so, this would be my 4th time at bremerton autox and I seem to be getting worse or everyone else is just getting better. My first event I got 2nd in novice, then 5th then 10th then 20th. It seems like my car just wants to spin and I'm being gentle on the gas. And when I come into a corner fast the back end wants to come around. I had all clean runs today which is good, but my tires were screeching alot and whether I was smooth or drifting out of turns, I still aeraged 57-58sec lap times. 5 laps. Other novices were running low 50's. I think I may have done btter at the first event because it was a faster course where I got to 3rd gear, but the tighter courses are ridiculous. It's embarrasing. Also, I used to have toyo proxes 4, but were balding and now I have fuzion zri's. I ran 39psi front and 30 in the back, because of trac probs out of the turns.

Any suggestionsfor the car, other than getting better behind the wheel. The thing that makes me think that I was limited by the car was my consistency of time. I know I can get better, but I was very consistent today. are there any street tires that are known to be really good for racing.

 

If the car is stock then it'd be interesting that it's tail happy. Seems like most stock fbody's are understeering pigs if I remember correctly..

 

Visit www.frrax.com, they'll take care of you :-)

 

Tires my man . Fuzions are not known as a autocross tire. Sounds like the tread compound is hard ball bearings.

 

I get lots of understeer too... It's just that I can control that easier by braking more before the turn, but when I want to accelerate out of it, it's not letting me. I think all the nose dive really throws the car's weight around making it difficult to control. Next on my list of parts is springs. I'm looking at the g2 springs. They seem to be one of the stiffest springs. Then later I can buy some koni sa's and sway bars. And by the time next autox season starts , I'll have some racing tires as well. Hopefully by then...I'll be running with the big dog's. My ultimate goal it to roadrace though...not autox. Fbody's aren't meant for autoxing my opinion. too big to wedge between cones..lol. I had the biggest car there on sunday.

 

G2 springs are NOT some of the stiffest springs. They may be stiff for regular drop springs, but compared to what some road race guys are running (like 1000 lbs/in), they are pretty soft. Koni's and a big front bar will do more to go fast than springs IMO, especially with drop springs with crappy shocks.

I have auto-x'ed my stock Formula for quite some time, and f-bodies are actually decent stock auto-x cars. If you look at the F-stock national results, F-bodies have won something like 17 of the last 20 years. If you are want to develop yourself as a driver, then don't mod the car. Do Konis, big front bar, alignment, and just drive it.

If you are having oversteer problems, be more gentle getting in the gas on corner exit. Is there anyone n your region who is fast in an F-stock car? Find someone good in an f-body to ride with and show you what it is like.

 

No.. There was one guy in a ls1 ss, but he did worse then me. But I'll try to clear someting up. On my first event, I did very well compared to other drivers and other cars. But I'm gonna blame my bad times on the tires because I used to only be 1 second off of the cars with racing tires. compared to 10 seconds on this past sunday. I work at Les Schwab, so I will have some toyo ra1's next autox season. I just have to buy a second set of wheels. My car might have bad schocks too. I just hit a little over 90k miles on the factory suspension. So, hopefully I can blame my worse times on the car and not me.lol.

I went to the dragstrip last friday as well and couldn't launch better than a 2.3. before I got 2.2 easily. The tires are fun for drifting in parking lots though.

Also, where do the roadracing guys buy their springs..or do they special order them??

 

+ that way (with some sticky tires mounted on cheap stock wheels, or "salad shooters, etc.) you could stay in F Stock, develop your skills, and maybe even be competitive someday.

BTW; generally, once the spring rates get up above the 650-700# in. range, they are 2.5" diameter coilover setups. Now there might be some OEM size (5.5" dia.) uber high rate springs available from AFCO/Hyperco/Eibach, etc., but I'm not too sure on that. Mojave? Mitch? trackbird?

 

Pretty sure you have to go to 2.5" coil overs to get that high (at least everyone I know is). For off the shelf springs, Strano springs are the best IMO.

Seriously, get the Konis, big bar, alignment, and just drive. Staying on street tires will help you hone your skills. Work on going to as many events as possible. Evo schools are really good as well. Between runs go through the course in your head and keep track of where you make mistakes. Walk the course at least twice before your runs. Going fast at auto-x is hard, hard stuff (believe me, I've tried....). Fuzions are crap tires; it's no surprise you are slow. But, don't give up just yet, not on you or a stock f-body.

 

Yeah
Don't give up, I could care less if Iwas in first place or Last ( actually I do) I just want to get seat time and make my car work.

 

You don't have in any way, shape, or form, a setup for autox. It's not different than going to a drag strip on stock suspension and being surprised you can't launch with cars on better tires or more appropriate setups for the task. Then you add the fact that autoxing is hard to do well. Very few people are truly that fast, and next to none of them, myself included, were fast at the beginning.

Mojave is trying to help you here by recommending you set the car up for F-stock and learn. You can build off of that setup if you later feel ESP or some other class is more suitable for what you want. Note that ESP is the last stop for a truly competitive streetable F-body.

A little piece of advice. Don't try and get tricky until you know what you're doing. We've all done it at some point, I did when I started and completely screwed myself class wise for years. And I was still losing.

Set the car up for F-stock. I'd be happy to help you through the process of setting up the car as well as warning you what's the car and what's not (I'm also teach folks to autox @ Evolution schools).

 

^^^^Look at this man's sig, and then take his advice. I think he has a "little more" <-- authority/credibility than the rest of us!!

 

Cool. I will see you when I buy my suspension. I've seen you all over the fourms and obviously you know what your doing. I just spent a whole bunch on headers, so I can't dump any more money into the car for a while.

Queston about the alignment? When I go to firestone or wherever to get an alignment, will they align it to settings that I ask them to?? I purchased a lifetime alignment from them, so do you think they will do that??

 

Hey Ryan
Those headers are going to put you in a real tough class for Autox. But other than that enjoy the car on the courses.

 

headers put a car into ESP. Is it tough? No more so than any other class that has well-setup cars and good drivers. I won ESP @ Nationals last year for the 3rd time, and by a margin that in autoxing terms, was big.

But I agree that if the headers are not on the car, that you might want to wait. Because ESP is a lot more expensive than FS is (by a LOT) to get a competitive car. Some folks don't care, some say they don't--but they really hate losing. Some just don't pay attention to the rules and them complain when they find out they screwed themselves classing wise. And some, like me love the sport and the competition and would rather be able to compete on a very high level than install headers. YMMV, but you should think about your personality and how badly you want to win and how far you want to progress.

 

The Firestones by me will not even touch my car (slightly lowered). They claim it is "corporate policy" to refuse work on modified cars. So I doubt that they would even go to the outer limits of the stock specs on alignment, let alone beyond that, EVEN with you signing a waiver completely absolving them from tire wear issues!! I wonder how much business they lose from all of the slammed Honduhboyzz around here with that policy??!?

 

Align it yourself. Read a little bit about it and judge for yourself if it's within your capabilities.

It really isn't hard to do if you can't find a shop that will do it. Sam can probably help with some pointers while he's processing your order.

Basically you want to max everything out. That only leaves the toe to set. Two jackstands, some common sense and attention to detail, a tape measure and some string will get that done. I have toe plates in the garage but don't use them that much.

What are my alignment specs? Don't know, don't care. I've got all that I can get so why worry?. Each side is reasonably close to the other so I just focus on the toe.

You could always have the shop check it for you when you're done and make further adjustments with that information (if necessary). The alignment check should be covered by your lifetime alignment purchase.