Woot...first actual autocross in the area Saturday! On top of that it is only 1.1mi from my house. Love being able to change tires at home and waking up a bit later. Got the tires switched over this evening. Temps are supposed to be in the 40's for lows so I was comfortable making the switch early. It might hit 70 here in hills of MD tomorrow....first time since probably October.

 

If I was an EVO driver I'd protest you, but since I'm in a Z no problems. I'm toying with idea of just running ASP the rest of the season in UFO because I know most of them and they wont have an issue.. Dont think any one in that class will protest my SPC camber arm or rear coilover. I am intrigued by staying in SP for SCCA if we find that classing for my car is announced as BSP. Then I would just have to source a rear spring that works on my car that is legal. I still think SPC camber arm is legal from what I see. I'm looking at another however.

 

Weather.com has rain all day tomorrow in Marina.. Wooo.

Guess I'll have to pick up a good rain coat.

 

Don't bother with just a rain coat, go to Target and buy an entire rain suit. A must have for any autocrosser (check in the camping section)

 

Was planning on going to Target at lunch. I'll have to look for that! I remember last time I went to Walmart looking for something like that and couldn't find one.

 

Don't forget to pick up a hard hat to protect against hail It's been on and off hail near Monterey since 8pm. Ha!

 

Today f'ing sucked.....first thing in the morning broke my phone. Second, my messed up seat decided it had enough, and one side would not latch at all (double fail). On top of it all....I was slow. 6th overall out of 70, but it is a relatively slow club. 1 XP cobras, an ASP elise, a BSP STI , an STU STI , and a cobra that is too modified for XP which set FTD. Sucked because I should have been in a battle for third with the ASP elise, but I couldn't stop sucking for one 40s span.

Side note....the Cusco RS diff f'ing sucks to drive on the street, but it rocks at dodging cones. Never got the hoosiers up to temp today either.........

Not exactly what I had planned for the first outing, but at least it didn't happen at SCCA next week.

Chris, you get the suspension installed?

 

No progress on my part, possibly tomorrow

 

It was a good day today - good to see you guys! Anthony - how did your instructional sessions go today? Andrew - you did great, and your G is awesome! You're a great student - keep at it, and we'll see you out there. Oh, and thanks again for having great tires! Thankfully we more-or-less stayed dry. See you tomorrow noonish!

 

Good seeing you guys as well! My instructor was great. Helped me out on braking points, transitions, constant throttling through slaloms instead of coasting/braking, and working on corner entry/exit.

Was great it stayed mostly dry.. and I got home in time to catch the last hour of the 12hrs of Sebring!

I won't be there today.. so tear it up for me.

 

Day 2....better. Fixed the seat. 3rd overall (2 XP cobras). That's a bit more like it. Bring on the season.


That is all,

 

@!#$!@#$@#

that is all

 

+1.....I might be having some issue with noise.


I didn't realize how ridiculously loud my car was until I watched a video from the car that was staged behind me .


So.....what is the issue, Chris?

 

Oh there are a few issues. I'll post a blog later tonight with a review of the day and everything that went/is wrong

 

UFO was fun. But almost didn't make it! My house was damaged by falling branches early am from latest round of storms. Hole punched through siding and wall shifted a bit. Road from my place to the coast was closed by major mud and debris slide so didn't have time to pack my ax wheels and ran my stock street tires.

We lucked out and had no rain but course was still wet in sections. I turned a 42.5 for timed runs and then something clicked during fun runs and I banged out a couple low 40 second runs. I hate that it takes me so long to figure things out in ax. I made major changes in approach in some places and it netted 2 second improvement. I'm so used to underpowered cars that I was trying to shortening course but the Z liked a little wider turn radius which allowed me to carry more speed.

Scott did great! He was in the hunt for TTOD

 

Let me tell you what isn't particularly fun....autcrossing on a lot the size of a football field. Bloody hell it sucks. However, it was the first event and less than a mile from my house.

Here is a video of my noise issue. I was kind of diddling around in the run showing my passenger the foibles of the Z. However, I fear from watching this I am going to get in trouble with the noise ****'s.......skip to 1:50 on the video. Keep in mind this is just some local club....not a fast group or club in any way. Occasionally a jacket winner will drop by on the more choice lots, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wbiG-Oh3M

 

It was a good day for autox. Low turn out and lots of runs. Al and I autox'd in Sunnyvale in the am, then bolted to Marina for the afternoon runs.

Nice! That's what I like to hear! I need to change my seat as well. . . ASAP. This one isn't cutting it any more.

What the! ? ! ? !

Good to see you, Grant. The NISMO looks awesome - I wish I could fit your rear bumper and fenders on the Z33! I'm glad you were able to make it, as we were 3 Zs deep in RG6, which was nice to see.

Dennis helped me slow down in the first big u-turn (T2, big right-hander), as well as the sweeper near the middle of the track, and I experienced the same thing you are describing and made it faster. All told, I dropped over 1s off my time. Ian drove the wheels off his F/I Miata, and I simply couldn't keep up with him. I think I ended up #2 for the day though, but will see once the results come out.

 

What exhaust?

 

TurboXS Catback and Y-pipe.....Z1 2.5" Test-Pipes. Considering the girl at the starting line has one of the loudest cobras I have heard and it made her turn away.....is not what I want to see.

 

I think the ART test pipe would help that dramatically.