2fast's Autocross Thread

[M-Sport fan]

yea i never really pay too much attention to their times to be honest. but i wonder if it has anything to do with that surface and the kart balance. at our other venues he was a bit more ahead of the field. it could have also been running badly this weekend. in my first post you can see one of the events he was in he was 4+ seconds ahead

I was thinking the same thing, but, they do have MANY more (stickier) compound tires to choose from than the cars do, although I guess IF the surface is 'polished' enough, it becomes a great equalizer.

 

[2fast]

This is a video i put together from our last weekend of racing. I wanted to put something together that made more people want to come out and experience what i enjoy so much. So if you are reading this and have never raced autocross give it a watch!

[video=youtube;SU6UQSJp1ks]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU6UQSJp1ks[/video]

 

[2fast]

A few photos from last weekend.

 

[Brick]

beautiful pics. Seeing how you love autocross, I have a question for you. What do you do with all of the down time? For me, it was a really long day for 4-5 minutes of run time. How many runs do you get in?

 

[M-Sport fan]

beautiful pics. Seeing how you love autocross, I have a question for you. What do you do with all of the down time? For me, it was a really long day for 4-5 minutes of run time. How many runs do you get in?

Your run group does not REQUIRE you to work the 'cone stations' when you are not running??

 

[A FISTer]

beautiful pics. Seeing how you love autocross, I have a question for you. What do you do with all of the down time? For me, it was a really long day for 4-5 minutes of run time. How many runs do you get in?

Personally I find my autocross days to be always filled with either driving, playing with tire pressure, marshalling and just shooting the shit with other car guys. The only times where it was a bit unpleasant was if the weather was really cold or the one time cops shut down the event for no good reason.

Most guys are really nice and will let you ride along for a run if they're not competing for a top spot.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

 

[2fast]

beautiful pics. Seeing how you love autocross, I have a question for you. What do you do with all of the down time? For me, it was a really long day for 4-5 minutes of run time. How many runs do you get in?

Our region gets a lot of runs, usually 8-10 an event. I work registration this year so I get my job done early. Then I spen time helping others with ride alongs, tips, and instructional runs.

I'm a car guy through and through so I can chat cars all day. Today I helped do some boost leak tests and a suspension swap on some Speed3's. I enjoy being out all day. The day is what you make it and I'm a competitive motherfucker

 

[awwwww_shift]

... or the one time cops shut down the event for no good reason.

uh, whut? What kinda site do you guys use where cops can shut the event down? If proper sanctions are there for the event, and the site has been rented through the correct sources(I'm assuming all solo events are properly organized at this point if there's a professional timing setup and proper cones and such.)

I've never heard of an event being shut down by the authorities. I've been at a few events where police have showed up on a whim(or a noise complaint, but that's a different story), and one time where we convinced an officer to run the course in the squad with the lights on... that was hilarious....

 

[A FISTer]

uh, whut? What kinda site do you guys use where cops can shut the event down? If proper sanctions are there for the event, and the site has been rented through the correct sources(I'm assuming all solo events are properly organized at this point if there's a professional timing setup and proper cones and such.)

I've never heard of an event being shut down by the authorities. I've been at a few events where police have showed up on a whim(or a noise complaint, but that's a different story), and one time where we convinced an officer to run the course in the squad with the lights on... that was hilarious....

From what I understand, it was a miscommunication between the organizer and property management for that particular event. They've held their events at that location for several years, and still do so to this day so it appears to be an isolated incident.

From what I saw, everybody was respectful during the event so I was surprised that the cops actually showed up. The event had professional timing, cones etc. and are always very well run so it was very unfortunate that it was shut down.

I would love to see a cop car run a course! Local PD has switched over to the Ford Explorer though so I don't think they'd do very well lol

 

[KKaWing]

Local PD has switched over to the Ford Explorer though so I don't think they'd do very well lol

Who knows... they might end up on a roll... or two

 

[Jonessw20]

Good thread! Its amazing how fast these cars can be with just a wheel and tire setup. It looked like you were hauling ass in that slalom! Im in the same boat as you. One 1st place pax and 10 spot raw. And another event I was 4th in pax with a different region and .5 from 1st. Hoping to make as many events as possible this yr and go to nationals in september. Recently been wondering how much the shocks and sway bar upgrade would be worth. The car just seems so good as it is.

 

[2fast]

Good thread! Its amazing how fast these cars can be with just a wheel and tire setup. It looked like you were hauling ass in that slalom! Im in the same boat as you. One 1st place pax and 10 spot raw. And another event I was 4th in pax with a different region and .5 from 1st. Hoping to make as many events as possible this yr and go to nationals in september. Recently been wondering how much the shocks and sway bar upgrade would be worth. The car just seems so good as it is.

yea totally. i don't plan on changing anything this season. probably won't do shocks until these ones blow. MAYBE i'll try a bar next year, but as you said i really enjoy the car as it is now, it does everything i want.

 

[2fast]

So BIG weekend for the FiST.

I raced at the local drag strip last night to see what the car would do. From all the tests i see 14.9-15.1 as the times put down so my goal was a mid to low 15 since i'm in utah at 4500ft above sea level. I was extremely surprised to put down a 15.1 first run of the night. i wasn't able to better it afterwards but i was still stoked on the time. i was expecting 15.4 or something.



today was day 1 of the double header weekend for autocross. I'm still running 50psi in the rear. not 100% sure what to do up front. My fastest time of the day was a glory run, first run after lunch when the tires were cool and i knew the course. after that i was .3 seconds off every time. I feel like these tires work best cold, but others have told me they don't really believe that. anyone else have opinions on heating up re71's?

