So I am new to autocross. I looking to enter my first even next year. But over the winter I am wanting to prepare my car to race. As of now it's just on coilovers. I'm looking to get a set of wheels but I have read where certain classes o my allow certain size wheels. Can someone point me in the right direction on what could be the limits for like street touring?
Are you going to be doing SCCA autocrossing? Some other org?
Check out this link on miata.net
It's a little old, but most of the info is still valid.
And I'll be the first to tell you to invest on seat time before mods.
Yup. Make sure your car, with whatever is on it now, is safe. Then go out and run.
If you buy good wheels and tires now, you'll just end up wasting them. Use the money on a school instead.
I'd work on the driver before the car, but you can find the SCCA rules here.
And any questions, definitely ask away. Lots of good info in our Articles section, too.
Just drive. Don't spend any more money on mods. Drive the car a bunch, then decide, what, if any mods you want to do.
Yup. Dont be like the guy that built the green miata that is the lead picture for the video. He built a car that is way more car than driver, and its frustrating to know that the car can do way more than the driver.
Focus on the driver. Spend a year on whatever you have now, just the way it is now (assuming that it is safe and reliable). Learn to get everything out of it you can. Hell, make sure that autocross is something you enjoy enough to justify more mods, or a very specific set of mods for a specific class. Make friends with people in the local clubs.
Autocross is not a sport for everyone, and thats ok. Decide if its the sport for YOU, then build the car that you need for where you want to play.
Another don't do anything to the car person. Drive it dead stock as long as you can.
So in addition to learning how to drive (which is the most important thing), you will debug the car and make sure it's reliable enough that you can focus on driving. Assuming that your are running a '90 Miata, is that ES? Run on street tires, even.
Sort the heck out of the car, and then when you do finally modify it, you'll know exactly what happens and what changes with the modifications.
Last I checked, coil overs bump the car pretty deep in classes. Even if the rates are exactly the same as original.
No changes = learning to drive, sorting the car, and understanding what changes you want to make will end up doing.
There are some things that make even your first autocross season better. You wont be good enough to exploit really sticky tires, but at the same time, pushing around on crappy snow tires won't help you either. Consider a performance tire that wears well, like a Hankook RS4 or a good summer performance tire. That will let you play with tire pressures and grip, with room to graduate to a top-tier autocross tire down the road.
Another thing to consider is your brake pads. Autocrossing involves braking like you are not used to on the street, and overshooting every corner will get tiring, fast. A good set of pads can allow you to be a little lead-footed on the brakes and concentrate on other skills. (Its also a good safety consideration.)
Finally, unless you have grippy Recaros, you might be flopping around a bit. I bought a Schroth Quick-Fit harness and it does a great job of holding you in place, allowing you to concentrate on driving skills instead of holding on for dear life.
If you're doing SCCA SOLO you can run as a novice either the whole first season, or until you win novice twice (this may vary by region and my memory may not be 100% accurate). There are no classes when you're running novice...it's just the noob group. If you're running with a Novice class on your car people will jump in your car and give you tips (maybe not so much w/COVID). They also do a novice walk-through...which will explain the different course features. In my region the novice walk-through is required if you're in the Novice class. I usually walk w/the novices just to pick up on different lines, etc (I'm still relatively new to autocross).
Some of the non-SCCA groups still follow SCCA class rules.
Small modifications that don't really gain much performance can often bump you into a class where you're uncompetitive unless you double-down and spend much, much more. Sometimes simple, cheap, things like a bigger swaybar can make a huge difference...so connect w/other people w/the same car (NA Mx5?) My suggestion would be to make sure your car is reliable, you have decent performance tires & have fun. Pick a class once you have more experience. Frankly, if my care were to be remotely competitive I'd need to go back to stock.
Some groups run autocross school (I did a BMW CCA auto-x school when I lived in Maryland...it was really, really, good and was practically free).
Autocross is a lot of fun and a great way to learn your car. The downside is sometimes you spend a lot of time at an event for only a few minutes of actual driving.
Get yourself to a school and a Solostorm. That way, the instructors can help narrow down what you need help with.
On the car front, run what you've got. See if you can find a group with a fairly loose ruleset, low turnout numbers (think: more runs per event) and friendly/helpful members. You may have to try a few to find the right one.
I think the most important thing is your mental approach. Early on, someone talked me into treating it like golf. If you go out thinking you're going to beat the proverbial Tiger Woods of autocross first time out, you'll be disappointed. If, however, you use an "I need to lower my score" mindset and basically compete against yourself, not only will it not be as frustrating, you'll learn a LOT quicker. Early on, I set a goal of dropping 10% of my time from the first run, which is normally consumed with not getting lost when you first start out. Go to events that give you the largest number of runs (rookie schools are great for this). Most importantly, GET HELP. Good: Riding with an experienced driver. Better, getting and experienced driver to ride with you. Best, riding with an experienced driver who is driving your car. Sometimes you need to stick around for "fun runs" at the end to make this happen. Another way is to offer your car to a good driver who's car is down. (Getting involved with the clubs Facebook page helps with this) Post your location on here. In all likelihood, you'll find someone who's willing to "adopt" you. If you happen to be in SW Michigan, I'm happy to help.
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