires and damage on the shoulder. I got so far off pace that we yoyo’ed between too early and too late the last couple of miles. My navigator was brilliant, with ideas that improved the plan and great execution in the car. Driver error killed us. I think we actually DQ’s because I let speed drop below the minimum on 80 MPH while coming to the finish line to early. C’est la vie.

It was a lot of fun though, and the planning we did was an interesting exercise. Car prep is minimal, with tires being the critical element since blown tires are the cause of almost all “incidents”. Fairly new rubber required, with a speed rating and load rating no lower than the OEM Pirellis. The Michelin Pilot Sports were perfect.

I think I’ll do it again this spring. It’s a two way course in the spring, with a driver change allowed, so two get to drive.

 

That looks like an amazing event. Well done on the strategy--at least you know where you need to improve for next time!