Nor Cal UFO AutoX event #9
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:17 pm
It was a beautiful day for racing. After making a whole pile of changes to the car to get it ready to play at Sears Point at the beginning of the month, I was excited to try it on the autoX again. Before I was having traction issues still and on top of that, understeer issues. Well, they were gone this time. The course was tight and technical, but a lot of fun. I had a guest driver, a friend from San Luis Obispo who has been my semi- arch rival for the past 2 years. He holed his radiator in his 510 and came up with another friend. I offered the car up because I wanted a tire warmer. Since I was running bias ply Hoosier Street TDs, I wasn't sure how it would do. Well, I had nothing to worry about. My co driver had never driven with race tires, and was about to be in for a big surprise. He also wasn't used to having power in his car either. He made steady improvements through out the day. After his 4 runs, it was my turn.
After taking 4 trips through the course with my co-driver, I knew how the car felt, I knew where I could be faster, and I could feel that it was working the way it should. My first run was a good opening pace, with a passenger, but I left some time on the table. 2nd run was faster, cleaner in some areas, worse in others. I got a rerun, so the tires were really starting to get warm now. On my 3rd clocked run, I was really starting to get into the swing of things, and was running a good line, lost a little here and there, but had a solid time going. 4th run, I threw caution to the wind and went out to have fun. The car was totally neutral through all the corners, the understeer I had run into before was totally gone, and the car was nicely driftable. I put down my fastest time for the day drifting most of the course, and it was just as fast as not drifting. I think it was a product of the tires being used, but they were predictable and a lot of fun to run. I managed to pull off a 2nd in class, couldn't catch the guy in the 914 running a new set of Hoosier A6s. (I pretty much knew I couldn't get close, but 2nd was doable.)
Here are a series of pics with me flinging the car through the finishing slalom/box. The car was very stable, and never once wanted to swap ends even though I was hammering through the section.
The car seems much more flat through the corner with this setup. I like it.
A little drift action...
Is that 3 wheel action I see?
More drifting...
That is without a doubt 3 wheel action, I didn't know I was doing that, infact I've never seen the car do that before.
I think I was really pushing it through this section.
November 8th is the last race of the season, I wasn't planning on running the Roadster for it, but after this last event, I think I might have to. I think I might have to lure my friend Tim Arnett out to run it as well.
Will
After taking 4 trips through the course with my co-driver, I knew how the car felt, I knew where I could be faster, and I could feel that it was working the way it should. My first run was a good opening pace, with a passenger, but I left some time on the table. 2nd run was faster, cleaner in some areas, worse in others. I got a rerun, so the tires were really starting to get warm now. On my 3rd clocked run, I was really starting to get into the swing of things, and was running a good line, lost a little here and there, but had a solid time going. 4th run, I threw caution to the wind and went out to have fun. The car was totally neutral through all the corners, the understeer I had run into before was totally gone, and the car was nicely driftable. I put down my fastest time for the day drifting most of the course, and it was just as fast as not drifting. I think it was a product of the tires being used, but they were predictable and a lot of fun to run. I managed to pull off a 2nd in class, couldn't catch the guy in the 914 running a new set of Hoosier A6s. (I pretty much knew I couldn't get close, but 2nd was doable.)
Here are a series of pics with me flinging the car through the finishing slalom/box. The car was very stable, and never once wanted to swap ends even though I was hammering through the section.
The car seems much more flat through the corner with this setup. I like it.
A little drift action...
Is that 3 wheel action I see?
More drifting...
That is without a doubt 3 wheel action, I didn't know I was doing that, infact I've never seen the car do that before.
I think I was really pushing it through this section.
November 8th is the last race of the season, I wasn't planning on running the Roadster for it, but after this last event, I think I might have to. I think I might have to lure my friend Tim Arnett out to run it as well.
Will