THSCC Forums

Awesome weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Also,



Cosby, Phillip wanted me to thank you for letting him beat you. It was very nice of you, considering you've run about 5 times as many events as he has, and have pretty much the same setup (but with better front camber) on the exact same car. He says he'll pay you back by buying you some cheese dip sometime.

And speaking of chicks who beat their husbands....Emmie inched past Carl by mere THOUSANTHS!!!! Ya'll are gonna HAVE to teach me the secret! I'm still several tenths behind Eric.

Quote of the day, for me at least:



It had something to do with me driving the car down on Sat. then planning to tow it home Sunday. However, while I did remember the trailer, I didn't remember the straps to hold the car to it

I knew I was forgetting something. I'll get those sent to the webmasters extrodinaire this evening.

Remember though, Saturday's results were NOT audited and we were very casual in the bus that day.

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

I forgot to thank a couple of people though...

Brice and Rob Lupela both offered codrives in their cars after we munched something in the Miata to make it undrivable on Sunday. That really shows what kind of people we have in this club. Thanks again guys.

And thank you to Wes for helping us trouble shoot the Miata issue. Hopefully it is nothing more than the motor mounts. At least I have something to start with now.

But the Mustang was a blast to drive on Sunday. It was all wheel spin and driftin' on that course!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Glad everyone had a good time. I know I did.
It's going to take some time to adjust to the insane amount of grip those 275s offer. Okay, it's going to take me some time to adapt.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

Kudos to Wes and the gang for another successful Jimmy V charity event! I had a ton of fun both days and really enjoyed the 3-2 run format both days. I thought it allowed a great look at the course in the morning with enough runs to experiment a bit followed up by enough time to digest what happened and (attempt to?) apply what worked in the afternoon. Good stuff!

Both courses each day had possibly some of the best use of optional features where the (possibly) quickest route was also the hardest to execute. I haven't had a chance to look at any of the data from either day yet but I'm very curious to see what the differences were.

The optional pivot cone direction on Saturday's course still has me scratching my head about which way was quicker and I have a feeling that it may be fairly car dependent. I tried both directions and while I felt like going right was ultimately quicker in my car, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the other way turned out to be slightly better.

Sunday's course was short and sweet with a high pucker factor. Actually, now that I think about it, that reminds me of a former girlfriend but I digress...

Anyway, I never did try either of the optional sections on Sunday the other way 'cause I felt like I would be traveling way too fast to pull it off. I was about 99% sure during course walks that there was no way of going left at the pivot cone or in the optional slalom and approaching those sections at speed on my first run cemented that decision.

The entrance into the optional slalom was easily the spookiest section I remember encountering at an auto-x event and was a total blast. I finally got the courage on my fourth run to hold the throttle flat all the way from the pivot cone through and past the gate before the slalom and I'm pretty sure it will take a week or so for the impression I left in the seat cushion to work its way out. Going left at that point for me was definitely *not* an option.

Great job again guys on the entire weekend!

Jim

Was she crazy?

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

This weekend was tons of fun!

As a driver - woo hoo!! I honestly have to thank Charlie because he keeps telling me - TRUST THE CAR - and on my final run, I was able to hold the throttle flat until shifting to third after the 1st double gate. I think I actually screamed while going through that gate thinking the car would break loose. He also told what he did wrong on his last slalom and said "if you don't do what I did, you will beat me" - and I finally did - by a mere .01 seconds.

So thanks for a great course, a great weekend, and supporting a great charity -

As a worker coordinator, Judy and I really apprecaite how quickly 99% of the folks arrived within minutes of being called. So far this year, it's been working really well and we are really trying to wait as long as possible to call people to work, so when everyone is coming as soon as called, it makes life much better (and more fair) for everyone out in the hot sun.

Also - I saw that Jim liked it - but I'm curious how other folks liked the 3 runs in the morning - 2 runs in the afternoon format. I think for the summer, if we know we are going to run 5 runs it works great. I know it's not always possible to predict if we are getting the five runs or not, but if we are thinking about it earlier, we may get better at predicting; especially since we are trying to balance the numbers in each run group as closely as possible (we were within three drivers both days in the run groups). And another plus is because it keeps the earlier workers on course during the coolest times (I know it didn't feel like it yesterday, but it was still much cooler than the 4th heat - no pun intended) - and usually if it's going to rain, it rains later in the day, so it gets the most runs in during the driest times.

Again, thanks to everyone for a super fun weekend!

