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FatCow posted:(All our current sites are airports so this is pretty exciting to us) Yikes, the local region had an airport event planned in June, but just learned that "[t]he FAA has now mandated that non-aeronautical events will not be permitted on airports." 
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Apr 19, 2011 22:04
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DogDodger posted:Yikes, the local region had an airport event planned in June, but just learned that "[t]he FAA has now mandated that non-aeronautical events will not be permitted on airports."
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Apr 19, 2011 22:37
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None of our sites have to close an active runway to let us run. One site is a completely inactive former airport that is now a training facility for the county emergency services. The other two are closed runways that we can run far away enough from the active airport to not impact their operations. Separate entrances and everything, they have their buffer zones coned off with a "cross this line, lose your site arrangement." I don't think anything changed in the rules regarding non-avation use. I'd guess that your airport didn't get their paperwork in on time or there was no benefit to them to have you guys there. The airport cannot allow use of their facilities unless it benefits them in some tangible (monetary) way. Closing the only active runway at an airport is also a no go since it take an emergency landing site out of the airport system.
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Apr 19, 2011 23:11
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nm posted:Get bigger wings -- problem solved. Also flip them upside down.
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Apr 20, 2011 00:23
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Just throwing my two cents on the launch issue here. I've found that there's a happy medium between dumping your clutch and slipping the hell out of it. I would launch at 3.5-4k as many others have suggested and I would let the clutch out quickly but smoothly. Done correctly it would slip the tires a little but not so much that they wouldn't grab. It's a fine balance but when you get it right the car just leaps forward and the revs climb smoothly. It's a little hard to describe because it's all done by feel. I try to avoid shocking the driveline since (in my experience) that makes it harder to launch clean and, well, breaks stuff.
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Apr 20, 2011 01:46
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DogDodger posted:Yikes, the local region had an airport event planned in June, but just learned that "[t]he FAA has now mandated that non-aeronautical events will not be permitted on airports." Not sure what that's about, but *knock on wood* the Tucson group is still having an event at the Marana airport this coming weekend, as far as they know!
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Apr 21, 2011 03:30
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The Locator posted:Not sure what that's about, but *knock on wood* the Tucson group is still having an event at the Marana airport this coming weekend, as far as they know! Still on as of 5 minutes ago. If they take Marana from me i'll cry.
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Apr 21, 2011 03:45
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Tonight I finally saw the times from the Autocross on Sunday, and found out that I came in 34th/75 people overall and got 3rd/27 people in the novice class. I'm pretty happy with that for only being my second autocross ever, and my first autocross in a FWD car. I should definitely be able to improve on that without needing to modify my car.
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Apr 21, 2011 04:36
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It's kind of funny when you see mods people at autocross. In the top 3 raw times this past weekend, #2 was a CS Miata and #3 was a GS Civic Si. It's all about the driver and to a lesser extent the tires. That said, I need to buy a 1500 dollar titanium exhaust because that's where I'm losing that tenth of a second.
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Apr 21, 2011 04:42
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Phone posted:That said, I need to buy a 1500 dollar titanium exhaust because that's where I'm losing that tenth of a second. Well duh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocQ_R5MO7Vc ...and here, ladies and germs, is the downside of autocrossing.
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Apr 21, 2011 04:46
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Phone posted:It's kind of funny when you see mods people at autocross. In the top 3 raw times this past weekend, #2 was a CS Miata and #3 was a GS Civic Si. It's all about the driver and to a lesser extent the tires. All of the top 20 people at this autocross had pretty heavily modified cars, none were in stock classes. Most of the mods were suspension related though as far as I know. You're right though, the driver and tires are more important than the car. I was pretty confused with the Miatii at this autocross though, the fastest Miata at this event was only 3 places and .321s faster than me. The fastest car at the event was a SMS class 2006 WRX STI which got 53.194s and I got 60.158 in 34th place for reference. Brain Issues fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Apr 21, 2011 |
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Apr 21, 2011 04:48
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You don't want to know what the perennial 2nd place guy in CSP has spent on his car. I do know that they're managing to squeeze 180whp out of the stock motor and that it's CSP legal.
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Apr 21, 2011 04:50
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Top 3 guys at the Phoenix event were in: XP, DSP, and DM. It's obviously the mods*. Bring your A game to our events if you want to be anywhere near the top times in raw or pax. *All three drivers are national champions, and one is an Evo instructor as well.
