Looking forward to it, I'll try to get some pictures. Hopefully I don't flat out embarass myself.


Modified by MattP at 5:58 PM 12/11/2004

 

Have fun and good luck. Walk the course a few times, and just have some fun!

 

be sure to have an instructor with u...i didn't on my first time and i totally looked like an idiot. and have fun! and watch out, autoXing is a drug, im going through withdraw right now....

 

Matt, come find me, I will be running the Evo in Street Mod, but I will have the CRX out there also, so i will help you out all i can. We will make sure that you dont go home too bad off.

We have a few novices tomorrow, so we will be doing a bit of instructing.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

don't try to overdrive.... common mistake for the first time out. Just drive smooth. If you plow through every turn you will be slow.

figure out the gearing too.... it is fun to dump the car back into first sometimes, but it takes longer and causes more spinning of the tires than to just leave it in 2nd if you can.

 

Confuscious says: sometimes slower is faster......

 

I wish i could make it up to Florence, but Melissa and I are going to Jekyll Island Ga for the Buccaneer region Awards Banquet. The Charity event will be on Sunday in the north lot of the convention center. Its a great lot for finishing off the rest off the tires

 

I had a blast, it was a lot of fun. I came in 2nd in novice to a guy in a Cooper S. I also got a ride in Jon's '85 CRX, very very quick.

I think I've caught the auto-x bug, I've already started looking for a 2nd set of stock wheels for some sticky tires.

Here's a link to all the pictures I got on my camera. I had someone else take some pictures when I ran.

Here some pictures with me and my CRX:

 

I wish I could've gone...

Jon you've never let me ride LOL I know you were battling for points at the last event

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by clemsonhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Jon you've never let me ride LOL I know you were battling for points at the last event </TD></TR></TABLE>

It was during a fun run at the end. There was a lot of time left over once all the runs were done. (I am still shocked 225's can fit on a 5" wide rim.)

 

Wow!

Autocrossing in the middle of December. The part of me that hates living in NJ is really, really angry now... But I hate realtors as much as I hate phone solicitors.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MattP &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had a blast, it was a lot of fun. I came in 2nd in novice to a guy in a Cooper S. I also got a ride in Jon's '85 CRX, very very quick.

I think I've caught the auto-x bug, I've already started looking for a 2nd set of stock wheels for some sticky tires.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Too late!

I was going to warn you, but after the first taste it's useless. You're facing a lifetime addiction. Might as well just build a fire and throw all your money in. Sorry.

 

Matt did very well yesterday, I rode with him on a fun run, and he has a lot of good instincts, he is relaxed which is hard to find, and he lets the car do what it wants to do without fighting it. He took feedback well and executed it resulting in chopping 2 seconds off of his time.

Matt, you are going to do well.. welcome to the wonderful world of addiction. One thing though.. i would say run at least 8 events on the street tires, you are going to learn a LOT of car control that way, and when you bolt the race tires on the car.. your going to amaze yourself. For instance the race tires would let you get away with the heavy corner entry braking you were doing, so you want to learn that stuff on the street, (what not to do and what to do) so that when you get the R compounds, you dont have the bad habits.. or have less of them, i think we all have some bad habits.

Oh and Matt's CRX damn clean car.

Marc, if you had been there yesterday i would have given you a ride in the car.. the front tires dont have any more usefull life in them. (as in, they won't pass tech anymore.. grr.. i rotate tires so one of them is worn out after 35 runs with only 18 of those on the front... i guess the good news is that they didn't seem to fall off in that time which the S03 would have)

Either way.. i made 23 autocross runs yesterday.. 6 in the Evo, 7 in the CRX, and 10 in the Z06.. I think i have hit my fix for at least a day or so.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

Looks like we all had a good weekend.. We had a total of 27 drivers at the charity event this morning. I ended up with FTD on streeeet tires thanks to the cold morning, and azenis.. I also got to drive a Mazda Speed Miata during fun runs

 

how did your times compare for the Z0-6 vs the Evo?

I enjoy auto-x but don't enjoy spending half my day to get 4 runs..... I have an Evo and have beaten all of the local PCA two times in it....but they suck at driving....

just curious how the Evo times were vs vette.... Evo's mask driver errors and allow you to just plant your foot on the gas versus having to drive with some finesse with a vette.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by racerjon1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Either way.. i made 23 autocross runs yesterday.. 6 in the Evo, 7 in the CRX, and 10 in the Z06.. I think i have hit my fix for at least a day or so.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Evo: 48.2 clean (had a 46.8 run with a cone)
Z06: 49.8
G-Stock CRX: 49.2 (just for comparison)

However.. Evo was on Toyo Proxy RA1, Z06 on street tires. Also.. Evo has some mods and well tuned.. i think putting 300 to the wheels. Z06 was stock other than brake rotors. (which i dont think helps do any degree on a 50 second course)

This is my 2nd time in a Z06, i have about 15 total runs in one now. I have probably 10 hours of track time in Evos of different modification level (from stock to 480 whp) Also.. typical to this area of SC this is a very sandy lot.. I was running the Z06 in 3rd gear to have any kind of control, and i was still able to offer a "drift run" at will to passengers. The AWD Evo put up with the sand a little better of course.

In other words, I love the Evo and for the value i think its the best thing going. But it is simply not close to the Z06 when it comes to actually putting times on paper with equal mods.

