The 2013 autocross thread!
 

What has two thumbs and a running race car? THIS GUY!


In other news, we're getting close to crunch time. Who's already ready for the season?

I just need to slap the summer tires back on. Might consider running as #1 this year. No other changes :cool:

So, was it just a flaky ground on the battery?

And, I'm all set for the autocross season... in that the Miata is parked and waiting for the trials season to start. :lol:

Nope... it was a flaky ground on the engine harness which probably also caused my (apparent) failed throttle motor and cam sensors. I'm still going to move that battery ground up onto the trans tunnel where the parking brake bolts on though.

Yes. Yes you should.

Isn't that where I originally put it last year?

Almost. And I haven't the slightest idea why I moved it...

Lets get this party started!! Is the schedule ready yet? I know Cory has his hands full with his new duties.
Kevin, I'll chime in on the other thread at renoscca.org for a number request if you're still watching it...assuming they can work in both pdx and solo. Unless I am getting ahead of myself...cars still need #s for pdx don't they?

PDX and Solo registration are 100% separate, but there's no reason you can't just run the same number in both. Except of course for somebody snagging it first. :P

Do you help with the reg for pdx also? Could I snag 59 for both? As posted at the scca forum though, I am a bit lost on my class. Any problem running novice again for solo? Couldn't find anything on that in the rulebook but was looking more for car class than anything else...

Since she is also my daily, my car is pretty much always ready. I will most likely be running 530 RTESPYXZ for my number again this year since no one will ever want to put that much tape on their car. Or maybe I will get sick of carrying 2 rolls of tape in my glove box and get some numbers for this season....maybe. Now I just need to get over to KSpeed and get some new tires and a fender roll. What kind of rubber is everyone planning on running this season?

Dunlop has some new Direzzas, no more star specs. Haven't read up on them yet though. I spurged and will be running heat cycled Toyo R888s on the lotus :)

I saw the new ZII's and they look pretty sweet. Might go that route but I'm still not certain. I know BFG is coming out with a new tire that should be competitive as well but I'm not drinking any kool aid until I see some sort of test between this seasons new tires.

I'm not involved in the track program, but it shouldn't be a problem. Since you;ve never run more than half a season of Solo that I know of, you can run Novice... although that's a little unfair with your car. :P Novice is a regional class, so there's nothing about it in the rulebook.

I'm all about the koolaid. If I wasn't planning to end up on race tires I'd definitely grab some ZIIs.

I need a nice set of street/cruising tires so I hope tirerack does a nice comparo write up before the season is in full swing. I've never been a big fan of BFG, their all season HP tires are the reason I'm missing a fair amount of paint on my fenders and doors :( and they still sucked for traction and wear. I know subaru's paint sucks but my continentals handle better, have better wear and don't kick up anywhere near as much road sand as the BFGs.
And koolaid is good if its the right flavor!

For those who still care, 2013 PAX has been available for a while. http://home.comcast.net/~paxrtp/rtp2013.html

Nearly unchanged except that most of the field has inched closer to A Mod again. Nearly every class increased by about .002 or so.

I don't know what class I'll be in, but hopefully I might at least have a running car before tech inspection.

Haha, I know how that feels!

Annual Tech March 30th at summit. Be there with a printout of the first page of the rule book. More info here if you need it.

Ok, so who is ready for tech? Anyone want to chime on their changes or improvements? Or is it more like a "Skunk Works" thing? MikeK: this is where you insert a comment about not messing with success. Then KevinW will make "one more call" to Cory looking for that edge. :D

Ready for tech...Hahaha. I'll be lucky if I have 'a' car to race when the season starts. The Lotus and the subaru are still down at this point :( and rules won't allow me to run the Tacoma, lol. I guess I could bring out my bone stock civic cx commuter, although that would be so slow it would not even be any fun.
Looking forward to see how well Kevin's car does this season with all of the changes. I haven't seen anyone else's car down at Kspeed for weeks at a time so I don't know if anyone else has anything up their sleeve :)

That's just my winter garage, nothing going on there. ;)

Lol, I need to get one of those too. I'll have to give them a call.

