[Whiskey11]

I just got back from autocrossing today and well.... bleh. I would describe today as frustrating, on all accounts. The course was well designed and laid out. Heck it was even fun to drive, but I just couldn't accomplish my goals today. A couple of things that really highlighted today's "blehness": My GoPro would not record a single run. It would record for a few seconds then die. Fresh batteries, fresh SD card, I have no friggen idea why it is being so crappy. I didn't even get a single run. I got about HALF of my first run.

Second, my tires are wholesale shot and done. With 1/8" tread left they have ZERO grip in a corner. I ran my first run with 35 PSI front and 38 PSI rear to try and help the car rotate and to be honest, it was too much rotation. Upon corner entry it understeered like a pig when last week, at similar speeds and steering input it went felt more balanced. Upon corner exit it oversteered like a pig and the back end would (finally) rotate too far. Ultimately both hurt my times. After the first run I dropped the rear PSI so the fronts and rears where 35PSI in a hope to bring the rear under a little more control.

Third, after the first 50.7XX run, I set my sights on breaking into the 49's. It didn't happen. My closest was 50.035 (or something stupid close to breaking into it) and it required some creative driving (and nearly being flat out on the slalom and lots of throttle steering).

Lastly, there was a group of Formula SAE guys there today, and while normally I would be all excited to see some school built cars, simply put, they destroyed the day. By destroyed, I mean, they spent the better part of their runs in MY heat, either failing to get off the starting line (stall out and die on launch) or spinning through every corner. I'm all for colleges sending race teams out, but they really should get all of their drivers some practice in their cars because it was just flat out ridiculous. Today was the first day since I've started that we started on time, and we all got 4 runs... 4 runs. Last week we were a half hour late on start and got 5 and almost 6 in. The course was just a hair slower (about 2-3 seconds).

So here is the course:


1.) Is a fast (and I mean fast, I was probably at about 3/4 throttle the entire thing) slalom
2.) Is a chicago box (not a bad one, but not a nice one either, really killed the momentum)
3.) Is the peak in the pavement

If you remember from the previous event, the course is split by a junction in the pavement where it falls off on the Start/Finish side and peaks at #3 and then falls again towards the top of the course. It's interesting because it's sharp enough to unload (nearly completely) the suspension and doing so mid corner can be interesting.

Sorry, no videos at all to post. There may be some pictures later (I hope there is).

Conclusion: My tires are done, I don't think I will run the last event this year. If I do, it will NOT be with them on. I was planning on heading out to Iowa again on the 23rd of October and I will NOT be unless I decide to order new tires this week and get them mounted some how early next week. Further running of these tires is only going to yield insane amounts of frustration. I'm thinking about picking up a front sway bar to help reduce the understeer that has plagued my first season. It would still be F-Stock legal.

Speaking of F-stock, today 5 people ran F-stock in two cars. 4 in Don Knopp's Shelby GT, and me. I'm VERY VERY glad that I decided to run the street tire PAX here (they don't record my times for F-Stock but for "Street Tire") because all 4 ran silly fast times. Don's fastest was a 43 or 44 something. It was silly how quick it was in comparison to my own times. He's a phenomenal driver and his car is VERY well set up.

That said, I need to come up with new tires if I plan on racing again this season and that means selling off my Remington 700 because there isn't anything else I have to sell and all of my money right now goes to bills and paying off the credit card (that I would prefer not to load up!).

There were 3 photographers there today so I'm hoping for some good pictures, but to be honest, I'm not really holding my breath on anything else time wise. I probably finished 5 of 7 in Street Tire. I know I wasn't top 3.

Pictures of tires:




If you look at the shoulders of the tire you can see where the shoulder blocks are worn down to the base of the tire. It's that way on all 4 tires.

And finally: Pepperoni Pizza flavored Combos = disgusting!!!!

[94racing]

Originally Posted by Whiskey11 If you look at the shoulders of the tire you can see where the shoulder blocks are worn down to the base of the tire. It's that way on all 4 tires. And finally: Pepperoni Pizza flavored Combos = disgusting!!!!

looks like you are pushing it pretty close to the edge of the tire
any vids?

and as for the combos eww cant convince myself to try it.

[JakeM]

Nice! Looks like you are ready for some new rubber!

[Whiskey11]

Originally Posted by 94racing looks like you are pushing it pretty close to the edge of the tire any vids? and as for the combos eww cant convince myself to try it.

The only video I have is barely the first half of the course, it ends about half way through the slalom. My GoPro is all messed =\ Not sure what the deal was, if it's batteries or what. It just needs to be replaced all together I think. It's been a bit of a headache with the sound nonsense. I'll just try some new batteries next time I'm out. I may have had two bad batteries get thrown in the bottom of my bag that got mixed with the good ones still in their container.

Definitely at the edge of the rubber as far as wear goes. The stock BFG KDWS are pretty soft on the edge I guess. Considering the corners only saw 5 AutoX events this year that's not very good wear for only ever being used 5 times If I can come up with the money in the budget, 245/45/18 Dunlop Direzza Z1 Sport Star Specs will be going on these wheels. It's going to be ~$1000 to get them shipped then mounted and balanced. Sad and funny that the Dunlops will probably last just as long as these did and half the treadware rating!!!

The combos were all that was there in the gas station on the way home. It was pepperoni or cheese pizza. I'm not a huge fan of cheese pizza so I naturally went for the pepperoni. I chose poorly....

[Whiskey11]

A Photo!!!!!!!



Suspension looks nice when it's loaded up

Photo courtesy of Jerry Doctor.

EDIT: I just went out and tried the GoPro with a new set of batteries and it seemed fine. Recorded a solid 5.5 minutes worth of the underside of my car and me driving around the block for a little bit. I'm still trying to get a good camera angle to see the axle move in the rear and I've found one that is ok, but I'd rather have the griggs racing perspective. I'm not sure I can even get that perspective. Anyway, the GoPro seems fine and it seems I found a bad battery in the mix so I tossed those batteries and the ones I used today. I really wish I had the Hero's rechargeable option. I'm probably going to end up buying the rechargeable AAA batteries just to save on this nonsense!!!