AutoX with CFR Solo

[SYO237]

Trying to do every race possible with the Central FL region SCCA and this past weekend was a points race in Geneva, FL that I attended.

Taking into consideration that this is the first autoX ive put the truck into after more than a year of it being down (smashed the trans shindig 2010). I went out with the intentions of doing a shakedown with the truck and getting some seat time and not worry about posting the top times.

The course was an average high 40 to mid 50 second run. It was set up with S turns, a fast section of gates into a choice slalom that went into a choice T-turn. Ending section was basically a chicago box without the box, but still very tricky to attack without overpowering and smashing cones. Very good course overall, even the regulars where having issues with staying on course.

With my truck mods, I fall into Super Street Modified (SSM). Got to do a total of 4 runs. Of course, the heat I ran it started to drizzle right on the first run.

The video shows runs #1, #2, and #4. While on the grid before #3, one of the officials was BSing with me about the Syclone which got me out of focus and I forgot to turn the cam on. :rant: I did smack a cone on run #3 though...no damage.

Run #1 I was way to aggressive when I should have been more feeling out the course and warming up the tires. You will see as I come out of the gates in the mid section and start into the slalom, I loose traction in the rear and it jars me as it grips again.

Run #2 and #4 you can see I had gotten much more smoother which of course, helped dropped my time progressively on each run. There was no resting on that course, it was working and sawing the steering wheel a bunch.

I dropped each run by a second with the last run being the most wet. 56.x, 55.x, 54.x, and 53.x being the final run. Not the fastest times of the day, but respectable....again, I wasnt going all out to shatter any records.

You can see the rain on the windshield so it wasnt exactly dry out. All the speed in the mid section causes the rain starts to sheet off. I believe I was doing about 50-60mph in those parts....vid is to dark to see the speed because of the cloud cover.

Overall, I made quite a few driving errors with the lines I choose to take but im happy with the results after so long of not racing. Truck ran well, nothing broke, and got a TON of compliments from everyone (including the SCCA officials) that were amped up to see a Syclone running and being beat on. :tup:

...and no, that goofy ass helmet is not mine...had to use one of the SCCA ones since mine didnt past tech. :tdown:

 

[BMFB]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

smotth is good, and your keeping your line pretty smooth braking and accel pretty smooth. Its easy to want to always smash on pedals, but you did a pretty good job with some of those tigher corners (not that ****ing really know what I doing yet)

some advice:

I bet you would love a zq8 box

I'm not sure what gear your leaving it in, but I usually will leave it in second or sometimes 3rd (3rd is deff for drag racing). I can hear your trans downshifting when your being a bit more mellow, and then when you becken for power its gotta down shift, respool, and then go. You could cut down on alot of that draginess by just leaving it in second, which should be good for 60 ish mph, if your going that fast you can always up shift. No only with that help your accel times (ecspecially when trying to accel out of a corner) but it will help with your braking, with the motor compresssion slowing down all 4 tires, its noticible, and will save your brakes (I'm a bit harder on my brakes and will get fade sometimes after a few quick 'laps') It will also be alot easyor on the trans, they hate powered downshifting.

also, whats done to your truck? I'm just currious. I'm still learning what I'm doing, so take my advice with a grain of salt, just thought I'd try to help.

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

smotth is good, and your keeping your line pretty smooth braking and accel pretty smooth. Its easy to want to always smash on pedals, but you did a pretty good job with some of those tigher corners (not that ****ing really know what I doing yet)

some advice:

I bet you would love a zq8 box

I'm not sure what gear your leaving it in, but I usually will leave it in second or sometimes 3rd (3rd is deff for drag racing). I can hear your trans downshifting when your being a bit more mellow, and then when you becken for power its gotta down shift, respool, and then go. You could cut down on alot of that draginess by just leaving it in second, which should be good for 60 ish mph, if your going that fast you can always up shift. No only with that help your accel times (ecspecially when trying to accel out of a corner) but it will help with your braking, with the motor compresssion slowing down all 4 tires, its noticible, and will save your brakes (I'm a bit harder on my brakes and will get fade sometimes after a few quick 'laps') It will also be alot easyor on the trans, they hate powered downshifting.

also, whats done to your truck? I'm just currious. I'm still learning what I'm doing, so take my advice with a grain of salt, just thought I'd try to help.

Unfortunately, being in Heat 1, I wasnt able to watch other people's lines or have the cheater of seeing the marks on the course laid down by previous runs. When I watched some of the seasoned racers after my heat and worked the course, I saw in certain sections I should have gone wider to prep for the upcoming turns better which gave them better opportunities for acceleration. So while I was smooth with what I was doing, I could have done it better....but that just comes with experience and seat time....im still learning too.

