First AutoX on Sunday

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by TorontoNat

Cannot wait until next year already. Gonna buy some bridgestones and a back sway bar over the winter to prepare but man.... Never been so satisfied with a day in my life. Eye opener to say the least.

Don't get the swaybar just yet, depending on the ruleset, I think some Canada guys run by SCCA rules, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong and there's a better path to building a good car that's competitive, get some OE camber bolts up front and get it aligned for maximum front camber (the most negative number you can get with equal value left to right, usually -1.2 or more), zero out the toe on all four corners.

Most people go for a stiffer front swaybar to autocross to make it quicker on turn in and through the slaloms while also reducing how much of a camber problem they have.

Many people (including myself) make too many changes but really aren't good enough drivers yet to really drive the car at the limit and understand what it needs, you may make it feel better, but you're not fixing the slowest part of the car: the driver. And then you buy one wrong modification and you get bumped to a higher class with more modifications and you're even less competitive than before. It's a classic tale.

But if you don't give a shit about having your name at the top of a spreadsheet and getting a plastic trophy and a pat on the back then do whatever the hell looks fun. It's an amazing challenge and ever since getting hooked I have little desire to go to a track day more than about once every few years.

[TorontoNat]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Don't get the swaybar just yet, depending on the ruleset, I think some Canada guys run by SCCA rules, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong and there's a better path to building a good car that's competitive, get some OE camber bolts up front and get it aligned for maximum front camber (the most negative number you can get with equal value left to right, usually -1.2 or more), zero out the toe on all four corners.

Most people go for a stiffer front swaybar to autocross to make it quicker on turn in and through the slaloms while also reducing how much of a camber problem they have.

Many people (including myself) make too many changes but really aren't good enough drivers yet to really drive the car at the limit and understand what it needs, you may make it feel better, but you're not fixing the slowest part of the car: the driver. And then you buy one wrong modification and you get bumped to a higher class with more modifications and you're even less competitive than before. It's a classic tale.

But if you don't give a shit about having your name at the top of a spreadsheet and getting a plastic trophy and a pat on the back then do whatever the hell looks fun. It's an amazing challenge and ever since getting hooked I have little desire to go to a track day more than about once every few years.

Yeah the swaybar would definitely be an eventual upgrade come to tihnk of it.... I like it when the tail steps out a little anyway. I was running pretty used up tires and had literally zero grip so for sure getting new ones over the winter. But mastering stock is the goal for now.

[Sapphireho]

Op, yep, addicting. I did it for 20+ years.

I agree with others, build to a class you want to run. I made so many mods to my first auto cross car that I went to street prepared and was no longer relevant. My favorite was showroom stock. Did some B production racing a couple seasons, that was really fun. Seems like 100 years ago.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by TorontoNat

BEST.TIME.EVER

Cannot wait until next year already. Gonna buy some bridgestones and a back sway bar over the winter to prepare but man.... Never been so satisfied with a day in my life. Eye opener to say the least.

Thanks for all the great advice. Didn't get to meet as many of you as I would have liked (@frost) but the excitement is now real and I am sure there will be many opportunities in the future. I was advised that SPADA will be doing autoX courses beginign of next year before the season starts and I will be doing this 100%.

Managed to set 2 times out of 4 runs. It is exactly as @Overdrive and others said it would be... You think you got it after the 5 walks but you get out there and face nothing but a sea of cones. Managed to set a time on the first go and improve by 7s on it the second time I made it without going offtrack so I am happy about that however the other two runs I got wayyy too excited.

Here is a pic. Cheers all

Glad you had fun!

Piece of advice: I highly suggest NOT modding your car until you've got enough seat time to truly determine what you need. Based on what you did, I think you still have plenty of driver mod improvements to make. I know that seems like a cop out answer but you don't want to shift the platform you are learning on, until you truly know where you are heading in terms of driver development.

I highly suggest attending the SPDA two day course in the spring next year. It is EXTREMELY worth it (check out my review here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...27&postcount=2) and I'll likely be there as a volunteer.

Also, regarding the rules, PITL is NOT a regional or national event so do NOT use the rules we run at PITL to build an autocross car. The regionals and nationals use SCCA rules so that we can hop over to the US and compete there as well. For full rulesets on autocross, check this out: http://www.casc.on.ca/autoslalom_rules

If you don't plan on doing any track days, then as you become a better driver, you can aim your build strictly based on those rules. Otherwise, be careful as the perfect autocross build is NOT a good track build normally.

Cheers.

