I have a 90 crx dx stock engine with only ksport coilovers on recent autocross sessions here i manage to get to get in the mid-pack of other racers. Slowest time were 68 sec and fastest was 48sec and i got 55 sec on my best run. I felt i maxed it out already i'm on some autozone brake pads and 45% falken ziex on steelies 195/60R14 or 55 i forgot.

I am in ESP class but am on a very tight budget. what kind of upgrades is adviseble right now? a set of tires ? brake pads? sway bars? or some power upgrade? just to b e more competitive just felt like the car's setup is maxing out already.

 

wait how come your in esp?..

id get tires first azenis... but if u wanna be competitive in a sp classur gonna want some r compounds

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VeilSide_Mas &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have a 90 crx dx stock engine with only ksport coilovers on recent autocross sessions here i manage to get to get in the mid-pack of other racers. Slowest time were 68 sec and fastest was 48sec and i got 55 sec on my best run. I felt i maxed it out already i'm on some autozone brake pads and 45% falken ziex on steelies 195/60R14 or 55 i forgot.

I am in ESP class but am on a very tight budget. what kind of upgrades is adviseble right now? a set of tires ? brake pads? sway bars? or some power upgrade? just to b e more competitive just felt like the car's setup is maxing out already.</TD></TR></TABLE>

What other mods do you have besides the coilovers? If that's all you have, you should be able to run in STS2 which has a much better pax index and will put you with more similarly prepared competition.

 

Do you happen to have an extra set of rims, even if junk yard steel rims? Many autocrosser who do extremely well use road racers "junk" tires. My suggestion is go to a club race and speak with the tire vendor there. They will be more than happy to give you the old tires that racers leave behind. While for a front running road racer, they may not be the fastest tire, they are a great tire for an autocrosser. You are also saving the tire company the $5 (or there abouts) fee to dispose of the tire, having to lug them back to the shop then get rid of them after that...

And the cool thing is you'll be able to see some fun racing. 14's are a pretty common tire size. (A friend of mine who was on a very low budget ran an entire season with his Miata on take offs.) Heck, maybe you make it known here that you're looking for decent (not flat spotted or at the cords) used race tires. When calling around for tire companies to mount them, mention you're a racer on a pretty tight budget and wondering what they charge for tire mounting. (You can word it a bit better than that, but you get the idea.) I was pretty lucky and found an ex-SCCA racer who owns a tire shop. $5 (and many time free) to mount and balance tires.

 

this mite be weird... but isnt ESP a class.with..like v8 mustangs and camaros&gt;?

 

wow lucky for you granracing... where can i start looking for the club races? i have no where to start

xjohnx: i have no idea why am i in esp , yup only coilovers stock everything else. with only 84hp on engine u sure i can take on sts2? i've seen some srt-4 run on those classes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vietnameeh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">this mite be weird... but isnt ESP a class.with..like v8 mustangs and camaros&gt;?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I think bsp is for V8 camaros and mustangs.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VeilSide_Mas &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow lucky for you granracing... where can i start looking for the club races? i have no where to start

xjohnx: i have no idea why am i in esp , yup only coilovers stock everything else. with only 84hp on engine u sure i can take on sts2? i've seen some srt-4 run on those classes. </TD></TR></TABLE>


You should be running in sts2 then. The srt-4 would be in STS unless it is over the 1.8(??) liter and I don't know if turbos are allowed in STS. I think it would be in STX then?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by george34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> I think bsp is for V8 camaros and mustangs.

You should be running in sts2 then. The srt-4 would be in STS unless it is over the 1.8(??) liter and I don't know if turbos are allowed in STS. I think it would be in STX then?</TD></TR></TABLE>


The SRT-4 is in STU with the STi, EVO, M3, etc.

The CRX should be in STS2 without a problem.

 

Quickest way to get competitive, R compound tires and go back to stock

 

The best bang-for-the-buck mod: Fix the "loose nut behind the wheel". No offense, but this sounds a lot like the sort of "been to one or five autoXes and is real excited" sort of post. Which means, you haven't gotten anywhere near the current limits of the car. If you can, see if one of the local "hot-shoes" (or at least very fast FWD pilots) will take your car on a fun-run. Chances are just shy of 100% that he will knock a couple of full seconds off your time. Some of those guys do things with the car that I still don't think a car can do...

Next mod: Tires. Everything your car does, it does through the tires. So the better more grippy tires you can get, the better. If you aren't willing to step up to R-compound tires, you'll always be DFL (dead last) or close to it in an SP class. ST classes don't allow R-compound tires, but still a set of Azenises will certainly help.