I have a ZQ8 sitting about 4ft from the truck in the garage. Along with LS1 brakes, it's on the list to upgrade as well as my Marlboro Momo steering wheel.

I left it in D the entire run. I do agree, I probably could have ran it in 2nd and been OK. You can hear it in a few sections where I do blip the throttle to keep RPM up and the turbo spooling as much as possible.

Truck mods as I listed them when placing me in SSM:

Stock suspension - lowered with 2" rear blocks and turning the stock torsion bars down for the front
Caltrac Bars in the rear
Air to Air intercooler
Upgraded Turbo (PTE52) with 3" downpipe
Intake is modified for turbo, but still running a cone filter
60# injectors
Wide Band 02 sensor
AFPR
Custom tune on chip (code59)
Battery relocated and securely mounted under bed
Corvette C5 Rims (17x8) with 245/45R17 Sumitomo HTR 45Z tires
Dual Electric radiator fans
Radiator overflow tank relocated to core support underneath passenger headlight
Greddy Profect E-01 Boost controller mounted securely in stock radio location (radio removed)
2800 stall converter
Momo steering wheel
Engine tie down

 

[Baythan]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Way to wring it out....looks like fun! :tup:

 

[MRKING]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Do you use both feet on the runs ? Try keeping the gas floored the entire run and brake with your left ,it will keep the boost up so you don't have on-off boost lag exiting corners . I am just surprised Shaun hasnt stopped by this thread yet for a visit . Hehe .

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Do you use both feet on the runs ? Try keeping the gas floored the entire run and brake with your left ,it will keep the boost up so you don't have on-off boost lag exiting corners . I am just surprised Shaun hasnt stopped by this thread yet for a visit . Hehe .

Actually, I drive with 2 feet naturally, which I guess most people find odd...I dont. There are 2 pedals, I have 2 feet...you do the math.

I resisted to use a ton of brake due to the fact that I still have stock brakes and they suck moreso than other peoples trucks and start fading very bad when they get super hot. If you guys remember shindig, after my runs my pads were smoking. I have LS1 brakes to throw on there, but that wont be for a bit....so in the meantime I probably will be throwing on a fresh set of pads before the next race in April.

Shaun is just intimidated cause he sees that I'll go hang out with the big boys outside of SyTy and real racers in SCCA and still make a good showing and impression. I aint scurred to race

 

[T-Bone]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

I am just surprised Shaun hasnt stopped by this thread yet for a visit . Hehe .

Here I am. Been real busy the past few days with an engine swap. Now let me go and view the video so I can try to better understand all the excuses that were posted for not going faster . j/k

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Here I am. Been real busy the past few days with an engine swap. Now let me go and view the video so I can try to better understand all the excuses that were posted for not going faster . j/k

I went out with the intentions of doing a shakedown with the truck and getting some seat time and not worry about posting the top times.

No excuses. I had fun, I know I made mistakes....but looking forward to your critique too, only way to learn is to listen.

 

[T-Bone]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Hmmmmm, at this point (based on what I just watched), I view you as an appetizer. Try to get all the practice you can between now and T-Day.


I gotta leave in 14 minutes to finish an engine swap BUT I will PM you some helps when I return. Nothing wrong with helping a friend, right? I have mucho track time with the AMA/WERA and that time helps immensely on an auto-X course. Hope that doesn't come across in any way as boasting b/c that is NOT the intent.

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Hmmmmm, at this point (based on what I just watched), I view you as an appetizer. Try to get all the practice you can between now and T-Day.

blah blah blah Im scared so Im gonna try to intimidate blah blah blah is all I see :lol:

I gotta leave in 14 minutes to finish an engine swap BUT I will PM you some helps when I return. Nothing wrong with helping a friend, right? I have mucho track time with the AMA/WERA and that time helps immensely on an auto-X course. Hope that doesn't come across in any way as boasting b/c that is NOT the intent.

This is a 4 wheeled event...unless your talking about the 2 training wheels you gotta attach to your truck to keep from rolling over :rotf:

Nah, hit me up..... critique is always good. Im glad to be back in the seat again and this was a good event to get back out there and get back in the game.

 

[0-60N4]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Nice driving. What air pressure are you running in the tires. When I autoX'ed my Ty, I think I was running 50+ psi front and a little less on the rear. Those fronts really tend to roll over on the side walls. What about seat belts? Hard to stay planted with stock belts so your arms and legs are working to keep you in position as much as driving. 4 or 5 point harness makes a huge improvement. Look forward to following your work.

