As part of my bench racer's league I told myself I was going to do a few events this summer. This is my third autoX event and it was a blast! 115° heat index sucked balls, but it sure made the tires sticky!
Trevor spent the night at my place saturday night after some beers, then woke up early and he, Anna, and I met up with Rosey and Rachael on the way down and met Matt D., Shawn (simulatedwood) and set up a little camp just off the staging lanes at DCTC. The facility is much better than I remember it (last time I was there was 11 years ago but I didn't race). It's a weaving network of circles, straights, grid-like blocks, and transitions inbetween. Since this was AutoX, most straights or corners had cones scattered strategically all over the place, so top speed for most of the event was around 40-45mph with a few spots a bit higher.
Trevor learning how to sp3ll:
Tent up, anna, speigs (rosey's vette buddy), and anna:
*touche on the shocker rach! I missed this at first, LOL!*
Staging lane behind us, if this were a straight we could run on it'd be fuuuun! midfield all behind us:
As I was working the starting line (everyone takes turns working!) I snapped a few pics. Rosey about to launch!
Trev tearing away from the line:
Me slowing down past the clock, swearing at my POS (but consistent) 47sec times:
I'm either serious, or pissed, I can't remember:
Shawn's car, trevor's parked in the background:
The last two autoX's I did I really focused on myself and just let the car do what it did, this time I wanted to really see what the car was doing and adjust accordingly. First up was reading tires and adjusting pressure. I started at 37/37 based on shawn's recommendation and watched the tires after every few runs. I ended up dropping it to about 35.5/35.5 and even might have gone 34.5/34.5 if I had more time to tweak and run, but the day ran short.
The other thing I did was datalogging on my car. I do this regularly on the street anyways, but the standalone datalogging setup for the EvoX is so awesome! i just plugged my tactrix 2.0 cable into my odb2 extended cable (nothing in the way of my feet, it's routed to my center console) and then just drive. Data is logged to a microSD card based on a preset xml file and then I just review later.
Interesting points:
-120°F ambient air temps (says the heat/sun-soaked car, sensor is behind the grill)
-peak coolant temp was 208°F, way hotter than I expected, no issues though.
-peak knock count was 3, but only in one spot, the car knocked under boost maybe 4x the whole day, just no knock on this super simple modded Shane tune for the new BBX.
-peak rpm was 8159, bouncing off the 8050 rpm limiter in first gear, oopsie.
-BBX is laggy in first gear, 25psi at like 5000 depending on conditions. Not the perfect autoX turbo (plus my setup for it is far from ideal) but I still love it!
-Small-ish PTE/Garrett FMIC that came on my car does a damn good job, MAT was usually within 10°F of ambient.
-my two step is too low, I didn't get time to adjust it. Typical start (I launched a few towards the end of the day) was 5500rpm, bogggggg to 2000, then back up.
You can see from just after I leave the line (0mph) to the end of the run @WOT and 57mph is about 47 seconds ('time' column), run entirely in first and second gear.
Anyways, I had a blast, the whole event is really semi-chaotic and a free-for-all, not like a fully organized race, this is just a test&tune, when you're working, run all you want or just sit and cry from heat exhaustion :P
Wish I would have been able to make it down there, but I couldn't get away from the family on Sunday...Kids I tell ya.
Any results up yet? Did Trevor back up all his talk? lol
It must have been setup quite a bit differently from the COM event last weekend, I was hitting the top of 2nd gear in the Lezbaru (~70-75mph) on some stretches, and my best run was a 1:12.X Time of the day was a 1:03.4.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scheides
I swing from the nuts of cold hard data. Anything less is a guess.
NIce pics scheides! It was alot of fun! Def sucked about the heat though, would have been alot more fun had it not been so hot! It was nice having two different style courses at DCTC fun to switch it up.
I actually stopped by an autox at the new Meadowlands Stadium a.k.a. new Giants Stadium. The parking lots are all brand spanking new. I didn't run because I'm still on my snow tires since I'm poor lol. Not worth it to me to hear my tires shreak and rip them apart. I've also got some knock in different spots so it wouldn't have been worth it.
Awesome pics! Tell Anna thank you for standing in that heat and takin some videos of us!
At first I took it easy and I was really sloppy. After awhile I kinda got the hang of it. On the big course in my car I ran a 42.5 where MattD ran a 41 in his car. The small course i ran a 28.5 where MattD ran 26's. I have a lot to learn and need a better suspension and tires! I dont recall what Brandon fast times were, but man his evo is insane fast thru the cones. There was 3 of us in his Evo and he dint know the course and messed up on the course and still pulled a 41 with him, mattd, and I in the car. Scheides and I had a bet of who would run faster. I think I won will see. Never got a chance to ride in Shawns X hopefully next time! Shawns damn fast with his X tho he was pulling some good times as well!
Thanks for riding along and giving me pointers Mattd, Brandon, and Ty!