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Apr 21, 2011 05:20
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Autocross "Stock" Where slick hoosers, $10,000 shock absorbers, and custom one off front sway bars are legal but don't you dare fix a known failure point for pure reliability reasons.
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Apr 21, 2011 06:30
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Our top times tend to go to a SS, GP, FP, ASP, and BS. Those also happen to be our best drivers, but the SS and GP are pretty damned dominant. Mods aren't bad in autocross. What's bad is when a new guy shows up with a tune that puts him in SM, and literally nothing else done to the car to help handling whatsoever because it takes them from being a new guy who won't do well to a new guy who's going to get stomped out by even the most basic of family sedans with average drivers.
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Apr 21, 2011 13:16
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I think that's part of what the ST classes are supposed to help, they allow a lot of the more common mods without necessarily chucking you into a *SP class, and if you really are new / unskilled (i.e. me) you should be in Novice anyway. Of course, like every 'spec' there's ways to game the system. If I were to autocross a lot more, to make my MS3 competitive in ST I would need to buy another set of wheels and run some Hankook RS3s on them, but not ever actually run them on the street because that would heat cycle them to death. The intent of the street tire class may be to just drive your car there, run, and drive home without jacking it up and mucking around, but the reality is no matter what they set the bar at for treadwear, even if you run the exact same tires, all things being equal the guy who changed his tires that morning for his dedicated track set will have an advantage.
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Apr 21, 2011 14:35
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Don't forget to bolt on your massive wing. Locally *SP is pretty much a ST with r-comp class with the exception of a very few cars that are run at nationals. I still think SCCA autocross has it all wrong with the tires. Stock should be stock, keep the current allowances except add TW 140. All modified classes should allow r-comps. I think it's insane that the lowest prep level still requires you to drop a grand a year on tires if you want to be competitive. That's if you're lucky since you can't do anything to the car to make it easier on tires and your car isn't one of the ones that tears itself apart by using a sway bar as a spring compensator. The only good part about this is that Hoosiser is pretty clearly #1 r-comp which gets people out of the tire games that ST has to play. Then you go to the next class where you could fix a lot of the tire wear issues but you're limited to street tires making quite a few cars not significantly faster, or slower in some cases, after spending a ton of money on suspension. I don't even know if there is a FS car that is faster in STU/X than it would be in FS. Maybe one of the odd BMWs that end up there? Then you're in SM/*SP/spend infinity dollars on engine work and UD/BD to be a true SM/*SP car vs a ST car with r-comps. Nothing that hasn't been said before but it'll never happen since it will completely turn everything upside down and likely piss off just about everyone in stock/ST.
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Apr 21, 2011 16:17
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FatCow posted:I still think SCCA autocross has it all wrong with the tires. Stock should be stock, keep the current allowances except add TW 140. All modified classes should allow r-comps. I agree so much. It is completely ridiculous that stock classes lets you add something so clearly unstock, and that simply adds to performance with no safety component. I thought I would be able to get a proper seat so I could buy a proper harness, but nope -- not in stock! How silly!...but racing tires? Sure! 
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Apr 21, 2011 16:33
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To be fair, there's one really easy way to take all of that insanity out of it - just drive to have fun. I was hilariously not competitive on Sunday but I had a loving riot doing it. I don't care what class I end up in, I don't care what position I end up in (as long as it's not "in the wall" or "on my roof"), as long as I had fun and my last run was faster than my first, I'm happy.
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Apr 21, 2011 17:15
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IOwnCalculus posted:To be fair, there's one really easy way to take all of that insanity out of it - just drive to have fun. I was hilariously not competitive on Sunday but I had a loving riot doing it. I don't care what class I end up in, I don't care what position I end up in (as long as it's not "in the wall" or "on my roof"), as long as I had fun and my last run was faster than my first, I'm happy. This is my plan, I'm going to my first one on May 14th. I can't wait.
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Apr 21, 2011 17:17
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IOwnCalculus posted:To be fair, there's one really easy way to take all of that insanity out of it - just drive to have fun. I was hilariously not competitive on Sunday but I had a loving riot doing it. I don't care what class I end up in, I don't care what position I end up in (as long as it's not "in the wall" or "on my roof"), as long as I had fun and my last run was faster than my first, I'm happy. That's how I always run in Tucson and now that I have become an accepted member my number 1 goal is to get the announcers/track workers to say something comical about my car whenever I go out. I view it as almost a car show where you can go out and have some fun on the side. ***Of course I am guilty of buying some cheater tires this last week so we'll see how that goes.
