Autocross Videos - Tips and Discussion

[Breezio]

Side by side video from last Sunday. These two runs were .027 seconds apart.
Was a tough course, struggled to keep up with the high HP cars with the two digs.

[RT-BRZ]

Here's one of my fastest at our most recent event. I ended up being 17th in raw time out of 85 so it was a decent day for sure.

[dragoontwo]

Fastest lap of yesterday. Ended up 4th or 5th of 26.

[Breezio]

My best runs from the Top Gun event in Montana last weekend. This was my 6th year participating and my best finish overall.

Saturday's 4th and final run. No complaints, got me 2nd PAX out of 160+ drivers. Only .1 out of the top spot held by Chris Vreeland

Sunday's 5th and 4th runs (side by side, 5th on the left). Wasn't able to put together a truly fast run as this side by side will show. The 5th was way ahead by mid course (~.750 seconds) but then I hit a large gravel patch (cold patch started coming apart) in the braking zone to exit the "bus stop". Had to slow the car way down to avoid going in the dirt. Lost the entire lead.
Still got my best overall finish at 4th PAX which I'm quite happy about.

[cmiovino]

3 upshifts, 2 downshifts, and losing to your co-driver by 0.001 seconds? Sign me up.

I'll have to overlay the videos between myself and by co-driver. There are some clear areas I lost time.

[RT-BRZ]

I think I finally found a course that was designed for our cars.

[DocWalt]

Coned top PAX. Ignore the horrible audio.

[Breezio]

Didn't get any videos in the BRZ this weekend (only ran it Saturday morning), but Sunday I got to Co-drive my buddies SSM NB Miata, turbo K24 swap, aero, Hoosiers... What a hoot. Had good runs in the morning, afternoon managed some flying times (fastest RAW for a vehicle with doors) but coned them all
He captured all the action on a 360 camera. I recommend pausing the video at the start and manually selecting 4K, then use the direction buttons to set the camera to which view angle you like.

[cmiovino]

Had my steering wheel adjustment come undone during my final run (actually a rerun too). Yay. This happened two years ago too randomly. I check it yearly and make sure it's in place, but it works it's way out eventually.

[Breezio]

Perhaps there is something down there to make it engage stronger so that it doesn't 'fall out'?
I've never had mine come loose.

[steverife]

I drive with my wheel pushed all the way in and both codrivers pull the wheel all the way out. Adjust every run and am yet to have that issue.

The one bit of weird I get is one codriver cranks the seat all the way up and I drive with it all the way down. Sometimes when I drive with her, my seat will start to jack itself up during the run.

[cmiovino]

Well it didn't fall out at this weekend's event. No idea why it does it, but it happens about every 2 years, or give or take 50 events. I do check it once a year at the beginning of the season and it's never moved.

Bonus footage of outside the car from a spectator's viewpoint in this video. This is the first non-phone footage of my car running with me in it in like 5 years.

[cmiovino]

Lots of events here at the end of the season here in PA. Finishing up doing 7 events in 4 weekends. Here were the prior two from this weekend. This weekend is Central PA Saturday and back here in Pittsburgh Sunday. The Yoks are starting to fall off at 160 runs. I've never had the experience of them being good until the very end. They don't tank as much as the RE-71R's did, but they still do somewhat past 150 runs.

Near the end of the season I start thinking about improvements to the car or what I want to tackle for next year. Doing the header and tune is getting higher up on the list. I did a comparison and the gen 2 car was a car length or two ahead in just 4 seconds of acceleration vs the gen 1 without a header/tune at our last event in a comparison video I did (not posted yet). I'm thinking about UEL headers and an OFT to start for next year, then maybe getting ECUtek and a proper tune the year after if I want. My 2004 WRX has been rocking a Cobb OTS map on the Accessport for 12 years now, 5 of which it was my primary autocross car.

I'm also thinking about next year and if I want to keep battling to be competitive, or take it easier and get back to doing events more for the fun of it. Goes against the above and getting more parts, right? I would like to do another national event for the travel aspect of it. Seeing Watkins Glen (track and the park), tons of waterfalls (including Niagara Falls), and Straub Brewing and all the wineries doing the Finger Lakes Tour last year was cool.

[Breezio]

What do you have on your list ahead of a header and tune? Header and tune should be very high on your list.