It's time for SCCA test and tune day on Saturday Oct 22nd.
Pay $35, work one heat for 90 minutes and drive in any or all of three other heats.

Get an instructor or go for a ride in another driver's car on the course set up for Autocross like we have for solo 2 events each month.

Except for this day there are only unofficial times and you can run all day long. Normally we get only four runs and maybe fun runs at the end of the day but for test and tune you can expect to get in about 15 to 20 runs or until your tires melt or burn off your cords.

If there are enough MINI club participants the SCCA organizers can arrange for a MINI lecture on the basics of autocrossing in the morning.

You need to sign up and prepay early. Deadline Oct 19th.
For info see-
http://www.sccahawaii.org/testtune.html
Requirements:

• Valid driver's license, registration and Hawaii Safety Inspection
• Closed-toe shoes for driver
• Helmet with minimum Snell 90 rating (loaners available)
• Car must pass Solo II technical safety inspection (730-830am)

One (1) passenger allowed with shoes and helmet

"Drifters" will be disqualified from the event:impatient :impatient :impatient


It's usually a great day to learn alot for fairly cheap. Practice being smooth... and you WILL be faster.

 

Anyone that likes to autocross and wants to get in lots of practice time should seriously consider Test and Tune at HRP for Oct 22.

You can drive in three heats and volunteer to work one heat of your choice.
Normally we work one heat and drive in one.

You can leave early if you like and you can stay for as long as your tires last.

There are instructors to help you or you can ride along with one of the faster drivers to see "what it feels like to do the course in their shoes".

It's possible it might rain but like this past sunday, HRP can be quite dry when the rest of the island is wet.

If enough novice drivers attend from our MINI club we can get a lecture going.

So anyone interested in attending must sign up early and PAY by mail- see the link to SCCAhawaii.org and don't delay. You can also contact me if you have any further questions.

If you want to drop by to spectate you can do so for free. If you have shoes and a helmet (M95 or SA95 rated or later) you can go for a run as my passenger in the afternoon. :impatient :impatient :impatient
It will make a wild rollercoaster seem very tame.

 

after this past aloha 500, i gotta admit i got the bug a bit. and i'd very likely be there on oct 22, especially for the buffet of runs for one low $$. but unfortunately, i've already prepaid for an international speaker at a course that weekend.

please let us know when the next time such an opportunity for a buffet of runs comes around. hopefully, before the lease is up at hrp.

as far as auto-x superlap, i still don't plan on attending. but a bargain like the one on oct 22, i'd very likely take up.

 

The SCCA Test and tune is this saturday 10/22 at Hawaii Raceway Park.

Anyone interested in seeing what autocross is like can drop by all day long for free. Maybe even go for a ride since we can take passengers that have shoes and certified helmet (some are available for loan).

Should be good weather- dry enough.
We run non-stop usually from about 9am to 3pm.
Bring your own drinks and food if you plan to stay through lunch or you can leave and eat in Kapolei and come back.

To get out the HRP just take exit 1 off of the H1 freeway near Hawaiian Raging Waters Adventure Park and head toward Campbell industrial park. Go past the new Advertiser newspaper building on your right and Home Depot on your left and keep going about 1-1.5 miles. Turn left up a small incline to reach the back gate of HRP. If you get to a stop light you went too far.

 

We had a great day at the track.

Linda got to drive with me quite a bit and she did really well trimming 8-9 seconds off her run time in a few hours and doing clean runs by the end of the day in her H-stock MC with stock runflat tires.

I was able to take a few MCS owners out for a few runs and the weather held up enough bring my times down a bit before 3 pm came around.

Passing showers and drizzling didn't dampen our spirits. Overall it was better than last year's Test and tune.

While the course was relatively short (FTD was about 44.5 seconds) it was fast on the back stretch. I redlined 2nd gear and was able to make good use of 3rd with several hundred feet to the finish. It was a "new" experience for me. :impatient

 

--thanks for taking me around the track Brad! That was SO awesome! Your car and driving skills are UNREAL! Seriously I had a great time. I think my adrenaline was pumping all the way home that day. It's unbelievable what you can make that MCS do! All I saw were cones wizzing by and the distinct feeling I was riding a super roller coaster. Even with me negating his weight savings we felt like we were turning like the light cycles in Tron. Totally AWESOME!

Wow 44.5! Isn't that faster than that STI we saw out there? Too good man!

--Keith

 

I think if I drove almost as fast as I could with half as many cones on the course I could drive a 44.5 second run- he was that fast in the 240Z. The STI was getting 45.x second runs as did Baronius in his Civic. For a shorter course the best drivers are going to clustered together.

If you make it back to another autocross event you'll see that I usually run with wider 225/45-15 Avon Tech Ra tires that give me a bit more grip. The course is usually longer with 60 second runs.

It's interesting you got the feeling that the cones were about to be hit as we went along but they didn't flinch in our wake. It's fine to "scare" the cones, just don't bowl them over too often.