Took my Scion to the Houston Autocross Sunday. Results are now posted:

http://www.houscca.com/solo2/results04/04REG03R.TXT

you can search for my name (Jack Mott) to see my results. Best time of 47.8

Scroll to HSTOCK to see what most of the minis were running. Martin Grimm and I are similarly skilled drivers, and he was a bit quicker. Some of that was due to him being on Hoosiers vs my Azenis, possibly a second.
Which still makes him .8 seconds quicker, which is quite a bit. And his car is totally stock vs mine which has springs/shocks, and a cold air intake.

Karter was driving the same car and he is just a mutant =) He was second place at nationals last year (on the wrong type of tire!) But you can see how quick those minis can be, look through the whole list and not many cars were turning 44 second times.

__________________

 

your comparing YOUR times to the minis.....

Now just think.....

Can you honestly say that your the best driver?

How do you know someone else can't make better times with your very car???

 

Awesome!

 

did you even read my post?

I've been autocrossing for 2 years in that region, I know all the drivers, I know how well I stack up against them. As I said in my post, Martin and I are pretty equally skilled and we are some of the better drivers in Houston, Karter is a good bit better, one of the best in the country.

It also shouldn't be a surprise that on two cars with equal power to weight ratios, that the one with the multilink rear suspension and low center of gravity would be a quicker autocross car than the one with the twist beam and comparitively high center of gravity. Minis have been dominating the hstock class since they came out. Its no shame to lose to the mini.

 

the driver makes all the difference in the world

 

Wow – excellent results! Your time was very good – an 8th out ot of 26 – and look at some of the cars you beat! NSX, BMW, Camaro. You must be one heck of a driver, too!

To me, these results say that in the hands of a good driver, the Scion xA can indeed be a comptetitive weekend warrior.

Again, excellent times – you had some pretty intimidating competition.

 

In the X class, times are index based on the class your car would normally be in. so some of those cars may have had quicker raw times but got beat after the index.

but yes, absolutely, experienced autocrossers in crap cars will destroy newbies in z06s =)

The class I would be in would be STF, which I would have won by a huge margin. I didn't wake up early enough to make the morning session so I ran in X. X is a mix of hot shot drivers who don't care about local region trophies, or people like me who didn't want to worry about what time of day they are running in =)

and yes, the scion is not going to be the top car in any of its potential classes, but it is definitely good enough to have some fun and embarass some cool cars that aren't driven well =)

 

I ran H-stock when I had a Ford Focus. My first time out in it I managed to take 7th out of 32. It was a pretty good autcross car, but the Minis were definately the car to beat.

I ran in the Stret Tire class with my Civic (unindexed) and I got my ___ handed to me (no rear sway on my EX Civic, and I was going against hatchbacks with B18C swaps).

I only make it to a few autocrosses a year. I basically want a car that I can autocross/track if I care to, but I'm not buying something specifically for racing.

Glad to see the xA can hold its own with a good driver.

 

it was surprisingly durable on the road course at TWS too.

no overheating, no issues with the brakes or clutch. and I was beating on the poor car HARD.

guess thats the benefit of a tiny motor and light car.

My z06 had tranny temp, engine temp, and brake issues while road racing. The price of 400hp!

 

I did about an hour of track time up at Road America a couple of years ago in my 1999 Sentra SE and it had some serious brake fade issues. My 1998 Civic was a lot better with that. Both held up pretty well (other than that lack of a rear sway bar thing on my Civic - lean into it!).

 

Didn't have to use the brakes much at texas world speedway with only 108hp =)

 

I don't know how familiar you are with Road America, but there are a few downhill turns that can fry brakes, and my Sentra's brakes were on their way out anyway.

Have you thought about getting upgraded swaybars for the xA? How big (or should I say smll?) are the OEM ones?

 

Front bar measured 15/16, don't know on the rear.
ken

 

Yes, I'll be experimenting with the hotchkiss swaybars. Don't know the size of the stock ones, nor does that mean much. Bar length, material/design etc all play into how stiff it is. Often the "diameter" numbers you see are just fudged numbers made up to communicate the relative difference in stiffness.

Next step for me is ground control springs, set an inch lower than the TRD, then I'll try out the rear hotchkiss swaybar with the stock front, then possibly try the front hotchkiss bar as well.

 

do you have plans for a comeback, like any future parts to level the playing field between your xA and a mini ?

 

well not really, I mean since I am modified I can't run in the same class as the stock minis anyway.

I am going to tweak the suspension a little more tho, and I will autocross again for sure.

 

keep us posted...

 

nice runs Jack... damn Texas Motor Speedway, I remember a Bondurant tour school came by back in '95 I believe? Either way, looks like the conclusions are the same, our cars are fun to drive, they aren't a monster on the track, but with a little tweaking they are hella fun..

 

hey jack are there any un-indexed times to check out? j/c to see how those machines are doing in raw terms of time

 

yes, the individual times for each run are not indexed. only the "best" time at the far right is indexed, and thats only in the X class.