I think there might be some road courses that the Evo can outrun the Z06, or at least perform with. (no huge straights, and longer sweeping corners where power down early would help more than raw acceleration, Hallet: I think would be a good Evo track, Road America with short corners and looong straights, or Even the CMP "short" section.. advantage Z06) Autocrosses, same thing.. anything with tight corners and bursts of straight line acceleration the Z06 is going to murder the Evo, and Transitional courses.. lots of lane changes and slaloms.. the Z06 is going to trounce it again. (the Stock Z06 is one of the best transition/recovery cars i have ever been in)

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

Jon we almost finished up Josh's new SM hatch!!! It's got all the sedan parts in a car that weighs 300lbs less We look forward to spanking EVO's and Z06's

I've driven a stock EVO and I thought it was a laggy push machine

Work begins on my hatch this week! Next season is going to be FUN

Edit: I know EVO's are sweet cars but have yet to drive one that is set-up right...

 

Marc, all cars push.. you just got to know when to slow down. :D (or put like 65 psi of air in the back tires)

You are like me now i bet, spoiled by a decent car. try to think of how that Civic would feel with 70 series 7000 treadwear tires. Even a Porsche with stock tires and such will feel weird, the Z06 pushed. (till i ended that nonsense with the throttle)

Good deal on the civic.. You guys can be a threat i think. Depending on what that BMW ends up being like. On the same note.. It is possible I will come to play in street mod next year. I have started talking to the owner about campaigning the Evo in SM for 04. Divisionals/nationals/etc.. I know I have no interest in running the CRX seriously, the 05 Cooper S has pretty much killed any chance of anything else even being competitive in GS.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

I think it was the transition from going to street tires from race rubber.

Which Evo is it? That blue one with 400whp that was at the last points race at BMW? We need some competition, I think we're going to go to as many National and ProSolo events as we can. ATL region lots are good practice for Nationals because they are so bumpy. Plus there are always a bunch of SM cars to battle out with

We are building 2 SM hatch's, one supercharged and the other a custom turbo. We'll see how things go, we're going for it

 

Yea, going from race tires to street rubber is tricky sometimes, also as someone pointed out Saturday to me.. "Jon it's a 3400 lb car... Its going to push" but, it ended up being more that the camber was set at +0.5' (after we fixed that it got a bit better :rollseyes

This wasn't the Blue one, that one belongs to Dan Klynstra, and he is under contract to Toyo to be a show car so he was at Hot Impot Nights in Miami. that car is ferocious though, with everything turned up, its putting like 480 to the ground, and he hit 157 down the front straight at Roebling with it.. When i drove it at Roebling it was misfiring from 4500-5500 rpm, the rideheight was too low, and I goofed my way to a 1:25 at roebling..(i drive my jeep harder on station wagon tours) With the way it is now, and a couple sessions I think i hope it would hit 1:18s and 160+ down the straight.

The one i was in was Grey's who is a buddy of dan and its Black, not sure where you might have seen it, but its tuned but still on stock turbo (for another 5 days) so its "only" putting 300 or so to the wheels. I think it can be a good car, and if i end up in the class with you it is going to be fun to see how your "low" HP low weight car stacks up to the high HP overweight car. Judging by my coned run in the Evo and my time in the CRX.. I think its going to be close.

Either way i am getting less and less sentimental about going away from the CRX, and looking forward to trying something new and different for 05.

Who is driving the 2nd hatch? Or is it a back-up car in case you have some weirdness happen like last year?

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by racerjon1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Either way.. i made 23 autocross runs yesterday.. 6 in the Evo, 7 in the CRX, and 10 in the Z06..
</TD></TR></TABLE>

anyone else get insanely jealous of jon after reading this statement?

jeff

 

It's a back-up / daily driver It's going to be pushing 300+whp and we're going to have 200 lb-ft at 3000rpm and be able to rev to 8500+rpm with a nice flat torque curve. I guess you can call that a low hp car I just don't know how much more power can be that useful auto-xing a FWD car. We'll see how it goes. It's going to be a great daily driver, I know that much for certain: a true Street Mod car.

I think if you do stick to the CRX you have to drive yours. But like you said the new Mini is going to be a class killer looks like.

Jeff how could you be jealous of Jon??? He's an A-1 guy!

 

well, low hp was tounge in cheek of course, i mean, comparing it to the Evo and all, and whatever that M3 ends up with.

I am 99.9% sure I will not even try the CRX this year.. i mean even if I had driven perfect, which I didn't, i think the CRX might have gone 6 or 7th place at Nationals this year. I am not interested in playing for 6th or 7th. But, with the New Mini, i think the best i could hope for driving perfect will be a trophy. if i was worried about just going to get a trophy I would bolt a header, intake, sway bar, camber plates, springs, and some big slicks on my CRX. Then remove some glass, some interior, and run EP.

I want to try something different though, I will either find some $ for an STS/STX class, (read sponsorship) or put my own $ into tires/travel for the Evo or.. my first choice, C-mod in my Van Diemen FF.

As far as being jealous of me.. hell I was jealous of me. Days like that don't come very often.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jeff R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

anyone else get insanely jealous of jon after reading this statement?

jeff</TD></TR></TABLE>

Very much so.

 

IMed you Jon...if you want to drive an STS car