My First AUTOCROSS is coming up!!! Any helpful tips are welcome!

Hey guys,

 

I have been attending SCCA AutoX events for the past 3 years spectating and riding along with friends in their cars. I am also currently building a 1983 Mazda Rx-7 12a specifically for club racing but it is not yet functional. Now that I have a capable car ('05 LGT), I am going to try my hand at some racing for the first time. THIS SUNDAY (April 18th 2010) is the first points event of the season.

 

My Car Currently (D Stock Class):

Stock Everything

Nexen N5000 (420 treadwear) tires on Stock 17" wheels

 

Mod Goals for next season (STU class):

Dunlop Direzza High Performance Summer Tires (or equivalent)

Rota Gravels in Hyper Black

Stage 1 Mickeyd tune

Front Whiteline swaybar

Kartboy bushing inserts

Koni struts (from a local shop Turn In Concepts)

Tein H-Tech Springs OR Rallitek

Hawk HP+ pads

 

Based on the aformentioned, I am wondering what to expect this Sunday as far as Stock performance goes. I am also wondering what aspects of handling will improve as I progress through my list of mods. Also in general what quirks does the LGT exhibit through your experience? Lift off oversteer? Lots of Understeer? Is the car easy to counteract understeer with more throttle? Etc.. Etc.. Etc... Your opinions are greatly appreciated! AND I will continue updating this thread as I progress through the season and hopefully into my mods next year.

There's a sub-forum for this.

have a few drinks before you go, it takes the edge off

Look ahead, do the novice coure walk + a few with your buddies, take an instructor with you. Can even let the intructor do a run so you can see what your car can do and just see how they drive it to learn (doesnt take away a run from you).

 

Just stay in D-Stock, add the konis, get a dedicated set of rims and DOT race tires and the front strut bar. The tires alone are worth more then any other modification you can do except the driver mod.

 

Over in my area last years D stock winner was a legacygt (blkgt05 on here) and his times are a good bit faster then mine his car vs mine and im in SM. We are somewhat close when i had him run in my car (last one was 34.1xx vs 34.538) but my car also handles much different then his so he wasnt used to it.

 

But go out have fun and report back.

talk on your cell while racing

Get there early and walk the course more than once. Talk to others and walk with others that have Subies to get an idea of brake points and taking the right line. At stock the leggy will scrub the front tires pretty good with its inherent understeer. Recommended tire pressures will vary greatly but one recommendation is 38 front 40 rear (what I ran when I used street tires) You really should mark your tires with chalk to see the contact patch. If its a hot day you will need to lower the pressures as they heat up. One great tip I have is never concentrate on looking at the cones (You tend to steer towards what you look at) instead look at the line you want to take. Also remember all wheel drive benefits exit speed not entry speed. Wprk on proper apexes and trail braking. You should improve with each run . By far the best mod to improve times is seat time . Try a rear sway bar and Dedicated tires (really the best mod of all). I have used Hoosier A6's but currently use Kuhmo V 710's which are very popular with the Subie crowd in my area. Above all else don't worry about winning and just have fun (hard to do with the competitive nature in most of us)

Consider the implications your modifications will have on your classing. I STRONGLY reccomend you stick in the stock class (assuming there is a street tire class).

 

In other words do the following:

Direzza's

Front sway bar and end links

Struts (leave stock springs)

Wheels

Brake pads

Bleed brakes

 

Have FUN!!!

If you can, bring a mini compressor that you can power off the cigarette lighter and a tire pressure gauge. You'll want it when you are adjusting tire pressure between the runs.

 

Empty out the car at home the night before you go, saves you time at the venue. Bring a Rubbermaid box or something to store you little things that you missed and the aforementioned compressor and tire gauge. AutoX guys usually are enthusiasts and they shouldn't take your stuff when you are off at a run.

 

Bring a folding chair of some sort. You'll love it if you have be working on the track between runs and if they let you sit.

 

 

Yes seat time is important, if you can get rides off other people when they do their runs and observe how they are handling the course.

 

If its your first time, I suggest staying on stock everything and just get a feel of how its like before you start investing money in it. There are so many rules and regulations about classes that you would want to know about the rules, how your car performs, what can be improved, etc before you start throwing money in.

find a sway bar pronto

+1 to EvoFire about mods. If i would have started this awhile ago and not just modded my car for fun i would have saved so much money and been more competitive.

have FUN! assuming your running this weekend in Cinci?

we run in cinci every so often; but not in my Spec B, we run in by husbands STi!

 

if you have specific questions feel free to ask

 

I've been auto-x'ing for about 5 years now (went to nationals last year) and my husband has about 7 years under his belt.

In our area some of the lesser classes are much more competetive (STX and DS more than ESP save for the allouts in SM). EVOfire- interesting they even let you bring a chair to sit on , our club is strict on never letting you sit when anywhere near the track.

To the OP, consider dialing in some front neg camber (eg -1.5) and also changing out the front LCA bushings. Both very worthwhile

lock your seatbelt so it acts kinda like a racing harness.

Thanks for all the great info so far! It will be great to feel how the car performs with a completely stock setup before adjusting camber and finding a swaybar. I plan on running in a stock street tire class for some time to gain experience.

 

Anybody nearby up for indoor karting in Lawrenceburg, IN tonight?????

http://www.competitionracing.net/

I'll have a pretty decent group there at 7.

 

Otherwise, you'll hear back from a very excited Cincy05LGT Sunday evening!

So... I'm already excited to see there will be some competition in my class D Stock. An '01 330i and two MS3's. Anyone have experience with racing against Speed 3's stock for stock? A few of my sources are telling me I should expect to get raped especially if they are experienced drivers. I know I'm not supposed to worry about competition the first time out, I'm just wondering for later on if I'll have a chance against them.

Just drive the car and have fun. you will get better every year. Don't wory about who is running in your group. Many times you will get caught up in, this guy has 50 more hp Than me and this and that, hp is about 10% of racing. 80% driver and 10% suspension.

Tug on your seatbelt so it locks and tighten it, twist the buckle a few times to keep the belt from slipping through the bucket and add a little more tension, you'll be surprised how much better it feels and how much more control you get.

Did my first autox 2 weeks ago, and the car is incredibly fun, very easy to handle and relatively competitive. You'll love it! I was very impressed with the way the gt responded, and would agree with the other posts - stay in stock for a while.

 

You'll be grinning so much you won't even think about the mods...

Our cars are good for autocross due to all wheel drive and decent low end torque (way better than my laggy 05 WRX at least). The portly weight of the LGT will not help on the slalom portion. Beemers are very good autocross cars (used to drive a souped up 5 series). MS3 are very decent but at a slight disadvantage with FWD. Like Mustangendley said , its 80% driver. When I restarted Autocrossing a few years ago I went in feeling brash and got creamed. NOw I'm at the top of my class but its a real tight race and took a lot of hard work and trial and error. Ultimately I have to remind myself to just have fun. BTW you can stay in DS and run R compounds if you use stock size tire wheel combo. Don't really understand that rule but our current DS champ (Fernelly) is a member on this site with a spec B and runs V 710's which are awesome tires.

current DS champ (Fernelly)

^ what's his id here? Wanna ask him what rims in the ridiculous spec.b stock size did he get.

Update: nevermind, one extra 'l' in brackets threw me off.

i have nexen n5000s, i hate them.. i got them with the car... are they actually good? I mean they grip but nothing compared to some conti dws' haha.. or RE960AS =]

Nexen- ultra cheap cool looking tires with 0 performance potential. You get what you pay for.

OP - How did it go? I'm assuming you enjoyed yourself , what did you think?

I HAD A BLAST!!! However, I placed 5th out of the 5 cars in D Stock. My times improved from 46.9 to 43.4 across my 6 runs. Slower is definitely quicker through hairpins and the low end torque is great in 2nd gear. Never went back into 1st after the start. The competition was in the 40 to 42.5 sec range, all on R Comps with suspension tweaks. I think I will be very competitive once I do the appropriate STOCK mods. But let me just say once more... THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

EDIT: The Nexens were mediocre at best, although I don't have anything to compare to. Sadly they are probably the best tires I've driven. They heated up significantly on the edges and I had to monitor and release rising tire pressure through the runs which is expected for a street tire.