I am looking for ideas on how to prepair my car
to autocross. I am a beginer in Auto-X. I just ned some basic setup tips and any advice anybody has to give.
I know that the season doesn't start for a long while but I thought I would get thinking about it on the off season. thanks matt22

 

Dre_2002 does.

 

For your first season of autox, you don't really need to modify anything... just clean all the loose crap out of the passenger compartment and have at it.

 

I bought my RX-7 (89 TII) to race.

How should you set it up? Well, first do a complete tune-up - plugs, wires, all filters, all fluid, brake pads, etc, etc. Then go buy some cheapo race rims (GXL rims work great) and some AVS intermediates from Tirerack.com. Then empty all the crap out of your car, remove the spare and jack, go with 1/2 tank of gas, and have FUN!

And then forget about being competitive. Because you won't be. Just go out and have fun and learn how to properly drive your car (f*ck "drift").

Brandon

 

well its not like I am new to RX7's or anything
here is what i have done so far. T2 rims, bonez intake, gutted cats, Hawk hp+ brake pads, new clutch, all fluids done, and more. Here is what is going to be done this month (december) New engine, tranny, ,linkage, LSD, struts and springs, basically I have a 88 GXL 2+2 with 170,000 miles and I just bought a wrecked 88 GTU with 60,000 miles on it. so i am taking the whole drive train, and suspension off the car and putting it on my car. oh and putting on a racing beat header and aftermarket cat back. I am starting to learn about the fundamentals about AutoX, and relearn how to drive my car, in that style of driving if that make any sense.
thanks Matt22

 

I autocross

sounds like yuor car should do fine.

autocross is almost all driver, you can do better things to your car but it won't help on the autocross course if you haven't put in the seat time to improve your driving first.

just concentrate on honing your skills and participate in as many events as possible. try and go to an autocross school(most areas will have 1 or more throughout a year) as it will give you a bunch of runs back to back.

www.autocross.com go to "getting started" and check out the "novice handbook"

Have fun

 

www.turnfast.com

 

Sounds like your car will be fine. Like they've said, it's 90% the adjustment of the nut behind the wheel.
Your mods would bump you out of stock class so you'll want to get a rule book to guide you for your next round of mods in whatever class you want to run.
Buy "Secrets Of Solo Racing". Very informative book.
I wish I was at the event today in Atlanta instead of babysitting people at work...
Cory Waters
#94 ES RX-7

 

seat time is mucho importante, amigo.

tires are probably the second most important thing. if you want to kick major ***, get hoosiers or kumho victoracers. if you want to have fun and have your tires last longer and spend a lot less $$$, get falken azenis tires. they're awesome for the price.

 

I checked out www.autocross.com the other day its a
good website with a lot of information. I am jsut now looking at www.turnfast.com and it seems to have a lot
of information as well. I bought that book secrets of solo racing last weekend, and I am in the process of getting a rule book. I just want to take a sec to thank those who repsonded to this thread it is appreciated.
Well I am off to go drive around. Lates Matt22

 

Tire pressure is the biggest bang for the buck mod you can make to the car. running stock tire pressure will make for very sloppy cornering. I run between 40 and 45 lbs in my 87 base (14" pos rims and standard Les Schwab replacement tires).

 

Make sure your suspension is in good condition, I autocrossed on some 150+k shocks and my car would understeer at every corner and body roll was a bitch, I have yet to try my new agxs out on the autox course, but just driving around town they grip way better than the stock shocks, the stockers where so bad when I compressed them they didn't even return to the normal possision!

 

Yup, the articles in turnfast rock.

Did my first autoxing this past summer. It was informal, at a 7 meet, and I was hooked instantly (I was even the guy who brought the pylons. )

I just threw in an a strut-tower anti-sway bar and the girl is getting new Tokico Blues this weekend.

I can't wait for next summer!

 

Have fun and race often.
Consistent seat time will bring down your auto-x times more than anything else will at this stage.
I wouldn't dump a ton of money into the car though as I just don't think 2nd gens are truly competitive in CSP. That's where I raced this last year and I consistently got raped.
Moving my sorry *** back into BS now with a TII I'm rebuilding. I'll still get raped but staying stock is a lot cheaper.

zub

 

You'll be more competitive in CSP than in BS, trust me. Just look at your competition. I think that the class most competitive for the RX-7 is ES, with a well-built GTUs or 86-87 Sport (which just happens to have an LSD).

