So after 2.5 months of owning the Apex Silvers 05 VIII I finally get a chance to take it out to MSR. The odo was showing 2,800, and the first dealer service had not hit yet.

A coworker and I get out there around 12:00 noon. Meet up with Pete - Yellow VIII 03 (nice guy); head out on the sports-car session. Lots of great cars out there... M3, M5, RUF 911, Noble, various Spec Miatas... First lap, just a nice warm up... next lap, things are starting to come back to me. Last time I wuz out there several months ago, I was driving my 3,600 lb twin turbo 01 Audi S4. I liked that car, but now I can see why people and mags love the EVO so much. Even without practice I was 10 mph faster on most turns; I'm told that the EVO can run 1:23 or 1:24s out at MSR with "R" compounds. Heck that's faster that the SMs! I believe it in... just one problem.. I'm seriously rusty. Need driver upgrades

Anyway, there were several great laps... I could not believe the speed you can carry with the stock suspension, Advans and correct air pressure. Thanks to Pete, I cut back on the understeer by just doing that. Boys, let me tell ya, the S4 has a crap load of understeer; I was running a Neuspeed bar to cut that out. Comparitively, the EVO is a dream machine.

So confidence builds up and we are cruising along... even get a pass a few folks... 2nd session and 15 minutes have gone by. I'm into turn 6 heading towards "Tombstone", around 70mph in 3rd, trying to shoot out doing about 80, when I drop two right tires off the track.... yikes! recover back but I'm still in the middle of the big sweeper.... steering is still turned... tires have debris on them... back end starts to come around; not sure what to do at this point... we go sideways into the red-and-white hump at a seriously rapid rate..... oh crap, "I'm going to flip it!"... "wham"... dirt starts to fly... we are facing the wrong track direction... engine cuts out... car runs off the track in reverse... lots and lots of dirt, grass and dust fly in through the windows... we are safe... my buddy is okay; I'm okay... dust everywhere... engine won't start....we try to get out and push.... here comes a SM down the track.... he hits the dirt I created... almost looses it... I tell my buddy to get back into the car in case we get hit.... by that time, the officials black flag and send help... everyone on the track slows down and drives by to see if we are okay..... EVO fires back up and I breath a new life

Pete says there are those of go off and there are those who have gone off. Well said dude. It wuz scary doing the same in the S4 at Richochet at 80 mph (cold tires). It was scary in the EVO too.... But no harm done (except the side skirt scratches)... will be more 'aware' and alert next time.

Hell, but the EVO VIII freakin' rocks!!! I don't think I need the Hotchkis bar for some time till I get more practice. It'll sit in my garage till next year. Later!!

 

you haven't taken it out autocross yet then have you

haha, i had a blast at MSR too. the car handled amazing. but you can feel the understeer in every turn at an autocross. i have the bar set to full stiff and it still understeers. playing with tire pressures now to get it dialed out, and it helped a bunch sunday but not quite there yet.

 

I'm going to a track event soon @ Hallett. What is the proper inflation to reduce understeer?

 

38 Front, 34 Rear worked really well. If I felt understeer, just left off the gas, the car corrects and the punch in the gas. I also felt the exit out from turns can start much earlier... most of the times before getting to the apex. Enjoy.

 

Nope, have never been xcrossing; always wanted to go, but never made a huge effort to make it out. When / Where is the next one? What do beginners like me need to do?

 

nice write-up, glad to hear your ok.
the evo must be fun to whip around turns

 

It sounds like you're having too much fun to do much autocrossing! There's a lot of standing around for 45-90 seconds of seat time.
MSR seems to go by much faster between sessions and then 30 minutes of seat time blows away a season of autocrosses.
We need a great parking lot to do some private play; maybe a slalom for times?
Saturday, everyone is going to hang out at Alamo, so maybe I'll see you there (or at MSR soon)

 

Yeah, Pete's cool.


The S4 is a great street car! I had the pleasure of putting a few hundred miles on one this summer. But on a track it's a nose-heavy pig.

In only my second visit to TWS I was running around in tandem with a VW R32 when came up behind a guy in an S4 with suspension mods. It was cool having 3 different AWD machines duking it out. The R32 and I easily got by the S4 and left him in the proverbial dust. I later found out from the R32 driver that the S4 driver had approached him after the session to find out what we had done to our cars. When the R32 driver said both our cars were stock, the S4 driver is said to have looked disgusted and stalked off.


I spun off at Turn 8 at TWS and the same thing happened to me. Someone said it was probably an inertial fuel cutoff switch. Basically, our spins were violent enough that the car thought we were in wrecks. Apparently the switch resets itself after a few attempts to start.

My Service Engine light stayed on for a while too. I was tripping. It went off later that day.


Unless it's on fire, NEVER get out of your car until instructed by track personnel.

 

i agree the seat time is not at all compareable. however, for 25 dollars you can go to an s2k event and get 8 runs (typically 45-90 seconds at mineral wells per run), and be done in 4 hours. but when you go to a track event at a minimum your looking at 200 dollars between entry fee, GAS, GAS, and more GAS, and tire/brake/oil wear is much greater.
the next event for autocross will be this sunday at the bus lot at texas motor speedway. go to www.autocross.com/texasregion to get the schedule. i tend to stay away from the SCCA events because you will get 3-4 runs tops and be there 8 hours or more (tons of standing for not much driving... there is just to many people there). attend the events put on by the PCA, s2k, and equipe rapide group, much more runs, cheaper, and less time out in the sun.