Rochester's new G
05-23-2020, 05:14 AM
#2551
An Auto X might be the one place you could notice a slight difference in performance with the constant changing of direction. Unfortunately, I will never be able to confirm that because something about dodging cones just......zzz.....ahem, puts me to sleep. On track I could never really tell much of a difference in performance due to the lighter weight. The rear differential brace made a huge difference on track compared to the rotors. So yeah, bang for the buck? Not so much. The slots may provide a touch more bite in certain situations and they may have provided me a touch more heat dissipation on track, but the 2 pc. rotors were also the only time I cooked my brake fluid- probably more due to driving the car at 13/10's more than anything though.
My biggest problem, really, is recognizing the track.)
05-23-2020, 04:23 PM
#2552
It is a LOT of time and work for a total of 10 minutes on the track - given that most autox courses are >2 minutes.
For me, it was a 2 hour drive to Savannah, drive gingerly around Hutchinson island to the course (the roads are setup as a FIA track, but with a 30mph enforced speed limit), help set up, help with timing, man a corner, and go out for 4-5 runs, help pack up and clean, finally eat about 7pm, get home ~10ish.
4 runs. Of about 2 minutes - that was a longer course than many, enough that I had to shift the RX8 out of first.
Not knocking autocross as a good tool to understand your car's dynamics, much like a wetted skidpad. But as a sport... the guy with an S2000 that has access to an industrial parking lot to practice every day will always take FTD, class, and generally embarrass everyone else. If I'm going to do a competitive sport knowing that I'm not going to be competitive, I'd rather do SCCA or NASA road racing. That go-fast crack pipe has a bigger gauge.
For me, it was a 2 hour drive to Savannah, drive gingerly around Hutchinson island to the course (the roads are setup as a FIA track, but with a 30mph enforced speed limit), help set up, help with timing, man a corner, and go out for 4-5 runs, help pack up and clean, finally eat about 7pm, get home ~10ish.
4 runs. Of about 2 minutes - that was a longer course than many, enough that I had to shift the RX8 out of first.
Not knocking autocross as a good tool to understand your car's dynamics, much like a wetted skidpad. But as a sport... the guy with an S2000 that has access to an industrial parking lot to practice every day will always take FTD, class, and generally embarrass everyone else. If I'm going to do a competitive sport knowing that I'm not going to be competitive, I'd rather do SCCA or NASA road racing. That go-fast crack pipe has a bigger gauge.
05-23-2020, 04:45 PM
#2553
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LOL! I've auto crossed only four times in my life, and it's exactly as you describe. LOTS of "volunteer" work throughout the event, for only 3 to 4 runs at maybe two minutes each.
I always have this crazy anxiety trying to see the course, so driving off course was a common fail for me. But the last time I did it with my G, I actually did pretty good. Came home with a travel mug trophy.
I always have this crazy anxiety trying to see the course, so driving off course was a common fail for me. But the last time I did it with my G, I actually did pretty good. Came home with a travel mug trophy.
05-31-2020, 09:04 PM
#2554
Hmm, having done a plethora (where's my 50c?) of both, I quite enjoy autox. Even won an overall champ trophy for the year with our local club years ago. My son plays with the plastic trophy (I can't quite get it thru his little kid mind that no, I did not race F1 cars). The deal was great tho, we had our own series in our local miata club; we'd have maybe 30 cars show up max and we also allowed other makes to enter, so you'd get a modded 'vette, STi done up, S2000, random bmw and a few other interesting cars. Tight smaller courses you can see all around, two groups, one works, one runs. We'd have easily 8-10+ runs for the day. Local so you could drive to there quickly and I'd just throw a jack and my race tires in (and yes, you can get 4 slicks in a miata with some clever tucking and strapped to a rollbar). 
Where you guys doing SCCA autox? I'd do some of those, but they were so big and so many cars you would only get like 4 runs for the day. Generally I'll do one run to get the course down in my head, one to feel it out, try some lines, then two for speed. The rub was if you took out a cone or blew an important corner, the day for fast time in your group is over. A real let down for a full day. The main part I liked about SCCA was to compare your car to all sorts of others...and there were always one or two of those guys who were hard core, regional champions and usually planning for nationals. Interesting to try to gain some pointers from them, or suspension set up (going that hardcore never appealed to me, and nationals were in the middle of Kansas).