Kev

[TorontoNat]

Originally Posted by Frost

Glad you had fun!

Piece of advice:....

Kev

Much appreciated, I was definitely sliding around a whole lot and could use some pro advice. Will not do anything to the car except tires (Mine were/are basically bald atm) for now.

All that being said.. What is there to do in the winter? Would it be possible to do a autosnowcross type thing? I wouldn't mind standing around a snowy, cold, wet parking lot for a day in exchange for a couple runs throughout the day.

The only things I found (After not much research tbh) Seem to be actual Rallycross events that are really competitive and frankly, dangerous for a novice like myself.

Go karting is fun... but not really the same after getting a taste of this.

[dattran86]

Originally Posted by TorontoNat

Much appreciated, I was definitely sliding around a whole lot and could use some pro advice. Will not do anything to the car except tires (Mine were/are basically bald atm) for now.

All that being said.. What is there to do in the winter? Would it be possible to do a autosnowcross type thing? I wouldn't mind standing around a snowy, cold, wet parking lot for a day in exchange for a couple runs throughout the day.

The only things I found (After not much research tbh) Seem to be actual Rallycross events that are really competitive and frankly, dangerous for a novice like myself.

Go karting is fun... but not really the same after getting a taste of this.

I spend my winter reading a lot of books on racing and play a ton of Sim racing, with a proper 3 pedal wheel

[Frost]

Originally Posted by TorontoNat

Much appreciated, I was definitely sliding around a whole lot and could use some pro advice. Will not do anything to the car except tires (Mine were/are basically bald atm) for now.

All that being said.. What is there to do in the winter? Would it be possible to do a autosnowcross type thing? I wouldn't mind standing around a snowy, cold, wet parking lot for a day in exchange for a couple runs throughout the day.

The only things I found (After not much research tbh) Seem to be actual Rallycross events that are really competitive and frankly, dangerous for a novice like myself.

Go karting is fun... but not really the same after getting a taste of this.

There is an ice racing league but I highly doubt you want to use your autocross car... it tends to be... bumpy... as in bump-n-grind.

[Overdrive]

I'll beat the drum one more time with the others and say don't mod the car. When you reach a point where the car doesn't give you enough to match the skill you have, then you can mod it to suit.

Tires don't count all that much though, so go right ahead and get something grippier than what the car comes with. The car will still let you know when you make mistakes.

If there's any sort of winter event in your area, you'll get to put your winter tires to fun use. You won't believe how easily you can hang this car out and control it in the snow (with good snow tires).

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Overdrive

I'll beat the drum one more time with the others and say don't mod the car. When you reach a point where the car doesn't give you enough to match the skill you have, then you can mod it to suit.

Tires don't count all that much though, so go right ahead and get something grippier than what the car comes with. The car will still let you know when you make mistakes.

If there's any sort of winter event in your area, you'll get to put your winter tires to fun use. You won't believe how easily you can hang this car out and control it in the snow (with good snow tires).

I agree with almost everything except do NOT get RE71Rs if you're still truly trying to learn. I find that they instill over confidence in rookie drivers because of their INSANE ability to grip right off the bat but then fall off as you run more and more hot laps.

I actually discourage most of my students (especially for track days) not to get RE71Rs because their grip tends to mask bad behaviours and habits that usually show in the first few laps. Tires like the RS3s and RS4s which is what I use, take time to warm up and you can't drive like moron right off the bat and still have a great session.

All of my students who bit the bullet and 'downgraded' to RS4s all complained about lack of grip initially but then as they picked up their skill, they started to plateau less compared to RE71Rs and have since cleaned up their line and are faster than their old RE71R times. Now when they go back to RE71Rs, they understand the profile of that tire and know what they didn't appreciate from before.

Just my two cents.

[Overdrive]

I certainly don't disagree with you, but I didn't mean to imply one should get the grippiest tire they can find, just something better than the stock junk. As it goes with anything, you can always reach a point where you've gone overboard.

It always bugs me when I try to get friends to just come to an autocross and throw their car around as-is, and they tell me they want to change this-or-that first (virtually always a handling enhancing mod) before they do it. If it were a thing of "I need to fix x-y-z so I don't drop the transmission in the middle of the parking lot", that's a different story, but I get blue in the face trying to tell people who want to improve the handling before they know what the car will do as-is that they won't really get to appreciate the mods until they get out there and run without them.

I'm ready to get out there again tomorrow morning and beat these Primacy HPs up some more, and can't wait until I can put some better tires on and see the difference from that alone on my slow-but-fun car.