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Apr 21, 2011 20:13
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Dixie has introduced a "Street Tire PAX" for all non-ST cars that don't want to drop the cash for a set of wheels and A6's. We had 15 people run in STP (we usually get 30-45) for the first event and over twenty for the second. Our numbers are up by at least 15 for the year so far on average, it's a great thing.
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Apr 21, 2011 20:21
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IOwnCalculus posted:To be fair, there's one really easy way to take all of that insanity out of it - just drive to have fun. I was hilariously not competitive on Sunday but I had a loving riot doing it. I don't care what class I end up in, I don't care what position I end up in (as long as it's not "in the wall" or "on my roof"), as long as I had fun and my last run was faster than my first, I'm happy. The last event I went to last year everyone I knew there ended up slower at the end than the start. It was a really awkward course layout and the heat was brutal. Days like that are just frustrating and you end up wondering why you spent $50 to spend 10 hours standing in the boiling sun just to do badly. At least I was #1 in AS that day (I was the only one in AS that day, shh).
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Apr 21, 2011 20:35
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Podothehobbit posted:That's how I always run in Tucson and now that I have become an accepted member my number 1 goal is to get the announcers/track workers to say something comical about my car whenever I go out. I view it as almost a car show where you can go out and have some fun on the side. I got that back in the day when I would autocross in my dad's old '94 Z28 (I would just get the rear end out and keep it out, before drifting was cool), and even the one time I took my Miata out on rock-hard tires. The MS3 was definitely the one time I kept the car pretty much completely under control the whole day. Dave Inc - when you start out as slow as I do, unless conditions become undrivable, my last run will be faster than my first. The hardest thing with autocross for me is having so little time to learn the layout. I'd love to get some proper track time in but given the risk for cracking up my daily driver, that will wait until I have the money and space for a track toy.
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Apr 21, 2011 21:03
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This isn't the thread for it, but going to the track is phenomenal coming from an autocross perspective. Yes it is "more risky" than autocross, but you literally get to drive at your own pace and you have an instructor keeping you in check the entire time. More autocross BS: Fatcow just said that in the past event there were only 5 people in TIR class. Last year we literally had 20+ people in TIR every single event. I guess the economy is doing better.
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Apr 21, 2011 21:13
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IOwnCalculus posted:Dave Inc - when you start out as slow as I do, unless conditions become undrivable, my last run will be faster than my first. The hardest thing with autocross for me is having so little time to learn the layout. I'd love to get some proper track time in but given the risk for cracking up my daily driver, that will wait until I have the money and space for a track toy. I usually do the same, I did a slow/learning run, did a fast run and basically peaked. I may have had one faster time than my second run but I don't think so. The main thing about that course layout was that it was just awkward, didn't feel like there was room for any improvement. Most of the time I can finish a lap and go "Okay, I did something wrong there and there, I can improve that next time." that track my friends and I scratched our heads and gave up. Thinking back on it, it felt like you had to sacrifice speed in every single turn to set up for the next one until the proper line for the last turn traced all the way back to the first. Very unintuitive and very frustrating.
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Apr 21, 2011 21:15
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IOwnCalculus posted:I think that's part of what the ST classes are supposed to help, they allow a lot of the more common mods without necessarily chucking you into a *SP class, and if you really are new / unskilled (i.e. me) you should be in Novice anyway. Yeah, I run STX but have done about 1/10th of what you can do in STX, and I daily drive on my RS3's thus heatcycling the gently caress out of them. Rather than trying to be competetive overall, I've basically pegged a few people who tend to run around my time or even people faster than me and try to maintain or shrink the time difference from match to match. If John Doe beat me in his S2000 by 5 seconds last week, I try to land at about 5 seconds or less behind him the next week. That's how I know if I'm doing better or worse rather than "DID I GET FIRST? NO? FAILURE..."
