This past Saturday, I took my ITR out for some Autocrossing. For my first time out in the ITR I believe I did fairly well. I do blame a few reasons for not getting a better time. One of which was my alignment because once I got home and removed my track wheels, I realized that I barely rubbed on the inner area of the tires, if any at all. I will fix this by getting a full alignment by West End Alignment on September 3rd, 2010 along with corner weighing.

Now my second problem is the gearing. Now keep in mind that all my car has done to is I/H/E along with suspension work. When I ran the event I tried about 5 laps or so going to second gear, but when I went to 2nd gear I was out the Vtec range, thus acceleration was hindered. On my other 11 laps I just stayed in 1st gear and I was pulling better times, at least by a second even though I was bouncing off the Rev limiter. Now I need recommendations on what to what.

Thanks

 

Unless the course set up has no straight away, you will be boucing of the rev. limiter all day long on 1st gear. Try heel-toe shifting between 1st-2nd gear or leave it in 2nd gear all the time. When you brake entering a turn, make sure to give it some gas at the same time to keep the rev. up.

 

WEST END is the ****! Darrin is REALLY cool, he hooked my R up back in January. Corner balanced and aligned (with me in the caR) and i still say its the BEST money Ive put into my Type R! Good on you for making an appointment with him! You wont regret it!

As far as your "gearing issues" are you running a 4.7 final drive? I am and would also highly recommend it!

 

Unless the course is really, really, really tight--I can count on one hand the number of times I've went back to first gear in my ITR. And I've been autoxing both locally and nationally since 1999.

Honestly, there is no fun in a 1st gear only course. So either the course designer needs to be replaced or you need to work on your driving. I'm guessing the latter of the two probably applies here

Next time ask the local hot-shoe what gear he's running in. Most 4-cylinder cars are geared somewhat close to one another in terms of 1st and 2nd gear speed, so another opinion or two will let you know if it is you or the course.

 

So today is the big day with Darin at West End Alignment. Still debating on what specs to use. I am still a newbie when it comes to alignment.

 

If the venue doesnt permit high speeds, like the venue I race at, you should be able to do well with a 4.928 final drive. I installed the MFactory final drive in my car and imo it the best mod I could have done.

The first time I did it was last week and even though I was not in vtec while running second gear, I still had the low end to bring it back up to speed, and maintain a good speed at the same time.

 

So we went with Negative 2 degrees camber and w/ 0 toe in the front and -1.6 negative camber in the rear w/ also 0 toe.

West End felt that it would be decent for daily driving and still assist in good traction at the track.