Well I went to Spokane for a lil AutoX Action...

There were 136 competitors I ran 36th fastest RAW time. My car was bumped into street mod because of the Carbon Fiber hood which put me in SM. I still rocked though for what I got; I am not changing my hood back just so I can win in the class I should be in I told em'.

RAW Times - http://autosportsnorthwest.org/20060430fast_times.txt The FSAE were college built formula racecars they were testing - basically rockets, should have seen them, I really wanted to get my hands on one to drive! They were hitting up to 75MPH in 3rg gear @ 11k rpms.

Fastest by class - I am in SM http://autosportsnorthwest.org/20060430class.txt All the cars ahead of me were faster better setup vehicles, but I drove well and held my ground for street tires. Cody is their fastest and he has a modified WRX with front mount and everything done on his rig, that is the kinda car I am working at beating in my tC. 3 seconds? I can do it. I think race tires and port/polish along with my other mods is going to make that difference. Grip/putting down the power is where I am losing it.

As well as a couple of photos from the event - I snapped an action one off the video camera sorry for the quality on that one!:

http://www.coppermine18.com/autox/spokane

 

always remember, its a driver's race. :] good to see more people autocrossing! putting your parts to use! it always annoys me when people say they have all these parts, but they dont do anything but drag race. but im proud of fellow autocrossers :D

also, dont you hate how the freaking CF hood puts you in another class just for having it? i mean, its what, 10lbs at most in weight savings? im always in STS and have similar mods, just nothing dealing with weight reduction.

 

Yeah I'm having to really push myself to drive well with these guys just cause of the hood.

I had 4 runs each with a couple tenths of a second improvement all in the 43's on that - I was at my threshold and felt I did well. It was so much fun, I feel I was at the cars limit.

lol - we have SO many people here with all kindsa stuff done to their cars but they can only drive it straight. How boring. After my first autocross I learned just cause you can drive a 1/4 mile fast, doesn't mean you can drive!

 

Great! Glad to see you are autocrossing, we just may met up at an event someday, I plan on running in Spokane at least once and maybe in your area as well. If you get a chance to go to an event in Packwood do it, great place and let me know as I will do all I can to be there so we can represent tCs together.

If you wish I can help you with info on making your car faster and right off, race tires will not make up 3 seconds, sorry, going to be honest. SM is a very fast class and not the best for our cars but you can do very well in it with the right mods.

Your suspension alignment most likely needs some work, and at least you need a rear sway bar.

You want the rear camber as close to zereo as possible.
Rear toe at zero as well but a tiny bit of toe out will help rotate the car but not fun on the street so unless you want to adjust it for events I would leave it set.

For the front the more negative camber the better but up until you start losing to much traction, especially without LSD. If you drive agressively alot you should be able to run -2 degrees ok.

Front toe would be best to set for a bit of toe out but again darty on the street, faster turn in autocrossing, maybe try something minor like 1/16th" out. I can show you how to adjust toe relatively easily at events on the front.

In street mod you have to run the full interior but you can remove the rear seat and seat belts for events, I would do so.

You can get a much lighter battery, it makes a big difference. If you have a stock or very mild audio upgrade you can use the Odyssey PC680 which only weighs around 15 lbs, compared to 38 or so for stock.

I would not run a rear strut tower bar(there are no strut towers in the rear, different design, save you money;) I would also not run a C pillar brace, not needed, again spend your money on other things for real performance.

Tire choices, wider is best but need wheels to support them, if you go with a 245/40 or 45/17 in the Kumho 710s(current best tire) or Hankook 214 in the soft compount(may be as good, very close call and depends on the driver to degree) and put them on some 8.5" wide wheels, 45 offset, you will maximize your handling potential.

After all that, start looking at aluminum flywheel, upgraded clutch, motor mounts, as many ways to reduce weight as possible.

ADD nothing to your car you really do not need;)

Rick

 

Thanks for the advice - I know the tires weren't going to make all the difference. I want to port/polish the motor and lighten the car a bit- make it breathe better.

You have been the most helpful with that post - very informative! thank you!

The SM class is hard, I am driving well and putting up good results in the field, but I need to git'er done and make the changes that will put me in the top spots.

How far away are you from tri-cities?

 

Very honestly, wait on the port and polish, spend you time and money on weight savings and suspension mods first and you will reap far more benifit for autocrossing.

With the stock gearing and decent torque curve the tC is pretty peppy on an autocross circuit as is, the limited amount of power you get from headwork will not make a huge differene in your ability to go fast in this situation.

Believe me, I love power and making mods for it but I also know a bit about making an "under powered" car faster.