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Apr 22, 2011 01:06
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IOwnCalculus posted:I got that back in the day when I would autocross in my dad's old '94 Z28 (I would just get the rear end out and keep it out, before drifting was cool), and even the one time I took my Miata out on rock-hard tires. The MS3 was definitely the one time I kept the car pretty much completely under control the whole day. I'm still jealous of my friend who I suckered into SCCA and owns a CTS-V as well as a generic 96' Thunderbird. He shares the name of famous Dan Gurney of actual racing fame. There were many "ghost of Dan Gurney" jokes had when he decided to bring the Thunderbird out one meet.
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Apr 22, 2011 03:32
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Podothehobbit posted:I'm still jealous of my friend who I suckered into SCCA and owns a CTS-V as well as a generic 96' Thunderbird. He shares the name of famous Dan Gurney of actual racing fame. There were many "ghost of Dan Gurney" jokes had when he decided to bring the Thunderbird out one meet. Yea, the announcers had a great time with Dan Gurney, that was a fun day. As far as the ST classes go, I run there mostly due to being lazy. I hate changing tires at the end of the day, so I got an STU car (which isn't competitive, since it's not a rally car), and go out and have a ball driving it, then at the end of the day, I hop in, and drive home. Next step is to get the A/C working so it's *cool* to drive home, and I can consider still going to Tucson events after the temps start to climb. It's seriously tempting to run in the 'new' CSP next year, but that would require I stumble over a big pile of cash somewhere in order to properly prep the car, since I'd need to do some serious bodywork so I could stuff the worlds largest Hoosiers on the car. 
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Apr 22, 2011 04:37
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mlmp08 posted:Yeah, I run STX but have done about 1/10th of what you can do in STX, and I daily drive on my RS3's thus heatcycling the gently caress out of them. ESP 211 05 Subaru Legacy GT ESP 609 05 Subaru Legacy GT ESP 880 06 Subaru WRX ESP 700 05 Subaru Legacy GT ESP 626 02 Subaru WRX All but the last one was a wagon All were street tires.Best class ever. Then 211 bought an S2000 and ruined everything nm fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Apr 22, 2011 |
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Apr 22, 2011 04:41
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Found these in the bench racing portion of Beta Motorsports website, pretty amusing. AUTOCROSS SEASON PREPERATION The next Autocross season is fast approaching. Here are 30 things you can do now to get ready for it: 1. Put on clothes you would typically wear on a hot day. Run in place, in your shower, with cold water cascading down on you, and sporadically bend over and pick up something. Do this for 1 hour. 2. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 3. Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Let it drip into your clothes. 4. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 5. Put on clothes you would typically wear on a cold day. Go to a steel plant and run in place next to the smelter and sporadically bend over and pick something up. Do this for 1 hour. 6. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 7. Got to a tanning salon and get a good sunburn on your face. Then, put your face in front of a fan, turn the fan on, and throw sand into the back of it. 8. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 9. Crawl under your car and sporadically drop nuts and bolts, hot oil, grease, and old rubber hoses on your face. Scrape a hose clamp across your knuckles. 10. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 11. Pour oil and anti-freeze all over your body, put sunscreen in your eyes, and stand in the sun for 1 hour. 12. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 13. Don't drink any liquid for 12 hours. Then quickly drink 4 cans of beer. 14. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 15. Drink 3 cups of coffee and wait 6 hours before going to the bathroom at the worst gas station you can find. 16. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 17. Push your car up and down the block 3 times wearing your helmet with the visor down. 18. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 19. Find a highway construction area and run over every orange cone you can see. Then get out, walk back, and put every cone back in its place while arguing with each construction worker you encounter. 20. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 21. Get up at 4:00am and drive in heavy traffic for five hours - anywhere - towing your race car. 22. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 23. Push a small bucket over your head before you go to bed each night. 24. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 25. If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared on the lenses. Sporadically pop one of the lenses out and scrape it on the ground. 26. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 27. Buy a new pair of driving gloves or shoes and immediately throw one away. 28. Throw $25 away right now (SCCA members throw away $20). 29. Slam your thumb in a car door. Take a short length of 2" round pipe and bash yourself in the head with it. Run over your foot with your car. Periodically stumble and fall. 30. Repeat all of the above every Sunday until it's time for the real thing. AUTOCROSS GRID ROUTINE Here's my routine when getting into the car on grid at an autocross: 1. Get in the car. 2. Strap myself in (5 point harness). 