Hey,
well after owning my car for almost two years i finially made my way to an auto-x. It was awesome. I ran in the novice class, against a few of my friends including a 03 Protege, 02 mustang, BMW 328i, SRT 4 and a few others. It was poring down rain, cold, and dark.

After five runs, i have relized a few new things:

1. I cant drive as well as i thought i could
2. my tires are crap, and you cant get any traction in the wet with almost bald tires.
3. my brakes suck
and 4. it is really hard to stay on course with all those damn orange cones everywhere.

So what's next? New tires, brakes, and another try.

------
pankopp :banana:

agh yes i hate those cones, so confusing, they give me nightmares

kill 'em all (the cones that is)

how did you do compared to your friends?

we all did about the same, protege and i both had close times, the the SRT-4 was the worst, his best time was a good 6 sec. behind mine.

SRT-4 was teh slow4r????!!!! :huh:


lol.

SRT-4 was teh slow4r????!!!! :huh:


lol.



No No No! Teh SRT-4 had already lapped the field and was going thru again to make you guys feel bettAr.

yeah, he felt bad, so he just kept on doing laps to let us belive that we are beating a SRT-4. It felt good. I even have documented pictues of my car in front of his SRT-4. :eek: I didnt think it was possible, but i quess miracles can happen!

no not really, he cant drive, and was having a ton of trouble geting traction. I thought it was kinda funny. :lol:

There was one STi there that was amazing. In one tight radius changing turn, every run the rear passanger wheel was a good six inches off the ground. It was cool. And sounded mean, one of the loudest cars there, right behind a second gen RX-7 with a chevy 350.

There was one STi there that was amazing. In one tight radius changing turn, every run the rear passanger wheel was a good six inches off the ground. It was cool. And sounded mean, one of the loudest cars there, right behind a second gen RX-7 with a chevy 350.

Why do I think that was Tom Hoppe? :D

kill 'em all (the cones that is)

how did you do compared to your friends?

leave those poor cones alone!!

http://animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/students/awinfrey/coneindex.htm

YEA!!!!! Another driver see's the light! Congrats on your first Autocross- no matter where you finished. Driver skill is the biggest improvement that can be made. Go back next month and ask Throppe (More than likely the awesome STI driver) to ride with you your first run and give you some pointers. He might, he might not, but it's worth asking.

Next is tires. If it's going to be an Autocross/ track only set of tires get either some r-compounds or really good street tires on a spare set of wheels. Otherwise it's really up to how long you need your tires to last. After that sky's the limit with suspension tuning and power mods. have fun.

Oh... and/or Miranda!!! After all.. it is her car. :)

Wrong duo, KC. It was me and Joel. :)

Karen

AHhh.... :) What are you doing down in Hotlanta? :)

Car whoring, as usual. ;) Plus, instructing at a novice school. And destroying timing lights. :(

Karen

That was a whole lot of fun yesterday! Very tough to see the course in the rain like that, kudos to you guys for sticking it out in the wet. I have a few friends that wussed out and didn't want to drive in the rain.

I think I rode with your friend in the SRT-4 one run. I saw him get very lost out there on course (like I said, hard to see) and I offered to show him where it all was. He definitely wasn't aggresive enough in places, but when I showed him where the turns were before the slalom, he seemed to get the course.

Oh, and your brakes sucking is most likely a direct result of the tires sucking. Honestly, if you're dying to spend money, just get better tires. You don't really need to though, just keep coming out and driving, that's really the best thing.

And yeah, Joel's car on those Hoosier rain tires was unbelievably fast!

-Jeff Hunt

http://www.xecu.net/kiirenza/autox/pics/joel.jpg

It was wet. :)

Karen

Why does it always seem to rain down there?

I would really try and make it to an autox school, if that wasn't one. If you are a newb they are SOOO helpful (at least it was for me).

KC,
I think ToMiranda took the weekend off or something. They didn't show to the NCAC due to her car being "underprepped" or some such lame excuse. :p I don't know that they were planning on going to the Atlanta autox but I forgot to ask when I called Tom yesterday. :)

yaeh it wasnt a suprise that the SRT-4 guy didnt drive very agressive. He always brags about how fast his car is and how awesome it is. (suprise suprise)

yeah i also got a little lost on my first run. Then i DNF on the next two becuse i kept missing this one part. I was really hard to see, mostly becuse of my wiper blades, but also the rain.

About the tires, i could get no traction. Half of the turns, i would oversteer like crazy. Also the ABS sucked. But it wasnt a surpise, i do have very worn down, cheap sumitomos. so i quess i had it comming to me.

But it was still fun. :disco:

About the tires, i could get no traction. Half of the turns, i would oversteer like crazy.

Don't hear THAT too much around here! :lol:

Get some more events under your belt and then get the tires! No more autox events here for the year though... :(

Hey, my very first autox this past summer was at the same lot at Turner Field, and in the pouring rain as well! I wish I could have made it to the last few events but I've got to make my almost bald tires last as long as possible. Being jobless is craptastic :(

Hoosier Wet Radials rock. It was my 2nd FTD ever (the first came in a rain-shortened event). The course designer said we were lifting the front inside wheel also, but I never saw it. I hope not as that will mean 2 diff replacements instead of 1.

Joel

yeah, it was a lot of fun watching your car. sounded great. I cant wait till the next event. :lol: i need to practice.

pankopp