NASA autox @ Cloverleaf Sun 4/17!!!

[Mike]

so he had permission

[ScottyB]

so here i am this morning, my lips burning from sunburn with some images of the auto-x still in my head....so this is a short little writeup.

Jeremy...sorry i didnt even say hi, man. i'm bad with faces, i didn't realize you were there :lol: oh yeah, Arcana, i saw your car there too, nice little RX you have. hopefully we can see that thing in action!


so after 3 hours sleep, jay and i are packing up the Si (which we will take turns driving today) in 32 degree temperatures at 5 am. i'm having my doubts about this 70 degree forecast for sunday but whatever, there isnt a cloud in the sky and homework blows so the thoughts of a large scale autocross are all im really concentrating on...especially since it's been a solid year or so since my last time out. a gatorade and 2 bottled waters later, and we're on the road.

the morning turns from mediocre to gorgeous. the sun takes its time coming up, and in doing so presents us with one of the most fantastic, mango/pink/orange/purple sunrises i have ever seen as the ground-hugging Si blurs eastward, the scorching red paint of the hood reflecting the fiery horizon like an aurora borealis. i wished our passage through afton mountain would have taken twice as long.

its a long trek down 66, but our directions have us peeling off our course to go down exit 181. so we do, and then we take the next road north like it says, and then.....where the hell are we? frustration, cursing, and a general attitude of pissed-offedness ensues. at least 5 phone calls to 2 people later, and despite the added 30 minutes to our trip time, and 2 unintentional visits to the more scenic ghettos in richmond, and cloverleaf mall is in sight. its always hard to describe the feeling of seeing those cones blotting a distant lot as you pull in. almost as if you're looking at the fresh battleground before the chaos, or seeing the dark storm on the horizon but driving right towards it. i couldn't wait.

we sign in, get our stuff inspected, and say hello to a bunch of MM'ers. by 9 am its apparent this event will be over-full! the line to get in just doesnt get any shorter. my eye catches world rally blue wrx's by the long-ton, a mitsu evo MR, a few stout little E30's and their fearsome M coupe/roadster brethren, a hoard of SE-R's, a sprinkling of EG hatches, a lovely little brit. racing green lotus elise and a rossa f355 berlinetta, to name a few. somehow, by the extraordinary efforts of Pete, Allison, Chris, Mike and Sean in tech/registration the mass of performance machinery was through the gates in due time. we meet up for some course walking, and then the group is gathered to go over the technical aspects of todays racing. Chris was in charge of worker assignments and did a great job accomidating everyone. unfortunately, i was in heat 3 so i got to work the course for the first 2 hours, boooo. so, i get my radio and head out to station one, the first leg of the course.

heat 1 was quite eventful from my standpoint. the surface of the lot was littered with sand and gravel and had some pretty ugly expansion cracks and patches in it, but overall was fairly smooth for 60% of the course. more than anything....it was open, long, and faaaast. it was a course dominated by slaloms and sweepers, something very alien to me and my meager experience with autocrossing. regardless, i knew it would be a thrill.

first car off was Jay and the Si. i could see he was smooth and fast, albeit sliding a bit on cold azenis/cold gravely pavement. this was a good sign that he was already this comfortable with the course. Mike (mpg999) was later in the heat with his SE-R, and i knew any competition with him would be intense. neat lines, quick reactions and very accurate placement of the car was the order of the day for him. since he and jay would be my main competition, i was psyched they were so fast and consistent...it would make it that much more of a challenge.

