First auto-x Sunday, and a brand new thing we are calling the "Drag Cross" (think SCCA Pro-solo without the lights or convoluted bracketing). Pretty awesome. Pics:
Vids
drag cross day:
38*, 20mph steady winds and spitting rain/sleet:
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/bobnjenmill...e2d474.mp4.html
Autox day, about 50*, 10mph winds and by the last run it was sunny and nice.
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/bobnjenmill...cfe62b.mp4.html
On Sat, the temps were extremely cold. I never ran in temp about 40*, and most of the time it was spitting rain/sleet at us with 25mph+ wind gusts. It was about as terrible of weather conditions as you could ask for to auto-x in. Tires are 6yo (date code '08) Bridgestone RE-11's that are pretty well worn. Corners on all 4 are round from a lack of camber by the previous owner, rear tires are about 1-2/32 of tread left, fronts are sitting at 4-ish. Rest of the car is 100% bone stock.
Launches were pointless, wheel spin from hell because of the cold and wet. Car got down the straight quickly, outrunning the 328i set up for STX I was lined up for on my 4 timed runs. First turn, on the first run the ass stepped out fast. Caught it and was more careful from that point forward. Inside tire spin was ridiculous. cold air=more betterer power and super cold tires meant grip was minimal. throttle modulation had to be carefully monitored. Second runs, I forgot to turn off the TCS. Launched, TCS killed power I started to watch the 328 pull away then remembered, reached down and turned it off before the shift to second. Caught the bimmer, made the rest of the run uneventful. Car pushed a little, but that was to be expected. There was ZERO grip.The only cars running fast were the Subies. Anything with torque or RWD was fubar'd. Still had fun, but wasn't much of a learning curve with such extreme conditions.
Sunday: This was our "Records Day" where the fastest car in the class sets the class record to be beat on the last event of the season. This was the important day for me because it will really showcase what differences have helped and how much faster the car (and driver) have gotten over the course of the season. I was the only car in STF, so beating others was not a priority. Temps were in the high 40's, low 50's and the sun was out with minimal wind. Grip was slowly getting to the "Acceptable but far from ideal" level, which was a huge improvement over the previous day's "slab of butter on a hot skillet".
Car was a little pushy out of the gate, got worse on the first run as the front tires got heat and grip. This is a familiar course as it's the permanet Test-n-tune course at that site, so getting adjusted to the course was not hard. After the run, I lowered the front tire pressure to 27 and pumped the rears to 35, and that is where I kept them as it seemed to be happiest there. This same course, I ran the Swift GT on Koni's, coilover's, RE-01R's and all 1790lbs of awesomeness to a mid-52 second time. My first run was a 52.8, second was a 52.1, dropped to a 51.5 on my last run.
Observations: In stock trim, the car is fairly neutral. It will snap the ass out when pushed, or tires are cold. push a little too much and it gets real pushy real fast. Throttle application is not like any of my other FWD auto-x'ers. Smash it and you are greated with wheelspin gallore, and leave it planted long enough you'll get smoke..... tire smoke. Body roll is pretty much kept in check, considerin the lack of a rear sway bar. The one thing it NEEDS more than anything is negative camber up front. This thing spent 80% of it's time on the outer 2" of tread on those tires.
This car reminds me most of the elantra. It can only handle one thing at a time. You can brake, OR turn, OR accelerate. Trying to any combination of those will result in a pushy, tire spinning beast. Be patient, and it is quick.
I can't WAIT for this thing to have a real suspension under it and the new Rival's.
