So i went to the Central Carolinas Region Test-n-Tune and autox on sat. and sun.
Although i've been autoxing for about 4 years, it was my first experience with anything stickier than azenis.
WOW! The grip is absolutely insane. I really couldn't believe it. I was so impressed and so pleased with the way the car felt all weekend.
I played around with pressures and took some great advice from a national champ on pressures and things. So on saturday i ran about 5 or 6 times (didn't want to do too many runs and kill too much rubber) and just played with pressures. I finally got it right at about 42-45 front and about 30 rear. This was perfect for my driving style cause i am a little rough on the front tires but i don't like the rears all jacked up because i think the car rotates just fine the way it is and i am afraid of snap oversteer. This may change but for right now, i think i will stick with this.
One thing i found interesting was that when i put a few psi too much up front, i got some nasty wheelspin which obviously = very bad for lsd so i fixed that in a hurry (although all the gravel on course didn't help any with that).
Sunday we planned on getting 4 runs (i believe there were 160 drivers) but because of an hour and a half delay because of a timing problem we ended up only getting 3. Once again i was really pleased with the balance and overall feel of the car. I ended up winning D stock against a BUNCH of WRXs. Guy in second had an 06 WRX also with race tires and was supposedly a pretty good driver (had been on race tires for the 2 previous seasons) and i beat him by just over a second. So i was also very pleased with the result. Not sure how i did in overall PAX because the results are not yet posted but i'll update when they are.
My main concern was overdriving the tires. I believe i only did this once, and very slightly at that (got a little understeer that i know would have been biiiiig understeer on street tires but, like i said, nothing too terrible).
In reality, i'm sure that i was actually underdriving the tires in most places simply because i'm not used to the grip levels---i know it will take a while. The most difficult thing is the fact that there is literally NO warning AT ALL when they're gonna go (had a nice little slide to figure that out). But i think i'm going to really enjoy finding their limits.
Sorry for the long post, but i just wanted to let everyone konw how pleased and impressed i was with the tires (hoosier A6s) and the car.
I hope to have a really competitive season.
Supposedly there is an extremely good ITR driver that always comes out and wins DS but unfortunately he was out of town and unable to make the event......shame--i would have liked to see how i stacked up.
Or maybe---he was scared of teh MSP ;-P
EDIT* if it matters, 2nd place was a 06 WRX---i mistyped "02" before
EDIT AGAIN: RESULTS: by PAX: 12th. by raw time: 28th out of 162 drivers.
In PAX, 6 of the 11 drivers who beat me were in pro class and i beat 3 others that were in pro class.
I can't wait to see what happens when i get used to the tires more!
Although i've been autoxing for about 4 years, it was my first experience with anything stickier than azenis.
WOW! The grip is absolutely insane. I really couldn't believe it. I was so impressed and so pleased with the way the car felt all weekend.
I played around with pressures and took some great advice from a national champ on pressures and things. So on saturday i ran about 5 or 6 times (didn't want to do too many runs and kill too much rubber) and just played with pressures. I finally got it right at about 42-45 front and about 30 rear. This was perfect for my driving style cause i am a little rough on the front tires but i don't like the rears all jacked up because i think the car rotates just fine the way it is and i am afraid of snap oversteer. This may change but for right now, i think i will stick with this.
One thing i found interesting was that when i put a few psi too much up front, i got some nasty wheelspin which obviously = very bad for lsd so i fixed that in a hurry (although all the gravel on course didn't help any with that).
Sunday we planned on getting 4 runs (i believe there were 160 drivers) but because of an hour and a half delay because of a timing problem we ended up only getting 3. Once again i was really pleased with the balance and overall feel of the car. I ended up winning D stock against a BUNCH of WRXs. Guy in second had an 06 WRX also with race tires and was supposedly a pretty good driver (had been on race tires for the 2 previous seasons) and i beat him by just over a second. So i was also very pleased with the result. Not sure how i did in overall PAX because the results are not yet posted but i'll update when they are.
My main concern was overdriving the tires. I believe i only did this once, and very slightly at that (got a little understeer that i know would have been biiiiig understeer on street tires but, like i said, nothing too terrible).
In reality, i'm sure that i was actually underdriving the tires in most places simply because i'm not used to the grip levels---i know it will take a while. The most difficult thing is the fact that there is literally NO warning AT ALL when they're gonna go (had a nice little slide to figure that out). But i think i'm going to really enjoy finding their limits.
Sorry for the long post, but i just wanted to let everyone konw how pleased and impressed i was with the tires (hoosier A6s) and the car.
I hope to have a really competitive season.
Supposedly there is an extremely good ITR driver that always comes out and wins DS but unfortunately he was out of town and unable to make the event......shame--i would have liked to see how i stacked up.
Or maybe---he was scared of teh MSP ;-P
EDIT* if it matters, 2nd place was a 06 WRX---i mistyped "02" before
EDIT AGAIN: RESULTS: by PAX: 12th. by raw time: 28th out of 162 drivers.
In PAX, 6 of the 11 drivers who beat me were in pro class and i beat 3 others that were in pro class.
I can't wait to see what happens when i get used to the tires more!
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