Phreak's 2017 Autocross Season

[Phreak]

Hey Everybody!

General Update:
So far this year there has been 4 cup events Of those events, I just wasn't ready for the first one, but was able to get the other 3 in... so I am actually on track to get a proper season in.

On top of that, I just did Nationals), and I took the top HS spot. One of the neat thing was another very talented Fiesta ST driver came out all the way across the country to compete. So it was really cool to have that added level of competition at the event! I really want to plan to do more of these type of events in the future, maybe even a few larger US ones next year.

Goals For This Year
One of my goals for this year is to break into the top 15 for overall PAX... and that is a really ambitious goal given the level of talent of our local club. The events typically have 100+ competitors showing up, and I've really had to sharpen up my driving to the max have any kind of success here.

Really achieving my goal for this year is going to take up-ing my game to the next level. I am not sure I am there yet, but I am sure going to give it a shot.

Anyway, I hope you guys follow along... I will be trying to post some photos and videos as I go. If you have questions, feel free to post them up!

 

[tiggerbren]

Thanks for sharing. I'm in the process of setting up an HS autoxer myself. I'm putting yellow Koni's on the rear and front this weekend. I'm still not sure what I'm going to set them to.. Also in the mail are a set of 16" Rota Slipstreams and 205/50/16 RE71r's. Next week I'm taking it in for an alignment to see how much camber I can get out of the fronts. I won't be messing with sway bars. I want to see how it does with the shocks, tires and alignment first. Last weekend I swapped Fiestas for one run with another guy in my region. He has the setup I mentioned plus front sway and exhaust. Not only did I put down my best time of the day, I loved the way it drove and think it would be great on the street as well.

What is your current alignment? And what tire pressures do you run? How is the ride on the street with your rear shocks at full stiff?

 

[mediumstingray]

Thanks for the update, wondered what had happened to you! Another HS autox'r here, but I don't get out there enough to be competitive in our local standings. I added 16x7 sparco asseto garas and the same tires as you since my last event so eager to see how they run compared to the stock setup.

How is your setup currently when driving on the street? I got a noticeably increased ride quality by going to the taller tires on the smaller wheel, wondering how the shocks affect you on the daily.

 

[Phreak]

Thanks for sharing. I'm in the process of setting up an HS autoxer myself. I'm putting yellow Koni's on the rear and front this weekend. I'm still not sure what I'm going to set them to.. Also in the mail are a set of 16" Rota Slipstreams and 205/50/16 RE71r's. Next week I'm taking it in for an alignment to see how much camber I can get out of the fronts. I won't be messing with sway bars. I want to see how it does with the shocks, tires and alignment first. Last weekend I swapped Fiestas for one run with another guy in my region. He has the setup I mentioned plus front sway and exhaust. Not only did I put down my best time of the day, I loved the way it drove and think it would be great on the street as well.

What is your current alignment? And what tire pressures do you run? How is the ride on the street with your rear shocks at full stiff?

I'd have to dig it up, but my alignment guy couldn't coax much out of the stock setup for negative camber. I believe he gave me more toe in... I really would have to dig up the printout to see.

For tire pressures, I've been running lower and lower pressures... right now I am doing 38.5psi on the front and 34psi in the rear (and bleeding off exactly to these values between runs). Depending on the course, if I want to get some rotation out of the rear, I will up the back to about 35~36psi. Also on my first run out, I will start it off with 37 in the front (still 34 in the rear).

There is no doubt in my mind that if I can get a slight touch of rotation in the rear and ride the edge of traction, my times are faster. I don't know what it is about this car, but it loves to be right on the edge of losing control when you drive it. This is one of the reasons I haven't touched the sway bars. A stiffer bar up front will lead to plowing, which the Fiesta doesn't really do... and I love that about this car. A rear sway bar is going to lead to the back end breaking free more often, having the rear end more flexible lets it hang on a bit more in my opinion. Kind of like low profile tires... they give you great feedback and are direct, but they break away easier than a taller profile tire.

They key to driving it well... you have to have big balls. If you hit a slalom and hesitate or slow down, it is spin city for you. On the other hand if you hit the same slalom too fast and then stab a the brakes followed by stomping the gas, it will tuck and scoot around cones like a champ. The traction control in this car is the gas pedal, haha.

Thanks for the update, wondered what had happened to you! Another HS autox'r here, but I don't get out there enough to be competitive in our local standings. I added 16x7 sparco asseto garas and the same tires as you since my last event so eager to see how they run compared to the stock setup.

How is your setup currently when driving on the street? I got a noticeably increased ride quality by going to the taller tires on the smaller wheel, wondering how the shocks affect you on the daily.

Driving on the street is pretty decent in this car, it is fun to toss around, but not a bone breaker by any means. I really have no problem at all with it as a daily. If I had to get a bit picky, the RE-71R's are noisy compared to the OE tires on the highway, but around town they seem pretty comfortable to drive on.

 

[Phreak]

Opps, double post...

 

[tiggerbren]

I'd have to dig it up, but my alignment guy couldn't coax much out of the stock setup for negative camber. I believe he gave me more toe in... I really would have to dig up the printout to see.

For tire pressures, I've been running lower and lower pressures... right now I am doing 38.5psi on the front and 34psi in the rear (and bleeding off exactly to these values between runs). Depending on the course, if I want to get some rotation out of the rear, I will up the back to about 35~36psi. Also on my first run out, I will start it off with 37 in the front (still 34 in the rear).

There is no doubt in my mind that if I can get a slight touch of rotation in the rear and ride the edge of traction, my times are faster. I don't know what it is about this car, but it loves to be right on the edge of losing control when you drive it. This is one of the reasons I haven't touched the sway bars. A stiffer bar up front will lead to plowing, which the Fiesta doesn't really do... and I love that about this car. A rear sway bar is going to lead to the back end breaking free more often, having the rear end more flexible lets it hang on a bit more in my opinion. Kind of like low profile tires... they give you great feedback and are direct, but they break away easier than a taller profile tire.