So if you're in a larger metro you I'd look for some other makes of local clubs that autox, see if they will let you run. I loved track days, but that was always much more of commitment, no major tracks are particularity close, MidOhio is the closest but almost two hours away, so you usually need an overnight and all that entails. Also a lot more work physically, but they are soooo much fun (unless you go off hard)
Rochester, we'd do an instruction event at the beginning of the autox season and I'd tell the new people that you have walk the course before hand, stop here and there and drive it in your head, picture it first perspective. We always did course maps, but if they don't give one out, make your own, then look at it before and after a run. If you are concentrating of figuring out where the hell the course goes, you're not going to be able to concentrate on hitting your apex's and improving, where the real fun is.
*for the record an S2000 was never the fastest in our club events...of course several of were turbo'd and a whole host of mods....225whp in a 2000lb car is fast when you keep up the revs.
Where you guys doing SCCA autox? I'd do some of those, but they were so big and so many cars you would only get like 4 runs for the day. Generally I'll do one run to get the course down in my head, one to feel it out, try some lines, then two for speed. The rub was if you took out a cone or blew an important corner, the day for fast time in your group is over. A real let down for a full day. The main part I liked about SCCA was to compare your car to all sorts of others...and there were always one or two of those guys who were hard core, regional champions and usually planning for nationals. Interesting to try to gain some pointers from them, or suspension set up (going that hardcore never appealed to me, and nationals were in the middle of Kansas).
So if you're in a larger metro you I'd look for some other makes of local clubs that autox, see if they will let you run. I loved track days, but that was always much more of commitment, no major tracks are particularity close, MidOhio is the closest but almost two hours away, so you usually need an overnight and all that entails. Also a lot more work physically, but they are soooo much fun (unless you go off hard)
Rochester, we'd do an instruction event at the beginning of the autox season and I'd tell the new people that you have walk the course before hand, stop here and there and drive it in your head, picture it first perspective. We always did course maps, but if they don't give one out, make your own, then look at it before and after a run. If you are concentrating of figuring out where the hell the course goes, you're not going to be able to concentrate on hitting your apex's and improving, where the real fun is.
*for the record an S2000 was never the fastest in our club events...of course several of were turbo'd and a whole host of mods....225whp in a 2000lb car is fast when you keep up the revs.
06-01-2020, 12:41 PM
#2555
My club in NC (Mazda Sports Car Club of NC... looks like it died around 2013 or so, with me leaving in 2008) used to do Autocross schools. First day we'd set up sections - constant box, slalom, decreasing radius sweeper, etc and have people run through those for 10 minutes each until they got it down. Second day was full autocross connecting the sections - that we opened up to a bigger crowd. Got the Raleigh/Durham Lotus dealer to sponsor it and they showed up with a few demo cars to show off. Also had a few police show up and let them run the course in their cruisers. I've got a pic somewhere of a Crown Vic Pursuit on three wheels in the cones...
Those are worthwhile in terms of instruction and learnin'. The SCCA large autocrosses IMHO aren't unless that is your only hobby. It isn't that expensive to do a smaller club race, costs about $1500 for the insurance but you need the cones as a minimum and those aren't cheap. We rented from the Triangle SCCA group and used hand timers (as our results didn't matter nationally) and rented a closed muni airport ramp area. Charleston used to do them in the Coliseum parking lot but then they redid all the lights and wouldn't rent to us any more - closest now is Myrtle Beach or Savannah AFAIK. For schools, we charged $100 for both days. Compare to your regular SCCA autocross that is $40-50.
There are also HPDE options that aren't full-on crazynuts driving - find an older marque club. Here in the southeast, Alfa club and vintage racing club would let outsiders in once they leveled off on reservations and had space left, and both were big on safety and low on pressure/stress since they all had fragile expensive beasties. I've taken bone stock RX7s out on track, pushed it about 7/10ths, and had a blast (and learned a lot about listening to my tires) that I wouldn't have gotten with a higher performance car that I felt the need to push harder. Anecdotal example - one of my best friends started doing HPDEs in a 3rd gen twin turbo RX7. He was OK. Then he bought a track miata - roll bar and suspension mods only - and got WAY faster, and was scary fast when he swapped back into the FD3S. Now he's an instructor at those events... He learned to drive better by having a slower car LOL.
