I have my first autocross tomorrow, as stated in the title. I have been obsessed with autocross for a couple years now, I am both excited for the experience and scared that I may fail miserably. If any person on here has any pointers, I would love to read them.
You may recognize my dad, a.k.a The_Jed. I have wanted to follow in his footsteps with my automotive journey, but I have a bit of a better car. Lol.
LOL at the Dad Squat!
For your first event, focus on having fun. There is no real fail if you are having fun.
In reply to alfadriver :
Thank you, that's the plan! :)
Exactly that... the only fail is if you keep asking yourself "why am I even here?". It sounds like the exact opposite.
Even if you're dead last for time, that just means you had more seat time than everyone else 
We just got back from a little test-n-tune to check the baseline tire pressure, judged by the amount of white shoe polish/dye that's scrubbed off the tires.
Two observations:
#1. That car generates a LOT of grip.
#2. 40 psi cold front and 30 psi cold rear looks like a good starting point. The shoe polish was scrubbed off down to nearly the base of the tread blocks to the same spot on the front and rear tires. I'm sure they'll roll under more during the event but, this seems like a good place to start.
Oooo, fusion fun! 2.5 or 2.0t??
2.5
The_Jed said:LOL at the Dad Squat!
Heels on ground comrade found
Heels in sky, western spy
In reply to The_Lily :
Good luck and have fun!
My daughter started autocross with me almost as soon as she got her driver's license. That was more than 10 years ago and for the last 3 years she has been running our club's autocross program.
I also see a number of women of all ages at our events. I'm always happy to see more getting involved!
As long as you have fun and learn from the experience there is literally no way to fail. The mere fact that you are participating..........you have already won. And with your Dad, double win.
buzzboy said:The_Jed said:LOL at the Dad Squat!
Heels on ground comrade found
Heels in sky, western spy
BLYAT!
:)
In reply to The_Lily :
The pink and blue numbers jump off the grey paint very well. Looks great!
I had the same color Mercury Milan and also with the 2.5L and auto. I really liked that car.
For your first few autox events, just relax, have fun, and learn. Don't try to go as fast as the experienced drivers. You won't. Focus on good lines and staying on course. Some people see a sea of cones, others see the course clearly. Part of the challenge is teaching yourself how to read a course, and that can take time. Your car will be capable of going faster than you can drive it, and you will learn something about its limits. Each run is a new opportunity, so learn something from previous runs but don't dwell on mistakes.
Don't forget to have fun. There is no fail here.
Be safe, have fun and join the club.
Smile and have a greet time
Good Luck
Sunscreen... lots of sunscreen.
The_Jed said:We just got back from a little test-n-tune to check the baseline tire pressure, judged by the amount of white shoe polish/dye that's scrubbed off the tires.
Two observations:
#1. That car generates a LOT of grip.
#2. 40 psi cold front and 30 psi cold rear looks like a good starting point. The shoe polish was scrubbed off down to nearly the base of the tread blocks to the same spot on the front and rear tires. I'm sure they'll roll under more during the event but, this seems like a good place to start.
I assume those are all seasons? otherwise... 40psi cold, seems kinda high?
also, I'm used to fwd cars having opposite balance, with the high pressure in the rear and the low pressure in the front?
Yep, they're all seasons. My thought is that with the higher pressure, the front tires will resist rolling over too far and losing grip, and with the reduced pressure at the rear, those tires will roll over as much or maybe slightly more than the fronts resulting in a balanced feel and neutral-ish handling.
It worked and felt great, the car made TONS of grip and felt quite neutral.
Just checked on her tires and they're Uniroyal Tigerpaws in 225/45R18. 600 TW LOL.
I've never "tuned" actual performance tires, I assume you'd want to over-inflate the rears to achieve the same effect?
When I Autocrossed with my '97 Impreza it had 195/75R14 Goodyear Weatherhandlers on it. I think they were something like 600 TW with very flaccid sidewalls. It was always a balancing act between having enough pressure in them to prevent them rolling under yet not so much pressure that they had zero grip.
Update - I did the autocross and loved it! I can't wait to do more.
I hit no cones and my dad said I did amazing :)))))))))
Yep.
Much Happy.
Many Proud.
In reply to The_Lily :
It's a lot of fun. I went to my first one back in 1989 and I still enjoy them.
I'm sure the ideas for going faster are spinning in your head.....that's also part of the fun.
In reply to The_Jed :
thanks for the detail on your thinking on the pressures; and I reckon I'm a little off base, because I'm more used to setting up for a 15-20min track session, where the pressures will grow a bunch more... vs. autocross where it probably pays off to have them close to the right pressure out of the gate. I've actually learned to do similar for the skidpad events at OneLap.
re: front/rear balance
Generally the higher rear pressure is to aid in decreasing traction in the rear (fwd is usually around 60/40 weight bias, so a square setup will usually have excess rear grip), which will encourage the rear end to rotate faster while the 'mass' of the car carries around the radius of the turn... eventually meaning one can get on the power sooner because the front of the car is 'pointed to the next turn' faster.
but, I could see that with a more flexible sidewall, letting the rears be down on pressure allows them to be a bit 'wallowier', and achieving similar initial rotation, but making that rotation... "less crisp"? that'd probably go a long ways to getting used to the dynamic, without being caught out.
I'm glad I popped in here, and that you took the time to explain that. I'll have to keep that in the back of my head for whenever the sleepykids start driving.
@The_Lily
congrats on a successful first event out! I look forward to more reports on your next outings, and good luck!
I have had to run as much as 50psi in the front before, lower was slower. This on AVS Intermediates with a 185/60 on a 14x6 wheel, so it was admittedly kind of a while ago
Give 'em what they want, not what you tell them to want
My 1st autocross I got lost the first two runs, they stuck someone in with me on the 3rd and he kept pointing which way to go. Now I say if I don't get lost on my 1st run I'm winning,
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