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Mo Monroe
Go Pack!

First, big thanks to everyone that made both days happen! I had an absolute blast the entire weekend (Sunday in particular).

I liked the 3 morning and 2 afternoon run configuration for reasons that have already been stated in posts above.

Sunday's course was short and fast with the optional slalom causing a lot of problems for me (for others as well it seemed), but I was finally able to get it clean on my fifth run. I still have plenty of room for improvement considering that I am still hesitant to give full throttle at times I should be, keeping the slalom and pivot tight, making sure that I am not coasting (I need to be accelerating hard and braking hard), braking when the car is straight and not turned, and the list goes on.

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2003 Audi A4 1.8T quattro | Dolphin Gray | Ebony | 5 Speed Manual | Sport & Premium Packages
144 TIR (GS)

I was only there on Saturday, but I had a great time and it was good to get back and do an event this year. The course was fun to drive and it was a great first course for my novice co-driver Jeff Bailey. Jeff finished 5th in Novice on Sunday. Saturday was his first ever autocross.

I had no idea what it was going to be like after such a long time off and to go from the Civic to a car with 263 HP. I had not even driven the car other than from the paddock to the grid. And that was to give me a feel for the clutch and 1st to 2nd shift. Here are some random comments about the Mazdaspeed 3…

The car has stability and traction control (DSC is Mazda’s term). You can turn this off via a button on the dash, but apparently there is some argument regarding if it stays off when turned off. I had a mixture of runs with it on and off. I can say that with it on, I could feel it doing something that was slowing me down. I know it can limit boost and apply individual brakes. I think I felt it do both. Boost is also limited in 1st and 2nd gears (not sure if DSG has any effect on this or not).

It was interesting to experience a turbo car. I have driven a VW 1.8T before but this felt really different. I can see a bit of “plan ahead” regarding turbo lag. The power was a real change from the Civic, but at the same time not a shocking change as I had expected. I found it easy to be at WOT a good bit.

I didn’t know at the time, but apparently 2nd tops out at about 55. I am more used to the civic winding out audibly with the eventual “un-un-un” as you bounce off the rev limiter. I think that the MS3 has a softer rev limiter system in which things must happen in stages as it was not as dramatic and obvious when it ran out of revs. So with me focusing on driving it wasn’t until my 2nd or 3rd run when I realized that I must have been on the rev-limiter in 2nd at times and that I probably should have tried 3rd to see if it would have worked out or not.

It was nice to have the LSD and be able to exit a tight turn (such as the pivot) and roll on the throttle and not light up a tire via an open diff. I did have a rougher time getting a proper launch as you can easily spin the wheels off the line.

The car did feel heavy compared to my Civic. It just didn’t feel like it wanted to change direction. While I could get the rear to move around a slight bit (DSG off), it did push in places and really needs a larger rear sway bar to go faster.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I only had a chance to take a couple of shots, still messing around with different settings.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

It was really a great time, the first points autocross I've been able to attend, and it was a blast. I'm hoping to really improve over the course of the year.

I'm still not fond of using pivot cones, but it was a fun course. I'm glad we had 3 runs in the AM it took me all of them to relearn how to get the Soli into 3rd. Forgot to do it on the 1st run, hung it on the next two. Short shifted the start on the 4th run so I was shifting in a straight line, helped the shift, but not the time. I the final run I decided to just go for it, and everything came together, shifts were clean except I forgot to downshift again at the end of the slalom. I really think that going left in the slallom was the quicker way after watching a lot of others pinching their line in the finish offsets. Using the previous gate cone as my first slalom cone allowed my to enter with just a strong lift or a brush to set nose weight rather than a brake to slow down then I let the speed bleed off around the first two slalom cones. I was able to get back in the throttle by the third cone and it was easy to get on the back side of the first finish offset. Once there it was basically a straight shot to the finish. I know I left a couple 10ths by not downshifting before the finish. Even without my wife there I STILL got beat by a girl! Oh well.
I do feel more confident going to the DC pro tho.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Great event and good course. While I agree with Chuck in that I HATE pivot cones it is because I suck at them, more than a general dislike of them. However, on Saturday I did practice what I preach to my AX students and slowed down enough so that I was actually doing it like I explain - then I promptly forgot for Sunday morning's runs and drove with my head up my ..........until the afternoon.

I like the 3 runs in the am. It doesn't make the 4th heat workers have the double whammy of working longer and then having to get their car packed up/tires changed and be there till dark