Autocrossing + Surprise Visitor
 

Hi guys,wanted to share some pics from my first time autocrossing the Z, Pretty cool course

http://www.the370z.com/members/370zd...50029-p-12.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/370zd...e50016-p-4.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/370zd...e50013-p-1.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/370zd...e50021-p-9.jpg

It was the first time autocrossing for me (had done full track before), and dint feel so confident, as I'd never been thru this course before and there were some pretty tight and fast turns, left VDC on, which seemed to really slow me down plus they only allowed one recognition run.

Had to run 2 laps thru the course, I was not even competitive (9 seconds behind winner). Fastest car were running very sticky street tires ( Hankook Rs-3, Direzza Star Specs, etc).

First place was a friend's Supercharged S200 Gymkhana Autodromo Mobil 1 S2000 - YouTube

There were some pretty nice cars (Supras, skylines, Silvias, etc).
You can check out more pics here and my albums: Track Day - República Dominicana | Racing Magazine

Guess who is here working my buddy's Honda Integra for next DTS championship race, hint (Team Dynamics):
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...514_154155.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...514_183830.jpg

No helmet, huh?

That looks more like a track day than autocross.

Why do we need a helmet for autocross short of satisfying the lawyers? Lame.

As a lawyer I take offense to that…

However, please give me a call if you ever seriously injure yourself at an event in Virginia in which no waiver was required and you were not required to wear a helmet.

We can both make out like bandits! Although you may be suffering from serious brain damage. At least I could enjoy your misfortune.

As a lawyer and 370z track user, you should know the odds of hitting fuel starve is higher than getting injured in an autox event. Perhaps you guys should look into governing that.....

If I can turn into a cripple in an autox accident, I think I need to look into what I am driving and where I am driving as I shouldn't be able to do enough damage to hurt myself. I am all about safety, but where is the limit? We need some common sense in this country.

You guys are rich anyway, don't need us to support you.

Guys! let's not try to get into a debate here.

A waiver was signed for all participants, but no helmet required. For track days they are required, but this course was a mix of the racetrack, part of the inner circuit where they Go kart, and slalom with cones, max speed might've been around 50mph (halfway to 3rd gear). It was really great fun.

For those who don't recognize Matt Neal, reigning BTCC champion (2011), 05-06 Champion and it's currently Third in the British Touring car championship. Insanely fast guy, came to tune his ex-ride for the 05-06 championship, that's currently being run in our National Championship.

I'm coming back to the track after installing my stillen sway bars, any settings recommendations on these? Thought about starting full soft in the front and middle in the rear. What's been your experience?

Yeah really have to question logic of not requiring helmets. Regardless of sleaze bag lawyers i have seen plenty of rollovers in 'slow" autocross events.

Parking lots are the worst for rollovers, hit a curb sideways doing 40mph and you are going for a ride. At the airfields we get up to some pretty high speeds and I've seen all kinds of crazy accidents but no one has flipped yet that I'm aware of. In the 370Z if you are tall you can hit your head pretty hard on the A to B pillar roof cross bar and that can hurt!

Anyone want to comment on sway bar setting? Still not sure where to start on Stillen's bars, I've seen some opinions on other bar setups like Whiteline (different stiffness), people doing full soft front and middle rear. Not sure how this numbers would compare to the settings on the Stillen Bar. Street/Track Setup.

1)Soft F/ Middle R. 2)Middle F/ Soft R or 3)Both Bars Soft???

according to this chart:
http://www.the370z.com/attachments/t...tox-sways2.jpg

I am not sure if sway bars are any helpful when the VDC is left on, you will have your VDC shut the car down for you as soon as you encounter any transition.

I left VDC On this time because i hand't run the course before, and only had one run for recognition, I got there late and dint feel confident enough. Normally I run with VDC off.

I actually was going to comment on this but decided on my previous snarky comment. Take a look at your photos. You will notice that your outside front and rear tires are lifting at about the same rate. Ideally, you want as much rear traction as possible when auto crossing our cars. That means keeping those rear tires as connected to the pavement and getting the outside front tire to the point of lifting off the pavement.

I would suggest full stiff in the front and full soft in the rear. This would give you maximum grip when throttling out of corners. 0threefiftyz runs the massive Hotchkiss front bar and no sway bar in the rear. And he won the Tire Rack Solo Nationals in BSP.

I'm not sure if I'am right, but You mean getting the INSIDE front tire to the point of lifting off the pavement??, isn't the outside tire the one getting the load?. As if I'm turning right, left tire would be the outside and getting loaded, right front tire would be inside and be the one lifting. Or do I have the whole outside/inside tire backwards??

Have read if you run very stiff front, You'd have oversteering issue. Looking for street/track setup

My mistake. Yes I meant the inside front tire.

Generally accepted rules: 1) Stiff = less traction, 2) Soft = more traction, 3) every input on a tire reduces overall traction (deceleration, acceleration, turning) and 4) you want to be on the throttle as soon and hard as your car can handle when exiting a corner.

Take a rear wheel drive car with a very stiff front suspension (in relation to the rear) around a corner with no throttle and it will under steer like a dump truck. Why? All the traction is with the rear tires and the front tires tend to continue traveling in the direction of the rear tires (straight ahead and not around the corner).

Then why is a very stiff front suspension ideal when this logically creates under steer?

Look at rule 4. You are going to compensate for the under steer as you apply the throttle out of the corner and thereby reduce available traction to the rear tires. This allows the car the maximum available traction to the rear tires and the fastest speed out of the corner.