FUN!!! I did alright considering. It was a double elimination, just for funsies tournament to close the season. Right off the bat I got spanked by a pro rally Eclipse GS-X. I still don't understand how I got paired with that guy. So down to the losers bracket. I stomped a 944 pretty good, but then got handed my butt by a 300-some-odd hp RX7 with the biggest friggin' intercooler I've ever seen.
Anyways, it's obvious I need to upgrade to compete. I'm planning on some KYB's and H&R Sports and an ITR rear sway sometime in the next few months. Good idea, right?
My real question is - tires. I drive my GSR every day on a long commute (at least 60 miles a day), o I obviously want to get a set of dedicated race tires. Which means wheels, too. What do you guys recommend? I don't want to spend a ton. In fact, I'd like to keep it under $1000 for tires and wheels. Less if possible, and I'm not opposed to buying used.
What do you suggest? I've got several months until next season starts, but I'm dying to race again!
By the way Uncle Ben kicked butt with his LS. Second place in street tire, right behind a WRX.

 

I would look into, for now, some 15x7 Kosei K1s which may or may not be down to $109 each at Tire Rack...not sure about the 4x100 bolt pattern...and some Kumhos. That should keep the price down below that budget, if not right at it. If it'll work, there's some cheap 14" wheels for sale at Tire Rack as well that may be wide enough for a decent sized tire. Borbet comes to mind, although not extremely light, they are cheap enough to experiment with.

 

Leave it stock. Any stock car is faster than any 1st time driver can hustle it around a course. Get seat time, learn how to extract more of the car's performance potential, have a faster driver run your car. You'll see just how fast your "slower" car can be. Once you've become a consistently fast driver, you can begin looking at tuning the car a bit.

 

I second that. Springs, shocks, and sway bars may buy you a half second with your experience, but seat time and maybe a school will get you SECONDS faster.

Trust us. Upgrade you, then the car. Welcome to the drug!

Andy

 

Diamond Racing Wheels makes good quality steel wheels in a wide variety of sizes. http://www.diamondracingwheels.com

Before you go modding the heck out of the car, decide which class and how competitive you wish to be. The common classes for the GSR are STS, DSP, and Street Mod. All three require a significant investment in suspension and varying levels of engine prep.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I should have added I want to upgrade the suspension anyway, simply cause I want to have more fun when I drive. Besides, the original shocks are getting pretty worn, and EVERYONE I've talked to said get the Type R swaybar (with mounting kit, of course).
I was just concerned about my tires after only 6 laps this past weekend. I don't want to kill my street tires once a month! But the Kosei's look pretty nice, and I bet they're lighter than the crappy Eagles that are on right now! I may get those just because, then find some goot V rated tires to drive on every day AND at the track.
I don't really plan on doing much if anything to the engine. Uncle Ben killed everyone, and he's just a stock LS with a CAI and ITR exhaust. So obviously hp is just a small factor in the equation.
I suppose I'm just all pumped up about racing now! Enthusiasm and the thought of new toys may have couded my better judgement.

 

no!!!

**learn to drive first**
don't do what I did..

I modified my car..and bought race tires..
and I'm still trying to unlearn all the bad habits and mistakes I picked up by not knowning what the car was doing because all my mods covered up my mistakes..
and now I'm really slow on street tires
I've spent 2 years trying to unlearn how to drive and learn to drive right

 

Well, you need to rethink here.

Mods =! Fast car
Fast Driver == Fast Car

If you are in a fast car, sure you'll beat a much slower car - but you wont be getting the most out of the car. I would recommend running your car in stock class autocross, the GS-R is favorably classed for 2002 (SCCA). The allowable stock class mods are:

Air Filter
Cat Back exhaust
Front Sway bar
Shocks (can be $$$$)
Alignment
Harness(es)
Fluids
Brake Pads
Plugs/Wires
Wheels (stock width/diameter, within .25" stock offset)
Tires
roll bars

That said, if you run stock i would pick up an extra set of wheels and a set of kuhmo V700 Victoracers from tire rack, 205/50/15's. However, i would advise against doing this for the first year of autocross. Run with your local SCCA/NASA/PCA/BMWCCA events on street tires. Autocross wont "kill" your street tires - if you want to pick up the extra set of wheels now and put on some crappy street tires, then go for it but wait on the race tires. Running a year on street tires will force you to learn to be smooth. You need lots of seat time - ride with fast drivers, and watch *everything* they do, have them ride with you, have them DRIVE YOUR CAR, you will be very suprised. Most fast drivers can hop in to any car and go pretty damn fast. Also look into attending an evolution school or two - http://www.autocross.com/evolution - these are worth so much more than any money you could ever spend on your car to make it fast.

For upgrading shocks - i would get a set of koni yellow (single adjustables). If the stock shocks are tires, replace them with these. You'd be suprised at how many suspension kits out there that just dont work well, and make the car slower on an autoX course and hard to drive. Most stock cars have plenty of spring, its just the shocks. When you autocross, the car is almost always in transition, and shocks control the rate of roll of the vehicle. Very important - to build a competitive STS/SP car the suspension development is absurd and would run thousands of $$$. Koni's are $500 a set, and you can later have them revalved ($125/ea) for autocross and converted to double-adjustable ($200/ea or so).

Stock brake pads are also fine for now, as is stock everything else - a harness helps but is not necessary. Hope this helps - i wish i had known this coming in.