They key to driving it well... you have to have big balls. If you hit a slalom and hesitate or slow down, it is spin city for you. On the other hand if you hit the same slalom too fast and then stab a the brakes followed by stomping the gas, it will tuck and scoot around cones like a champ. The traction control in this car is the gas pedal, haha.

The rear shocks at full stiff are a little bumpy over speed bumps, but I barely even notice it otherwise.



Driving on the street is pretty decent in this car, it is fun to toss around, but not a bone breaker by any means. I really have no problem at all with it as a daily. If I had to get a bit picky, the RE-71R's are noisy compared to the OE tires on the highway, but around town they seem pretty comfortable to drive on.

If you get a chance to dig up your alignment numbers I'd be interested. I'll be using one of the only guys who does race car alignments in town and he didn't seem like he wanted to give me toe out if I wasn't trailering. Might be able to talk him into just a hair.

This is my first season with the car and doing any kind of racing. I've noticed what you mentioned- the throttle is the traction control. The lift oversteer is impressive and it'll straighten itself back up with some gas. I'm still working on the nuances of this but am improving.

I'll probably start very stiff in the back since I'm not really bothered by bumps these day. And I'd be surprised if the RE71r's are louder than the Federals I'm running now.

 

[thePete]

Hey you're local. Congrats on the race season.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Phreak]

BUMP: So race day is tomorrow

This is my first race in a while so hopefully I am not too rusty! Going to be on older tires as well, I already wore the outsides off so I had to flip them inside-out already. They have a few events worth on them before they are corded though. They were hooking up really nicely at the last event I used them for, gotta love these 71R's!

If you get a chance to dig up your alignment numbers I'd be interested.

I Looked high and low, but I couldn't seem to find my alignment sheet anywhere for you. No idea where it has gone, if I do come across it I will post it up of course.

 

[mediumstingray]

Good luck!

 

[Phreak]

Bump: Update

So results are in, Not the results I was aiming for, but I also kind of feel there wasn't anything I could have done about it. The course was really fun, but in the end my Fiesta just didn't have the grunt to take full advantage of what it had to offer. I was just foot flat to the floor begging the car to accelerate for most of the course. I was pretty envious of some of the power cars, haha.

Anyway, aside from that there were some positives. One thing I've been working on is trying to get in consistent runs right on the edge of the cars limit. For this event (without considering the cone penalties on 2 of the dirty runs), I actually managed to get all 6 of my runs within a narrow range of 0.37 seconds. For the 4 clean runs, just a 0.336s difference. I was really pleased how tight and consistent I was able to run for the day.

Going forward I am not really sure what to do, I am starting to feel like my car isn't competitive overall for large venue events and I've taken it as far as it will go.

Anyway, just ideas for now... I will probably finish of the season with the Fiesta before I make and decisions

 

[tiggerbren]

My region had two events weekend before last. It was my first time to try out my new setup of konis, 16" wheels with re71rs and an alignment. Also my first event not racing as a novice. Two weeks prior I took a two day autox driving school. It was one on one instruction taught by guys who have all won the nationals. 95% of the course was focused on how to look ahead and drive a course that you're barely familiar with. It was a lot of seat time and very helpful.

So on Saturday I got to put it all to the test. I had memorized the track on Friday and could drive it in my head before I ever saw it in real life. I ended up winning my combined street class and got the 2nd best PAX out of roughly 70. That was a quantum leap above anything I've done so far in this, my first season of autox. Eyebrows were raised for sure. [video=youtube;KIcbxToiouA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIcbxToiouA[/video] Here's the run that did me so well. Doesn't look extremely fast but it's the smoothest line I think I've ever driven, and they say smooth is fast.

On Sunday at the second event I didn't do nearly as well, and after Saturday I was really hoping to pull off something similar. We usually run the course in the opposite direction on the second day. I hadn't had a lot of time to obsess over this version. I could get through it in my head but hadn't been doing it over and over. I trailed the pack all day and never had the magic run that I needed. It was the more experienced drivers who got me that day. I got 6th in my combined class and 10th PAX. Not bad, but way behind the previous day.

 

[Phreak]

Cool video, looks like you had a lot of fun!

I like the course, it is a nice mix of elements

 

[Phreak]

BUMP: So I've got another event coming up next Sunday!

We were in the midst of a heat wave (me, my car... both terrible at handling the heat, haha) and I kind of knew the course wasn't going to favor my car anyway.

This event the temps are going to be a lot cooler, maybe even some rain? Rain would be welcomed by me for sure, I love running in the rain, Rain for me is the great equalizer!

My goal for this event is to try and get 97/100 points

 

[Phreak]

So the event went well. The course was a lot of fun, and some great competition!

One thing that was fairly obvious though was the dramatic change from my morning runs to afternoon runs as the temps went way up. Sections I was powering through on the morning runs with ease turned into sections where my foot was buried and the car was a total dog. I actually felt I ran better lines in the afternoon, but my times were nearly 2 seconds slower than the morning runs. I always knew the car was affected by the heat, but being able to compare on the exact same course where temps increased as much as they did on this day was really valuable information.

Results in the end were good

I managed to get more than the points I wanted, so I am pretty happy with the results

 

[bustervic]

Curious what the temps were? Also, you had 93 cars at a CGY event!!! Wow.

 

[eglove]

Curious what the temps were? Also, you had 93 cars at a CGY event!!! Wow.

He's in Vancouver now, so probably 93 cars there

 

[bustervic]

He's in Vancouver now, so probably 93 cars there

Ahhh, yes. that isn't surprising then.