[thunderbird]

So I've struggled in BSP all year long. I was always hoping it was just the setup as my car wasn't very well prepared. Still I wasn't running as fast as the local AS talent in their stock '89 corvettes or S2ks. So I spent money on a suspension and improved marginally. Finally got around to buying new autocross tires last week, and surely they were not responsible by themselves for a five second improvement in my time.

The biggest difference is that I drove faster. What a stupid comment fer sure, but bear with me. All I did was get the car into third gear as quickly as I could, and then put the gas pedal to the metal and held on. I'd get on the gas in the middle of the sweepers and the engine would start accelerating when I got to the apex, and I held the gas to the floor throughout the slaloms, never lifting till I got to the end and another tight sweeper. It was a wild ride! Quite frankly, my driving line was no different than usual either.

Could I have done this before the suspension work and new tires? I have my suspicions that the answer is yes. Maybe not so deep into slaloms, but maybe. Certainly one of the issues I deal with every autocross is that pesky fuel cutoff in second gear. Secondly, third gear goes to about 73 mph, which is not so different than second gear in an S2k, and we have more torque, so why not autocross in third?

Any comments?

[WRC~06~STi]

well as a politician would say "yes AND no" you get better at everything with lots of practice especially in these cars but the suspension will def help. glad you finally figured soemthing out. did you beat the vett and 2k?

[SWortham]

I too short shift my car quite often. There are some situations that call for it. And all I have to do is look at my torque curve to see that it doesn't do much good to squeeze the last few hundred RPM's out of my engine anyway.

Keeping the throttle floored through the slalom sounds a bit crazy but if you got away with it, then good. The more time spent on the gas the faster you'll go. Tires obviously can make a big difference depending on what you had before. But it's very possible that your driving accounted for the majority of the improvement. If you're gauging your times according to your competition and you're suddenly 5 seconds faster than before, then that's a huge improvement. Good work!

[LightWerkz]

be smoother in every aspect. Dont over drive the car. Take all the tips you can from the faster locals....theres so much to it, im still learining how-to as well!

[thunderbird]

I am pretty sure I didn't beat them, but I sure scared them, and the winning BSP corvette too. Hopefully official results will be posted today or tommorow. Raw time was outrageously fast, but I think I clipped a cone or two with my rear tires on most of my runs. My last raw time might have been the second fastest of the day, behind a very well driven Z06. As for the cones, I needed to choose my line a little better, but I was getting a little greedy with the speed. The rear of the car follows the front only too well.

Then there was the z3(or z4?) driver that muttered something about spending twice as much money for the basic car car and $20k in mods, only to be spanked by some Subaru. Afterwards the I saw the winner in BSP talking like he was depressed about his car. He's the only driver in the region to take a trophy last year at nationals and he's been beating my car by a handful of seconds week after week. I'm thinking he prefers to keep that cushion.

[thunderbird]

Originally Posted by SWortham

I too short shift my car quite often. There are some situations that call for it. And all I have to do is look at my torque curve to see that it doesn't do much good to squeeze the last few hundred RPM's out of my engine anyway.

Keeping the throttle floored through the slalom sounds a bit crazy but if you got away with it, then good. The more time spent on the gas the faster you'll go. Tires obviously can make a big difference depending on what you had before. But it's very possible that your driving accounted for the majority of the improvement. If you're gauging your times according to your competition and you're suddenly 5 seconds faster than before, then that's a huge improvement. Good work!

I'm thinking much of the improvement comes from the new setup and new tires and the fact that the new suspension let me take the car to a higher speed range. I now have the strano front sway bar, T2 coilovers and whiteline front camber plates, and I just put 285 wide autocross tires on 18x9 inch rims. It took some work to get those tires to fit under the car, but a hammer to the rear fenders did the job. The new tires let the new suspension do the job it was designed to do.



All run at the same parking lot:

June 10th (STi basically on stock suspension + Stage I Cobb AP)
1972 Chevrolet Corvette 51.730
2004 Subaru STi 58.786

July 15th (STi first race on new suspension + B.F Goodrich R1s)
1972 Chevrolet Corvette 51.558
2004 Subaru STi 54.455

August 12th (STi new autocross tires and default settings on suspension)
1972 Chevrolet Corvette 50.867
2004 Subaru STi 51.831 (my fastest run was 50.595+1 cone)

[mxpop]

Nice improvement! You're on a nice learning/improvement curve while that Vette is pretty much stuck at his limit. Looks like you'll get him/her next time!

It is amazing how so many people truly dont give their car FULL throttle as often/much as they should.

In motocross, I am constantly coaching people to make sure that they feel the throttle go all the way to the stop for every start and at every spot on the track that they want full acceleration. It is amazing how so many skilled riders come back and say that they went a lot faster when conscientiously doing this.

Since our cars can make so much part throttle torque and AX courses are super tight, I bet many people arent actually using FULL throttle at times. Sure, we all nail it on the onramps etc but to be trully full throttle while approaching a turn in the heat of competition is not as easy at it seems.

At your next AX, make sure that you are sensing that your foot is pressing all the way to the stop every time and see if that helps. I think your "I drove faster" comment supports what I am saying because you probably gave more comitment to the (full) throttle.

Try it, you'll like it!