For Autocross fans. Show your stuff!

[VB242]

This was from Sunday, I need to find 3-4 seconds to catch the brand new Alfa Romeo Giulia that beat me in my class. If your watch to the end you'll see the tricked out Mini on Hoosier's A7's that got first in my class, it's the yellow one still in grid, if you watch an earlier video, 230 was my second best time, you'll get a better look when I pull back in grid.. I'm on 275/40/17 Falken Azenis 615+ 200tw. I'm definitely running out of RPM's in the faster parts in 2nd but I also need to tighten up on the cones. This course is much larger than our usual venue. The big valve head really woke up the TD05-20G, no lag like the T3/T4.

[Dirty Rick]

Did my first X at Keiser stadium in Oct.
Second event postponed due to the air quality.
See you at Evergreen Air Museum on Oct 4th?

[2manyturbos]

I remember seeing your Mini at that event. I love Mini Coopers. Such fun cars. I am registered for the Evergreen Aviation event that was cancelled. I don't know whether I will make the rescheduled Oct 4th event. It conflicts with SSCC's fall Enduro event at Jackson County Sports Park scale road race course. I haven't done that event since 2002 and am anxious to go run it again with a car with some power. If you are hooked on Autocross, you need to join my friend's Facebook page Pacific NW Autocross & Road Race Fanatics. He tracks almost all the club's events in the West all the way from Canada to So Cal. The clubs like to post their events to his page to advertise them.

BTW, that was a really tough course for your first Autocross. Even veteran Autocrossers were getting lost that day. A well designed course DOES NOT double back on itself. The limited space makes that necessary in order to have runs longer than 35 seconds. I hit a cone on 2 of my runs and missed a gate on my first run heading to the finish. I realized I missed it as I passed it.

This was my best run that day.

[2manyturbos]

Originally Posted by VB242

This was from Sunday, I need to find 3-4 seconds to catch the brand new Alfa Romeo Giulia that beat me in my class. If your watch to the end you'll see the tricked out Mini on Hoosier's A7's that got first in my class, it's the yellow one still in grid, if you watch an earlier video, 230 was my second best time, you'll get a better look when I pull back in grid.. I'm on 275/40/17 Falken Azenis 615+ 200tw. I'm definitely running out of RPM's in the faster parts in 2nd but I also need to tighten up on the cones. This course is much larger than our usual venue. The big valve head really woke up the TD05-20G, no lag like the T3/T4.

Cool. What is that venue? A race track parking lot? The videos are a great training tool. Try not to let your steering wheel spin through your fingers. You only do it in a couple of places there. That's a habit carried over from street driving. It takes you a tenth or 2 to figure out where the car is pointing. That is not helping you set up for your next element. It's great to see some Volvos in action. You're right, you gave up a half a second on that back sweeper. Get the car slowed down so you can follow a much shorter path. It looks fast, it feels fast, yet, it takes longer to carry speed through a corner like that. A Cooper on A7's? The tires alone are worth 2 seconds compared to your 615+ Azenis. What class are you running in?

[VB242]

Yes it's a parking lot at a drag strip outside of Richmond VA. I'm running Street Modified, this club has an X modifier for 200tw tires which gives you a little PAX bump. The Mini was about 7 seconds ahead of me. I was looking at the XAS class.

[VB242]

This is our regular venue, much smaller and wet today, similar to driving on ball bearings. This is my best run.

[2manyturbos]

Cool. I see the Mini Cooper sitting there with it's tire blankets keeping the tires warm. That guy is serious about his Autocross. One of the clubs I am a member of had their last event yesterday. This was the event that was cancelled due to the fires here in Oregon. The pavement at the Aviation Museum is in great condition. It is not a very big lot, yet, much appreciated. This museum is incredible. It has on display some of the coolest planes ever built, including the SR71 and the "Spruce Goose".

Anyway, here is one of my runs from the afternoon session. We are all still waiting for the official results to be posted. My huge GT turned in times right with the BSP Turbocharged Miata and SSP Lotus Europa, both running on Hoosiers. T.T.O.D. was the BSP Miata with a 44.635. The SSP Lotus ran a 45.XXX and I ran a 45.941 on RE71s. I out PAXed everyone that ran with me in that run group. I'm curious how I did vs. everyone that ran the entire day. My points session was in the afternoon. I didn't bother to show up and watch the morning group run. Dirty Rick may have been there. I say a silver Mini Cooper in grid with the hood up and didn't make the connection until today when I took a look at your video.

[VB242]

Originally Posted by 2manyturbos

Cool. I see the Mini Cooper sitting there with it's tire blankets keeping the tires warm. That guy is serious about his Autocross. One of the clubs I am a member of had their last event yesterday. This was the event that was cancelled due to the fires here in Oregon. The pavement at the Aviation Museum is in great condition. It is not a very big lot, yet, much appreciated. This museum is incredible. It has on display some of the coolest planes ever built, including the SR71 and the "Spruce Goose".