Either way i got first in pax again, super stoked about that. Hopefully i can pull it together again tomorrow.

 

[Reaper]

RE71s work best warm but not overheated. It takes less to overheat them than say a Hankook RS. Maybe also less than a Rival, but I don't know about the latest compound.

I spent 12 runs today trying to determine optimum pressures. From roll over monitoring, I find 34 to 35 is good on the fronts. But I tried both excessively high and excessively low rear pressures and never did change the performance a bit. All of my lap time variations could be traced to how well i drove on the particular lap. This on a box stocker with camber slop removed, 1/8 toe out and 205/45 16's on 7's. I guess I'm not going to get any significant rotation unless I stick some rear Koni Sports on it.

 

[2fast]

RE71s work best warm but not overheated. It takes less to overheat them than say a Hankook RS. Maybe also less than a Rival, but I don't know about the latest compound.

I spent 12 runs today trying to determine optimum pressures. From roll over monitoring, I find 34 to 35 is good on the fronts. But I tried both excessively high and excessively low rear pressures and never did change the performance a bit. All of my lap time variations could be traced to how well i drove on the particular lap. This on a box stocker with camber slop removed, 1/8 toe out and 205/45 16's on 7's. I guess I'm not going to get any significant rotation unless I stick some rear Koni Sports on it.

i'm running the exact same setup with slight toe in, and depending on grip levels i'm usually between 35-40psi front, but i feel like there are people way better at setting up tires, i'm more of a driver than a setup artist.

maybe it just a coincidence that my best runs lately have been first run out of the afternoon when things were cold...

 

[Reaper]

I doubt it's a coincidence. They only start off cold. The FiST is hard on tires when driven hard. Within just a few corners, your tires are probably in a comfortable zone and getting progressively hotter. The average temperature of your first run tires might be quite acceptable. My fronts gained 4psi during the first run, indicating how much warming took place during that run.

I had a lot of runs yesterday. My times improved as I recognized and corrected errors. But eventually they peaked and dropped off enough that I could no longer quite match my best runs. I assume that was temperature related, and it was happening to most everybody. Spraying would no doubt help, but I didn't do any. I would for a points event.

 

[2fast]

Yea today i set my fastest lap by a bit on my first run in the afternoon again. I was stuck at the exact same times the rest of my runs by thousands of a second. On my last run i gave the tires a BIG water down and let them cool as much as i could and I was able to find .1 for my final time. It was a long sweeper style course so i could only muster a 3rd place behind two drivers in the same ES toyota mr2

I also feel like my tire pressures are great when the tires are cool and they are a little lower. Then when they get hot it feels like I have too much sidewall roll, shouldn't that feel backwards since the pressure is going up?

 

[Solort]

Yea today i set my fastest lap by a bit on my first run in the afternoon again. I was stuck at the exact same times the rest of my runs by thousands of a second. On my last run i gave the tires a BIG water down and let them cool as much as i could and I was able to find .1 for my final time. It was a long sweeper style course so i could only muster a 3rd place behind two drivers in the same ES toyota mr2

I also feel like my tire pressures are great when the tires are cool and they are a little lower. Then when they get hot it feels like I have too much sidewall roll, shouldn't that feel backwards since the pressure is going up?

I have found that the tires seem their best on the first run unless temp is less than 60 F. On days greater than 80 F, I water the tread and sidewalls after every run (even if they are not that warm yet) because I want the temps to stay as close to that magical first run. At Nationals, some people have a second set they put on for their 3rd run so they get that first run magic...

And I always bleed down my pressures to my starting pressure before every run to keep pressures consistant.

 

[2fast]

So i've started spraying off my tires between runs with water and it's MUCH BETTER.

We have had a few events since my last post and i've been keeping the streak of top 3 in pax going strong.

It has been around or over 100 here in Utah and i've been noticing the Fiesta get a little hot. It's not fully overheating or giving me a warning sign but i think i'm going to modify the fan shroud to allow more air to pass through. I have a track day at the end of the month that i hope i can keep the car cool during.

Our local track does this thing called Wide Open Wednesday (Utah Motorsports Campus) where for 25 bucks you get to take laps around the track. They cone off the lines so you are forced to slow down which is annoying, but i'll take that for 25$ track laps.

[video=youtube;MVi1UaMVTzw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVi1UaMVTzw&t=57s[/video]

Here is from yesterday at our newest venue. It needs some work but it is a really fun mini road course. I was able to take 1st in Pax and 6th in Raw.

[video=youtube;DzsCsZBci1o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzsCsZBci1o[/video]

 

[Business6]

Hah! I just happened to stumble across this thread after Stef told me about you I thought those names looked familiar on the SCCA results! I used to autocross every chance I had but had an engine blow about 7 years ago and haven't found the courage to do it again even after getting into Miatas; it's really disappointing to say I never autocrossed them.

Global One looks even more intense with the gopro attached to your helmet and the grass looks much taller than the last time I was out there for photos five years ago. I'd love to come out and watch again, probably for the next event at Legacy, as it is still in my blood.

Damn fine driving and good luck keeping the streak alive!