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Today was my first autocross for FFR 3035K. Here’s how it went.
I woke up early this morning thinking that I would go over the car one more time before driving it down to the track. I also wanted to check the tire pressures and set the rear ride height up a little. The front is at 4.5", but the rear has settled to 3.9". I wasn't going to mess with it because I have a coil-over kit on order, but since FFR is taking FOREVER to send my kit, I thought I better set it up. Anyway, laziness took over and I didn’t get anything done, except check the fluids and tires. I just hate messing with the stock springs, what a pain! I’ll wait until the kit gets here before messing with it.
Our house is about 50 miles from the track so I sweet-talked my wife into loading some tools up in her NSX to meet me there. A couple of friends also planned on meeting me there. I guess everyone wanted to see me spin the car! I had to be at the track before noon and I still needed gas, but a guy from Corpus Christi was in town visiting his family and he really wanted to see an FFR roadster up close. I met him through this forum because he wants to build one soon. So I drove like heck to meet this guy before the race and met his family. They all loved the car and I think he’ll be building one soon. Real nice people. So now I’m running late and then I remember that I had forgotten my helmet! Dang it! So I called my wife from my cell phone and begged her to go back and get the helmet. Thank goodness I have such a great wife. By the way, using a cell phone sure is interesting in these cars!
The drive down to the track was cold. I think is was low 50’s, so I bundled up pretty good. After getting some gas and getting the track 5 minutes late, I was ready to go. The SCCA website suggested that our cars should run in ASP. That’s a pretty tough class and I figured to get spanked bad. But only two people showed for that class, so I was sure to finish in the top two! They had 225 people in the morning group, but less than 100 in the afternoon group because of the Super Bowl game.
I signed up and asked what class they were putting me in. They were thinking I could run in SS (Super Stock), which sounds right because that’s the Z06 Vette’s, Viper’s, NSX’s, etc. But a couple of Vette guys said, “He can’t run with us! He’ll kill us!” I said, “Trust me, this car was just finished a few weeks ago, I’m running street tires and I haven’t autocrossed in 2 years. So don’t worry about me!” The officials finally said to put me in ASP (“A” Street Prepared).
I decided to use Gordon’s recommended tire pressures on my first run. I have 17” PS wheels with 245/45-17 and 285/40-17 Yokohama A520’s. They are not the most sticky tire I could buy, but they will work great on the street and fine for the track every now and then. (So I thought… more later on tires.) I had 23 psi up front and 28 psi in the rears. Then some “know-it-all”, future National Champion driving autocross expert came over and talked me into pumping up the air to 30 psi all around. What a mistake! My car is basically stock, with a FR 1”15 rack, and a E303 cam. My first run was a 69 second run, which was a good 5-6 seconds behind the fastest C5-Vettes. The car was really loose. I had a lot of push and the rear end would step out with the smallest amount of throttle. The second run, I was planning on letting some air out, but forgot to because I was too bust talking to everyone who came over to ask questions about the car. I run another 69 seconds, but that was because I took out 3 cones in a late braking experience. They add 2 seconds per cone, so it would have been much better. Again, the car was really fast, but the tires were not working. After getting back to the pits we had to pry a cone out from under the car. That was funny!
The last run was the best. I ran 25 psi up front and 28 psi in the rear. The car felt solid and was very easy to turn in. The rear end was more manageable too. I need to bleed the brakes, they still suck! Anyway, I ran a solid 66 second lap without touching a cone. It felt good and wish we could have had another run, but maybe next time! As a comparison, the fastest Viper ran a 69 second lap, but the fastest Z06 was a 61 second lap. Of course those guys are running Hoosier autocross slicks or Yokohama A032 race tires. And they have traction control, ABS, stability control, and sway bars!
I finished second in class. Or you could say I finished last in class! The other ASP car was a twin turbo RX7 that only weighted 2,500 pounds and had every imaginable trick part you could think of. Plus big fat slicks! His best time was a 63 second lap. I’ll get him next time!
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If you live near Houston, visit www.houscca.com to see the autocross schedule. We’ll go back and you should join us!
