I did auto-x'ing yesterday with the Guam Region SCCA. Was an awesome time, and I surely want to go out for every event this year. I think I did pretty good for my first time out. We got a couple practice runs, 4 timed runs, and then as many fun runs as you wanted afterwards. My fastest timed time was 51.6 seconds, but it would have been 50.6 if I hadn't hit a cone... Still far from first though, as the top of SM was 47.052 in a well modified 1998 Nissan 240SX, followed by a guy from my ship with a 2003 Evo VIII with a time of 47.42.

During the fun runs I was able to get my time down to 49 seconds, but that's still pretty far from 47.0. Things I think were working against my favor:

Obviously, never auto-x'd before.
215/35/18 series tires... (heavy?)
Still had some junk in the boot (20lbs?)
Didn't adjust my swaybar to be more aggressive.
Ride height is still pretty high up from when I lifted it to ship it here.
The dampening screw on my Megan coilovers are locked up, so I couldn't tighten the coils, therefore they are at their lowest (most comfortable street) setting.

Flipping the toggle on my unichip to more agressive seemed to help speed wise just a teensy bit, but it also threw an SES light which I'm hoping will go away after a few more starts.

Summary of mods:
Intercooler diverter w/ sprayer
18" rims (don't know the weight...) running Pirelli Pzero Neros
Milltek catback & headers
Alta 19mm rear swaybar
Alta air intake
Madness 15% pulley
Unichip
Rotora BBK (this helped a LOT!)

I'm thinking racing wheels would probably help a bunch... But I'm not sure what else. It's retarded hot out here, but I don't know about spending the money on a bigger intercooler for racing one minute at a time. Suggestions?

 

Glad you got a chance to try autocrossing.

Some comments-
215/35/18 series tires... (heavy?)-- Which tires?, my rims are 15x8 at 13 lbs each and 205/50-15 tires at 19 lbs each. You need light rims and much better tires but shop around first- one option is 16x7 rims with 205/45-16 tires like Bridgestone potenza RE-01R (good street tires- Extreme performance Summer).

Still had some junk in the boot (20lbs?)-- you must remove everything in the car that is not bolted down- all floor mats, tools, anything.

Didn't adjust my swaybar to be more aggressive.- use the middle to stiffest setting- the hole closest to the bend in the bar.

Ride height is still pretty high up from when I lifted it to ship it here.- lower ride height to the minimum you stock street tires will allow without rubbing for daily use- then realign with aggressive settings if you can- requires front adjustable camber plates and rear lower control arms.

The dampening screw on my Megan coilovers are locked up, so I couldn't tighten the coils, therefore they are at their lowest (most comfortable street) setting.-- You need to fix that and stiffen up the rears and leave the fronts at moderate but not soft. Use a middle setting in the fronts and 3/4th to full stiff in the rear to start with and adjust.

The biggest benefit is tires and light wheels.
Then suspension tuning and aggressive alignment
Without front camber plates your stock front camber is -0.5 degrees. Most of us in SM class run -2.0 to -2.5 degrees in the fronts. Rears about +1 degree less negative than the fronts if possible or about -1.2 to -1.4. If your rear negative camber is more negative than that it will just increase understeer.

Use a clean air filter. A schroth race harness is good- it's quick fit about $225. Remove all heavy audio upgrades if you can- I have a subwoofer and rear seatback/seat bottom that I remove for 44 lbs weight savings.

 

the biggest Q is how did the car handle? Did it push in turns or rotate? How about the tires? were you fighting traction on acceleration or turning?

I've done one autx so far and am hooked. My car was on a 19mm H-Sport with 17" RE01Rs and PSS9's at the time and it was beautifully and intuitively controllable. Anytime there was understeer, letting off the throttle and it would correct. When the back stepped out, it was easy to correct without altering the line.

I'd say 18's are big, but if you are out to have fun, who cares? Seriously...if the other guys have dedicated autox setups and seat time, you won't catch up on parts alone. Focus on the experience first.

My wife is going to drive with me this year in the CDC events. We've got A/S, RE01R's and a set of 15" A048's coming (Lotus spec). We'll start here on A/S...so tire squeal will let her know what's going on and move to stickier stuff as the season progresses.

Kind of learning to mountain bike - if you start out with a rigid bike, you learn how to choose a proper line (the self preservation instinct makes it so ). If you start with a full suspension squishy bike, you bang over everything. You'd be fastest with the squishy bike and the proper line, but not many do it that way

 

Yeah, don't get too caught up modding the car for autocross when you're still doing your first few events. A lot of people go out, find their car understeering or some other undesirable trait, and try to mod it away... when it's really a driver problem. Have fun, first and foremost. Easy, right?

(Yeah, smaller wheels and some grippy street tires will make a big improvement, but you might find the stock IC to be best, since it recovers quickly... important in autox.)

