Autocross Season Begins! Stead Airport 4/17, 4/18

[Kostamojen]

Ooh, I didnt know that nobody was in ST-S

[tysonK]

that is Scott's camera.

[tysonK]

Dean and Scott:

Being 5 plus seconds behind you two what is a reasonable amount of time you think I should be able to make up with better driving? Last season I was about 2.5 or 3.5 seconds off Scott's times at the end of the season.

Dean you said there was a 53 in your car but not in you maybe jokingly. I just want to find the limits of my car. Plus I can't afford the WHOLE STX package right now, only the Koni's then nothing else for probably the rest of the season.


and as side note:

No one is in D-Stock and I am buying the Koni's maybe I should go back
to stock. Maybe I should hone my skills in D-Stock? But I really like driving on the 17's and being in the class with you two.

edit: whoa I just looked at the PAX good job SECCS!

[Jerry C]

Damn!! We missed it.
Got up at 4:30 am Sat. morning, left the house at 5:15 am. Reno here we come!! Get on E/B 20 and it is raining pretty good. No traffic so we are scooting along pretty quickly. As we near the 4000' marker I can see flashing amber lights ahead. Damn! its 2 CalTrans trucks also E/B. By the time we get to the 5000' marker it is snowing heavily. We finally turned around, for safety reasons, just E/of the Washington turn off. We stopped at the vista point and waited for 20mins. to see if it would let up. No such luck, in fact it got worse.
Hope you guys had Fun!!
Jerry C

[sperry]

Originally Posted by tysonK

Dean and Scott:

Being 5 plus seconds behind you two what is a reasonable amount of time you think I should be able to make up with better driving? Last season I was about 2.5 or 3.5 seconds off Scott's times at the end of the season.

Dean you said there was a 53 in your car but not in you maybe jokingly. I just want to find the limits of my car. Plus I can't afford the WHOLE STX package right now, only the Koni's then nothing else for probably the rest of the season.


and as side note:

No one is in D-Stock and I am buying the Koni's maybe I should go back
to stock. Maybe I should hone my skills in D-Stock? But I really like driving on the 17's and being in the class with you two.

edit: whoa I just looked at the PAX good job SECCS!

I'd say you should be able to make up 3 or 4 seconds on driving alone. All the crap Dean and I have done it for getting those last few tenths. Good tires and lots of seat time and you should be up there, especially considering the great PAX value STX has. Once you get those Konis on and adjusted to your springs, that thing will rail.

[tysonK]

cool that's good news.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

I'd say you should be able to make up 3 or 4 seconds on driving alone. All the crap Dean and I have done it for getting those last few tenths. Good tires and lots of seat time and you should be up there, especially considering the great PAX value STX has. Once you get those Konis on and adjusted to your springs, that thing will rail.

Go back and look at the list of upgrades in order we made a while back. The overwhelming winner for best mod was seat time! IMHO you will learn to drive better more quickly the closer your car is to stock, crappy tires and all.

Stock stuff forces you to drive smothly to go fast. If the only thing you have done to kick you out of DS is wheels, 16" wheels and NDS may not be to bad an option with John's struts. Nothing keeps you from comparing times if we are in different classes.

In addition to keeping out of reach of Scott clawing at my heals, I am endeavoring to beat the Evanses and Lucas and be in the top 20% raw. Yes, there was a 53 in the car Sunday, but the driver couldn't find it. I know where I made mistakes that cost me those tenths. Do you?

How many seconds? Don't know, 2-4 maybe? Lets all RNP Sat. afternoon and swap cars and find out... Remember lat year. I drove my stock WRX on DK's Kumhos and ran a 44.8 vs. Scott's 44.5, John's 44.3, and your 48.0.

No matter what, don't get discouraged. Unless I am mistaken, I now have about 10,000 track miles, and maybe 300 autocross runs under my belt, and I know I can drive better than I do, so I'll keep trying. I'm just hopping you youngins don't catch me to quick.

[tysonK]

I wasn't discouraged. I guess I was just wondering how much impact the mods had on your cars(of course I know basically what the mods did). I know that if you guys go to nationals it is likely that you would need those mods to compete with other people.

It's good to hear your takes on it all. At first, I did feel a like my car was a bit too weak for my class. But now after hearing you speak from experience I don't feel like I am at much of a mechanical disadvantage. Although I can see where some more low-end torque from a decent tune would have helped me.

[LetItRev]

This leads me to a question. Can someone post a link where I can see what mods determine different classes? Like what mods can be done and still be considered stock?

Also, I can only make about 5 of the scheduled race days this year. What is the cost to compete and is it now to late to jump in?

Thanks,

Franz

[Dean]

Originally Posted by tysonK

I wasn't discouraged. I guess I was just wondering how much impact the mods had on your cars(of course I know basically what the mods did). I know that if you guys go to nationals it is likely that you would need those mods to compete with other people.

