2015 AutoX Thread

My name is Jose btw.This is my car, so feel free to come say hi if you see me. I'll novicing it up!

 

Honestly the sea of cones is the hardest part, but once you do it once or twice it becomes 2nd nature.

The course walk throughs are the best way to figure it out, then riding someone to see it at speed. The hardest things to get your head around are gated offsets. I get lost of those sometimes still because sometimes they put the gates just out of perphial vision, so you go through one and whoosh no more course. lol

DI2009, I'll keep an eye out for you. Get there early, STU is running the morning so you can get some ride alongs in before you run in the afternoon.

 

Welcome Jose! I'll come by and introduce myself. If time permits, I'm going to try and be a novice instructor. I'll be working the afternoon heat's Tech Inspection and running one of the heats in SM.

Which leads neatly into this...
Things to do before you bring your car to Tech.

1. Take everything that's not bolted in, out. If you have an aftermarket subwoofer, a pillow will NOT secure it in the car. Remove it before you get there. iPods & whatnot need to be in a mount, not just laying in the hole in your dash. It will come flying out at you.

2. Check your battery now. If it slides around, tighten it down. I'm going to grab it and give it a yank, so you should, too, before I do. Takes all of 2 min.

3. Remove your floor mats. I know, some are tethered down, take them out for safety's sake. You can vacuum it out when you get home. She'll be fine.

4. Numbers need to be on the car or we can't pass you. If you are using painter's tape, don't use blue tape on a blue car. Numbers need to be 8" tall and letters are 4" tall in a contrasting color so it's legible at 50mph. If you're running Novice, let the Tech guy know so he doesn't bust your balls, too much.

Side Note:
The night before or the morning of, inflate your tires to about 40psi. Bring an air gauge and you can bleed out the tires right before start. If it's dry, I'd start at about 37front/38rear. Wet will be about 36front/36rear. Go from there. Check your tire pressures about 4 min before your next run and bleed it back down to those PSIs or adjust it to your liking. These are the numbers I ran for 6 years on various tires. It's a good baseline for you guys. Backend too loose, even out the PSIs. Front end not gripping, lower the front PSI. You'll find a loose rear end is your friend ssh:

 

Randall, ill be running STU this year. I have a stock boost map also

 

and that would Superdude... lol I think he is running in SM. :keke:

 

Thanks!! I'm going to run the numbers using tape for now and once I get a number I'll get the magnetic cling or something. I'm definitely hoping to ride-along a few times to hopefully learn the course. Even when I ran for 2 years in CS with the RX-7 I always killed a few cones :naughty:.

 

That E30 that he will be driving is set up fairly well, its always entertaining to watch and they do put down some solid times in it.

 

We went to corner balance it last night, but at 50.8% on the front, we just left it as is. It's total weight with driver is 2600 I also has a E36 M3 motor in it. It was stepping the rear out in 3rd, so the first few weeks I'll be learning throttle control on exits.

 

HAHA, yeah no more 50-75% thru flat out AWD to pull you around:naughty:

 

The car sounds like it will be a blast!

I run STU in the morning, so Loraine and I can give a couple ride alongs. Normally I'd offer myself as a novice taxi to help show the course more, but SuperDude's wife is my co-driver and we'll want to use the first couple ride alongs with eachother so I can make sure to beat Miles from the start

Happy to help coach, mentor give advice to anyone. Got a few years of mistakes under my belt, so I'm happy to help any of my AWD brothers (or really anyone willing to listen) not make the same.

Just got my alignment at GTE this morning (-3.2 up front and -1.2 out back to help her slide). Can't wait to try out these Ohlins tomorrow! They have 23 clicks of adjustment with super smooth on one end and break your back over a stick on the other.

 

Do any of you bring a pop up tent? I have a little 10x10 but not sure if they are allowed or even worth bringing. I was just thinking about the rain and stuff sitting out getting wet.

 

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the help today and for the ride-along (Miles). It was a blast and I can't believe I waited 14 years to come back.

I am happy with my times today as it was my first time pushing AWD around and 14 years since my last event in an RX-7. MY instructor was awesome!!! Gave me some great feedback and pro tips. You know who you are lol.