it was a similar story with a couple of the dedicated auto-x cars, like a r-comp tire'd Mcoupe that was simply decimating every part of the course, and an STi that had an easy time with the cones. unfortuantely, later in the heat a 17 year old in a very fast volvo 850 decided he could extend his braking zone way, way deep into the sweeper ending the first half "straightaway". i could tell from my vantage point high up on a concrete abutment that he was too deep. the 850 nosedived, and smoke began to billow from underneath its locked front wheels. the driver tried in vain to muscle the heavy sled around the left hand sweeper but the squeeling 850 would have no part of it. BOOM....the right front tire plowed into the 4 inch high curb with a sickening scrape, and the 850 lurched up, and over the curb as peices of concrete curbing tore into the air. it came to a silent rest, wounded beyond help. it was painful to watch as the driver got out, shoulders slumped and head hanging. but it was a solid reminder of the risks of our sport. even in the huge, open expanse of the cloverleaf lot, it was obvious that sometimes horsepower drives us to dive in too deep. the 850 was towed off course, and last i saw it was being flatbedded away in the late afternoon sun. there were some other dissapointments as well....the ferrari was a complete let down, not because of the car, but because the driver must have thought the parade lap was the pace designated for the entire event. the lotus, despite its nimble cornering and very quick acceleration, was all over the place as its driver struggled to come to grips with its limits.

heat 2 i was free! and speaking of heat...man it was coming. my neck starting burning something fierce! the cars on grid burbled impatiently as waves of heat coursed from the open engine compartments. i wandered around, took a few pictures, and found a nice guy whose car i saw out in heat 1, a teal MR2. i guess he was a different driver for the same car (like mine and jay's situation) and i remarked how his car looked great, and that it seemed to be performing great today. we got to talking, and he invited me for a ride...i didnt hesitate one second! i had never been in an MR2 before so it was that much more exciting for me, especially being a fan of the car. little did i know how fast it was though. during the first "drive through" in which the entire field did a quick parade lap, he dipped into the throttle a bit during one of the more open sections...it was like being immediately towed by a 747 on takeoff. pure, intense, raw beef turbo power to the tune of 303 horses at the wheels, and i can tell you every one of those horses showed up for the party. it was quite a taste of boost rot, let me tell you. needless to say, i stuck with him on his first run of the heat and he gave me a hell of a show. the handling was nimble as expected, but not evil or snappy. braking was almost as impressive as acceleration, but man that thing could dig in when he opened it up. had the course allowed him to reach 3rd, i would have soiled myself. after we finished, we talked some more and i said my good lucks. i found Mike C. and Chris on grid as well, ready to rock and checking the cars over. i snagged a ride with Mike, and came away impressed despite that he was having problems, apparently. Mike was proving that the hatch could really, really handle. even with the del sol seats hugging my fat ass, it was reaching for the door to keep an even keel around some of the faster turns. definitely changed my perspective on how capable that little fwd "rattlepile shitbox" really was. i also jumped aboard with Chris for a run in his del slo. i won't lie, it was slow, but i'll be damned if he didn't drive the wheels off of that thing. the little sol gave all it could, and despite the body roll, we came out of some of the turns with far more exit speed than i thought possible. by now i had a good idea what the course was like, so i decided to meditate on it a bit and just walk around and enjoy the show.

heat 3 was up! i was so pumped, i was literally shaking. i wanted to compete so badly, and this time i was actually in a capable car! Jay's Si was shod with falken azenis, and the ground control suspension was super-responsive from my limited time driving the car beforehand. i gave myself a quick familiarization rundown in my head as i idled into the grid. the tires would give me higher limits, but quicker breakaway, and from what i'd seen, oversteer on throttle lift would be quick and deliberate. the clutch was modulatable but short throw and the shifter was very accurate but the gate was very close. quick blip of the throttle and i was reminded of the little B16's quick reflexes. the tach dropped back down to a lurid 500 rpm turnover, distantly vibrating the shifter under my right hand. three cars ahead, the first car is off. time to belt up.

i reached over my shoulder and turned my digi-cam on to movie mode, and tightened jay's helmet down to just being tight enough on my neck to cause some discomfort as i amble up to the line. rake the seat back 1 notch. check the temp gauge. play a little heel-toe move with my right foot. crack the knuckles. dammit, im nervous...this fidgeting is so dumb. i look up, eyes following the car ahead of me like a homing missle as he passes the halfway point. "go anytime" is all i hear from some voice far, far away....but its real enough to send a rush of adrenaline to my heart and twitch my foot on the throttle to bring me up to 3500 rpms, and rising. i look up, try to concentrate on that first, ugly, tread-smeared cone looming large and resolute on the horizon. its all i can see as i drop the exedy clutch hard up against the flywheel, 2 azenis skipping wildly for 10 feet under the floor.