- Bill
I woke up early this morning thinking that I would go over the car one more time before driving it down to the track. I also wanted to check the tire pressures and set the rear ride height up a little. The front is at 4.5", but the rear has settled to 3.9". I wasn't going to mess with it because I have a coil-over kit on order, but since FFR is taking FOREVER to send my kit, I thought I better set it up. Anyway, laziness took over and I didn’t get anything done, except check the fluids and tires. I just hate messing with the stock springs, what a pain! I’ll wait until the kit gets here before messing with it.
Our house is about 50 miles from the track so I sweet-talked my wife into loading some tools up in her NSX to meet me there. A couple of friends also planned on meeting me there. I guess everyone wanted to see me spin the car! I had to be at the track before noon and I still needed gas, but a guy from Corpus Christi was in town visiting his family and he really wanted to see an FFR roadster up close. I met him through this forum because he wants to build one soon. So I drove like heck to meet this guy before the race and met his family. They all loved the car and I think he’ll be building one soon. Real nice people. So now I’m running late and then I remember that I had forgotten my helmet! Dang it! So I called my wife from my cell phone and begged her to go back and get the helmet. Thank goodness I have such a great wife. By the way, using a cell phone sure is interesting in these cars!
The drive down to the track was cold. I think is was low 50’s, so I bundled up pretty good. After getting some gas and getting the track 5 minutes late, I was ready to go. The SCCA website suggested that our cars should run in ASP. That’s a pretty tough class and I figured to get spanked bad. But only two people showed for that class, so I was sure to finish in the top two! They had 225 people in the morning group, but less than 100 in the afternoon group because of the Super Bowl game.
I signed up and asked what class they were putting me in. They were thinking I could run in SS (Super Stock), which sounds right because that’s the Z06 Vette’s, Viper’s, NSX’s, etc. But a couple of Vette guys said, “He can’t run with us! He’ll kill us!” I said, “Trust me, this car was just finished a few weeks ago, I’m running street tires and I haven’t autocrossed in 2 years. So don’t worry about me!” The officials finally said to put me in ASP (“A” Street Prepared).
I decided to use Gordon’s recommended tire pressures on my first run. I have 17” PS wheels with 245/45-17 and 285/40-17 Yokohama A520’s. They are not the most sticky tire I could buy, but they will work great on the street and fine for the track every now and then. (So I thought… more later on tires.) I had 23 psi up front and 28 psi in the rears. Then some “know-it-all”, future National Champion driving autocross expert came over and talked me into pumping up the air to 30 psi all around. What a mistake! My car is basically stock, with a FR 1”15 rack, and a E303 cam. My first run was a 69 second run, which was a good 5-6 seconds behind the fastest C5-Vettes. The car was really loose. I had a lot of push and the rear end would step out with the smallest amount of throttle. The second run, I was planning on letting some air out, but forgot to because I was too bust talking to everyone who came over to ask questions about the car. I run another 69 seconds, but that was because I took out 3 cones in a late braking experience. They add 2 seconds per cone, so it would have been much better. Again, the car was really fast, but the tires were not working. After getting back to the pits we had to pry a cone out from under the car. That was funny!
The last run was the best. I ran 25 psi up front and 28 psi in the rear. The car felt solid and was very easy to turn in. The rear end was more manageable too. I need to bleed the brakes, they still suck! Anyway, I ran a solid 66 second lap without touching a cone. It felt good and wish we could have had another run, but maybe next time! As a comparison, the fastest Viper ran a 69 second lap, but the fastest Z06 was a 61 second lap. Of course those guys are running Hoosier autocross slicks or Yokohama A032 race tires. And they have traction control, ABS, stability control, and sway bars!
I finished second in class. Or you could say I finished last in class! The other ASP car was a twin turbo RX7 that only weighted 2,500 pounds and had every imaginable trick part you could think of. Plus big fat slicks! His best time was a 63 second lap. I’ll get him next time!
If you live near Houston, visit www.houscca.com to see the autocross schedule. We’ll go back and you should join us!
- Bill
