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First Time Auto Cross

93Rubie

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
777
Location
PA
Corvette
1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Coupe
I have to say I had 5 runs and it was a blast. The course was short and technical. The fast AS class cars (ie. Corvettes) where running 25.6 to 28ish. Well driven stock C5 auto with slicks on all 4 corners went 25.6. He was FAST, it even looked fast. Heck, his daughter was fast too...in the same car. WOW. I was amazed at what that Corvette could do. I was working the track when I got to see this.

My 1st run ever...33.894
2nd 31.279
3rd 30.327
4th 29.578 1+ cones, not sure how many?
5th 30.203.

I can tell where I lost time on the course thinking back on it. I have never drove a car so hard before (straight line excluded). It was so fun and an adrenaline rush. I was shaking when I got out.

Car has a lot of front end grip tons of it, in fact I cannot remember the tires making any noise. I just felt the car push when some when I was going too fast. I honestly never touched the brakes except for one corner and just a little. I was in 1st gear the whole time, it decelerates so fast in 1st with the engine you really don't need to touch the brakes. It also scrubs a lot of speed in turns.

I just about wiped out my 1st run at the finish, their was a hard left just before it and well I had too much throttle and the car was just about sideways. I let off and counter steered, car straightened out, didn't hit any cones, barely.

Things I learned:
Auto-x is WAY fun...more so than straight up drag racing, not that drag racing is not fun in its own right.
I have more grip, handling, brakes than I am capable of driving. The limits are high!!!
Turn in is sharp and responsive, the car reacts quickly and goes like NOW!!! The car with these tires and wheel is very neutral does not understeer much or oversteer. Oversteer is easy just hit the gas.
300HP can get you in LOTS of trouble...when turning it WILL step out with too much throttle.
The C4 is very forgiving to driver mistakes and shows no bad habits. It was challenging to drive but not overly difficult even for a novice.
Loud LT1's and Black Label ZF6's make cool sounds in 1st gear. Between the gear whine and the unmuffled exhuast it sounded like I had a supercharger or something. I got compliments on the them. Seriously...
My Kumho Escta SPT's are a great street tire and do well in auto-x. With 40psi never rolled onto the side walls.
The cinch on the seat belt combined whit the sport seats is the bees knees. I never slid around at all.
You have to be smooth to be fast, squeeze the throttle and brakes. NOT hammer.
Front wheel drive cars and Wyotech students make louzy auto-x'ers.
A well set up miata can be very FAST on a short and technical course.

I am going to have to do this again soon...great another type of racing bug to feed, SOB.
 
Just to update this. I did my 2nd auto x today and had a blast. I was terribly slow, I mean really slow. It was an airport event and very very fast one at that. I just about wiped out more than a couple times. Car is very forgiving. Long story short, my timed runs stunk to say the least, but hey I'm still learning and learning auto x in a big powerful sports car is hard. My best was a 76.8, the Fastest Time of the Day was 61 something. Yeah, I'm slow. The club president could not believe how slow I was, he said I did not look that slow.

This guy can drive he started the club and has a C5 auto that he runs and occasionally gets out his "race" car. A 93 with slicks, full race suspension setup and alignment, etc, etc, etc, etc... I asked him if he would like to run my car and I would ride shot gun for some fun runs after the timed ones. He said sure. I had to take the targa top out he is too big and tall to fit any other way. So we ran sans roof.
His first run was a 71 and change. He about flipped out when he was told this. Did not feel that slow he said. He pointed out somethings on this first run to me and I learned some things too. The second run he ran not all out but pretty close. Ran a 66. Only 5 seconds behind the FTD, on street tires. He said the car seems to stick pretty good with those tires. I did my own fun run after this and cut 4 seconds of my time even though I had a passenger. I ran a 72. SO I did learn some from just riding with him.

The Kumho Escta SPT's are not even the good street Kumhos the XS's are. I am really happy with them, they seem to grip pretty good in a straight line and in auto x very predictable in my view. The car is very neutral and rotates well. When I get into trouble (which I did more than once) it was driver error not the car or the tires.

He said that the car had more in it,I'm guessing that with just him and going balls out on the Kumhos he might cut 2 seconds off that 66. With some slicks heck it would be even faster...so the car is fast, driver is not. Need more seat time, good thing, even though I am WAY slow, it is loads of fun. To much in fact.

According to our Demograhics on this site, I am in the 5.0% that participate in auto x and related activities. I also dabble in drag racing too some I'm in the 10.5% of Corvette owners there too. I think somehow Zora is smiling some, his sports car can do great things, not only cruise and drive on the street but tear it up at the race tracks. :thumb
 

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