AutoX this weekend in SoCal, Fontana
 

Hey guys!

Just curious to see who's running this weekend at the upcoming AutoX! Seemed like this group will be smaller than previous ones. I'm super stoked for this event. Anyone do anything new to their cars? I'll probably be getting those new RS3's once they come out, if they are as good as I hope...

i will be there.

you will have the RS3 v2 on for this weekend?
i definitely wanna know what you think of them

I tried for this weekend, couldn't make it happen. Probably the next event or two I'll have it. Right now, 245/40 Z2's on RPF1's, Catback, that's it. Everything else stock. I have my crank pulley, but debating whether or not I should attempt to install it tomorrow, and risk not having a car for the weekend.

EDIT: OH! And a tune from Moto-East. That'll be new for this event, I'm excited to see how it turns up.

Looking forward to this weekend, except for the high temps & maybe flying ash/smoke...

I put in a front sway bar since my last time, so hopefully I'll be less spooked about accelerating out of corners.
Maybe I can even remove the spare tire this time if the rear stays planted.:bellyroll:

Always fun to see all the twins crowding the grid.

which bar did you go with??

Jealous! I ordered a Whiteline Adjustable 22mm, along with a Nameless Front/Overpipe, both on backorder. Otherwise it'd be on the car in time for this weekend...

Which bar did you end up going with?

Went with Suspension Techniques 19 mm bar, since I'm old school and brought back memories lol.
Low price but I was delighted by the quality, even the packaging it came in. Guess KW ownership has upped their quality since the early 90s.:laughabove:

Only disappointment was it's not green, maybe more stealth as grey anyway.

I figure the BRZ is less tail happy than FRS to start so hope 19 mm is plenty. Set it on stiffer of the 2 settings and it does feel good on the street, almost like I have stiffer front springs.

What bar do you guys run with the big 245 tires?

Are you getting the Whiteline Front & Rear or just the front? Those bars come with adjustable endlinks included?
Seems like you will have some power gains for next time, with the new pipes.:burnrubber:

My next mod will be a replacement K&N air filter. Not sure if that will add any power, but probably time for a new filter anyway since I am closing in on 21k miles. Hope it adds some noise at least.

I'll be there Saturday and Sunday running in novice CS (s2). 2nd autox..first at Autoclub Speedway. Been waiting a month for this, super excited.

Hey guys, I'll be right there with you JB86'd in nov cs. It's been about 9 years since I have been to Fontana where I did two practice events. Had to sell my car back then and move out of SoCal shortly after I started. So you could say this weekend is 9 years in the making, lol. Look forward to meeting you guys. I'll be in a blue brz (auto correct almost made me type out "I'll be in a blue bra" doh)

I was there today. First timer. Anybody have any highlights?

I had a K&N on my AT BRZ, it was nice. Can't really feel that much of a difference in power, maybe a slightly better throttle response, but that's it. But you can hear the engine suck in more air, and it sounds pretty sweet! That was the one thing I forgot to take out of the old AT when I traded it in for the MT. This time around, I'm just going to wait and get an intake all together.

I just ordered the front. After this weekend especially, as of right now I do not need a rear bar. The car was very very tail happy over the weekend, I nearly spun out once or twice. The front bar should calm things down quite a bit, and yes, the front pipe will help quite a bit.

Oh nice! Which of the twins were you? I was 386 STX NOV BRZ. Nothing super crazy or anything, I ended up with a 53.6 on my last run. Unfortunately, I didn't have to be there in the morning, so I missed out on all the guys running S2. It was way too hot, no grip, and a few friends of mine ended up cording their tires on the beautiful surface that is the Auto Club Speedway.

I was there in a white FRS. There was one more as well. Were you with SCCA or Speed Ventures? I was in the latter and I don't think I had a "class" like "STX NOV" or something. I can check though. I was able to clock a 35.0 on my best run. My outer tread had some chunking. Did the heat really make that much of a difference or did we run different courses? Good thing I went Sunday cause it wasn't too hot for most of the day.