i crush that belligerent little jackass of a cone. shit. how many seconds is that worth? screw it, look up man, not 20 feet in front of you! vtec engages in first and the torque steer (its possible in a B16, believe me) pulls me hard to the right, where i dont want to go, and i cant unwind the steering enough. i fumble to grab second as my arms flail to bring the Si straight toward the next gait, and i pull the shifter back but i loose my grip on the knob and it slingshots itself to neutral. shit. clutch back in, rewind the steering, and this time im not missing second. weave, weave, brake hard for the first sweeper. the front end feels greasy, but i know i jsut didnt shift enough weight to the front and now im paying for it. the Si is responding beautifully though, quick off-center and easy to thread through the cones. 8100 rpm in second and im trail braking into the first big sweeper where 850 boy bit it hard. i feather the thottle in an attempt to find balance but im really just twitching my foot in a nervous gesture of sloppiness. i have the line though....i'm just not fast enough, and it drives me to make big, chunky imputs. i clear the hump on the back section, catch some air, and brake way to early for the final hairpin. 66 seconds is my claim. that's some 10 seconds off jay. im pissed but equally joyful to have the thrill in my blood again.

my next run i drop 9 seconds. next run is another second. my best is 56.5 by now, a half second off jay and a full second off Mike's SE-R. with the adrenaline shakes out of my system, i feel much more at home with the Si. its running beatifully, and the grip feels stronger every time. my arms stop flailing, turning instead to quick bursts of motion, forceful but gentle enough to feel the hot tarmac slipping past the tread of the azenis. im still sliding it, but now its a 4 wheel drift and not the front slide/now rear slide/now front slide BS i was pulling earlier. i line up for the 4th run, and go to crank the engine after the Si had sat for a few minutes with the engine off to help it cool down a bit. key in, twist........tick, tick...tick. nothing! i twisted the key again, desperately hoping i just hadn't turned the key completely, or that a terminal had just loosened up a bit. nothing. so here i am, fourth in line, the first car is already off, and of all things to go wrong with the car, the battery has to die. why now!? i vault out of the car and find jay, and the only thing i can really get out of my mouth when i see him is "dude, your shit won't start." eloquent, i know. we coast the car out of the line and into the parking area and start fiddling with stuff. maybe it's the starter? Chris pulls the sol over and we jump the battery, hoping that its just out of juice. hop in, turn the key again, and.....raaaap rap rap rap rap VRMMMM! sweet, we no longer have to start worrying about bump starting, or worse....leaving the car there or flatbedding it home.

back in line, i take my 4th and 5th runs (never shutting the car down in between runs!) and im still stuck in the low 57's, high 56's. its killing me, i can tell exactly where im slow but when i get there, i don't change my style enough to suit the situation. i'm happy that i'm relatively consistent and my times aren't bad, but i know i can pull something better out of my last run....i hope. most of the field makes its last run, and i line up for the last time at the starting line. revs up to only 3000 this time, and i force myself to relax. i get a solid launch and very good traction up the first hill towards the first set of slaloms. my line is steady, i take the correct apex for the first turns, and trail brake with confidence into the first sweeper. a little oversteer through the second sweeper and i'm pulling hard through third gear over the hump on the back straight. heel-toe into second, and i finally take the hairpin on the back half nice and slow. through the last slalom i set myself up well for the stop box and squeeze in with way more speed than i was prepared for. right as i'm about to cross the final timing laser i'm desperately trying to haul down this Si, and i give it just a little too much brake pressure. in a cloud of tire smoke, the Si comes to a stop but a few inches from the stop box cones. game over. this run was good.

