I'm impressed w/ your consistency and low times. Over time as you upgrade your car you are going to get really fast. You are doing awesome in your FC IMO!

 

That will be nice w/ the 255's.
As for the quest we were a train wreck. Understeer, oversteer, sliding out, killing cones. Even Marshall said the Quest was pretty Drift happy and scared him. He thought I had it tamed pretty well though. I'm having a ton of fun w/ it right now. The lack of grip and pedal to the metal action is sweet!
Maybe even full race prep starions still like to drifty....cool vid....short
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfFzkzia2rU

 

Sure looked like Marshal was having a blast driving your car though. from the outside it looks like he pushed it a bit harder then Sabastian did???

did you ever find a cone mark on your car from that one in the back section. you sent that sucker flyin pretty good.

oh and the one in section 2, that one went flyin pretty good as well.

 

^ HaHa! Haven't really looked over the car since the race for cone "bruises" yet. I guess on a positive note though. By getting understeer last weekend showed my rears are getting some better grip. Oh well, it's all in good fun anyway!

Seems like Marshall and Sebastian both pushed pretty hard. However, I did challenge Marshall to show me what it could do. What's cool is that with every instructor they each seem to give me a different valuable nugget of advise. Marshall's advice was to get closer to the cones/apex. Well, I guess I got pretty close! LOL

 

Thank you very much Damon. I think the biggest performance mod I can make at this point is practice!

 

Word

 

Yes, practice, practice, practice. its a hard sport.

Autocross is about learning how to drive fast in a short amount of time. You have 3 laps to "master" it.... its hard to do.

I am by no means a great driver. I think I am a good driver, but when you see what those guys out there can do, it makes you realize what little you know. More then once I have had a great drivers like Jason Isley (4 time BS national champion), Tom berry (multiple national champion) and Reijo (another champion) drive my car and whoop my best time by 3 seconds…. And they have never ever driven my car before!

but here are a couple things I know I should know, (but of course it doesn’t always mean that’s the way I do it.

Autocross is more about a great line. getting really close to those cones without hitting them. making that slalom as straight as you can. I am more of an aggressive driver. I drive like a bat out of hell. But when I can force myself to just calm down and drive a good line, I pick up time. The October race was a very smooth yet still a fast race for me…. And I did well. This last race I went back to driving like an idiot and my times showed it. I coned twice and my times were not fast.

brake early, throttle early... braking late means your on the throttle later. it also usually means you don’t get to take the best line.

brake in a straight line. if your using 60% of your traction to stop the car from moving forward, that only leaves 40% of traction for turning. if you try to make a hard turn (like in auto cross) that means the car exceeds that 100% and starts to slide.

Be smooth. Smooth with the steering wheel, smooth with the throttle, smooth with the brakes. Sharp inputs with the wheel can cause both over steer and under steer. Sharp inputs with the throttle will induce over steer. Sharp inputs with the brakes will cause under steer and send you straight into the cones (like my 2nd run this Sunday)

Look ahead. I get told more times then I can count to look ahead, look ahead, look ahead. Sometimes cones fly by at a fast pace. There is not always a lot of time to react out there. It also helps setup the NEXT turn. Your already in this turn, there is nothing you can do about it, but you need to see then next turn so you can setup for that.

Go fast in the fast parts and go slow in the slow parts. I know this sounds dumb, but most people including myself, don’t go fast enough in the fast parts, then you turn around and go to fast when there is a super tight turn….. auto cross can and will have some really tight turns. I have had tracks before that has a turn mid track that required a downshift to 1st. not all tracks are fast tracks like the last two. On those turns, forcing yourself to take control of the car and just take the turn slow will pick up your time. It may feel slow, but it’s the fast way around the course.

You guys (including myself) really need to get into a practice day. You get roughly 15 laps of practice. Seat time is important. Although the point of auto cross is to learn how to get fast within 3 laps, It does not give you much of a chance to really try new things. A practice day is nice because you have the chance to drive like an idiot for 3 laps, then force yourself to drive better line for 3 laps, then try mixing the two, then try….. and try…. And try……. It’s nice knowing that cones count for nothing, and there is no 1st or 2nd place. Your just there to learn.

I know that we do plan to do a practice, I just don’t know when yet. (money mostly)

Anyways, in the mean time, even on race days, try some of the tips above. It should help. When you get lucky like I did at the October race, and you drive fast, but smooth, you’ll pull a great time.

 

Thanks for the tips Casey. I need to go to that practice day.

 

So I just read this whole thread top to bottom. It sounds awesome and like it might be just the ticket for learning my way around the car. The couple times I've been out to Buttonwillow were nuts and I kinda felt like I had too much car for a newbie to track stuff. Then there's the fact I daily drive a motorcycle so I don't get as much time behind the wheel as I'd like.

Should I assume the v8 puts me in the prepared/modified classes? I know the car doesn't have a chance in hell of being competitive so at least I don't have to think about that part... I'll just rock my takeoff 235 RA1s and go have a good time.

Question. Nothing was mentioned about brakes... Do folks just run street pads for brakes? Seems like there'd barely be enough time to get things warmed up.

I need to get my accusump in to be sure I don't have oiling problems but beyond that I'd think I should be good.

-Joel

PS Thanks to the OP. This was a better read for a newb thinking about getting started than the solo2 website.

 

Welcome to the thread! and thanks for the compliments.

