ryanisfast

I have autox'd two times and I did pretty well. It's a hard car to drive in tight corners because of the weight, but it does handle well. I had trouble with understeer more than oversteer. I only oversteered if I gave it too much gas coming out of a turn. I was going sideways the first two laps, then I toned down my right foot and got pretty good times relative to other cars without slicks. My first time i got second place in the novice class out of 60 or so other drivers in that class, so I'd say that it's a decent car to work with. Use what the car has to your advantage...horsepower. if there is a straight.. go all the way. If you can shift into third gear... do it! Alot of other cars won't get past 50mph in autocross, but if there is a decent straight, you can get into third gear up to 70 or so, that's where your making up times. I had a few really good laptimes, but I skimmed a couple of cones and I barely even touched em. Know that the car is wider than others. I tried to shed time by trying to graze against cones and gates, but in my effort to be faster I was knocking over cones.

Either way...It's fun as hell. Alot more fun than doing four runs down a dragstrip. For me anyways. The trans am would do much better in a big roadcourse though.

Mojave

iTrader: (4)

An LS1 will VERY RARELY need 3rd gear on an auto-x course. My 99 Formula will go over 70 mph in 2nd, and almost every time it is faster to hold it in a lower gear and not have to upshift and then downshift (especially if you can't heel/toe downshift smoothly). In fact, 99% of auto-x I run exclusively in 2nd gear.

Understeer/oversteer has a lot to do with the driver and how they are driving the car more than anything else. If you go into a corner way too fast and over-rotate the steering wheel, most any car will plow. If you are not smooth with the throttle, you can make almost any RWD car oversteer on throttle on corner exit(especially on street tires).

I have run my stock 99 Formula in at least 50 auto-x's in the past few years, and they can do very well. Driver means more than anything as far as going fast. Driver means more than tires, shocks, springs, alignment, power, wheels. A fast driver in a slow car will be faster than a slow driver in a fast car every time.

Get out there and try it, but going fast is a lot harder than it looks, so don't feel bad if you are slow at first. I am still working hard to get faster (because losing sucks!).


That is from the 06 Mineral Wells Pro Solo.

93transam

iTrader: (1)

Awesome work on the vette btw. I was reading your story when I was supposed to be studying for a final in my last class of the semester!! I just wish I new were more autorcrossing events were closer to Austin. Oh and a cheap beater so I wouldn't have to dd my TA anymore and leave it to racing.

93transam

iTrader: (1)

Of course I could just get a ZX600 and race that instead of messing with my TA right. Except Im sure there is lot more skill involved on motoGP than autocrossing, or at least danger. Hell why not do both huh?

Mojave

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for the compliment. There are plenty of auto-x events in and around Austin. Spokes does auto-x events in Austin at the Berger Center, http://www.spokes.org. SASCA does events down in San Antonio, http://www.sasportscar.com, and the Texas A&M Sports Car Club does events here in College Station, http://www.tamscc.org. Over the summer, we are going to have 3 open practices, where you can get unlimited runs both Saturday and Sunday for $20 (I think it was $20....). Literally as many runs as your car and tires can take.

ryanisfast

I have an lt1 so i have to shift a little sooner than the ls1 because I can only take it up 5800rpm, where as the ls1's are like 6k or something right. Plus the first time I went, everyone at the event was saying how it was one of the fastest autoz courses they've ever made, which is why i did well my first time bcause of the high speed of the course. All of the higher HP cars did well on that course. Even the c5 zo6's were shifting into third. At the second autox event I never got out of 2nd gear and I got like 8th because it had a lot more slaloms and was much more challenging for me. But The last time I went a guy had an ls1 camaro ss and I had about two second better times than him. It's all driver and his extra 50 hp may have done him well at the strip but it meant nothing at autox.