AX in the rain, a learning experience Options

[Dave-O]

I had a fun weekend autocrossing! On saturday I did the Milwaukee region SCCA drivers school and got a lot of good seat time and some great instruction by Pat Washburn, who has a host of SCCA National trophies and used to be a 914 guy.

My new set up has the same stock torsions and 22mm sway bar set 2" from full soft. I put adjustable coilovers on the rear with 150lb springs and a stock sway bar. In the dry the car was a blast to drive. It may have been a little too stiff in the rear but the car would rotate controllably with very little effort. I also was really able to put the power down while unwinding from the sweepers.

The rain came on Saturday Night and it proceeded to rain all day long for the event on Sunday. The stiff rear end is absolutly not the set up to run in the rain! The car was a handfull, it felt like I was driving on glass as anything that would upset the chassis sent the back end around. Since I didn't feel like crawling under the car in the pouring rain to change anything I just adjusted my driving style a bit. I had to comply to the old "brake-steer-gas" mentality as there was no way I could position the car with lifting or gas.

It was a good experience, but rain really takes a lot of the fun out of autocrossing. However, an experienced rain driver can rain terror on a field of unexperienced people in these conditions...I'll just have to put my time in.

Here is a video of my fastest run...

http://media.putfile.com/Milwaukee-43006-run-5

[Joe Ricard]

Lots of stepping on eggs and ass catching. Nice driving.
What tires were you on?

[GaroldShaffer]

We had our test & tune Sunday (INR SCCA) what a mess (heavy rain). My car is setup somewhat like yours. Big sway bar up front with 21 mm torsion bars and turbo tie rods. Adjustable coilovers with 150Lbs springs, but no sway bar in back (yet). I have adjustable koni's and ran them full hard front & rear. This was my first ever run with this setup, what difference from last year. I ran with my street tires (bridgestone potenza's) and did ok. The TTOD was a WRX at 30.755 I was 8th out of 25 with a raw time of 32.327 I even bet our hot shoe running a SM2 70 911. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Was this a evolution driving school you attended? I did one last year, it was awesome. What puts you in STS2?

[Dave-O]

Lots of stepping on eggs and ass catching. Nice driving.
What tires were you on?

Azenis 615's, 205-50 on 6.5" minilites. I think by popping off the rear bar or removing my front spacers I may have made the car a quite a bit faster...but it really didn't seem worth the effort considering the conditions.

Was this a evolution driving school you attended? I did one last year, it was awesome. What puts you in STS2?

My car is setup somewhat like yours.

I decided to build the car for STS-2 over the winter, it seemed like a nice place for a 1.7l 914. The car has the 150's in the back with adjustable perches, 6.5" wheels with more track width in the front, header, aluminum seat, and a smaller steering wheel. There is not much more you can do in STS-2

I'll see how the car (and the driver) does this weekend as I'll be stacking up against some of the locals who also built STS-2 cars over the winter. (more video to follow...) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Dave-O]

Was this a evolution driving school you attended? I did one last year, it was awesome.

I did an evolution school last year and I liked it, had Tim Aro (last years CSP champion) as an instructor and he could really make my car do things I never thought possible.

This was just the SCCA-Milwuakee regions anual drivers school. It's more aimed at newbies but I was in town and wanted some preparation for this season...it was really worth it!