 

Thanks Minihune. I was going to take a lot of junk out of the car, but then I woke up late Sunday morning... And being Guam, they let me keep the stuff in the boot instead of taking it out. It was a lot of crap. Cruise jackets, medical paperwork, and other assorted junk. As for the 16" rims, I'm not sure I can do that. I've got a Rotora BBK, and I think the smallest I can go is 17". Attaching a pic Krut took while coming from MOTD07.

PGT and RedSkunk, thanks as well! Ya, I know overreacting to a sport can get you deep in the whole, and it may not even be what I want in the end. I'm pretty conservative overall, and really just trying to figure out what direction I should head in. I'm not going to go head first whatever direction it is.

I don't know the weight on my wheels... So I'll probably try and sell my S-lites again here on island... Hopefully someone will pick them up. Especially because they're runflats, and the Mini logo will pop right off. Then I can talk the wife into letting me get some light 17"s with some soft compound on them.

How did the car drive? Very well I think. But I thought I could have taken the turns a bit better if I had been able to tighten up the megans a wee bit and if the swaybar had been tightened. There was a high speed manuever out of a right turn into a left then right then left out into a big huge turn. In the big turn I got up so much speed in the manuver that at the turn my back end kept sliding out to the right about 20 or so degrees off from where the front tires were pointing in the turn. That was the only real problem I had.

Isn't there supposed to be a kit to making the Megans easier to adjust from the rear? Oh, and I do have a shroth harness, I got it during a group buy before motd06. I just didn't end up using it yesterday.

Overall, wheeee!!! I should have pics up here shortly. I didn't take any, but lots of people on the guam road racers forum did.

 

Here are some of the pics:
http://guamroadracers.invisionplus.n...=0&#entry25281

 

If the rear end is a bit too loose in high speed manuevers, then fiddling with tire pressures is the easiest solution. Different pressures front to back. And yeah, the megans have flexible extensions to allow you to adjust dampening w/o removing them. It requires drilling a hole (for easiest access). There have been a few good coilover threads recently in the 1st gen suspension forum.

And I'll say it again. I'm really envious of you guys in areas where autox is already starting again!

 

Hey Wag, glad you're getting into the sport. A couple things.

When you come back to the States, you will probably have to remove the water sprayer on your diverter. Illegal in SCCA and most other venues over here. You can use a hand-held garden type pump sprayer on the grid, but that's it. And speaking of the sprayer, how heavy is that, full of water, or does it use one of the washer tanks?

Tires. What are you running? I would expect Guam to be pretty hot, and some tires get greasy (slippery) in the heat. Falken RT-615's for example, have that problem. The above mentioned garden sprayer used on your tires between runs might be a good idea.

 

As mentioned previously, I'm using Pirelli Pzero Neros on 18's. I'm not sure if they get greasy as mentioned, but I'll look into it. Only the rears were slipping in tight turns...

I don't know if I'm going to be fiddling with the megan rear dampeners... Too much of a pain in the butt to get to....

As for the sprayer, it's hooked up to the rear windshield wiper resevoir... I don't even really use it and it takes about 3 seconds to disconnect...

 

PZero Neros are good tires. Fiddle with the pressures, chalk the tires to see how far they are rolling over and use a tire temperature gauge to measure inner middle and outer tire temperatures.

If middle temperature is more then lower psi in that tire, if outer edges on the fronts are higher then you need more front negative camber, etc. Ideally you want all three numbers to be very close after each run.

Your pictures are awesome. How many cars per event?

 

We had 10 cars total... 4 runs each. Broke up into two groups. One group marshall, other group ran, 2 sets. So 2 rounds of 2 sets each. Plus plenty of time before and after for practice and fun runs.

 

We usually have 120 drivers and want more. We could handle 150 per event.

Each drives 4 runs, No practice runs, only walk the course before. Fun runs at the end of the day.

We get there at 6 am to set up the track, and break down about 4pm and leave for home by 5pm. Sometimes we do back to back event days, Saturday test and tune, practice all day then sunday run the official event with the course going backward on Sunday from Saturday's course with some adjustments.

 

It's illegal on-course. I don't think anyone could realistically use the Alta sprayer while on course anyway, plus the chances of someone protesting it at a local event are pretty small I'd say. The guy is already in SM.

 

I've seen it happen. Some organizers run by the book.

 

That's more a question of how uptight the competition is. Tech is more for safety and it's not up to the organizers to protest someone. If the guy isn't competitive nobody but a complete **** is going to protest.

 

I never use mine on course, only in the queue....I fire it as soon as I pass through the timing gates and then crack the hood open once i'm lined up again and waiting for the next run. I see no reason to use it on a run...frankly...unless it's wired to a pressure switch under the gas pedal, you shouldn't be doing it while driving hard.