AutoX this weekend in SoCal, Fontana

[blkwrxwag]

I was admiring your gold rims

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

[Churg]

Originally Posted by blkwrxwag

I was admiring your gold rims

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

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

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.

[blkwrxwag]

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.

[Churg]

Originally Posted by blkwrxwag

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.

[blkwrxwag]

Yeah - I be at Crow's Landing.

[vgk]

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

[Churg]

Originally Posted by vgk

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.