Those are worthwhile in terms of instruction and learnin'. The SCCA large autocrosses IMHO aren't unless that is your only hobby. It isn't that expensive to do a smaller club race, costs about $1500 for the insurance but you need the cones as a minimum and those aren't cheap. We rented from the Triangle SCCA group and used hand timers (as our results didn't matter nationally) and rented a closed muni airport ramp area. Charleston used to do them in the Coliseum parking lot but then they redid all the lights and wouldn't rent to us any more - closest now is Myrtle Beach or Savannah AFAIK. For schools, we charged $100 for both days. Compare to your regular SCCA autocross that is $40-50.
There are also HPDE options that aren't full-on crazynuts driving - find an older marque club. Here in the southeast, Alfa club and vintage racing club would let outsiders in once they leveled off on reservations and had space left, and both were big on safety and low on pressure/stress since they all had fragile expensive beasties. I've taken bone stock RX7s out on track, pushed it about 7/10ths, and had a blast (and learned a lot about listening to my tires) that I wouldn't have gotten with a higher performance car that I felt the need to push harder. Anecdotal example - one of my best friends started doing HPDEs in a 3rd gen twin turbo RX7. He was OK. Then he bought a track miata - roll bar and suspension mods only - and got WAY faster, and was scary fast when he swapped back into the FD3S. Now he's an instructor at those events... He learned to drive better by having a slower car LOL.
06-01-2020, 07:05 PM
#2556
Good stuff rotary mike. I never got that far into organizing a full autocross event, there were always some semi-retired enthusiasts who would take it on.
I stopped doing any instructor work after getting the crap scared out of me by a few new to the track people. One kid in a miata with only autox experience spun us so hard at a little track near dallas my helmet hit the roll bar. I"m yelling 'slow down! slow down!' and he's seeing his nascar career ahead of him. I make him drive into the pits, admonished him, then made him sit there like a bad boy for a few laps and even said 'think about what you've done!'. I wasn't even a dad then.
Sorry Rochester, we're jumping your thread! I've done some hours of lurking and reading and your information is very useful and keeps coming up - I ended up reading a good chunk of your work here, very much appreciated.
So rotary mike and I recommend you look for a club that may autocross or some club HPDE's
I stopped doing any instructor work after getting the crap scared out of me by a few new to the track people. One kid in a miata with only autox experience spun us so hard at a little track near dallas my helmet hit the roll bar. I"m yelling 'slow down! slow down!' and he's seeing his nascar career ahead of him. I make him drive into the pits, admonished him, then made him sit there like a bad boy for a few laps and even said 'think about what you've done!'. I wasn't even a dad then.
Sorry Rochester, we're jumping your thread! I've done some hours of lurking and reading and your information is very useful and keeps coming up - I ended up reading a good chunk of your work here, very much appreciated.
So rotary mike and I recommend you look for a club that may autocross or some club HPDE's
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Rochester (06-01-2020)
06-01-2020, 07:10 PM
#2557
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No worries. I brought up Auto-X, so it's all good comment and advice.
06-01-2020, 09:35 PM
#2559
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Hahaha... stalker.
06-01-2020, 09:46 PM
#2561
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We're fine. Jobs are good, health is good, teens are terribly bored. I've been self-quarantining now for 7 years, so this is nothing.
Doesn't mean I'm not sensitive to the pain we've been collectively suffering, it's just all relative I suppose.
Oh, and I'm a mod here, CJ.
Go figure.
Doesn't mean I'm not sensitive to the pain we've been collectively suffering, it's just all relative I suppose.
Oh, and I'm a mod here, CJ.
Go figure.
06-01-2020, 10:24 PM
#2562
Great to here all is going well.Mod! Well you were always the voice of reason and level headed on the org so congrats to that. Yes i still have old maxi she is just sitting now still under 100k on her and the mid life crisis car is a never ending money pit just to keep it moving.the cost to de-mod her hurts.i now have a white 09 g37x its getting there but you know work prevents play.
06-03-2020, 02:38 PM
#2563
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Custom Infiniti Badges from Korea
06-03-2020, 05:43 PM
#2565
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Oh definitely I remember the Avanti. Not anything I ever aspired to own, but it was a gorgeous design way-y-y ahead of its time.
IDK, my first thought was the Supra badge, but even that's not a fair comparison.
For sure, this is different. The brushed aluminum, the size, the design, the black plastic surround giving it depth... it's really, really nice (IMO).
IDK, my first thought was the Supra badge, but even that's not a fair comparison.
For sure, this is different. The brushed aluminum, the size, the design, the black plastic surround giving it depth... it's really, really nice (IMO).