But yeah, BS is a whole lot cheaper than CSP.

Brandon

 

Hey Matt, so you want to go race. Now that's it's the time in between seasons it's time to prep your car. Fresh fluids are a must. Flush that radiator. If you have the time, go ahead and replace all of your rubber vacuum lines with nifty silicone ones and zip tie them all down. If it can break or simply come loose it will do so during a run. Trust me. Heck, why stop there. If it's old rubber under the hood then it needs to be replaced most likely. Dumping coolant on the track is NOT a good way to make friends. Better safe than sorry. Get some of those rear steer eliminator bushings in the back. Do that and it'll be much less of a handle at the limit. The old bushing are probably ooey gooey tar by now. Mine were. So whatever the Mazda engineers wanted the original bushings to do, they don't really do it well anymore.

So now it's raceday. Get there early. Walk the course and concentrate on the cones. Bear in minds the course will look like a sea of cones when you are sitting low in your car and going at speed. Don't let if bug you if you mess up at first. Almost everybody does the first time they go out. Don't drive angry. Try to get a work assignment before you drive. This way you can watch the other cars and see where the other drivers are having problems. Go with the Novice class at first. Above all else - HAVE FUN. It seems like a lot of guys out there take this a bit too seriously and have forgotten what made them do this in the first place. It's a fun thing to do on the weekend plain and simple.

See you at ABF.

 

Wow...the TII's are in BS. That sux. Here in Kentucky Region, there are a couple of new Boxsters that run there. No way a stock TII could really compete. I enjoy running ES.

 

I'm thinking of going with BS this year. It suits me well with my '89 T2. Too bad there aren't more local cars in the same index that I can keep an eye on how they do. Not like that matters. As long as I do better than the people I know there personally I'm happy.

 

I too autocross. I agree with all of the above statements. Running lower tire pressure in the front than in the rear helps to deal with understeer problems. Only thing I would say is why bother running in the novice class, you don't get anything special out of it so you might as well just run in the regular class.

Ben

 

not true. we got trophies for our novice ranking. thank god for wrx awd. 1st, lol.

 

from what i understand I can run in a ' beginer class'
the first time then with whats done to my car I will be put into a higher class. thats waht I have been told
anyways. thanks for all your help guys. lates matt22

 

Sport packages DON'T have LSD. GXL's, GTUs's, 88 GTUs and TIIs have LSD.

As far as tire pressure just remember this, lower presure = lower grip, higher pressure = higher grip.

I've auto-x both NA and TII FCs, they usually understeer like mad, hard to get the tail out. Run the higher pressure up front, lower pressure in the rear. If you run street tires you'll need to pump them up to 40+ psi. Running race rubber you'll be in the mid 30s depending on the type of tire.

You'll get absolutely waxed by everyone your first race, you'll get better as time goes on. Mods to the car don't really help much.

Hope to see you out there. Have fun and remember everyone sucks when they start.

FCs won't really be competitive in stock or street prep classes. While the FC won't be the fastest there are plenty of cars that are much worse. You can have a ton of fun and learn a lot about how to really go fast.

Jeff

 

I disagree jeff, a series V FC that my friend has ran a FTD at the last event during fun runs. I think the FC has the potential to be very competitive indeed. Car was only very lightly modded.

Ben

 

Ok so what you're saying is that NA FC's are that good
for autocross or FC's in general. From what was said
above it appears to be more of a driver thing rather than having the best car out there. On the other hand I
can see how a good car that is well managed can be very beneficial. I have been thinking about adding a supercharger lately, would that be a bad thing in the autocross world, I mean would that put me in a different group? is there any place other than the scca
website that i can find a rule book? Thanks Matt22

 

With a well sorted out car, it is very competitive. The rest is up to your skills. A s/c would put you in some other class (not sure which one) that you'd probably have problems with doing well in. You car has alot of miles on it and I'm guessing the stock suspension is worn. Find out what kind of class you want to run in. Find out the rules for that class. Build your car for that class. That's why I say you should run Novice class at first. That way you can get to know where you want go with your car before you start changing out parts. Tlak with others when you go. Most people will talk your ear off if you start asking them about their cars. Autocross is cool like that.