Well now that I finally have some free time I was able to make it out to my first autoX in over 10 years and in actuality my second autox ever. Back when I first started driving I took my FD rx7 to an autox, had fun but realized that I could not afford to do it on a high school students budget.

I went out to Mineral Wells with the BMWCCA and decided to eat up some tires. I learned a couple of things real quick:

1. My tires suck and the track surface at Mineral Wells has a lot to be desired. I slid across the track quite a bit and got my quickest times by doing 4 wheel drifts through most of the turns.

2. I suck at driving autox courses. BMWCCA is awesome in that they let you have 8 runs total in a day. The track was pretty big and quite fast, the fastest cars (Z06 on r-compounds) were running the course in about 1:08. My first 4 runs were DNF. Its funny, when we were walking the track I pointed out that my group had walked past a gate near the end of the track, well guess what gate I missed. The fastest I ran in the morning was 1:23, and then slowed it down to a 1:30 when I was looking for the gate I was missing. I finally ran a 1:17.

3. Girodisk Magic pads and Amsoil fluid is a great combo. I never had a problem with braking, and the pedal was firm throughout the day, even when I hot lapped it twice, jump a large portion of my run group who were adjusting setting on their cars.

4. BMWCCA has really loose classes if you are not a BMW. Basically there are 3 non-BMW classes X,Y,Z. X is dominated by miatas on street tires. Y is cars less than 3.1 liters, 350z, G35, RX8, S2000 (the class I was in because of a forced induction modifier) and Z r-compound cars such as corvettes, Jim Harris' RX8 and a s2000CR.

5. More power does not equal faster times. I think I had the most power to the wheels out there, around 400 at the wheels, but ran midpack once I was able to find all of the gates.

6. I am going to do many more events.

Here are some pictures from the day:

 

Looks like fun.

 

any other EVOs? 8 runs IS great, it takes this old dog at least four runs2keep from getting lost out there ! The school next weekend is the best bang4the buck out there. . Many runs as well. . Hope everyone will sign up that can. Anyone up for a FUDDRUCKER meet right down the road this SAT. after the school?

 

There was a silver 8 signed up that was going to be driven by two guys, but they never showed.

 

Mineral Wells is definitely not a great surface! But it sure is big

I got a rock in the face today (while I was on the course!).

 

1) I suggest Dunlop Z1 Star Specs and I run them myself because they are a good bang for the buck. After a year of experience, get a second set of wheels and r-comps to be more competitive - if you want to of course.

2) Keep practicing and do the class next weekend with the SCCA. You don't have to win to have fun - that's the motto I live by - literally :-)

4) Same with PCA so they're good for practice but if you want real competition only options in my opinion are SCCA and ER.

5) Thats for darn sure. Miatas and their 1.6L / 1.8L engines are killer for autocross.

6) Glad to hear. So I'll beeing you around next weekend then.

 

5. I was faster than the Miatas this weekend (finally)

 

Krisium.... glad your getting your car out on a tack! Its tons of fun!!

Have you been out to MSR or ECR?? Auto-Cross is a lot of fun for sure, but there isn't much that compares to an EVO out on a road course!

Thats only cause I put my magic touch on your hotside

Glad everything worked out, where did you end up finishing??

 

the guy in the red corvette i believe his name is reb, he's my old teachers husband and does this almost every weekend.

 

The owner of the red corvette looked to be in his mid 30's, but I never got his name. Everyone out there was super friendly and I even got a few pointers from Jim about the back part of the course.

Denver, I haven't gotten a chance to get out to a road course yet. I plan on doing one of the driving schools here shortly, and I have signed up for the SCCA school. I am still not sure what class I am in, but I took a good guess and will probably get reclassed when I get there. Oh well, I had fun, and don't plan on being competitive this year anyway.

 

What are your mods and tires? We can help you class before you get there so you don't get messed up

HHR in May?

 

HHR for sure.

I am on street tires with a wear rating of 200.
Mods
3" TBE catless
Cone filter
1050 injectors
255 fuel pump
GTWorx springs
Self Tune
E85

 

Only took 300+ HP, AWD, and 285 r-comps to do it..

 

You're allowed to run any highway fuel in stock and street touring which includes E85 so you're good there.

catless = a prepared class of some sort
injectors = possibly same as above

 

catless and tune (assuming you've changed the boost) puts you into BSP. If you don't have any aero mods you're ok (the big one is a cf hood which immediately puts you into Street Mod (SM)).

In BSP you can run r-compounds if you want. For SCCA & ER purposes, I'd run in Novice so that you're paxed against the other people in Novice (meaning everyone is given a handicap and their times are multiplied against a factor to try and even them out). Novice disallows r-compounds to make it more fair as well.

Novices also get a lot more leeway and people help them a lot more . And the competition isn't nearly as stiff .