hey, i spent another weekend running my car around some cones. had a blast as usual. got some sweet footage too. here's my best run from sunday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymnQkfJbpiE
what i learned:
saturday, i ran with all 4 tires at 40psi. it was miserable. this pig pushed and plowed through almost every corner, and made it quite difficult to control. sunday, i added 4 psi to the front tires only, and that was pretty much perfect. it transformed the car almost completely. the front didn't push like it did, the back came around when desired, and the car handled much better all around. the stock tires aren't nearly as bad as everyone makes them out to be.
what else i learned:
my friend is a bad driver. last time my buddy and i did this, back in may, he had an '08 wrx with the stock tires, but was running about 100hp more than me thanks to an e85 tune, turbo back exhaust, and an intake. i was still able to beat him by .6 seconds.
since that auto-x event, he traded his 08 wrx for an 08 sti. much better car all around. loads more power, better drivetrain, 245 general exclaim tires, brembo brakes, etc. he should've beaten me at this latest event, right? i had no expectations of beating him. i thought he was now out of my league.
i beat him by .5 seconds on sunday. i'm still lol'ing about that. it's gotta be the driver.

anywho, hope you enjoy the vid. let me know what you think.
btw, i placed 44th in raw (out of 62), and 37th in pax.

 

Looked like a very solid run! What do you think about the TC-SST in auto-x application? I want to run my Ralliart sooner or later, just working up the courage.

 

i think the tc-sst does an awesome job. much better than i could do with a manual. in fact, the first day, i tried to run in manual mode, but i never knew what gear i was in and was always missing shifts. it's not like a regular manual where you have a designated spot for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. all you have is: pull back to shift up and push forward to shift down. not fun.
during the second half of that day, i left it in auto sport, and took 3 seconds off my time the first run.
driving an auto like this in auto cross is great. you can keep your focus on the course 100% of the time instead of worrying about shifting.

 

Nice run! I went to an autox on Sunday too but wasn't too thrilled with the tc-sst shifting. I just used the paddle shifters, and yeah it is confusing in manual mode but i got out of 2nd gear only once on the course.

 

Nice video and good run.

 

I don't care what GEAR I'm in. I hear and feel the car and engine. I just can feel if it needs to go up a gear or down one. That's all I need. I don't need to know what gear I'm in. I auto-x'd my car a little over a month ago, and left it in manual mode my last few runs. I made better time with that than on auto mode. I don't like to shift until I at least bounce off redline. One thing Otter taught me that stuck in my mind, pertaining to Auto-X'ing, is "Slower is Faster." Losing traction loses time, so go as fast as you can... slowly

 

yeah, i understand that, but at times the car would shift into 1st without me knowing, so i'd try to downshift during a corner and it would beep at me because it was already in the lowest gear. i don't know. maybe i just worried too much about shifting. i probably could have left it in 2nd through most of the run and only shifted into 3rd on the fast parts. for me, it just felt like too much to worry about. auto mode yielded a much better time for me, so that's what i went with.
btw, the first time i auto-crossed, auto mode did feel slower than manual. i now have the gst base map tune installed, and it feels like auto-sport does much better. it might just be because of the new throttle map.

 

yeah that's the problem... that the car will always downshift itself regardless, as you loose speed... its not like the old fashioned manual where you have it in 4th and you're braking to zero and know you have to move it back to 1st... the damn computer starts downshifting and you dont even kno what gear ure into until you look at the screen; annoying... but I usually try to downshift myself while I loose speed that way I know where I'm at... OR I let the computer do the downshift work, and then I downshift once more cause most likely it will leave you on a shift that's still under boost (running way below the 3000rpm mark) (annoying lag);

man I'm dying 2 go to the track too... good stuff it's a blast; im glad u had fun! it's like going fishing if you like fishing you know what I mean haha!