Sunday May 11th Autocross, Lotus-SCCA

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by John

BTW, B is still excited about her first AutoX. When we got home, her first questions were "when can I do the AutoX again?" followed by "can I drive your car next time?" and "can we go karting soon?" LOL, I'm not sure my selfish wallet is ready to fund two sets of addictions...

John,
LOL! that's the rub isn't it. You get to go to more events since she's interested, but now you have to pay more because she's interested. Push comes to shove you have the better arrangement. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet her. You'll have to bring her to one of our karting events. You guys would have a blast.

Out of curiosity does anyone know how some of the other cars were doing? I was just concentrating on how the Lotus out there were doing. How fast were the corvettes and WRXs? That Elan was a treat to watch. Man that's an incredible car.

BTW it was great seeing everybody and meeting some new faces. To the guy who had the white Elise running hoosiers. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you too. I went over to your area a couple of time to introduce myself, but you were always working or not around. Nice times you were putting down.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by knucklehead

John,
LOL! that's the rub isn't it. You get to go to more events since she's interested, but now you have to pay more because interested. Push comes to shove you have the better arrangement. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet her. You'll have to bring her to one of our karting events. You guys would have a blast.

Out of curiosity does anyone know how some of the other cars were doing? I was just concentrating on how the Lotus out there were doing. How fast were the corvettes and WRXs? That Elan was a treat to watch. Man that's an incredible car.

BTW it was great seeing everybody and meeting some new faces. To the guy who had the white Elise running hoosiers. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you too. I went over to your area a couple of time to introduce myself, but you were always working or not around. Nice times you were putting down.

I thought the blue Corvette was getting into the high 59's on some runs... the WRX's were all over the place, but I thought one guy had broken into the 57's. The others seemed to be 60's to 62's...

EDIT: Take the times with a grain of salt... no penalties were added for knocked down cones or missed gates.

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

Would laptimes happen to be posted on any SCCA websites by any chance? I think i heard the white Evo w/roll cage was doing 1:53 and a few of the WRX's were doing 1:57ish. Shifter kart was doing 1:49 i think

[CALtd]

1:53? Do you mean 0:53? Never stopped think about it but were times off by a minute?

[apk919]

Originally Posted by 25psi_Elise_Killer

Would laptimes happen to be posted on any SCCA websites by any chance? I think i heard the white Evo w/roll cage was doing 1:53 and a few of the WRX's were doing 1:57ish. Shifter kart was doing 1:49 i think

I think you want to subtract a minute from those times...

[Dmbrown34]

Thanks for everything Randy. The dinner the night before was great too. Good choice.

Im looking into trailer hitches for the vette right now. Looks like a great option for karts. C5 forums seem to agree that hauling under 2k pounds is a piece of cake for a vette. Just expect a lot of horrified faces on the interstate.

Margaret loved the event and apperciated all the ride alongs. She did pretty well with a best time of 67 seconds. She started to spin and saved it twice. She was having a ball.

Best time was a high 58 for the very last lap of the day, but you would have to add a couple of cones to that one!! Put down a bunch of clean 59s.

That white evo was screeming by us while we were working the cones. Very clean car.

[John]

Doug - great hanging out with you and Margaret. I think the shy one was happy to see other estrogen there and enjoyed the company.

On a bad note, LCS is on 5/28, a Wed not a Thursday. Will we still be seeing you there?

[Dmbrown34]

Yeah, checked it out. I'll be there. Its the week before that Im on the road. You made me a little nervous there.

From what Ive heard, the SOW is pretty much an AutoX? If so, Im pretty happy.

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

Originally Posted by apk919

I think you want to subtract a minute from those times...

oops, you're right

The best lap in my boat was 63.5seconds I need some suspension work...

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

Originally Posted by Dmbrown34

Yeah, checked it out. I'll be there. Its the week before that Im on the road. You made me a little nervous there.

From what Ive heard, the SOW is pretty much an AutoX? If so, Im pretty happy.

SOW is a 3-4gear track primarily. You can probably hit 100ish MPH on the main straightaway before it goes into a long sweeper turn if you're running clockwise. Much faster than auto-x.