Anyway, here is one of my runs from the afternoon session. We are all still waiting for the official results to be posted. My huge GT turned in times right with the BSP Turbocharged Miata and SSP Lotus Europa, both running on Hoosiers. T.T.O.D. was the BSP Miata with a 44.635. The SSP Lotus ran a 45.XXX and I ran a 45.941 on RE71s. I out PAXed everyone that ran with me in that run group. I'm curious how I did vs. everyone that ran the entire day. My points session was in the afternoon. I didn't bother to show up and watch the morning group run. Dirty Rick may have been there. I say a silver Mini Cooper in grid with the hood up and didn't make the connection until today when I took a look at your video.

My best friend moved out there, I've been to the CIA air museum and inside the Spruce Goose. Looks like a nice course and a good run, anyone biff it into all those obstructions?
You missed the 2002 Ferrari 360 modena in grid too. He beat me by 1.5 seconds, not feeling too bad about the 242. The mini took TTOD raw and pax. I beat one of the DSP bimmers on Hoosiers on my heat cycles Falken 615s . The rain is the great equalizer, zero heat in the tires.

Edit for shameless plug, if you like pinot noir, he owns Wildaire Cellars

[2manyturbos]

Nobody that I know of has hit any of those islands, yet. They do concern me when racing there. Last year we had a couple of cars come awfully close to smacking one. That course is one I did not like the design of. We went across the lot diagonally towards the monument at the end corner. I voiced concern when we were doing our course walks in the morning. The had basically built an 1/8th mile drag strip into the course without realizing it. I'm not good at holding back and neither are many others I race with. I was actually going into third gear and then heading right at a 45 degree turn with a 90 degree turn right after it. My GT was hitting 80 mph right before stabbing the brakes hard to make the corner. Two different cars spun doing that and slid right up to the curb backwards. This club is actually very conscious of keeping their events safe. We used to run at a High School in Salem that had islands all over the parking lot. I know more than one car hit one of those. This video is a run with my BMW at the High School last year.

BTW, I'm a wine drinker and Pinot Noir and Cabernet are my favorites. McMinnville is Oregon's wine country. I'll check out you friend's winery one of these days when the Covid issue calms down.

[VB242]

^ so quiet, doesn't seem right but I see what you're saying, that's really close to the islands. We just have hidden concrete blocks in there grass and around the perimeter of our venue, definitely want to stay on the pad.

[2manyturbos]

The official results from Sunday's Evergreen event are in. I took 8th fastest raw time and 1st place in PAX time. The Lotus Europa on Hoosiers only got me by 0.2 seconds. He usually beats my time by 1-2 seconds. It was a good day.

Fastest raw times in order.

http://www.wmclub.org/wp-content/upl...0event6raw.htm

PAX index for the event.

http://www.wmclub.org/wp-content/upl...0event6pax.htm

[Dirty Rick]

Surprised I am the only Mini....
Well there was another there but it had a tent on the roof!
I finally figured out the course, but got cocky at the end and took the last cone of the back stretch chicane.
Would have moved me up 10 spots it appears.

[2manyturbos]

The Bryants, Ripley and Julie run a purple Mini they call "The Grape". They haven't been consistently running with the club for the last 2 seasons. There is almost always a Mini running with us at any given event. 2020 has been a weird season for Autocross, just like with every other activity. A lot of the regulars aren't coming to events because of Covid-19.

[redblockpowered]

Our local autocrosses are still only open to members, i.e. not me.

[VB242]

Best run last Sunday

[klr142]

Speaking of that highschool parking lot, here are some videos from my brother wheeling the General Leif after we put the short lived 2.6L stroker motor in with a lot of other stuff that wasn't well tuned yet(on/off switch for a throttle, among other things)... This was the last time I autox'd, otherwise I've been focusing on track days and racing.





Here's some recent race footage, and a lot more racing in my other videos if you want to watch.

[2manyturbos]

Originally Posted by VB242

Best run last Sunday

What an awesome day for November. How did you fare against your competition? Is that the last event for your area?

[2manyturbos]

Originally Posted by klr142

Speaking of that highschool parking lot, here are some videos from my brother wheeling the General Leif after we put the short lived 2.6L stroker motor in with a lot of other stuff that wasn't well tuned yet(on/off switch for a throttle, among other things)... This was the last time I autox'd, otherwise I've been focusing on track days and racing.





Here's some recent race footage, and a lot more racing in my other videos if you want to watch.

I remember that event. Hackster brought his 1991 Turbo 240 wagon out that day as well. It was cool watching the Leif and Hackster's 245 run the course. I can't even remember what I brought. Probably, a Camaro Z28. I have run so many different cars over the years of Autocrossing.

