Phil II
Cone Destroyer
I did another autocross yesterday. I had a fantastic time, though it was pretty draining. I'm still tired.
I made a few changes since the last one. Most notable I swapped from DOT3 to DOT 4 ATE, sometimes called super-blue. This greatly improved my brake pedal feel, ultimate stopping power and modulation. I think before there was some air in the ABS pump that came out with the swap. Used about a two-thirds of a liter for the whole system.
That is Chuck's Formula Continental in the background.
I also swapped to an Eibach front sway-bar in place of the stocker. It came from MM, and I picked over the steeda offering for its higher schedule tubing. I really like what it did to the car's balance. Its pretty much neutral steer, with oversteer available from the right foot.
This event took place in the parking lot at Darlington Speedway. The surface quality was challenging. As the day went by the sticky tires would pull out the fine particulate from the black top and fling it around. The sandy crap then piled up some areas. I'll explain why this was noteworthy later.
Course lay-out:
This course was really interesting, and I found it more fun than the black lake setup. The first portion is close enough to straight I could really power through it to the second slalom. At the slalom entry in particular I was looking for more brakes since I was coming from the top of second gear (~70 mph) down to thirty or less for the slalom. Other than that section, the course favored miatas.
I had co-driver this time. His name is Mike and he's been doing this a lot more in his GTO. He is a faster driver. It was really having a co-driver better than I. He drove the first run, I drove second, adjusted tire pressures according to his direction. Went from 40/35 to 38/32 F/R. Grip improved and the tires were left alone. At the end of the day I learned a lot about how to be aggressive with my car. Mike drove to a best of 36.7 plus a cone, I to a 39.4 plus a cone. During fun runs my friend Kyle, who helped me a lot with the transmission swap drove it to a 37.4 clean.
Mike recorded most of the runs with his go-pro, this one of his. At a later date I might be able to share a video of how I drove.
For the benefit of comparison, this video is of a Subaru BRZ driven by my friend Joe. Very cool guy, very cool car, not stock.
This week I'll be making final preparations for a track weekend at Carolina Motorsport Park, hosted by NASA-SE
I made a few changes since the last one. Most notable I swapped from DOT3 to DOT 4 ATE, sometimes called super-blue. This greatly improved my brake pedal feel, ultimate stopping power and modulation. I think before there was some air in the ABS pump that came out with the swap. Used about a two-thirds of a liter for the whole system.
That is Chuck's Formula Continental in the background.
I also swapped to an Eibach front sway-bar in place of the stocker. It came from MM, and I picked over the steeda offering for its higher schedule tubing. I really like what it did to the car's balance. Its pretty much neutral steer, with oversteer available from the right foot.
This event took place in the parking lot at Darlington Speedway. The surface quality was challenging. As the day went by the sticky tires would pull out the fine particulate from the black top and fling it around. The sandy crap then piled up some areas. I'll explain why this was noteworthy later.
Course lay-out:
This course was really interesting, and I found it more fun than the black lake setup. The first portion is close enough to straight I could really power through it to the second slalom. At the slalom entry in particular I was looking for more brakes since I was coming from the top of second gear (~70 mph) down to thirty or less for the slalom. Other than that section, the course favored miatas.
I had co-driver this time. His name is Mike and he's been doing this a lot more in his GTO. He is a faster driver. It was really having a co-driver better than I. He drove the first run, I drove second, adjusted tire pressures according to his direction. Went from 40/35 to 38/32 F/R. Grip improved and the tires were left alone. At the end of the day I learned a lot about how to be aggressive with my car. Mike drove to a best of 36.7 plus a cone, I to a 39.4 plus a cone. During fun runs my friend Kyle, who helped me a lot with the transmission swap drove it to a 37.4 clean.
Mike recorded most of the runs with his go-pro, this one of his. At a later date I might be able to share a video of how I drove.
For the benefit of comparison, this video is of a Subaru BRZ driven by my friend Joe. Very cool guy, very cool car, not stock.
This week I'll be making final preparations for a track weekend at Carolina Motorsport Park, hosted by NASA-SE
