I ran one day last season on nyc scca , and my car got destroyed . It was a little my fault (too low), my tires where usseless after this 8 passes (my oem tires had only 4k miles) and to make stuff worst my transmition got ****ed (no reverse)
Now the new season is around the corner and im wondering if i just had a bad day at the track or evos are so weak and eat tires like a ****. Any input guys

 

Sounds like you beat the tranny pretty bad if reverse is out, plenty of people on here auto cross many times each year without breaking anything. But yes eating tires in an Evo during autocross isnt hard to do. The OEM Tires are terrible for tread life especially when tracked/driven hard but they have good grip until you wear them out.

 

so how do you get around without reverse?

 

What the hell did you do? Sounds made up.

 

The EVO X doesn't actually have a reverse gear. It uses first and third through an idler gear on a separate shaft to "reverse".
So if you thrashed your box, reverse may be what shows up earliest.
Some people have had luck moving the shifter to first or third before trying reverse.

I'm guessing your Auto-X day was before the clutch master recall?

It's easy to thrash a synchro trying to quick shift with a hydraulic clutch.
(I fragged one in my Alfetta GT and wound up without first or second gear, because a chunk of ex-syncro was blocking the internal parts from engaging.)


And, yes, Auto-X will eat tires.

(Trivia: Back in ye olde days, a family start-up business supplied Auto-Xers with tires by phone. That evolved into a little company known as "Tire Rack". )
(My race shop got Phoenix Stahlflex 3011s for my Alfa that way, back around 1980.)

 

How were you driving when auto xing? You should not have to shift to much in auto xing. I remember in my ap2 s2k... some auto x events you can get away with usually staying in 2nd gear. Im pretty sure the evo x gearing is different but it would good to know what NOT to do since I don't want to new transmission and still quite new to AWD.

 

Sounds like either your car was in terrible shape prior to the autox or you really really really really really need to work on your driving skills bc that kind of damage does not happen from one autox.

Sure vehicle wear will be accelerated, its hard to argue that but a trans issue after a couple runs is crazy.

Also to kill a set of tires in 8 runs wtf were you doing? Seriously though, that is only operator error from asking way too much to the tires on every single corner or improper setup in regards to alignment and tire pressures.

I don't mean to come across as rude but please take a step back before you get back in your car and make sure that it is set up properly first and then work on the driving techniques.

 

Yhea my car was deff not setup properly, too low , i never rubbed before that day , but the understeer that day was just horrible and the rub on the inner fender was quite a bit . My tranny was replaced thx God , the car sit s now at 4k miles, i was deffinetly askin too much of my tires, im sitting on some good year eagle all seasons now , i will lift the car and get some stiffr springs and sway bars, lets see how the car behaves this season with this better setup and hopefully i learn how to drive it better too

 

Your evo had less than 4000 miles on it when the tranny went?

 

Yeah if you are low and rubbing that will certainly pose issues with accelerated wear for obvious reasons. Im guessing that is how the tires got trashed as well? Raise the car back up for starters and see if its still rubbing.

If your car is as low as I'm picturing it is then raising it up will also help in the handling department.

As to the understeer depending on when you are experiencing it in the turn it can be attributed to a deficency in your setup as well a result of how you are driving the car. If you are overdriving it and overcooking the tires then you will experience understeer.

Try and finish braking in a straight line before you enter the turn. At the point when you turn in assuming you have the correct entry speed the car shouldnt push too much. If its pushing you entered too hard or turned to quickly.

One of the hardest things as a novice to master is braking points IMO.

Another concept that is hard to grasp as first since its counter intuitive is what to do mid corner when the car is understeering. Common sense would tell you "OK the car isnt turning enough so I need to crank the wheel some more" Unfortunately this will cause you to understeer even more and overwork the tires even more.

Now I havent seen any videos of your runs but next time your racing and you find the car to be pushy take a conscious note of how you react to that. When the car is understeering slowly unwind the wheel some and let off the gas a little. This will help set the weight on the front and allow the tires a chance to hook up.

I don't claim to be an expert by any means but I've been autocrossing enough to pick up on driving do's and dont's.

Good luck and let us know what other questions you have.

 

Thx , yes the braking is deffinetly something to work on. I actually had the luck to get an experience evox driver to come with me for a lap and he said to work on my braking and to lift the car , he also told to make the tires do one thing at the time which is great theory but its much harder to apply when u r in the heat of the moment.
This whole post was basicly to make sure the x can handle the abuse of lets say 9 races which is the whole season . And it seems like it can so thx guys i just need to slow down a bit and focus a little more

 

Haha yeah seat time seat time seat time. You'll get the hang of it.

But yes to answer your question, the evo should have no problem as long as you keep up with routine maintenance and drive it properly.

I've got an VIII which is my dd and this will be my 7th year autoxing it. Im currently at 71k miles and still on the stock clutch making roughly double the power output from the factory. Driven properly the car will last for many years to come. My car is driven hard but responsibly. I treat her right and she gives the same in return.

 

My $.02 is to start the process of learning to left-foot brake as soon as possible.

 

later x's come with a throttle cut of you do too much lfb with throttle inputs....
And on tarmac, the benefits or left foot braking are marginal at best.

if the op is getting that much understeer with an evo, slow down a bit to go fast.
Your tires were probably getting too hot which was making the problem worse.

A water spay will help on those hot days.

 

Good info. Are there any cheap ways to fix the understeer, besides say a new rear dif? I mean how well does a larger rear sway bar or other suspension tweaks affect the evo?