But the driver is the biggest thing.

--DD

 

alright , i'll go with the tires. yea i had the second fastest guy drive my car from csp class and he is getting just 0.323 off my car.

and no i've been to almost 20 runs.

thanks for the advise though i'll check more on m y class

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VeilSide_Mas &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">alright , i'll go with the tires. yea i had the second fastest guy drive my car from csp class and he is getting just 0.323 off my car.

and no i've been to almost 20 runs.

thanks for the advise though i'll check more on m y class </TD></TR></TABLE>

what does that mean?? jsut cause hes in csp hes fast lol...
anyways... ask the guy who has the same car as you... another crx/ef and ask them to run your car... ims ure sumone in sts is fast with an ef

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vietnameeh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what does that mean?? jsut cause hes in csp hes fast lol...
anyways... ask the guy who has the same car as you... another crx/ef and ask them to run your car... ims ure sumone in sts is fast with an ef</TD></TR></TABLE>

er, no . what i meant was he was the second fastest that day but he is in csp class drving another crx but fully setup.

what other good brake pads would you guys recommend?

before the coilover mod , i was basically driving on a stock crx dx for a full season with 13" steelies.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by VeilSide_Mas &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">er, no . what i meant was he was the second fastest that day but he is in csp class drving another crx but fully setup.

what other good brake pads would you guys recommend?

before the coilover mod , i was basically driving on a stock crx dx for a full season with 13" steelies.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Cobalt GT-Sports are good street/autocross pads.

If i were you, the first thing i would do would be to get some 195/60/14 Falken Azenis RT-615s from Vulcan Tire ($63 a piece), then go on to the brake pads. Maybe try to see if your local region does Novice schools, there's a wealth of information to learn, even from the seasoned autocrosser. But definitely switch to the STS2 class, that alone will help quite a bit on PAX index.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">where can i start looking for the club races?</TD></TR></TABLE>

http://www.nasaproracing.com
http://www.scca.org

The Falken Azenis tires are a great tire!!

 

Jason,

If you can, go to the PDX/Driver School and regional event at Hallett this weekend. Tulsa is a relatively short drive and there's a good chance you'll find someone willing to sell or give you some take-offs as granracing suggests. Plus, the racing is great and Hallett is a great track to work at. Contact Dave Geis for more info (like when to get there and what to bring etc.) dgeis@***.net. I was planning to go run the PDX and work the races both days but I'm going to the Divisional in Topeka instead.

Second, you were mis-classed in ESP. I'm not sure who put you in that class but your car is prepared more like an STS2 car, so request that class next time - or Street Open.

Finally, Dave D is absolutely right. You're best investment at this point would be to take an autocross school like the Evolution schools. They have one at the beginning of the season in Salina. You'll pick up more time from that than anything you can do to the car right now. Other than tires I'd just leave the car alone. It's not handling so poorly that you'll develop bad driving habits while learning to go faster.

-Brian Meyer

 

thanks for the advise brian , i seldom see you come in here

would like to go to the pdx event or the divisional to see you run. my tires now are almost seeing the wire threads on the rear

IM'ed you gearz =-)

so other than tires , i should not do anything else to the car?

 

You could play around with the alignment, just don't do anything too crazy especially since you drive it on the street.

Since you said you're on a limited budget, spend your money on more events (including schools that others mentioned). No matter what one thinks, there's always ways to improve the driver. Take other people's advice and take the time to work on you. Besides, it is a much cheaper way to reduce your times.

 

ok thanks for the tips all...... appreciate all the input....

other than that I would also like to learn how to set up my car with my driving style. how can i accomplisgh that? granracing how's the book you are promoting?

 

I haven't checked into the book noted above, but Fred Puhn's "How To Make Your Car Handle" is one of the classics of the genre. The various Carroll Smith "_____ To Win" books are pretty decent as well, but a wee bit lacking in FWD setup techniques. Still, "Prepare To Win" is probably a decent resource anyway.

There are others, but those are the ones I am familiar with.

--DD

 

The book I wrote will tell you how to get into racing from autocross &gt; high performance driving events &gt; club racing. It does not get into car set-up and driving lines. You want to learn how to race on a budget? That topic is certainly covered.

I briefly looked at the Carrol Smith book and thought it was pretty interesting. But that is more geared towards racing set-up. I'd be very interested in hearing about a book that discusses tuning techniques for someone that doesn't have an engineering degree. Some of the books I've read on this subject are a bit confusing (at least to me).

 

ok whats a book that discusses tuning techniques for someone that have an engineering degree