i found out a few seconds later i posted my best time of 55.556, a full second better than my second best run. i'm laughing like crazy because i know i beat jay in his own car :twisted: but more than anything i'm happy because i know i finally got it right. no mistakes, no slop, no regrets....just a solid run that i knew i had in me. i only wish i'd been intelligent enough to realize that slower is usually faster, and that if i'd just taken my time around some of the slower parts instead of trying to slide the car to bleed off my speed i could have looked at better times towards the end of the day.

after packing up (with the car still on, ha) we follow Mike home to NoVa to pick up jay's dub. we had to stop at a gas station, and naturally that meant turning the car off. we figured after staying on for about an hour, it'd be able to start easily enough. wrong. thankfully Mike was filling up with us and had the cables ready. car started again, we hit 95 and head home. at first the stereo started to cut on and off....so that got shut down. then, the needles in the gauge cluster dropped to nothing. so the remaining hour of the drive was spent praying the honda would hold together long enough to just park it and be done with it. eventually we got back and had to shut it down again to move some of jay's car around so we could put the Si in a long-term spot. jump it again. 3 jumps later and a stressful ride home, and that poor, tired car was finally let to rest for a while. of course, the dub is no spring chicken either...we had to add some oil to it to get rid of some nasty valve noise, and it stumbled like a tractor at idle, but it got us home (and got some good milage on 87 octane pee-water in the process). after being awake for nearly 20 hours i was dead to the world. i haven't slept that well in years.

[Dave]

I love the reports from Scotty

[Chris]

nice write up!

[lillitnn92]

Jeremy...sorry i didnt even say hi, man. i'm bad with faces, i didn't realize you were there :lol:

wow, that's a lot of reading. i'm not even sure who you were either so don't feel bad.

anyway, this should burn into your brain cells so you don't forget.

[Mike]

gah! so that's who that guy talking to chris was!

[Tetronious]

heat 3 was up! i was so pumped, i was literally shaking. i wanted to compete so badly, and this time i was actually in a capable car! Jay's Si was shod with falken azenis, and the ground control suspension was super-responsive from my limited time driving the car beforehand. i gave myself a quick familiarization rundown in my head as i idled into the grid. the tires would give me higher limits, but quicker breakaway, and from what i'd seen, oversteer on throttle lift would be quick and deliberate. the clutch was modulatable but short throw and the shifter was very accurate but the gate was very close. quick blip of the throttle and i was reminded of the little B16's quick reflexes. the tach dropped back down to a lurid 500 rpm turnover, distantly vibrating the shifter under my right hand. three cars ahead, the first car is off. time to belt up.

i reached over my shoulder and turned my digi-cam on to movie mode, and tightened jay's helmet down to just being tight enough on my neck to cause some discomfort as i amble up to the line. rake the seat back 1 notch. check the temp gauge. play a little heel-toe move with my right foot. crack the knuckles. dammit, im nervous...this fidgeting is so dumb. i look up, eyes following the car ahead of me like a homing missle as he passes the halfway point. "go anytime" is all i hear from some voice far, far away....but its real enough to send a rush of adrenaline to my heart and twitch my foot on the throttle to bring me up to 3500 rpms, and rising. i look up, try to concentrate on that first, ugly, tread-smeared cone looming large and resolute on the horizon. its all i can see as i drop the exedy clutch hard up against the flywheel, 2 azenis skipping wildly for 10 feet under the floor.