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Nice driving. What air pressure are you running in the tires. When I autoX'ed my Ty, I think I was running 50+ psi front and a little less on the rear. Those fronts really tend to roll over on the side walls. What about seat belts? Hard to stay planted with stock belts so your arms and legs are working to keep you in position as much as driving. 4 or 5 point harness makes a huge improvement. Look forward to following your work.

I stayed at 32psi all around and that is definitely an area I need to start exploring more to find a good balance as well as chalking my tires so I can evaluate rollover more too. I noticed I had more rollover wear on the driver side, but that is probably due to all the hard turns where going left...including my choice to go vision priority on the T-turn. Rollover wasnt to bad though, it stayed on the tread blocks and didnt creep to much up on the sidewall.

Id love to have a 5pt harness, but I need to research on what would happen with my classification. Figure Id either have to swap my seat (I wont modify the stock) and then install a rear hoop to be able to have an attachment point for a 5pt. Maybe just doing a seat swap with a recaro or corbeau would work. Remember, in autoX and SCCA rules even the smallest change can get you bumped into a different class. Even me not running fender wells is a factor that plays into classification.


I should mention, I was there by myself, so it was very hard to evaluate my runs and be aware of my mistakes and the specific areas I needed to improve. The big mistakes where obvious to me of course because I did get faster. Having a spotter there would have probably helped me out tremendously due to they could have been watching my line better as well as the behavior of the truck from a spectator perspective and given advice (tire psi, slower in sections, faster in others, etc) based on what they saw as well as what other racers were doing. Im still new at the autoX game so I know this will all come with seat time too.

Hopefully everyone tuning in and interested in doing autoX can take my experiences and learn from them too. AutoX and roadracing is still a rather unknown area for SyTy, so there isnt a ton of available information out there to use as a guide. Id like to change that :tup:

 

[rentedmule]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Looked like fun! I'm jealous of Florida winters - our course locations are all covered in several feet of snow at the moment

I'd definitely up your tire pressures significantly in the front but check them from run to run. They'll go up 6-8 psi as your tires warm up. I usually have to let a bunch of air out between each run to keep it consistent. What kind of alignment settings are you running?

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Looked like fun! I'm jealous of Florida winters - our course locations are all covered in several feet of snow at the moment

I'd definitely up your tire pressures significantly in the front but check them from run to run. They'll go up 6-8 psi as your tires warm up. I usually have to let a bunch of air out between each run to keep it consistent. What kind of alignment settings are you running?

I'll definitely up tire PSI in April on the next run.

Alignment, Ive always used the old school enhanced specs from eons ago:

Stock specs, as given in the manual:

Caster Camber Toe Cross Camber Cross Caster
Left +3.5 0.0 0.15 N/A N/A
Right +3.5 0.0 0.15 N/A N/A
Tolerance 0.50 0.50 0.05 0.50 0.50

Enhanced Specs:

Caster Camber Toe Cross Camber Cross Caster
Left +3.5 -0.3 0.08 N/A N/A
Right +3.5 -0.3 0.08 N/A N/A
Tolerance 0.00 0.00 0.06 0.30 0.30


Although my truck is overdue for a re-alignment. Right now it has a gradual pull to the right if I let go of the wheel.

 

[rentedmule]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

You can probably go significantly more aggressive with your alignment specs without losing much driveability on the street. Turn in will feel much more responsive with zero toe-in or even some toe-out if you don't do a lot of highway driving and can stand the nervous steering feel. It gets worse with really wide tires so it may not be too bad with your 245s.

You should also be able to run more negative camber than that without eating up your tires. I run -0.5 and that seems to be a good compromise. You'll eat the inside of the tires with normal driving but if you do enough auto-x events you'll chew up the outer tread and even out the wear. I've tried as much as -1.5 and it stuck well but I went through tires like mad.

 

[Sean Krupa]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Adam,

Noticed you don't have a Rear Sway bar listed in your mods. If you don't have one, you should get one. I felt a night and day difference when I installed mine.

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Adam,

Noticed you don't have a Rear Sway bar listed in your mods. If you don't have one, you should get one. I felt a night and day difference when I installed mine.

I have caltracs...which actually, do nothing for autoX. I used to have a addco bar before I swapped out to the caltracs.

Ive been considering yanking the caltracs off and going back to a sway bar again since Id rather autoX than drag race.

 

[SYO237]

Re: AutoX with CFR Solo

Was going back and doing some homework on my truck and my driving, and saw this...

Right now it has a gradual pull to the right if I let go of the wheel.

That pull to the right ended up being a completely worn out idler arm. I was able to grab the tierod and move it up and down quite a bit. It was so far gone that it was allowing the tierod buckle to saw across the lower a-arm in hard cornering.

Just a word of caution to check your suspension parts before/after racing.