Execellent Pictures and Video, It was so hot but It was sooo worth it. Whatching Trev, Scheides, Rosey and the Anna's progress throughout the day cutting time, you guys cut time nearly every run it seemed. That is what it is all about.
I was hoping to do a little coaching and some ride along's with you all as well but my work times were opposite everyones. I did get a ride along with scheides and that was a good time. Also thanks for letting me try the beaterx for a run, turbo isnt as bad as scheides makes it sound, it just requires a bit of anger on the start to get going. The shifting and 6 puck clutch is very nice and the suspension doesnt nearly pitch as bad as the stock setup. Id say a set of ZI Direzzas and you will be rocking a good 2 seconds off on the short course for sure.
The video is classic for me as Anna managed to catch my only dnf run for the day.. lol
We have to do this again next year for sure.
Shawn
It was hot, but well worth it. I had more fun coaching everyone than I did driving. I did a some runs in Trevor's and Rosey's cars just to see what I could get out of them compared to them, and they continued to pick up time throughout the day. I'm glad you all came out, hopefully you all get in at least one real event before the season ends.
For people not in the know, this was a test and tune event at DCTC for the local autocross club. You had to be a member to sign up for it and has very limited space. Two courses were set up and were individually timed. One was about 40-45 seconds long and the other was around 25 seconds long. It's a good time to do run after run, drive some different cars, let people drive your car, and overall learn to drive better.
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"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." -Mario Andretti
03 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tachyon
Every minute you spend in your Evo, not in boost, is a minute of your life you'll never get back.
For people not in the know, this was a test and tune event at DCTC for the local autocross club. You had to be a member to sign up for it and has very limited space. Two courses were set up and were individually timed. One was about 40-45 seconds long and the other was around 25 seconds long. It's a good time to do run after run, drive some different cars, let people drive your car, and overall learn to drive better.
Sounds like waaaay more fun than a stupid COM event that takes 9 hours to get in 6 runs when there are only 60 cars there....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scheides
I swing from the nuts of cold hard data. Anything less is a guess.
Sounds like waaaay more fun than a stupid COM event that takes 9 hours to get in 6 runs when there are only 60 cars there....
Maybe, but it costs more (membership + event) and has no competition. Yeah, your runs are timed, but do you know how you and your car stack up against similarly prepared cars? Nope. Some people don't care for that, but a lot of us do. 6 runs is about all you'll ever get in a day of autocross competition, and frankly in a local event that is a lot when comparing our club to the other clubs across the nation, so we are spoiled.
__________________
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." -Mario Andretti
03 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tachyon
Every minute you spend in your Evo, not in boost, is a minute of your life you'll never get back.
Maybe, but it costs more (membership + event) and has no competition. Yeah, your runs are timed, but do you know how you and your car stack up against similarly prepared cars? Nope. Some people don't care for that, but a lot of us do. 6 runs is about all you'll ever get in a day of autocross competition, and frankly in a local event that is a lot when comparing our club to the other clubs across the nation, so we are spoiled.
Well, it was a horribly organized event (last week's COM Auto-X), an hour between run groups of standing around doing nothing, wondering what the hell is going on and literally no one knowing what is going on for an hour at a time is a bit rediculous. Their speaker system was hard to hear if you were more than 50' away from it, that's pretty hard to hear when there are modded cars shooting up and down the track, nearly every one of them with loud exhaust.
I am sure if the MNAuto-X guys had a monkey running the event, it was probably run better/faster/smoother than that COM event. It was a blast, don't get me wrong, but there were a few points where I felt like leaving because everything was taking entirely too damn long.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scheides
I swing from the nuts of cold hard data. Anything less is a guess.
One was about 40-45 seconds long and the other was around 25 seconds long.
Yea like I said in my first post, one was about 50 seconds and the other was about 30
One thing I discovered about myself riding with shawn was that I really am not 100% in this for the competition. Maybe its a little bit of shell shock from my accident earlier this year and maybe its just my nature but if you wanna go fast you gotta really get some aggressive, aggressive inputs to the car (stab brakes, wheel way right, way straight, stab brakes, wheel way left etc) to get the car to truely rotate/dance around some of these cones. I really like the track part of this course and just like I've always thought I'd love to do an open-track day some day.
I do like a little competition but the smile on my face is what I'm after at these events, getting my personal times down and trading notes with people is just part of it (and I do love that part too!). Also, I'm glad I got Anna to come. She really didn't want to, but this is something so different from what people normally do with cars, its just legit awesome. I also love telling people we 'went racing' (my neighbor's brother-in-law for example) and they say, 'you watched who racing?' and I say 'WE went racing!' The look on their face is priceless. Facepalm on buying that ford explorer, I guess :P
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Originally Posted by Murlo26
I need to listen to Scheides more often i think :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by turbotalon1g
...I realized that I can't keep up my shit talking without anything to back it up.
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Originally Posted by JV
S2000: For those of us that know the Miata is the best car on the planet, but also want extra power and to not have to turn in our man cards.
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