[apk919]

Originally Posted by 25psi_Elise_Killer

oops, you're right

The best lap in my boat was 63.5seconds I need some suspension work...

The runs seemed to go by so fast it didn't even seem that long...

This was my third lifetime autox (first one in >5years, obviously first for my Lotus)... my best was a 59.644, when I finally minimized the four wheel drifts!

[John]

Originally Posted by 25psi_Elise_Killer

The best lap in my boat was 63.5seconds I need some suspension work...

Nope - save your money and work on the driver. Both Randy and I took my fiancee's stock automatic Mazda 3 and did 64 without much effort. You easily have another 4 seconds to gain on your current car.

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

Originally Posted by John

Nope - save your money and work on the driver. Both Randy and I took my fiancee's stock automatic Mazda 3 and did 64 without much effort. You easily have another 4 seconds to gain on your current car.

True that. This was only my 2nd autocross and i never had an instructor in my car in an autocross. My fastest time of the day was acutally when i was being "gentle" on the car instead of trying to power my way thru the course. But AWD drifting was fun though

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by John

Nope - save your money and work on the driver. Both Randy and I took my fiancee's stock automatic Mazda 3 and did 64 without much effort. You easily have another 4 seconds to gain on your current car.

Of course improving the nut behind the wheel is the best solution. That said, Simon's car was difficult to drive. A lot of power and very little grip. I took it for two laps and got a 62 something with it. I actually don't think it's the suspension, but tires. Last year when it had less power and better tires, the car was a blast to drive. Now it's very unsorted. The turbo kick was very unsettling on this particular course, coming on at the wrong times.

[fastscutr]

what a blast, thanks for setting this up Randy!!! Can't wait for the next one.

[25psi_Elise_Killer]

Originally Posted by knucklehead

Of course improving the nut behind the wheel is the best solution. Randy put me to shame by driving my car hard for only half the course and cruising the other half (he had basically caught the car in front of us + I think he didn't want to crush my fragile ego) and only posting a time a tenth of a second slower than mine.

That said, Simon's car was difficult to drive. A lot of power and very little grip. I took it for two laps and got a 62 something with it. I actually don't think it's the suspension, but tires. Last year when it had less power and better tires, the car was a blast to drive. Now it's very unsorted. The turbo kick was very unsettling on this particular course, coming on at the wrong times.

Last time you drove my car, i had RA1's and this weekend i had some Kumho Ecstata MX street tires. So that explains the lack of grip you experienced.

When i drove your car, i babied it around the track only driving at maybe 6/10ths and rarely got over 6000RPM and i think i did a 65something. Almost as fast as me trying to muscle the car around the track.

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by 25psi_Elise_Killer

SOW is a 3-4gear track primarily. You can probably hit 100ish MPH on the main straightaway before it goes into a long sweeper turn if you're running clockwise. Much faster than auto-x.

Fast autox. At El Toro we can easily run a 90mph autocross. BUt speeds in a straight line don't change the speeds in turns.

Most of the turns at SOW are no faster than the speeds we hit Sunday. To compare, some of the corners at Buttonwillow and Willow Springs are over 100mph.

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by 25psi_Elise_Killer

When i drove your car, i babied it around the track only driving at maybe 6/10ths and rarely got over 6000RPM and i think i did a 65something. Almost as fast as me trying to muscle the car around the track.

Wait so you were driving only 6/10ths and still spun? OK I take it back.
YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO IMPROVE THE DRIVER

Originally Posted by Randy Chase

Fast autox. At El Toro we can easily run a 90mph autocross. BUt speeds in a straight line don't change the speeds in turns.

Sweet! where do I sign up?

[Randy Chase]

Originally Posted by knucklehead

Wait so you were driving only 6/10ths and still spun? OK I take it back.
YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO IMPROVE THE DRIVER



Sweet! where do I sign up?

We were just discussing a fall date.

[maagjr]

I had so much fun
As Randy mentioned I got probably about 40 runs

Great event

Oh I need new tires
thanks guys see you next time so maybe once more I can break into the 59secs