Just a reminder for Saturday Annual Tech!

I'll be there late, like 11:30. Looking forward to seeing everyone (who autocrosses)

If everything goes well, all my changes will make it seem like I'm driving a completely different car.

If it doesn't go well, I won't be making tech.

I took today and tomorrow off of work to 'attempt' to get mine ready but after a full day today I'm not thinking I'll be able to pull it off. I'm still so far away I'm hoping I make the first event :(

What else do I need to bring besides numbers, rule book cover, helmet and SM trophy?

Body armor.

TahoeWRX owns a sign shop and would most likely make you numbers / letters cheaper than anyone else could. just drop him a PM , or i could maybe text him for you, if you're interested.

or text me as i'll fall off the boards in a few weeks as usually .. :P

my car should be faster than before, as i've lost a tiny bit more paint , and I'm actually cleaning the dirt out of the car on occasion.. :lol:

I do need to double check my front end links, it feels like I've broken one again (29mm front sway + dirt driving = broken end links) and an alignment if i want to be competitive...

Who is going to make it out this weekend? I will be there.

Yes, need to test out some new bits on the MINI saturday, hopefully there is some test and tune time available amongst the school day.

There will be quite a bit, including for those of us who will be instructing.

Oh yes, plenty of T&T time. I'll see you guys there!

I'll be there Sunday only. Jeana is a maybe ... her C-section was just 4 weeks ago (on saturday) and she didn't feel to great when i took a turn really sharply last night... she says braking is fine, but sharps turns not exactly ..

she did get cleared by the doctor to drive 2 weeks ago but might need a little more healing time.

Course is set, ready to rock and roll!


If you get the line right, it's a blast! If you get it wrong, it will eat your lunch...

Or drink your milkshake? :)

Darn, that's not good! I'm not that great of a driver anyway and I'll be in the wife's Speed3 tomorrow :(

Had fun yesterday. Learned a few things too, "shuffle the wheel" and "Look where you want to go, not in front of your hood" were the two things I heard constantly haha, so hard to break the habits. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be taking my rex out to any other motorsport events any time soon. I learned that my setup SUCKS. My tires are horrible, stock suspension is a no no, and I care too much for my daily car to throw it around a course/track how I want to do it to be competitive with my time. Maybe I'll turn my integra into a track oriented car...hmmm.

That's not a bad idea...and it's possible that you could make it turn as good or better for less $$ than it would cost to do it in the subaru. There is a reason some high end exotics use unequal length double wishbone suspension :)

Oh, crazy day today too!!!
Cory, you held up to the stress well ;)

Stock suspension works for stock class with good tires...

But ya you need to feel comfortable out there in whatever you are driving whether thats cause of cash flow, extra car, setup , or pure on delusion that car can't break ( my style) ..

If you are worried about braking your car it will totally take youout of the zone, and ruin the fun

To be honest, a soft car on crappy tires is sorta the "ideal" setup if you want to learn to drive fast. Granted, stock subarus tend to be so pushy they're not that much fun to autocross... but it isn't a terrible platform to learn with.

I'd suggest sticking with it a little bit. The first 5-10 events, you'll find yourself figuring things out and reducing lap times by multiple seconds each run. Once you get used to the car and find that you're not improving tons every lap, then it's time to consider mods or switching to something else.

On the other hand, Integras are fun cars too. You can't really go wrong with that either. But again, stick with it for a bit before trying to build your car. Many of us went down that road and a) ended up taking longer to improve as drivers because we were trying to use mods to fix what was really driver error/inexperience, and b) spending lots of extra money because once we got better we figured out the mods we thought would help, didn't.

Round 1 results posted.

1st place! I'll enjoy it while it lasts. :lol:

Crazy weekend, but I had a great time. Good to knock some rust off. It is an interesting challenge to drive with intermittent power steering. :eek:

Thanks Cory, Dean, and everyone for keeping it together with all the hectic changes!

So... Kevin. What happened?

As long as it only goes out in the straights you should be fine.

I wish that would have been the case. Of course it was mostly on the sharp corners. :lol: