Two Sundays ago, on July 29th, I went out to another SCCA autocross. Like the last one, this one was held at the Oakland Coliseum. Unlike the last time, I was in run group 1, which meant I was up at 6:15AM waiting for the GF to arrive so I could rush out the door and grid on time. For those of you who don't know, the first run group is run on a reverse grid, so the people who arrive first actually run last. This allows the stragglers to clean off the asphalt for you, as well as affording you a chance to observe how other drivers are driving the course before putting in your runs.

In any case, I arrived relatively early, with time to spare. So I ripped everything out of the car (this really just included my rear hatch cover), topped off my oil, and gridded in front of my friend's 350z. I then taped on my numbers, walked the course, and registered.

I found another friend of mine from university who puts down pretty fast times. We had agreed earlier to take turns riding in each others cars. I was up first, so I was hoping for some pointers from him to help me out. We aired up my tires to 40psi, put on our helmets, and were on our way.

First run, buddy in car:



I started out slow, pussyfooting around with the throttle and the brakes. I was feathering the brakes on corners and braking way too early to boot. In other words, I was driving freaking slow. Coming out of the slalom (the first element in the course), I hit a hard right hand hairpin, which then transitioned into a long left hand sweeper. As I was going full throttle in the sweeper, the rear end started sliding...and sliding...and sliding. I tried to countersteer and recover, but I suck at driving and it was too late.



As I was sliding, I broadsided 4 cones (1 + 3 pointers). I turned a complete 180 with my front wheels still at full lock pointing towards the right. This spun me around another 90 degrees, and then I stalled my engine while coming to a stop. What a noob. I quickly started my car, driving back on course, thoroughly embarrassed.

My resulting time was something like a 56.080 + 1 cone. As soon as I got out, my buddy started giving me tips.

1) Brake hard, take advantage of the ABS until you can outbrake it.
2) Brake in a straight line.
3) Stick to the traditional racing line for now.
4) Find cars similar to yours and watch them during downtime between runs.

I took these to mind and lined up for run 2, this time with the gf in the passenger seat.



I did a little better, braked harder (though still not nearly as hard as I should have) and tried sticking to the traditional line. The result? 40.218

After that, I ditched all of my ballast on the third run, and tried applying the same principles, except with harder braking. I felt much more comfortable with the course and had my goal set to break into the low 39, high 38 second range.





This run felt pretty good to me, so I was shuddering in anticipation while pulling up to the timing slip guy. I reached out my hand and looked at the slip. 38.515

I drove back to the parking lot, reasonably satisfied with my time, though I know I could have shaved off more time by braking waaay harder. In any case, I'll try to apply that at the next event. My goal is to catch up to the prepared S2000s.

I rode with my friend in his B Stock E36 M3 in the next run group. First time out, he beat my best time, and ended up with a best of 36.419 :p

 

watch out for that curb! oh wait.. you did it the fun and smart way, good job.

 

very nice car, and good detailed description.

 

Sounds like a blast. The car looks great too, one of my favorite S5 TIIs on the board.

 

Oh I love your car.