i crush that belligerent little jackass of a cone. shit. how many seconds is that worth? screw it, look up man, not 20 feet in front of you! vtec engages in first and the torque steer (its possible in a B16, believe me) pulls me hard to the right, where i dont want to go, and i cant unwind the steering enough. i fumble to grab second as my arms flail to bring the Si straight toward the next gait, and i pull the shifter back but i loose my grip on the knob and it slingshots itself to neutral. shit. clutch back in, rewind the steering, and this time im not missing second. weave, weave, brake hard for the first sweeper. the front end feels greasy, but i know i jsut didnt shift enough weight to the front and now im paying for it. the Si is responding beautifully though, quick off-center and easy to thread through the cones. 8100 rpm in second and im trail braking into the first big sweeper where 850 boy bit it hard. i feather the thottle in an attempt to find balance but im really just twitching my foot in a nervous gesture of sloppiness. i have the line though....i'm just not fast enough, and it drives me to make big, chunky imputs. i clear the hump on the back section, catch some air, and brake way to early for the final hairpin. 66 seconds is my claim. that's some 10 seconds off jay. im pissed but equally joyful to have the thrill in my blood again.

my next run i drop 9 seconds. next run is another second. my best is 56.5 by now, a half second off jay and a full second off Mike's SE-R. with the adrenaline shakes out of my system, i feel much more at home with the Si. its running beatifully, and the grip feels stronger every time. my arms stop flailing, turning instead to quick bursts of motion, forceful but gentle enough to feel the hot tarmac slipping past the tread of the azenis. im still sliding it, but now its a 4 wheel drift and not the front slide/now rear slide/now front slide BS i was pulling earlier. i line up for the 4th run, and go to crank the engine after the Si had sat for a few minutes with the engine off to help it cool down a bit. key in, twist........tick, tick...tick. nothing! i twisted the key again, desperately hoping i just hadn't turned the key completely, or that a terminal had just loosened up a bit. nothing. so here i am, fourth in line, the first car is already off, and of all things to go wrong with the car, the battery has to die. why now!? i vault out of the car and find jay, and the only thing i can really get out of my mouth when i see him is "dude, your shit won't start." eloquent, i know. we coast the car out of the line and into the parking area and start fiddling with stuff. maybe it's the starter? Chris pulls the sol over and we jump the battery, hoping that its just out of juice. hop in, turn the key again, and.....raaaap rap rap rap rap VRMMMM! sweet, we no longer have to start worrying about bump starting, or worse....leaving the car there or flatbedding it home.

back in line, i take my 4th and 5th runs (never shutting the car down in between runs!) and im still stuck in the low 57's, high 56's. its killing me, i can tell exactly where im slow but when i get there, i don't change my style enough to suit the situation. i'm happy that i'm relatively consistent and my times aren't bad, but i know i can pull something better out of my last run....i hope. most of the field makes its last run, and i line up for the last time at the starting line. revs up to only 3000 this time, and i force myself to relax. i get a solid launch and very good traction up the first hill towards the first set of slaloms. my line is steady, i take the correct apex for the first turns, and trail brake with confidence into the first sweeper. a little oversteer through the second sweeper and i'm pulling hard through third gear over the hump on the back straight. heel-toe into second, and i finally take the hairpin on the back half nice and slow. through the last slalom i set myself up well for the stop box and squeeze in with way more speed than i was prepared for. right as i'm about to cross the final timing laser i'm desperately trying to haul down this Si, and i give it just a little too much brake pressure. in a cloud of tire smoke, the Si comes to a stop but a few inches from the stop box cones. game over. this run was good.

i found out a few seconds later i posted my best time of 55.556, a full second better than my second best run. i'm laughing like crazy because i know i beat jay in his own car :twisted: but more than anything i'm happy because i know i finally got it right. no mistakes, no slop, no regrets....just a solid run that i knew i had in me. i only wish i'd been intelligent enough to realize that slower is usually faster, and that if i'd just taken my time around some of the slower parts instead of trying to slide the car to bleed off my speed i could have looked at better times towards the end of the day. [/quote]



Damn man 8) . That was awesome! I'd like to try a auto-x course out sometime, but ugh to my car and its stock suspension. So, I Need to work on that. However, I still think I like to give it a shot. Sounds like a blast.

