Yesterday I did an autocross practice day in my '06 GT. This was only the second time that I have tried autocrossing it and it was an interesting experience. I have only autocrossed for a year, so I'm a terrible driver. Last hear it was in my 3rd gen RX-7. Sunday was very cold, the asphalt was icy when doing course walk. I was running on stock '03 V1 touring wheels/tires. I need to replace tires on my Track rims so these are temporary.

My impressions first were that the car handled reasonably well considering I was driving summer UHP tires on a very cold day. My son and I both drove and there was pronounced understeer from the lack of front grip and a tendancy for the rear end to get away on any sweepers or if throttle inputs weren't smooth enough. The car didn't track as well as my RX-7, but then I didn't expect it to. I'm going to need a lot of practice with this car and driving should get easier as the weather warms.

I'm going to stay with Street Tire classes. That essentially means that I'll drive using PAX indexes for either BS or AS depending on the club and racing against other stock cars with street tires.

 

Sounds about like mine on stock everything. Try a non-staggered setup to remove the understeer in slower corners, a stiffer front sway (stock legal) could help keep it pointed in the right direction through 'sweepers' but it may bring back a little understeer in the slower turns.

 

I spoke to your son yesterday for a second. You guys were running 55-58sec. right?
I drove the silver Z, and i did bad, considering the fact that this was my first autox. I have done several track days, and this was a completely different experience!

 

..you can use different tire pressures to resolve understeer issues.

Try 45 psi up front with around 40 rear. This should dial out the push.

Generally my car runs best and most neutral at AXes with this setup. This works on tight autocross courses NOT so good at the track though.

...and don't forget to adjust your pressure back to normal for the street.

 

Once I wear down these tires, I'll go back to my track wheels (18x9, 19x10) and I'm trying to figure out tire sizes. I was looking at 255/40 front and 275/35 rear.

Were you running in the afternoon? I think I may have spoken to you briefly on our way out. Yeah, my fastest time was 55.5x and my slowest was 60.xx. My son ran between 56.xx and 58.xx. However, since they weren't announcing during our runs and they don't (yet) have results posted, so I really have no idea if I got a clean run in or not.

I've never been to the track so I have no experience with that. I do love Autocross though. I hope to be there Sunday for the Slush #2. I think my class runs in the afternoon. If you are there, look me up and you can ride along with me and see lots of examples of what not to do.

I'll give that a try thanks.

 

sounds good, i will probably be there. you see my problem was letting off the gas. I was sideways most of the time which is not good. One of the club guys, an old dude, asked to drive my car, he pulled 53 sec, and almost stalled it off the line. So, it is me, not the car.

 

don't you hate it when that happens, thats instant ego destruction, although it is a learning experience

 

ha I let pdx racer take my car out and he was running consistent 66.xx when my fastest was 75.xx(note course was diff this time thats why times are higher, best time I saw was an evo at 60.xx) Yeah good learning, kills your ego.