It's good to hear your takes on it all. At first, I did feel a like my car was a bit too weak for my class. But now after hearing you speak from experience I don't feel like I am at much of a mechanical disadvantage. Although I can see where some more low-end torque from a decent tune would have helped me.

From a performance perspective, Nate said the biggest single power change came from the reflash, not the up-pipe, Turbo back, etc.. Now could the reflash have done as much without the others first, probably not quite. On handling, start with the struts, and go from there, or not...

DS, or not DS, that is the question....

My first 3000 or so track miles were on the stock suspension on my A4. Yes, along the lines I did tires, brakes, and a reflash, but nothing forced me to be smooth more than that relatively soft suspension. You could skip John's stuff and learn a lot in NDS on 16s & stock suspension... Ask Debbie.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by LetItRev

This leads me to a question. Can someone post a link where I can see what mods determine different classes? Like what mods can be done and still be considered stock?

Also, I can only make about 5 of the scheduled race days this year. What is the cost to compete and is it now to late to jump in?

Thanks,

Franz

Never to late! Until you get seat time, class is not really important. You can run morning or afternoon if you don't want points, and you can still compare your times with anyone you choose.

What class? I am not going to reproduce what so many others have already done... http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...hreadid=174189 or
http://www.subrew.com/

$20/day for members, $30 for non-members. Membership = $55 & includes Sports Car magazine. You make the call. People are always willing to help, or instruct, all you have to do is ask...

[Kevin M]

Originally Posted by Kostamojen

Ooh, I didnt know that nobody was in ST-S

There were 2 entries, but you would have obliterated them. I should have run in STS (that's what my car is built to) but I would lose points potentially from street tire class. I think I'm going to go ahead and stay in NSM next weekend, since I finished 10th in Nxx despite having a fuxored alignment, tiny rear sway bar, and an awful PAX. I would have been in contention had my car been in better shape and I was running STS PAX.

[Kevin M]

Lots of great words of wisdom for the inexperienced in this thread Dean, thanks. One of the reasons I've held off this long on seriously modding my car is the fact that I realized I wasn't able to get 100% of its potential as it was. right now at this moment I think I am within .5-1 sec of what my car is capable of on an absolute, but realistic scale on most courses. At least, I am when the front wheels are in agreeance as to which way is "forward" and I put the new sway bar on. But I often have this discussion with Nate myself- if I want to have a faster, more competitive car, I should ditch my Prodrive stuff and build some coilovers. And he's right- I could build a basic set of GC sleeves on some AGX or Konis and get close to a second faster- but I wouldn't be learning how to be fast. Right now my car is responsive, but it can be upset by poor driving, so it's to my long term benefit to keep trying to be smooth on a less forgiving car. Autocross is where I try to be smooth- racetracks are for goofing around and trying new things. Tyson, if you're willing to get some competitive tires to run in NDS, with or without the Konis, it will make it a lot more likely that you will win your class (although, weren't John and Patty's kids running their old WRX in DS?). But anyways, your class standings won't tell you if you are improving as a driver. I personally would get the Konis, stay in STX, and keep having fun. I don't think I'm being very mean to say you don't have much chance in STX, but that doesn't mean you can't improve greatly over the season. And driving a WRX on springs, struts, and big sway bars is a whole lot more fun than doing it on stock suspension.

[LetItRev]

Thanks for the links and advice Dean. I'll check it all out.

[dknv]

More advice from a former D-stocker:
I think those Konis will help!

Seat time!, even as a passenger (opportunity is back this year). Something I did 2 years ago was run every chance I had, including Afternoon option for no points, & fun runs. Yes, you'll use up tires faster, but if faster is what you want to go, then there's a cost to doing so.

Also what has helped me was asking for advice from several experienced and fast drivers; not just 1 or 2, but from anyone who I thought drove well, and would spare me the time. Do course walks with them and listen to what they have to say.

Anyone who may want to run in D-stock this year (with potentially few other competitors): I have my wrx 16" wheels in my garage, and I plan to offload them.

[dknv]

Originally Posted by Dean

$20/day for members, $30 for non-members. Membership = $55 & includes Sports Car magazine.

SCCA membership in Reno Region is $65. (We have a $10 regional fee; which is lower than most regions, who average $15 regional fee.)

SCCA membership also includes personal injury insurance up to $1M, if something happens to you.

New WRX/STi purchases includes a free SCCA membership! Send in the free membership card that should have been in your glovebox, and it is good for 1 year.

[sybir]

Pictures =


Thanks again for the hospitality, guys (and gal)

[dknv]

OK, we (registration) blew it at the Saturday Drivers' school.

While we collected student names on a paper list, we did not have most of the students fill out a registration card.

Please, if you attended Drivers school on Saturday and/or the Sunday Points event, PM me your address & email, to be added to the renoscca groups maillist.

I need to get this information to Patty Evans (membership) and Jim Gandy (former newsletter editor, who would like to make sure you get a copy of the May newsletter).

TIA!