1st run: NO time given
2nd run: 56.90
3rd run was my fastest: 55.61
4th run: 55.63
5th run: 56.42

Morning was wet and cold but definitely got better in the afternoon. Look forward to seeing and meeting you guys on the next one. Thanks again for the help.

 

I should have let my instructor (Zack I think it was, sorry I'm horrible with names) drive it but he said he hated CVT LOLOL. The CVT was actually nice since I didn't have to worry about shifting lol. I should have tried in S# but the Rev hang issue scares me, although might have been good for this event since I kept losing RPMs like crazy.

S# = "8 gears" with better ratios and holds RPMS
S = 6 gears and RPMs drop
I = fuel saver

I'll have to get a ride on your beast next time. I was working while you drove and it looks sweet, I actually took a few pics while working which is probably not a good idea 0_o.

 

That was a crazy course for you first timers. I DNF my first run (only run in the "real" race car) All the off-camber turns really emphasized how important patients are. Getting into the gas early in the first sweeper only killed your line for the next pointer cone. Having the e30 lose it's radiator hose in the sweeper didn't help either. Sorry about that, I swear, it was my co-driver. BUT it was a perfect excuse to implement Plan B, the M3 So not racing it didn't last too long. Glad I finished 2nd in her, though.

Crazyazn, you car's ready and set-up to compete for sure. So that's one less thing to think about. I was stoked to hear you bounce that rev-limiter. Before long, you'll be saying, Because Racecar!!!

It was a crazy busy event, I got to ride with IHaveFat (I think that's right) I hope to sit in with more of you guys in the upcoming events. We had a nice club presents out there on Sunday. I'd like to see more WRXs out there, so far it's mainly been STi/STI's. Show those clowns you don't need 300+HP to go fast -

 

Randall, thanks for riding with me. It's been really helpful and I just can't stress enough how I should have asked you to ride with me from the beginning Lol!
Were you the one driving the m3? that was crazy!!!!!

 

This is the video of 2014 Nationals Event in Lincoln, NE. My fiery brakes made the cut. HP+'s and stock lines baby!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX-hAJV3iNM&feature=youtu.be

 

Yeah, didn't intend to auto-x it, but when duty calls...
For the record, yes, that was fun as shit.

 

I had fun trying to instruct you!! lol Well driven for 10 years of cob webs being knocked off. I would've driven if you wanted me to though. :naughty: I just thought because you were doing so well the seat time would have helped you more. 55.6 was a great time for a novice, had you been in class that would have put you in the half of the folks.

It was nice meeting everything yesterday!

http://atlantascca.com/Files/results/Solo/2015/p01-raw.htm

Prelim results for RAW times.

 

I hear those M3's are supposed to run in STU... :squint:

 

you guys are making me really want to get out to another Atlanta event. i'm dying to try out the sti now haha

 

It's fits in SM with camber plates and Hoosers. STU with coils and SBs. I'll take 2nd in a Stock car running in a well Modified class :naughty: Or, if you want, I can run in STU with you next time

 

We haven't seen a 2015 STI out yet. Turner is just after Dixie'a National this month.

 

sweet. I took it out to points 7??? I think last year when it was stock. you guys had a for sale sign on your wrx

 

I'm sad i missed this. My car needs a clutch and probably some attention to the clunk in the front left coilover. I might try to run an event or two this year just for fun when i get it mostly figured out

 

Nice! You and Miles are faaaast! So basically a Silver Civic was #1 14 years ago and still #1 today haha.

Here's a vid from my best run, hope you don't mind me posting it http://youtu.be/p2ypdoktF6Y

Sorry was too lazy to edit it. B

 

Videos are always welcome. I got tired of editing mine, so I stopped making them.

I need to get a go pro with the wifi\bluetooth remote feature so I can stop and start it easy to minimize editing.

The thing with that Civic is Tim was driving it... He's a National Champ...

 

Yeah, he's the guy that put down a 52.--- in Crazyazn's car in SM. I couldn't help him out, so I figured Tim might be able to give a good pointer or two

 

Dude. You listened to your instructor well. Nicely done. I think you're DS, and you'll be giving them some good competition this year. I hope you keep at it.

