New owner
 

Hey Everyone my name's Jose and I'm the new owner of a white 2015 frs ;). I have a couple of questions that maybe some of you more experienced guys can help me with. I'm doing my first auto cross on March 3rd. I ordered some new sticky tires and was thinking of buying the hawk brake pads. Anyone ever use these what should I expect ? What did you guys bring or currently bring for the day ? What else would you guys suggest doing to the car

stock car can do a lot... I know everyone will have different suggestions. But the best to do is try it out stock, you'll be surprised how well our cars handle. From there, you can figure out what you need and want in the future... other than that, bring some supporting tools, lawn chairs and etc... and enjoy your first autoX.

Learn the car with stock tire first before you put on sticky ones. It's easy & it will tell you if you mess up.

Pads are good upgrade but hawks are kind noisy.

Okay so no tires got it. The pads I only wanted to swap out is because I've heard people say there brakes go soft

You'll be okay, I've taken my FRS to Buttonwillow with stock pad, they do not fade that easily.

sounds fun Im pretty excited to learn the car

My stock brakes have been perfectly fine for auto x. Like everyone else says, run your stock tires first to learn the cars limits first. I would probably buy a decent set of wheels and put the sticky tires on those instead.

Don't forget to put your car in VSC sport mode, and to bring a tire pressure gauge, and a snell approved helmet so you don't have to borrow a gross used one :P. Also, get there early so you can walk the track. I had trouble my first time learning/reading cones because I got there late and didn't get to walk the track.

Can concur. I've been to AutoX and the track.

AutoX is not very demanding on the car; you don't have to worry about upgrading anything. Just make sure you're up to date on your maintenance (oil, brake pads have good life, brake fluid looks good, etc.) After that, just focus on having fun and driving the car.

When you're ready to move up to tracking, that's when you would want to start investing in some better brake pads and some more responsive rubber. However, that is by no means a requirement; the car can be run for your first few track days totally stock with no problem. If you plan on tracking a lot, an oil cooler might come into the equation.

Cool thanks guys I'm actually gonna buy a spare set of stock wheels so I can put some better tires on them and keep my dailys longer, now I'm trying to buy a helmet but I've never had the chance to try one and am not sure on the sizes do you guys know where I can go try some on?

Motorcycle shop.

One more question lol well tons more but I was thinking of looking into a better driver's seat for a harness ?

No need for a harness. You'll be in 2nd gear, and there are no walls to hit into. No need for pads or tires, either. If you are dead set on doing stuff, just bleed the brakes with ATE for $15. Have fun. Just enjoy yourself.

The stock seat and 3 point harness are plenty good for autocross. It takes a while to learn how to hold yourself in place properly, but you should be using the dead pedal with your left foot to plant yourself back in the seat.
The stock pads are good, but I had better feel with the TRD pads, and no noise. Only a slight improvement, but it was an improvement.
A bigger front sway bar adds a bit of understeer, but pays off big time in lap times because you will be more confident of the rear of the car.
If you decide to get new rubber or wheels, I have a great set for a good price listed on here. Hit me up.

Cool thanks for all the input, I've signed up for March 3rd solo practice class!!!! Super excited

My say ended up going amazing I was able to shave off 12 seconds off my time by the end of the day, I was about 4 seconds slower than this red scc frs.

I've never done auto-x before and live in the socal area.

Do you burn through a whole tank of gas doing it?
Are helmets optional?
How much does it cost?
How does liability work on the track? (i.e. cars colliding)
Do you guys hide/remove your license plates from view?

I used about a quarter tank, helmets are not optional, I paid 90 for the membership and 80 per autox, from what I see they give cars enough room in between runs to prevent that but accidents can happen I supposs, why would we need to hide our plates lol ?

If you are in the LA area looking to autocross, here is where you should look for events and answers to your questions: https://www.solo2.com/newcomers

I wouldn't upgrade anything on the car until you've been autocrossing for at least 6 months. Keep in mind that if you start modifying the car and decide you want to be competitive in autocross you need to look at the rules to determine what class your car will fall into with whatever you decide to change out: https://www.scca.com/downloads/40392...duced/download

The order of classing will follow this roughly: DS (13-16my) or CS (17+my), SSC, STX, CSP, SM, etc

Focus on having fun and learning to drive the car first.

So that Toyota doesn't pull warranty shenanigans. There's a youtube of a guy that said his transmission issue was denied because Toyota/subaru saw his car auto-x on a video. I figure...License plate are optional on private property. Quick removal and throw in the trunk, just to be safe. Unless your car's exterior's is highly customize, no license plate exposed seems like a safe method.

How private are the registrations to scca cal club? Can anyone that belongs look you up to see if your a member and what car your drive?

Just wonder if anyone has ever had their membership to one of these clubs used to deny insurance, warranty, medical, jobs, etc.

I just want to be able to try a little drifting, not do it on a public street, and not have a paper trail following me.

It isn't totally private. Not that I am aware of. The grange motor circuit has drifting days. The SCCA isn't really ideal if you want to drift your car, it's more of a grip event.

Hmm I've never heard of that happening but from what I experienced everyone was really cool and helpful the course is pretty dead into Fontana I think I drove for like 10 mins before I got there. Drifting yeah not really, it's more grip driving trying pull the best times, for drift I heard Adams track as a night just for it, but be careful that track is a gokart track it's a bit snug for me especially if I plan to open it up without fear of hitting anything

I don't know if your post was a troll or not, but for the sake of this guys life NEVER run stock pads and fluid at a track. The risk is not worth the cost of safety.

Don't do Adams... unless they revamped the track. No run off and bad drop off points at certain parts of track can equal a bad night.