Good to see you guys coming out to run STX. Here's my STX winning run.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQX7pba938A&feature=em-upload_owner"]CSCC 5/4/2014 - Max - YouTube[/ame]

Nice run there! @blkwrxwag
Had a ton of fun this weekend. Did 24 runs in total, got 4 free fun runs on Sunday and my last run was my fastest of the day at 56.4xx. Stock frs on stock tires :)

Anybody know if/where results are posted? I looked on SCCA and Calclub websites and can't seem to find any results.

Man I can't wait until my first autocross! Hopefully I'll see you all there at the next event! :)

here is the link for the results for the race this past weekend
http://forums.solo2.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7931

nice meeting a couple of you guys this weekend.

i completely drove like crap though. my lowest finishing position all season :thumbdown::thumbdown:

Requires log-in....Any chance you're finding the Yoko's performance starting to decline as the heat cycles/miles pile on?

well we are just about to cross over 100 runs.

i don't want to blame the surface grip, but i am going to blame surface grip for the poor performance this weekend.
actually more of my adaption to the low grip surface.

fontana and el toro are our two main locations we race that are pretty much exact opposites characteristic wise.
(sorry in advance if you knew this already, but this info is for the readers)

fontana has poor grip and has elevation changes.

el toro has high grip and is flat.

i wouldn't say just yet that the yokohama's are heat cycled out as we have not driven these tires yet at this location.

unfortunately we will not be back in fontana for another 4 months so i wouldn't be able to give another analysis of the tire on that surface.

next month we will be at crows, which is another completely different surface where we hope that the tires are not heat cycled out.

@itzmik3 being that this is my second autocross and my previous one was at El Toro, I can say without a doubt that it was the surface at Fontana. I was having a really hard time keeping control, whereas at El Toro I felt much more confident. I think I had maybe 3 really clean runs out of 12 where I didn't lose it at some point.

Was great to meet some of you and look forward to meeting the rest of you at some future time.

I had tons of fun, and yes, the 9 year wait was well worth it.

@JB86'd - way to run out there on those stock tires, can't wait til you get some stickier tires.

Let's do it again!

-Vu

p.s. I can't seem to thank people's posts - maybe I need a minimum amount of posts or something before that option comes up?

Wow, nice ! I was having a hard time figuring out the optimal lines (let alone how to drive like a boss) but your video was enlightening to say the least. Thanks, Max.

You still trophied despite not driving up to your standards, congrats !

By the way, was that you announcing during the 2nd set of runs ? Funny as hell.

@blkwrxwag and @itzmik3 still did really well out there. Max, you almost had 1st in PAX! I guess I barely won Novice; I can't wait until I have my car fully prepped so I can make full use of those modifiers. As of right now, STX is really hurting my times, as my car isn't fully prepped yet.

It was awesome to see everyone out there, though! I'm excited for El Toro, hopefully I'll have my front bar and pipe installed and ready to go. I'm hoping to calm down my tail happy car. And the tires! I forgot how bad Fontana's surface was, and how it loves to gobble up tires.

Figuring out the right line is the hardest thing on courses like that. There are so many choices, and who know which one is right! In the end, it usually comes down to experience and a little bit of luck on whether you pick the right one.

Obviously, the one I picked worked pretty well, but maybe there was a better one out there? Always fun to watch other people's videos and see how they did it.

hahaha glad you liked it. it used to be more outlandish, but ive toned it down for championship days
practices is the more of the same jibber jabber :cheers:

It's funny, I tried sticking to that same line you did as much as possible, but my car just doesn't stick like yours does yet! Didn't help that whenever I'd pull up to the start, I'd see you right behind me. Totally put on the extra pressure :lol:

Your car just sticks so well. Is the OS Giken the reason you're sticking so well? With the exception of that last sweeper before the finish, it sounded like you could stay on the gas the entire freakin' time!

I was admiring your gold rims :D

As usual, there is no one answer, however, my car is very balanced and was on tires that like the Fontana surface (Toyo). The OS Giken diff is not too aggressive in my application, so it lets me put power down without kicking out the rear too much.

In the first sweeper, notice how calm my hands are. That helps keep the car stable.