3. Realize the keys to the car are in my front pocket. 4. Unstrap. 5. Get out of the car and get the keys out of my pocket. 6. Get in the car. 7. Strap myself in. 8. Put the keys in the ignition. 9. Notice my helmet sitting on the passenger floor. 10. Unstrap. 11. Put the helmet on the passenger seat. 12. Strap myself in. 13. Notice the driver's door is still open. 14. Wonder why the guy next to me on grid thinks this is so funny. 15. Unstrap. 16. Close the driver's door on the lap belt. 17. Try to strap back in. 18. Open the door to free up the lap belt. 19. Strap myself in. 20. Notice the driver's door is still open. 21. Start getting irritated at guy next to me on grid who is cackling like a chicken. 22. Put helmet on head, scraping glasses down nose and onto the floor. 23. Take helmet off. 24. Unstrap. 25. Pickup glasses. 26. Strap myself in. 27. Notice my helmet sitting on the passenger floor. 28. Decide the guy next to me on grid is having a coronary by the way he's twitching and jerking. 29. Unstrap. 30. Put the helmet on my head. 31. Try to strap myself in but I can't see the latch because of the helmet. 32. Take helmet off, carefully putting it on the passenger seat. 33. Strap myself in. 34. Starting to hope the coronary the guy is going through finishes soon. 35. Put helmet on. 36. Notice glasses on passenger side of dash. 37. Unstrap. 38. Put glasses on. 39. Strap myself in. 40. The guy next to me must be dead 'cuz I can't see him sitting up in the car anymore
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Apr 22, 2011 10:30
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Welp prepped the car for tomorrow's run. Tore out the malfunctioning 1zz throttlebody I had in there and put the stock 1nz one back in, at least i'll be able to run in ST again! More importantly I was able to shoehorn the RS-3s on, what a difference in grip! Have a few pics as I try to bandage my bloody knuckles from working in the tiny engine bay, why did Toyota make everything so sharp. Rear Tire Fitment  Front Tire Fitment  Happy Yaris  Beefy Rear 
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Apr 23, 2011 18:16
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Nice. You'll like the RS-3's, but depending on what tire you were running before, they take some adjustment. The sidewalls aren't nearly as stiff as most other high performance street tires (like the Star specs and Yokohama's), so the turn in will be slower. This is more than offset by the higher ultimate grip in most cars though. The best way to describe the feel of RS-3's after driving on Star Specs is "Squishy" or "Squirmy". Just quite a bit of flex on turn-in, so they feel wierd. You have to learn to trust them and just go for it until you find out where the 'edge' really is. Have fun, you'll really enjoy them once you learn just how much lateral grip they have, and start throwing your car into corners at speeds that were simply impossible for you before! Edit: Wish I was going to be there.
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Apr 23, 2011 18:53
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The Locator posted:Nice. You'll like the RS-3's, but depending on what tire you were running before, they take some adjustment. The sidewalls aren't nearly as stiff as most other high performance street tires (like the Star specs and Yokohama's), so the turn in will be slower. This is more than offset by the higher ultimate grip in most cars though. Haha yeah i've heard about the soft sidewalls. Going to start around 38 Front and Rear and do some chalking to hopefully dial it in a bit. Wish I had a pyrometer.
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Apr 23, 2011 23:51
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How wide are the wheels? I'm on 15x7s with the R-S3s and I dropped the pressure from 38 to 34 on all four corners and picked up 1.5 seconds. (brand new car to me though)
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Apr 24, 2011 00:04
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Phone posted:How wide are the wheels? 15x7's as well....perhaps i'll start a wee bit lower.
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Apr 24, 2011 00:35
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nm posted:When I lived in Minneapolis, ESP was: Zak?
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Apr 24, 2011 02:11
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shane86 posted:Zak? That was the year he was in France.
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Apr 24, 2011 02:50
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Podothehobbit posted:Haha yeah i've heard about the soft sidewalls. Going to start around 38 Front and Rear and do some chalking to hopefully dial it in a bit. Wish I had a pyrometer. No idea how your pressures will work out, but for reference, with RS-3's I run 28.5 front, 29 rear. That's on 255/40x17's on 17x8.5 rims in a car that weighs in at 3050 pounds with 3'ish degrees of negative camber.
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Apr 24, 2011 05:41
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Well just finished the Tucson event and had a blast. Must not have been driving aggressive enough because I didn't even nudge one cone. Here, have a best run video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo0mZ7Ol1rk
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Apr 24, 2011 22:23
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