Back in the late 70's I ran a 510 Datsun in an autocross series that went to the Tri-Cities, Moses Lake, Spokane, etc and we had some insanely powered cars in the class and I beat them all the time because I had a better chassis setup than they did and I maybe had 100HP, really

We had one guy with a huge amount of money into another 510 but he did not understand anything about setup, just kept buying parts and having the shop put them on, I beat him badly all the time and tried to help him but he refused to listen, next event, more parts, beat him again and again.

We had another guy with a higher class car(race tires, I ran in a street tire class) Huge budget, for it's day a very tricked out car, his times were hardly ever much faster than mine and one day we did some laps on the full road course. Coming out of two of the turns I would sail by on the inside and halfway down the stretch he would zip by only to run out of gearing and I would real him back in, next two or three turns I would pass again. Every bump on the course would send him skipping a bit off line, why??Suspension to stiff.

He probably had double my power, 6-7 times the money into his car as mine, lap by lap, he was not really faster than I was. If the start/finish line was in the right place I would of beat him to it every lap!

For weight, shift it off the nose and gone or to the rear of the car, things like an Odyssey 925 battery near the passengerside wheel well, right behind the cross brace.

Run the washer fluid almost dry.

Remove the engine cover if you have it, look around misc little things under the hood can be removed or trimed down.

Nearly two pounds off the top of the shifter arm on the transaxle, it is a counter weight to make shifting "feel" smoother, delete it. Some of the counter weights on the motor mounts as well, we only have one left on, removing a couple at a time, would be an issue but we filled the motor mounts with the right density eurathane and barely any vibration present, will try the last one next, should be fin, probably saved 4-5 lbs just from those alone.

Flexane 80 is the best for filling the mounts but it takes along time to cure.

I have at least 100 more things I can tell you about but starting out with some of the easier ones first.

Rick

 

Ok - I will work on the weight etc and see what I can accomplish.

I already removed the cover from the motor and emptied the truck. I will check out that battery and the shift counter weight.

I wanna win, and am working with the lowest budget ever ;)

 

Another battery option for you as well would be the Everstart ES9-BS motorcycle battery from Wal-Mart. I've been running it on my car for the last 2 months or so. I think someone said the weight on that battery is roughly 7lbs and only costs $50. Needless to say, that was a nice bit of weight savings, especially since for me the battery sits in the very front right behind the driver's side headlight. Losing weight in front of the front axles makes my car happier. :D

Only negatives with the ES battery though is that you have to buy battery posts to put on the batter, which you will have to do some work on. When you see the battery you'll know what I mean. If I can get pictures of it I'll show you guys. Also, don't use this battery when it's cold out and don't leave any lights or radio on at all when the car is not running or it may not start back for you. Ask me how I know that! But as long as you're careful like that, it will start up no problem every time. And it's really funny when people look under your hood and see this tiny little thing under there. :D

 

I would only recommend a battery like that for race days, then something a bit more substantial for the rest of the time for most people, just not reliable enough it would appear.

Here is a battery that many have used as a great compromise and even have a modest audio upgrade running with it. I am going to pick one up soon to use for race days when not running with my audio system.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680.htm

If you have a fairly serious audio system then this one could do it for you, I have one in my car mouted in the rear cut into the floor above the axle, towards the passengerside as far as possible.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc925mj.htm

And I have the bad boy, just in case I need it for audio competitions, etc,

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc1200t.htm

Once I get the audio system finished and fired up and tested, I may be selling the 1200 as just may not need it but I made sure it fits if I do when I build the battery box.

Rick

 

I think this little guy would do just fine on race days so may give it a go.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc545.htm

 

Yeah I can't afford a big audo system so I just have my Pioneer MP3 deck.

heh

 

I definitely agree that the odyssey batteries are a better and more reliable battery. I also know that many others in the SCCA crowd have run the ES BS9 battery successfully, and as stated have been using it for the last couple of months with no problems, under said conditions/circumstances. It's just nice to know that there are options, with this one being cheaper than the odyssey batteries. I'll probably end up getting an odyssey next year since I've spent the money on this one already. If I were to do it again I would spend the extra money on the odyssey, but there are other options that's all. ;)

 

BTW, here's a pic of the ES9 BS battery. Please ignore the block of wood in the picture, it was just a temporary setup and has now been replaced. ;)

 

Where did you pick up that battery at?

 

that little thing is cute lol

 

That's what she said. Wait...dammit!

Picked up the battery at Wal-Mart and the terminal posts at Napa.

 

Glad you had fun, and it deffinetly shows that you can drive and its not all car. You were beating cars that far outclassed you. Good job.

I am doing my first autocross in the tC next sunday with my dad. He competes every year and is really good at it. I ran once, the week before my wedding about 4 years ago he let me take his spot. Had fun, but it will be nice to do it in my own car.