Finally, instead of hitting the brakes, I was trying to just half lifts of the throttle to change the attitude of the car mid corner.

I drove the FR Sport BRZ in X runs and was about 1.2 seconds slower than my car. That car was down on grip (Federal vs Toyo) and was too loose on power application. It was, however, brilliant at drifting :D

Haha, did you also admire how I ate that second cone on my first 3 runs? :lol:

Ah, I see. My car is still stock, minus the wheels/tires and tune. I'm not sure how well Z2's handle Fontana's surface, but I just couldn't keep on the throttle without having the rear slide out too much. Leonard has been coaching me, trying to help me win Novice this year (hopefully), and said that I have "restless foot syndrome". Especially during the slalom, my foot would be on/off the throttle too abruptly and would upset the balance of the car. That, and I think I may fight the car more than I should at the wheel.

After seeing your run, though, I'm glad I was at least picturing the line that you executed. My build will be similar to yours once I'm done in September sometime. Whiteline Bushings, MCS, JDL UEL's.

Excellent choices - Z2's are pretty good, especially on a stock suspension car as they have a pretty stiff sidewall. The stock suspension is too soft and too 4x4 to be able to be driven like my car though. It just doesn't react as quickly.

Feel free to come introduce yourself the next time you see me. Leonard is a great coach, but I can help you with BRZ specific stuff.

That would be awesome! Thanks Max.

I'm guessing you'll be at the next ProSolo, though, right? Seeing as how our next local event is the same weekend, I hear they might even just do practice on both days.

Yeah - I be at Crow's Landing.

Every time I pop my head into this thread, gives me the feeling of wanting to do more autocross runs :)

I think I also felt the same way you did, Churg - I never had true confidence powering through corners as I felt the car on the verge of drifting. I am not experienced enough of a driver, but it almost felt as the body of the car was ?rolling? - perhaps a sway bar may help.

I'm running ZII 235/40/17 on 17x7 +48 Kosei K4R. That's my only mod so far. Maybe I will experiment with different tire pressures next time. However, too bad El Toro has a completely different surface, because that just throws in another very important variable into the equation.

I think next on my list of to-do's will be to play with tire pressures, and entertain the thought of a front sway bar, and an alignment +/- crash bolts - these seem to be the standard to-do's from what I've gathered reading this forum. Ultimately, I just need more seat time.

Thanks again for the good discussion.

p.s., Josh - If I don't have confidence now even with good tires, I don't know how you do it on stock tires, man - must have bigger balls than me, for sure.

-Vu

I believe the sensation you felt, the rolling as you described, is more of the tires reaching their limit and losing grip. The car is naturally a bit loose in the rear when you apply power, and AAA has a very slick surface that doesn't allow you nearly as much room to put more power down like El Toro does.

A front bar will decrease oversteer and increase understeer. I'm trying to get the car to a more neutral level. If you go to El Toro on the 7th/8th, feel free to introduce yourself and ride along with me in my car, I'll have the bar installed for the next event.

I'd love to do crash bolts because it's the "quick and dirty" way to add some negative camber to the front of the car - I nearly bought them, in fact, but my wheel setup doesn't allow for that on stock suspension. I'm running 245/40 Z2's on 17x9 +45 RPF1's. I'm barely able to squeeze that combo on the stock setup as it is; any minor adjustments would cause the wheels and/or tires to rub. I'd find out if you can get away with using crash bolts on your setup, and get an alignment with those in time for the next event.

If, after all that, you still have too much oversteer, try getting a front bar. Playing with tire pressure is great and does help, but I personally feel like actual hardware changes will cause a lot more dramatic effects to the handling of the car in comparison to adjusting tire pressure. I played with my tire pressures at AAA and ended up with 34F/32R, but I felt as if that was fine tuning things, more than making big changes.

I've only done gobs of research on this stuff for the past year or so; I only have three AutoX events under my belt, so I'm hardly a professional, and barely won the last event in Novice. So if anyone else in the forums, especially guys like Max and Mike above, say anything that contradicts what I say, I'd definitely take their word over mine.