3/13-14 AutoX writeup(s)

[ScottyB]

yeah im with you guys on the course. it was entertaining and all, but the gravel was whore-endous and the bumps coming into the first left-hand sweeper (directly after the slalom) were so bad my entire steering column felt like it would jump out of my hand. and there wasnt nearly enough seat time. but enough of my bitching!

overall it was a good time. i actually came to the event straight from home on my way to h-burg, originally intending to spectate...but who was i fooling! so i unloaded all of my laundry, school stuff, and even a 24-pack of tp onto the lot and got teched. then, since i was in run group 4 (out of 5) i took my time to look around the paddock when i wasnt working or checking out the action on course. many cool cars showed up, including a duo of gorgeous FD rx's, the aforementioned sick sounding C4 vette, a 911 RS america, an older 911 RS 2.7(?), the also aforementioned black STI (as well as tons of wrx's), what looked like an older 240Z with riveted fender flares, and quite a few 240's in various states of tune. oh yeah, those honda guys came in swarms too .

the action was pretty entertaining at times. in the early parts of the day, the gravel that hadn't been sweeped from the course provided some great drift shows and smoky donuts, even for the fwd guys. eventually the corners became greasy with rubber, which also caused some interesting sideways action on the faster sweepers (which i eventually found out firsthand)

my first run was fairly crappy. i wasn't mentally prepared, and the course was far worse for traction than i anticipated. coming out of the gates, i spun so badly i smacked the rev limiter for a few seconds before i realized what was happening (the fact that you can't hear much through the helmet doesnt help either). coming out of the slalom and into the first left hand sweeper, i braked hard into the turn, and in what felt like a split second (again, no mental preparation), the back end was coming around! all the sudden the cone that was supposed to be whizzing by my door was moving right to left across the front of the car, and i was looking out the side window! i was able to countersteer and gun it, and corrected enough to miss the cone and continue on. from that point on i became more and more comfortable with the fairly large amount of oversteer i was experiencing (especially under braking), and eventually used it to set myself up for the faster corners....and it was just plain fun to feel the car slide! with my new wheels/tires i was able to really push my previous traction limits, and my braking points were far deeper than i thought they would be. overall, i felt my car did pretty good for what it is, although i hate not being able to shift down into first (double clutching does no good). as for me, im getting far more comfortable with the newfound handling limits of my car, although its definitely slower and doesnt stop as well with the heaviness of the new rims. i also didnt get nearly as choppy as last time, which helped my transitions and kept the car settled for the most part. my times went like follows: 36.769, 36.388, 35.947, 35.703, and 35.446 for my final run. my goal was to improve on my times in a consistent manner and i did so, so im a happy dude.