Well I went to my very first autocross yesterday (saturday) and it was insanely awesome!!!!

I learned a LOT while driving my humble bone stock Civic CX, and progressively decreased my times throughout the day.. My first run I went off course and managed a measely 74 second run time... After that I progressively became faster and more controlled with each run, ending up with my very last run being my best time at 62.8 seconds. Despite me trying not to fall out of my seat, having very slippery tires, tiny brakes with super cheap autozone pads, sloppy suspension and a 70hp beast pushing a super tall 3.8:1 final drive tranny, I think the car still had more potential as it is!! Gotta love the CX!

I took only one pic, while my brother took several, including an in-car video (turned out really sucky). We were hoping for more in-car videos, but the techs quickly notified us about the safety risk of a passenger holding the camera while on the course, so we put it away.

In the end I had a blast, I love autox!!! For my first set of mods to the car I was thinking some nice racing seats and some grippier tires might help me out big time in learning to get the most out of my car.

 

Racing seats will throw you out of stock, unfortunately.

 

Nuts. I guess I'll have to read through the regulations a little more and see what I can get away with... I'd prefer to learn a little more before I go about moving up in classes.

 

Does integra seats make the car out of stock class ? They're fabulous compared to the 92-95 Civic ones !

 

In SCCA, seats other than what came on the car from the factory are not allowed in stock. Aftermarket seat belts are allowed in stock so long as you also keep the factory ones, and they work. Even crappy seats with a harness you can tighten down will work way better. There is the G-lock that works with stock belts, but I have not used one so I don't know how much they really help. Except for doing something to hold you in the seat better, leave the car alone for now and work on your driving. It will be by far the best bang for the buck at this point in your driving and it will make you a better driver for when you decide to make changes or get a faster car.

 

What you can and can't do: http://www.scca.com/_filelibra...s.pdf

Check out the FAQ for more good information.

 

Yeah, CG-Lock is worth looking into.

I do the thing where you scoot your seat back a bit, snug up the seatbelt, then yank the shoulder belt forward to lock it, lean forward into it, then scoot the seat back up to the normal driving position. If you do it right, the belt stays locked and keeps you nice and firmly in your seat. I've been using this trick for years and I can't imagine autocrossing without it.

 

or you can twist the seltbelt around a couple times and/or knot it so that you have to stretch it a little to latch it and it stays pretty tight.

 

Those are some good ideas with the seatbelt tricks... I tried locking it, but it was still a little too far forward - but by pulling the seat back, lock the belt, then pull the seat forward seems like it would work quite nicely! I'll definitely try that out on my next event.

I was also looking around on a few performance sites, and became interested in some aftermarket 5 point harnesses - apparently they have mounting options that don't need a roll cage to bolt up to (i never knew you could actually bolt them up to the stock chassis! shows what I know). I'll have to look into this a bit more and see if it will work out for my car... Thanks for the info you guys!

I loved driving my car though, and I'm more than happy to keep it stock as I know there is still a LOT more potential in my driving. I'm proud of myself for keeping a good learning curve on my first event, and I hope to continue to learn at the same rate as I continue to race. Perhaps on my next event I'll have someone else more experienced drive my car to see what times I should be aiming for! Also, maybe I could get a good camera mount while I'm at it, film my next event, and then have you guys review my runs and see if you have any ideas on how I can be a better driver!

Anyway, thanks for the info everyone! I really appreciate your input.

 

Just one more quick question you guys - I'm reading through the regulations manual (link posted above, thanks Sean O'Gorman!) and I noticed something about the use of aftermarket shocks in the stock class. Apparently they don't consider gas adjustable shocks enough of a 'performance' upgrade to move you into another class - is this true or am I just reading it wrong? If I understand correctly, I could install some KYB AGX's just for kicks if I wanted to, and still stay in the same 'H Stock' class? Hmm...

Here's the quote at the top of page 65:
"1. No more than two seperate external shock damping adjustment controls.
Gas pressure adjustment is not considered a damping adjustment."


Modified by MrTodd at 12:40 AM 4/25/2005

 

Yeah, you can replace the shocks within limits (as you've seen). Koni yellows are a very popular option for our cars. However, you really want to wait until you have more experience under your belt before you start spending money on your car. Spending $200 on an Evolution school will cut your times way more at this point than spending $500 on shocks.

In the meantime, if you want to get some ideas of what's possible in stock class, Grassroots Motorsports recently did a fairly extensive prep on an SRT-4 for stock class autocross. Check the project cars section on their website.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MrTodd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just one more quick question you guys - I'm reading through the regulations manual (link posted above, thanks Sean O'Gorman!) and I noticed something about the use of aftermarket shocks in the stock class. Apparently they don't consider gas adjustable shocks enough of a 'performance' upgrade to move you into another class - is this true or am I just reading it wrong? If I understand correctly, I could install some KYB AGX's just for kicks if I wanted to, and still stay in the same 'H Stock' class? Hmm...

Here's the quote at the top of page 65:
"1. No more than two seperate external shock damping adjustment controls.
Gas pressure adjustment is not considered a damping adjustment."


Modified by MrTodd at 12:40 AM 4/25/2005</TD></TR></TABLE>

Shocks are okay to replace because they are considered a wear item. It would be pretty hard to monitor which shocks are OEM replacements on a 15-20 year old car, wouldn't you think?

 

Another cheap way to stay in the seat is a torso strap. You can go to any Camping supply store and purchase about 4 ft of 3" wide nylon webbing and a plastic buckle. Take this and after putting your regular seat belt on, wrap the webbing around the back side of the seat and snap it in front of you at about mid chest level, then cinch as tight as possible. Basically you are strapping yourself to the seat back. It will help. Not as good as a full harness, but at about $5 it is not too bad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crosser &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Another cheap way to stay in the seat is a torso strap. You can go to any Camping supply store and purchase about 4 ft of 3" wide nylon webbing and a plastic buckle. Take this and after putting your regular seat belt on, wrap the webbing around the back side of the seat and snap it in front of you at about mid chest level, then cinch as tight as possible. Basically you are strapping yourself to the seat back. It will help. Not as good as a full harness, but at about $5 it is not too bad. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I was actually thinking about something like that! It sounds like a good idea.... But you guys are right, there is definitely no need for me to spend any money in mods at this point. I really just want to be securely planted in my seat, so that I can concentrate more on my driving. I'll look into the aftermarket harnesses a bit more..

And get this, speaking about the Evolution School, I just found out that there will be a school held in three weeks over here in Utah! Talk about good timing! I'll definitely have to check this one out..

Thanks for all of the advice everyone, it's great to get some info from people who actually know what they're doing.

 

I would suggest getting the Schroth Rallye 3 harness. It is a bit more expensive than the CG lock or the strap at $150, but if you search ebay you can get them much cheaper. The harness just bolts in two the two lower front stock seatbelt mounting points and the rear upper one, which actually makes it a 3-point harness, but i feels like a full 4-point when using it. I have these in my car and love them and I too have the tock EG seats. Aslo there is a buckle that connects the two halves of the harness, so when you are done using them you can unbuckle them and tuck them under your seat and use the normal seat belts for daily driving.