It sounds like you have a pretty good grasp on things.

the V8 would put you in a mod class (prep if your lucky... I'd have to check), but like you said, you wouldn’t be competitive anyways, so don’t you worry to much about that. come do time only runs, and just have some fun. besides, the nice thing about time only runs is you get to pick when you run. so say for example you wanted to run the same time I did, its not a big deal.

Brakes are rarely upgraded as far as pads go. race pads work like crap till they get heated up, then they work like a champ. but like you said, they don’t have enough time to heat up. stock pads work great at cold and medium temps, but don’t work when they get hot. which is why road race guys get higher temp pads.

come see what its all about. I am sure you will love it!




Damon, Jason, Rob, when you get your CSCC points card, sign up for CASOC. That’s the club I joined.

 

Jason:

gotta give him credit for that.

Hey, I don’t know if your interested, but I have a couple coil over sleeves (I think) that I ran on my FC in the rear. you would have to get springs for them ($50-$60 each)..... (if I don’t already have them).

you would still have to figure out what to do in the front, but they work like a champ in the rear.

.... thinking.......


it may not be the best option though. these are from my RX-7 days back in 99-02ish. I had stock cut springs all the way around. (there was no such thing as just buying springs back then). then I found some left over parts at my dads house from the race car and found that I could coil over the rears.... so I did. and for the street I thought I was cool!

now that I think about it, that was pretty dumb. I bet I had a 350 pound spring or so in the rear.... with a stock 1xx pound spring in the front..... yeah, that might have been a little dumb now that I think about it.

all well....

do they make a coil over kit now for the FC? if so, that would be the way to go.......

.... Looking....

YUP!!! they do!!! they didnt used to make these back in my day... man you guys are soooooo lucky!.... spoiled brats!
http://www.ground-control-store.com/...hp/II=41/CA=23
these would allow you to choose your spring rate. if you already have an adjustable strut, these would go well with them.
most replacement springs (like the ones you tried to buy) are usually great drop springs, but not really much stiffer at all. (check out my spring thread on the 8 club http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=90198 )

if your looking to "go racing" lowering springs are never stiff enough to do what you need. they are designed to lower a car and keep a decent ride quality.

If your interested in going "my route", the path I would take is to contact the manufacture of your struts and ask then what the maximum recommended spring rates are for them. of you get to stiff of a spring you can blow the strut, and we don’t want that.

find that out, and then we can decide what to go with....... if of course this is something you want to do.

also, look into sway bars. (should you find even more money)



also, just so you know, the ground control kit is the same kit I put on my Miata.

the stock shocks cant handle a very stiff spring at all.
an average after market street adjustable shock can handle something in the 400 pound range for the Miata.

the Koni shocks I got are their "race shocks". they have been shortened and revalved to handle an even higher rate. we run 700 in the front and 375 in the rear.

just a little FYI.


Now of course you wouldnt want to go THAT stiff. the ride would suck. but something int he 300 pound front and 150 pound rear or so would still be nice on the street. but we can talk about that more later

 

Would love to do see you doing some runs Joel!

 

Agreed, I would love to see an LS1 FC out there!




hey, if anyone cares, the new wheels should have put us under the 2,000 pound mark. I belive the car came in at 2,032 pounds (if I remember right) at the last El Toro race. with the new wheels it should be at 1,998. unless I have lost more and just cat think of what I have done. (like the new intake, it might be a pound less).


anyways, just some more usless conversations.

 

Casey, thank you for looking so far into this for me. But that site with the coilover conversion says its $420. And this goes with whatever shocks/struts I got, correct? So that kit takes the place of ONLY the rear springs, correct?

 

BTW Casey. That sway bar in the above pic is BEEFY!

 

SUP!!!

im going to start my rebuild and porting on thursday!!!

 

Your welcome!

No, the kit includes enough to do the Whole car..... meaning all 4 corners.

I can tell you this would be the most bang for the buck. these will beat out any drop springs made. no question about it..... AND its adjustable. you want to go lower, go lower, you want to go higher, go higher.

I'm not saying its what you HAVE to do, its just a suguestion.

 

SWWWEEEEETTTT.... Keep us updated.... post pics!

 

he he. yeah its a pretty good size ba for such a small car!


you shoulda seen the big bar that was put into the RX-8. a friend of mine said it looked like it belonged in a winibago. (spelling?)

 

Oh ok. So I use this kit, in conjunction with my choice of shocks and struts?

 

yea for sure, ill post pcis of the the partial tear down tonite. and the rest tomrrow.

 

Keep up with the great youtube videos too if you can

 

I am getting close.
We will probably hit mostly practice days. I am not too concerned about points or nationals, but takin some laps is always fun.

The progress so far;


Its in, now it is time to get everything hooked up.
We are aiming for under 2000lbs

 

yea for sure, ill make a quick video update tomorrow when i tear open the motor.

soo far i just stripped the motor down to the bare block pretty much.

took about an 1hr. not bad.( i idid waste a lot of time though haha)

i found coolant coming out of my rear iron were the spark plugs go.(refer to pick below).

should be interesting to see what the inside looks like tomorrow.

sorry for the pic whoring lol.







**** im dirty! haha(dont mind the reflective shirt, it was from when i worked at LAX)


home made motor crate with wheels ! FTW

 

also for got to mention i pulled out the motor and tore every thing down all alone! haha **** yea!


more pics,. srry!


COOLANT?!?!? WTF!?!?