Coming back from the far end of the course, you did a good job turning the sea of cones into a slalom. If you can simplify the cones into as straight of a line as possible, you'll cut back on the total distance you travel on the course. A slower pace will result in a faster time.

 

I am not sure what the tire rules for DS are though, he is running 245s for tires. That might toss him into STX.

So the only thing I could find in the rules is that the Wheel width can be 1" wider than the stock ones. I believe the stock WRX wheels are 7.5" wide so you can do up to 8.5" wide. However it does not state the limitations on Tire Width like it does in the touring class.

 

tires are free for Street class. you can technically run wider tires in stock than you can STX/STU

 

Awesome so yes he would be in DS.

1T ds 3 Christopher Haile 2012 Volkswagen Golf R/ - 55.414
2T ds 24 Richard Gonzalez 2010 Mazda MAZDASPEED3/RED - 61.527

The reason why we were debating your class would be time comparing to see how you did.

Your time would have been good enough for 2nd in DS. These are the only other 2 guys in your class. You only missed 1st by .2 seconds.:naughty:

 

Sorry I am late to the after party here. If I remember right he did not have factory wheels. This might pull him out of street class and into street touring or even a modified class. While street class is unlimited tire, it is not unlimited wheel.


side note, I now really wished that I had pulled my gopro out and gotten some video. if noting else just to remember all the little things that I did. I have found that video is a good tool. Especial if you can view it in-between your runs. It all happens so fast, that remembering it all is hard to impossible. example, I wish I could remember all that happened in my 52.7 run.

I might start looking into a some sort of data logger app, that includes OBS2, GPS, and video data.

 

Plus or minus 1 inch for street class.

That makes me feel better that you don't remember how you did it. That was a wicked good time.

 

I'm hoping I can stay in DS, I still have the factory 17s so worst case I put better tires on those wheels and run them. You can spec a WRX with STI wheels so technically it is a factory option to have 18s, I'm just not sure if they factor that in for DS in the SCCA rule book.

I definitely plan to attend a few but will miss some due to travel schedule from work :/. Problem is I want to put RCE yellows on, Cobb Access port and all the other supporting mods lol. I guess I can wait a few months haha.

 

Don't go with the 18s unless it is also a wider wheel, but like Duke said the street class gets +/- 1" from factory spec on diameter any ways. I currently have 17x9 on my car if that tells you anything.

 

Springs will put you into STX.

The access port + downpipe (with cat) + CAI + etc. you will still be in the Street Touring Xtreme (STX) as long as you are running a factory boost pressure tune. If you raise the pressue it'll put you in Street Prepared.

That's a good question of wither the rules go from the largest factory option or the standard factory option.

 

That's also debated... depending on your overall wheel \ tire diameter because the smaller overall diameter will limit your 2nd gear top out by a couple MPH... but usually you save some weight.

 

It's hard NOT to change your car, too much. In ST classes you can at least do suspension mods. Street class is for the folks that want to run what they have AND have it be competitive. STX you can run up to a 245 tire, so it limits your wheel options some. I'd go RPF1 17"x8" and run 245/40 Dunlop Z2's. Add 2 sways, a 3" exhaust and catted DP and HP-Plus pads all around. Run STX and show the BRZ guys how it's done Get your bearings straight in the seat, then add coils. That's a 2-3 year program right there.

 

I guess I should have also mentioned that I run a 245/45-R17. not the common 245/40-R17. This gives me only a -0.14% difference in diameter. Excel is a fun program to play with in your free time

 

That is right you are running that larger sidewall.

http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp

Here is a good tool for that as well that does not involve excel fu.

 

My 40's didn't really fit, ask my 2 replacement fender liners...
You planning on RallyCross that soon, Millhouse? :keke:

 

ooooohhhhhh, I have thought about it for sometime.
The only really keeping me from it is the distance. 2.5 hours from my place to durmtown (spelling?) :wtc:

 

If you want a co-driver, you can sleep in the passenger seat and I'll drive you there and back in your car

 

twist my arm enough and pay the gas, you may have a deal!