[klr142]

I think you were indeed in your Z28. I don't remember seeing Hackster out there, but maybe he ran in the afternoon? I think we just did the morning. Or maybe it was the other way around? Hah.

[2manyturbos]

The 2021 Autocross season has begun in the North West. Last weekend Bridge City Autoports kicked off their season with an Event at Portland International Raceway using the paddock to set up the course. It was a great event with 6 runs for the points session and a fun run session afterwards. Lots of great cars and drivers showed up to blow the rust off of their driving skills. Ryan Otis who is a National champ set the fastest time of the day in his ZR1 Camaro. Yes, he beat the crap out of the Miatas, proving once again, it's mostly the driver in this sport. It was fun watching him throw that beast around the course. I was working the course when he ran, therefore, no video of one of his runs.

The other long time club I run with, Emerald Empire Sports Car Club, held their Icebreaker non-points event yesterday. We were blessed with good weather despite the gloomy forecast. We had a great turn out including a bunch of guys from a club called Toxic Mopars that showed up with their various years of Dodge Challengers. Among those were 3-4 Hellcats. It was entertaining watching them try to utilize ~ 800 HP on a very tight Autocross course. Both events I ran on my street tires. I will get the RE71s back on my car when the outside temps start to stay above 35 degrees. I don't have the time to take tires off/on before each event.

The clubs in the NW have posted their schedules and it looks like we may have a great year of racing, provided, people keep the Covid numbers down. Everything here depends on that happening. The mask wearing was strictly enforced at both events. The only place one could be without their mask was in their car.

Some video clips from the BCA PIR event.

Shelby GT 350 R on course. By the end of the day he was better utilizing a very fast car.



A regular attendee with BCA in his Ferrari 488. You don't see many Ferraris at Autocross events.



A roof mount camera view of one of my runs on this course.



And a couple of videos of my runs shot yesterday at Valley River Center running Icebreaker. The session I drove in had a fast time of 42.511 in one of the Prepared class cars. I ran a 44.285 in my F Street GT on street tires. I ran first thing in the morning with mossy, damp pavement and cold temps. I barely had to adjust tire pressure over the session because the tires just didn't warm up. In the external video of my run you can see the green hue to the pavement. That is moss. By the end of our session we had pretty much removed it all from the fast line of the course. The later run groups ran under much better conditions. They had dry pavement and 55 degree air temps with the pavement soaking up the sun and finally coming up to temp.

[Alex Mcknz]

I had so much fun watching the rally on this thread.

[2manyturbos]

Last weekend was a double header at PIR with the Oregon Region SCCA Sold group. I'm on a new set up and spent this weekend familiarizing myself with how the GT behaves. I went back to the stock front sway bar and put on a lager adjustable rear bar. The idea being I wanted the car to turn in quicker. I'll see if it works out to be a better overall set up over the next couple of events. It certainly turned in much better. It also gave up some of it's ability to put the power to the ground. It was much easier to induce wheel spin with this set up. On a tight course like this one it worked out fine. Saturday I was off my game noticeably. The handling was so touchy I was not able to really get after it. That was the reason I went up and ran with this group. I don't run with them for points and this venue is unobstructed enough I can experiment without worrying about hitting something. People have hit the barrier walls here, yet, you really have to be out of shape for that to happen. Sunday was much better as I had a better feel for the traction limits front and rear. Sunday, I was running the same times as race prepped Miatas, BRZs and Porsches. Considering how tight the course was, that is a good sign the new set up might work. I also put in Power Stop track pads and they are definitely aggressive. The car seems to stop much quicker. Another addition to this season is a new GoPro 8 camera. The videos are clean now and the resolution is 5X better, IMO. I use the videos to fine tune my driving. I wanted to be able to film from inside the car in order to pick up any mistakes I'm making while driving. It all happens so fast as far as driving inputs are concerned there is no way to keep track of what happened during a run unless the mistake is HUGE. Anyway, here is a video from each day. Next event I'll shoot video from inside and from the roof.

Saturday. The driver complimenting my run was driving the Shelby 350 GT R you can see as I'm pulling in to grid.



Sunday. The camera was mounted lower Sunday. I had trouble keeping the camera in place on Saturday. My new mount arrived Monday, instead of Friday, in time to use it over the weekend. Next time I will be all set with a mount that can handle the g-forces the GT generates.

[2 old for this]

Years back there was a very active sports car club here. They held many gymcannas. 1977 we bought a Honda Civic SI. It was great fun to run. When the track was wet it would usually won.

[Alex Mcknz]

It's been a while since I've been on a track course. I had so much fun watching these short videos.

[2manyturbos]

I'm glad you enjoyed watching them. I'm hoping this thread will motivate those that have run in the past to get back to the sport and also bring in new folks. It is an inexpensive way to have a blast in a safe environment.