Hey all-

Well, after 3 months of ownership I took my Stook to an AutoX School in Irvine. All I have to say is WOW!!! I thought the 2 day (9 hours each day) was well worth a mere $75. I thought I did better than I initially anticipated but know I need a lot of improvement. This was my first time out on a course and my first real time driving this car the way it was supposed to be driven. I am totally hooked to this sport now and will definitely be competing shortly. This car is meant for the track, hands down! I ate the crap out of my stock S02's but is was well worth it. If you have not autocrossed your Stook, you are doing an injustice to this automobile. This car shines through the courses and oh what fun it was to drive! Ironically enough, my instructor was Penforhire here on this board and we had 2 other Stooks as well. Penforhire is an excellent instructor and I learned a lot from him. He is an excellent person and an even better driver for sure. Watch out for him on the track! Well, just wanted to tell anyone out there who is thinking of driving this car in an AutoX to DO IT! For those of you who have already been doing this for awhile please bring on the tips! I plan on running in AS Stock Street tire class to start. See ya guys!

 

Tip # 1: Seat time.
Tip # 2: Seat time.
Tip # 3: Get to know the local "hot shoes" and ask questions.
Tip # 4: Ride with the hot shoes both in their car and yours.
Tip # 5: Do everything you can to help out at the events. Work every section of the course you can.
Tip # 6: Seat time.
Tip # 7: Seat time.

BTW, thumbs up to you for giving Penforhire a public pat on the back. In an all volunteer sport like ours having a student do well and say thank you are about the best payback we can have -- other than winning. You're on the right track, keep it up.

 

CG- Thanks for the advice! I will certainly use it in an effort to grow in this sport. I'm so excited about autoxing that I can't wait to do it again. Now, I have to save up for new tires Thanks again CG!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Silver
[B]CG-

 

Thanks for the appreciation Silver. Keep those S02 pressures under control and have your alignment checked. A bit peculiar, that your car had more understeer than over in a simple "traction circle" situation.

I'm glad we got Bob Mosso to jump in your car so we KNOW you have 3+ seconds left in driver improvement with zero hardware. For those that don't know Bob, in his Gen 2 RX7, he's currently beating David Palmquist's Miata (Nat'l Champion) in So Cal regional CSP.

I look forward to seeing you at the next event. For the rest of you So Cal rollers, come out and play.

 

Wow what a rush. Coming from a front wheel drive auto car, I've never had the read end step out on me like that before. This was definitely what I bought my car for. I've read plenty of theories on race car driving and vehicle control, but I couldn't remember any of them when I was actually out on the track. Struggling to keep up with other S2000s with stock S0-2 I drove way over the limits of my even more outdated AVS intermediates. Near the end of second day, I was having all kinds of problems. I've had the front brakes lockup where ABS simply couldn't react fast enough, front wheels understeer and rear tires break lose without any warning. Quite a contrast to the first day when I actually thought that AVS were pretty descent. The car was simply overpowering the tires. I was able to spin the wheels by dropping the clutch at 3500 rpm, and spin, not chirp going from 1-2 gear. I probably should have lowered the tire pressure even more. My best time of 74.87 was still more than two seconds behind other S2000s. And that was with me going sideways into the finish, knocking off three cones after the light.

My summer school is coming up and I won't be able to do this again until August. But may be not even then; it depends on what my tires look like then. I need to keep the Yokos until I can afford to buy another set of wheels and tires, cause I definitely want to make it to Buttonwillow in November with a second set of wheels.

Anyways, I had an excellent time and want to thank all of the instructors and course workers who were there. I'm sorry I knocked down so many cones.

And Josh, I have one front and one rear Stock S0-2 with about 4000 miles on them. They are yours if you want them. I see no use for them, and they are really just taking up space in my garage.

 

Ray,

Wow! What a great offer! I don't think I can refuse that. I'd definitely like to come take those off of your hands! Are the treads still pretty decent? Yeah, I definitely think you would have had better times with the stock tires on there. Although, you still did very well. My best time of 72.00 was only after Bob took my out twice and I really learned a lot. I still think my tire pressure could have been a little better and I could have gotten more speed through those slaloms too. Sorry to hear you can't make it out again but definitly stay in touch with everything. I'll send you a PM and we can discuss your tires. Thanks again Ray!!

 

Josh, your return e-mail address is still bouncing mail.