LS swap autocross vid

[GrabTheWheel]

Here is a vid from my 2nd AutoX event since the swap. Also my first event on Hoosier A7 tires. At the last event the car was pushing in a way I hadn't felt before. The only other changes (aside from an LS swap) was adding Whiteline sway bars. I went back to the stock front sway bar and softened up the Whiteline bar in the rear. I thought the car would feel too tail happy but it actually felt really good mid corner despite my somewhat sloppy driving.

This was an interesting course, they used about a 10th of the number of cones as the other group I run autocross with and some sections of the course were wide enough to park 2 buses. I think my car does better in the tighter courses where I have the power advantage over the Caymans and size advantage over the Corvettes. This course didn't have too many narrow sections i.e. you could tell it was designed for corvettes by a corvette owner.

The Lotus 7 you see after me was the fast car for the day which is pretty common. I will probably go back to the 200 treadwear class after I go through the Hoosiers so I won't have to compete with sub 2000 lbs cars.

I also had my tuner out there co-driving the car with me. It was interesting because our driving styles were totally different. His approach was to leave the traction control on and keep the car in 1st gear for as much of the course as he possibly could. My approach was to turn traction off after the launch and use a lot more 2nd gear. He was able to beat my time by just under 1 second with his approach but he also was an autocross champion back in the mid 90's. I think I could have matched his time with my approach with just 1 or 2 more tries.

I left relearning 2 valuable autocross lessons. Number 1 walk the course, walk the course, walk the course. Get there early and make sure you study the course the best you can. The complete lack of cones on this course was confusing to me at first. The 2nd one is go SLOW your 1st lap so you can actually learn the course. I tell myself this every time but it's hard to actually do it once your adrenaline is pumping. I know I'm not going to set a fast lap first thing but I still go guns blazing and end up making the same mistakes during my first 2 runs. That day I actually wasted my first 3 runs by rushing right out the gate and not trying familiarize myself with the course first. This isn't a problem if I'm working course first then driving, at that point I've seen enough to have a good grasp on things, problem is I always seem to get put in the group that drives first!

To me the car felt great in 2nd gear with the traction off and the A7's warmed up. 1st gear on the other hand is completely useless without traction control. My tuner might disagree with me as he's use to driving his SCCA protype 2 race car that has as much grip and downforce as you could ever ask for. My ideal setup for the next event would be traction control for 1st gear then have it not active once I shift into 2nd.

After 2 events I'm starting to think that the car isn't really any faster around an autoX course than it was with 330 WHP supercharged. The nice thing is I don't feel like I have to worry about it blowing up! Plus I wasn't really expecting it to be faster at autoX after the swap anyway. On a road course though... I think that will be a different story. I will be finding out at the end of this month, can't wait to get out to Buttonwillow. In preparation I will be making a few cooling mods such as bigger hood vents, a mustache and oem crash bar delete and ducting all the extra air flow towards the radiator.