-Ryan

 

Forget being competetive right now. Learn how to autocross. I don't care how good a driver you think you are or how many years you've been driving, you've done 1 autocross and that puts you in the "not very good" catagory right now. You got beat by guys that have been doing this for years. It's not the car, it's the driver.

AT THE MOST get new shocks. AT THE MOST!
Spend money on you, not the car. Don't believe me? At the next autocross, hand your keys for a fun run to the guy that kicked your ***. Watch him kick your *** in your own car.

And stay on street tires. The ones that are on your car right now. If you can learn to drive well on crappy street tires with a crappy stock suspension....

Patience, grasshopper.

 

If you have your stock steel wheels those are great for mounting an extra set of tires on, and if you can find a set of falken azenis than you can have an extra set of street tires.

 

I definitely agree with everyone about learning to do this sport first, but I have a suggestion as to how to save a lot of time and steepen that learning curve.

Your sig sez Hot Springs AK, and that means you probably saw somebody named Corey Pettit with an ASP MR2. Get to know him. He won't bite. Ask him to ride with you whenever he looks to be available. Let him take your car for a run or two. He is *very* knowledgeable about the sport, and he's been a lot of help to me in the past. If you're a good listener, the right autocross "mentor" can take your driving skills to a level in a few events that might take years on your own.

 

Ha! The first time I went to an auto-x to watch and hang out/meet & greet, I met Corey. I rode with him in the MR2, and oh my god it was insane. I watched him as closely as I could. It was a wild course, but he posted about 6 seconds better than the next place. Nice guy, too! His only condition was I didn't move or say a word to him while in the car.
At this last one, when I actually ran, he was handing out pointers on tire pressure. I walked the course with him and Miata Mark (another cool guy), and they both were pointing out hard transitions, apexes, braking zones. BIG help!
OK. On topic, Let me clear up a verbal snafu on my part. When I said race tires, I didn't mean race tires. I meant tires that I would save for racing. Like some Kumhos or another set of SP8000s, which were on the car when I bought it. Right now I just have Yokohama Avid T4s, which are OK, but are really just low profile commuter tires.
Shocks - Yes, mine are VERY tired. The previous owner raced it occasionally, and it now has almost 95k on it. Another driver commented they were pretty sloppy, which confirmed my suspicions. I like the Koni Yellow suggestion. At that cost, I could afford to revalve them in the future. I may stay with stock springs, or just get some H&R OEs, which are a little stiffer. I've also considered going ITR, but of course I'd need some new rear LCAs.
I'm taking the regional SCCA school in MArch, and I'd like to save up and go to the one in Texas. Ive heard a lot about it, but would appreciate any info on good driving schools. Again, I don't have a ton of cash handy, but I'd rather learn to drive than have another riced out POS!
Thanks everybody! You guys are way more practically minded and helpful than most of the other forums.
Any other suggestions for a newbie?

 

Seat time, seat time, seat time! I am of the opinion that if you're not developing any bad habits, seat time will flat out make you faster. This coming from someone who might Spend your money on going to events. Any schools you can attend are good too. I also recommend picking up a copy of the Solo book by Henry A. Watts, look that up at Amazon.com

Think "shortest distance" and "conserve momentum"

 

What's up chairmankaga?
I was the guy in the red Civic Si that drove down with uncleben. We were both actually in STS. He's the one that knocked me out of the winners bracket.

Anyway, when we did the fun runs, he let me drive his car and he drove mine. Our cars are about the same as far as power goes but his suspension setup makes a huge difference. Next time ask him if you can ride with him. He won't mind. That way you can see the difference in your cars.

 

Hey Chairmankaga! Nice meeting you at the Auto-x sunday! Thanks for the compliments - I can't believe I choked on those last two runs and let him take the win. Oh well. I need to learn to handle the pressure in an elimination I guess! I think those cones jumped out at me, but I'm not certain.

I agree with everyone here about seat time. I've only done 7 auto-x's this year, and 4 trips to the track at Hallett, OK. But I've improved a lot. I must say improving your supension will help too. On my first trip to Hallett (not sure if you are familiar with it) I was going counter-clockwise and uphill on the backside of the track after the hair-pin. It's a no look curve, and I entered the curve on the *wrong* side of the track as I had no clue what I was doing! When I realized it, it was too late and I had to turn hard. I spun my car 360 in the midst of a bunch of cars. I was lucky, no collisions. If I'd known what I know now, it wouldn't have happened. I doubt all the suspension mods in the world would have helped that mistake. And I've seen my times lower each time with or without changes to the car.

But then, it's been a lot of fun watching myself improve and watching my car improve at the same time. I would really not recommend doing a bunch of stuff at once. I took my stock car and put Eibachs on it first. That made a big difference. The next thing was the strut bar, it made a little difference. After that was the rear Type-R sway bar. Big improvement. Porterfield brake pads/Motul gave me at least 3 more seconds at Hallett just because I could go so much deeper before braking, but I didn't notice any improvement in auto-x. It was fun to see how each thing helped. Now I've just come to the conclusion that I need more torque. I drove an LS yesterday with a JRSC and I was creaming at the low-end power.

Anyway... as they always say, practice makes perfect. Practice by attending every event you can, that's what I do. I'm going through a lot of rubber doing it though.