Well I finally decided to take my reckless driving to a legal outlet and participated in my school's sports car club autocross, and had a total blast doing it. Was fun taking my entirely stock car to its limits, and seeing all the tuners that people brought (beating a few mustang's timings was also a blast ).

I have a few questions about where to go from here. What tires would be recommended for an autocrossing event? My stock tires were slipping and sliding all over the place (didn't murder any cones though!), and if I had a set of tires specifically for autocrossing I feel like I could shave seconds off my time. The track is a concrete abandoned airfield.

Also, I saw plenty of people with camera mounts that could mount anywhere on the body of their cars. I wonder if anyone here has some that they recommend.

Lastly, I bought the torque app and I'm wondering how people have theirs set up. There is a huge array of options and it is quite overwhelming for a first timer!

Thanks for any and all help

 

Tires will make a big different in autox, but I bet you were experiencing a lot of understeer? Try preloading your front tires before a turn by braking slightly earlier. Also play around with tire pressure.

The camera's people use are go pro's.

 

I would say depends on how much you want to play for tires. In stock class.. most people go with R-comps. Hoosiers or Hankooks are good. And Rcomps like to be over tired if you will so you can go wider then a normal set of street tires.

If you are going to street tires. I would say its up in the air right now.. if you had to buy tires right this second I would say the Dunlop star spec or Hankook Rs3. (I have ran both on my Rs5.0 Tc when I had it upgraded to the FRS back in may. )

However Sema is right around the corner and the big guys will be announcing there new tires for next year and they are going to be big upgrades from what we have now. So hold out if you can. Also get a set of camber bolts for more negative camber in the front. We are lucky in scions due to the wording in the Manuel. It says we are allowed to use camber bolts / crash bolts for fixing alignment issues. A lot of stock cars do not get that choice.

 

Yea I wont be jumping on tires right this moment (college guy budget and all). Thanks for the recommendations! I'll have to shop around after sema and see what all is out there at what price.

jeeze those cameras are expensive lol

 

When I ran my tC I upped the tire pressure to 40psi all the way around. Very little sidewall roll, pre-loading the tires helped a good bit after a few runs. The stock tires definitely suck though.

 

Learn how to drive "fast" without killing your stock tires for the whole run... then buy some dunlop star specs

 

First off those cameras are probably Go Pro's they can be mounted just about anywhere and record in hd.

 

Definitely do this. First two runs I ever did sucked, also don't be afraid to get an instructor to ride along with you. Worth it.

 

Its great to know our tC's rip great ___.
Here is something I been wanting to bring up...How did the Traction Control effect you? Did it slow you down. When I take a turn to fast the traction light comes on and I lose acceleration. I know you can press and hold the Traction button to turn it off, but it seems to reactivate it as soon as you loose traction. Thoughts?

(I will say however, that traction control on this car is saving my tires lol. I would constantly spin tires on my 2006 tC.

 

If you press and hold the button until both lights come on it should stay off regardless of what you. Mine stays off when I press and hold.

When I did autox, first run I did I turned everything off and it stayed off and just drove. Second time I forgot to turn it off and the system was fighting against me...it didn't like autox.

And traction control or not, I am at 8600 miles and my tires look like they have 20k on them.

 

Thats cool man, Perhaps the press and hold is the key to keeping it off; I imagine it resets when you turn the car off.

I have a heavy foot, and like to have fun around the city, so my tires on my last tC didn't last long. 4 sets of tires in 6 years. One time I didnt' pass inspection.

Good luck on future AutoX adventures. I'd be curious to see how I would hold up in one of those things skill wise (if any lol).

 

I definitely think you would gain a lot from tires, my friend runs Dunlop Star Specs on his tC and he's 10 seconds faster than I am, that's not all tires, he's got 15 years of experience on me, but he did drive my car and was 3 or 4 seconds faster on the same course. The stock tires definitely suck, but they're good enough to give you a feeling of how the car is going to react, I've done most of a season on them now. I'm looking forward to getting some proper tires next year.

It's exciting to see more and more tCs out participating in motorsport!

 

Yeah just press and hold till both lights come on. It takes like 3 seconds for me.

 

You could have bought your tC stock from the factory with TRD front Tower Brace, TRD sway-bars and TRD springs…do you have them on your car? If not, get those on your car ASAFP and still race in stock class. This was already discussed over a year ago. But, because of your student size budget, I bet you can’t afford the TRD 19” wheels…I would do that too and still compete in stock class. The TRD BBK would also keep you in the stock class, but won’t help you in a parking lot to dodge cones. I Autocross my car (not the tC) and drop the tire pressure from 26/29 to 22/25 F/R. So far I’m 3rd in Open Pro Class.

 

How would 19's help you?(unless you're running the BBK, of course)

 

In AutoX, a smaller tire will get you better acceleration…so that would be the cheap way of changing your gearing. But I like the responsiveness of the shorter sidewall. The less sidewall you’ve got, the less flex there is in the tire when it is loaded, the better your feel. I like the feedback of the short sidewall.


The BBK is just extra mass on an AutoX course...you will be slower with it.

 

Ok didn't know if there was an actual reason other than lower profile tires thus stiffer sidewall. You can always get a smaller sidewall on 18's or even 17's and still have a smaller wheel for accelerating rather than lugging the 19's around.

 

Read the title of this thread...it says stock...which means your choices are 18s or 19s ONLY! Also, stock size tires... If you choose 19s, you get lower profile tires that are wider too.

 

I am aware of what stock refers to, not my first time participating in race events. I personally wouldn't opt for 19's in autocross.

 

Let's see...TRD wheels are lighter (https://www.scionlife.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3697138&postcount=1), they are 1/2" wider (more rubber), less flex (more feel) and you don't want to use them? I want to race against you!