As the title says. This Sunday will be my first Autocross event. I have run 1 other even before, but with my friend Chad' prepped '91 Miata. That was a year or 2 ago. I remember little basics of the day. Stuff to bring. Pre-register. Walk the corse. All that Jazz. I'm going to go with the Chad so he can offer advise as the day goes on. He has been doing AutoX for almost 10 years. However, I don't think he's driven a MINI.

I was wondering what other recommendations you guys might have for me as well. Things like pre-set up. Tire pressures. Alignment. Ect, ect.

I have stock suspension, aside from the Hotchkis 25.5mm RSB. The mods performed so far are primarily engine. So I won't have a lot of adjustability there. Take a look at my signature to see what I have done to my car. I'm obviously not going to be stock. I'm green and obviously will not be competitive for whichever class I'll be in. While this is primarily just for fun, I'd still like to be able to improve my times as I go on.

Any and all advise is appreciated!

 

38 lbs. Be safe. Look ahead. Have fun.

If you are not having fun, you are not doing it right.

:-)

 

great!! my only suggestion is to take it easy and focus on learning over competing, at least at the beginning. just get comfortale pushing the car.

where is your rear sway bar set at?

 

I have it set in the middle. I wasn't too sure I should go all out or not when I installed it so I set it there.

 

should be fine for now

 

Set your sway bar all the way to the end, i have mine on the stiffest setting and the car has significantly more oversteer than on the middle setting. I autox too, this is my first year doing Autox (i used to do drag racing for a couple years) and i've had loads of fun so far...

 

Also, I'm trying to pre-register online. Any idea what class I'd be running?

 

from your mods sounds like dsp if not smf

 

The rulebook is online at SCCA.COM.

 

Yeah I've downloaded that. It was a lot to take in all at once. Trying to sort through it all. I thought I'd ask here that was I could get registered for this weekend.

 

You should be in DSP. I just switched to DSP myself. Watch your tire pressure on a hot day. Have a gauge with you and check it after every run. The pressure will shoot up the hotter the day gets. I run 40 front and 38 rear.

I would also adjust your sway bar to the highest setting. It will help a lot with the stock suspension.

 

Ok I've spent some time combing over the rule book and if I read this right in DSP I can not have any modification to my blow-off valve. Now, I know our system utilized a 'diverter valve' but they're basically the samething and I'm sure they cound them the same. I do have the GFB DV+ installed so I am running a modified DV and therefore this would bump me into SMF if I'm not mistaken. I'd prefer DSP, I may even result to installing the stock DV before each run if I had to. Seems silly to me that something that gives such a little gain would bump me into a class that is way more competitive. Then again SMF has a better PAX factor for overall placement. I don't know.

Also, if anyone cares to look, Here are the results from the event I went to this weekend. Since this was my first real run they had me in as a Novice. I had the best raw time of all the novices by slightly more than a second less! And by .338 in PAX.

It was way fun and I plan on making it to at least another 3 or 4 events this year before it gets too cold and I have to hibernate for 6 months.

 

Congrats! 1st place in Novice is pretty good. Keep doing it and they will push you out of novices soon

On a regional level, small changes like dv don't matter much and no one ever will ask you to change to a different class because of it. Just keep doing what you are doing and don't worry about your class.

 

Even if you put the stock diverter valve on you still have the aftermarket intercooler which bumps you out of DSP.

Congrats on doing well at the event!

 

Thank you both!

I take it, if I were to try and be competitive on a National level, they would look harder at my mods. That being said, if I read the rule book correctly, I should still be able to run a larger intercooler in a SP Class.

This is Section 15.10, C, Number 3 it states

Am I interpreting this incorrectly? It would seem to me, as long as I dont have to cut any thing up I should be able to run a larger FMIC. Just trying to figure everything out. I don't want to be a 'cheat' and be in the wrong class.

 

You are interpreting it correctly. Larger intercooler is allowed in DSP because I have one too and it is the only thing that bumped me from STX to DSP I think v10 is thinking STX...

 

Well look at that. Yep different intercoolers are definitely legal in *SP. Sorry about that

 

Well looks like I'm in DSP. Although upon further investigation SMF give a better PAX factor than DSP. Seems odd to me. Oh well, at least I know where to be!

 

from-
http://home.comcast.net/~paxrtp/rtp2015.html

For MCS
DS 0.812
STX 0.831
SMF 0.853
DSP 0.854

For MC
HS 0.796
STF 0.801
FSP 0.840