[ScottyB]

Damn man 8) . That was awesome! I'd like to try a auto-x course out sometime, but ugh to my car and its stock suspension. So, I Need to work on that. However, I still think I like to give it a shot. Sounds like a blast.

thanks! don't be scurred just because you're car's suspension is stock! if anything it will be even more worthwhile because you'll get used to the car moving around alot, which is much harder than driving a car that's really planted. i've autocrossed my accord twice, the first time with stock everything, the second with different wheels/tires. it was hella fun both times, believe me! for 20 bucks you can't get a better thrill in a car.

[ScottyB]

PIKCHURS


jay's Si


mike's SE-R cutting a mean line


LOCK DEM SHITS UP Y0! (notice tire smoke)


pete driving allison's car....it was awesome watching that thing get hurled around out there!


Mike C's rattlepile shitbox, probably 3 wheeling it as usual


the faithful Si, resting at home after a hard day's work

[lillitnn92]

think of this when you have those thoughts

Chris's Del Sol is stock and he beat a Ferrari by 4 seconds.

[getfast]

THANKS to the MM crew for coming out, we couldn't have done it without ya. :wink:

Still working a few bugs out of the system, practice makes perfect.

We put the important attention into making a fun course, and I hope it showed. :twisted:

Hope to see ya on 5/8 at VMP-

Jon

[Tetronious]

[thanks! don't be scurred just because you're car's suspension is stock! if anything it will be even more worthwhile because you'll get used to the car moving around alot, which is much harder than driving a car that's really planted. i've autocrossed my accord twice, the first time with stock everything, the second with different wheels/tires. it was hella fun both times, believe me! for 20 bucks you can't get a better thrill in a car.

Yeah. Auto-x would be so much more challenging to try. I know it would take lots of practice to get in some good times overall, but the experience of it just seems like a ultimate rush. Ive ran at drag strips a few times and still enjoy that, but it would be nice to take on and hug the curves now..

[ButtDyno]

No pics of #32/#82?

BTW - nice plates Jay.

[ScottyB]

I know it would take lots of practice to get in some good times overall, but the experience of it just seems like a ultimate rush. Ive ran at drag strips a few times and still enjoy that, but it would be nice to take on and hug the curves now..

it takes a little while to get used to knowing where your car will slide instead of grip, and adjusting your vision so that you don't try to concentrate on watching the cones as they come up. otherwise, you'll catch on fast.

if you've done drag racing that will actually help a bit since its very important to get a good launch at the start of an auto-x run. even though you won't come near the speeds you would in a drag race, the rate that things happen in an auto-x will give you quite a rush. if you're unsure if you want to do it, the best thing is to just go to an auto-x, and chill out with some friends who are running. as long as you have a helmet you can ride with anyone, and rides are really fun and will give you an idea of what its like out there.

[Mike]

Mike C's rattlepile shitbox, probably 3 wheeling it as usual

was i getting that shit up? it certainly felt like it. methinks the shock are too stiff... far too much drifting going on for a fwd car

[ScottyB]

more pictures of other notable cars. i have hi res versions of mike C's, mike SE-R's, chris's, allisons, and jay's car if anyone wants them, including the pictures above.

i also have video footage of all my runs but i most likely wont have space to host them, so if you want them let me know.

nice way to start the day


high dollar machinery


stupid fast MR2


very fast STi sponsored by "mista motuka" :?:


the car i'd give my left nut for


no matter how the driver bitch slapped this car it just wouldn't slow down


got camber?


850 that was a little too fast for this guy's britches. this doesn't even begin to show how bad the damage was.

[ScottyB]

Mike C's rattlepile shitbox, probably 3 wheeling it as usual

was i getting that shit up? it certainly felt like it. methinks the shock are too stiff... far too much drifting going on for a fwd car

most def., especially around the sweeper that went past the T/S table. a good inch or two at least.

[lillitnn92]

No pics of #32/#82?

BTW - nice plates Jay.

i got a #32, but it's not great.

[ScottyB]

jay's first run, the first half of the course

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stupid fast MR2

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[lillitnn92]

nice vids. nice and clear too.


and no music drowning it out!!!