I recently started autocrossing at a local go kart track with no experience. They run for three hours every Tuesday night, $20 per hour. Everybody is broken into three groups and each group gets three sessions. Each session is three laps consisting of two timed laps and one cooldown, for a total of six timed laps. On a slow night, they sometimes give us fifteen minute sessions, followed by one timed session. I am using this thread to trend my lap times. I just guessed at the year of the cars to give an idea of which body style it is. In bold are the regulars.

10/5/2010
My car is stock with a catback, Kumho XS, -1.9 degrees front camber, -2.5 rear, Carbotech XP8 front pads, stock rear pads

Riley's EvoX 45.90
92 Miata 46.?? (illegible)
Steve's 03 WRX 47.52
Red 92 Miata 48.73
90 MR2 48.77
Rob's Supra 51.12
Joy's 03 Mustang 51.43
James's Fit 51.43
STI 51.46
Fit 51.62
240sx 51.78
Me 52.49
Civic 54.10
Sentra 55.34
Fit 56.56


10/12/2010
Going from memory, most of the older Hondas were race stripped.

Riley's EvoX 46.39
240sx (race) 46.45
Red 92 Miata 47.32
Civic Coupe 47.46
E92 M3 47.49
Lotus 48.14
RX8 48.80
Evo 49.45
02 Celica 49.48
92 Miata 50.18
06 Civic Si 50.43
95 Prelude 50.66
EF Civic Wagon 50.88
Me 50.88
Fit 52.36
David's 06 Civic Si 52.84
EF or EG Si 54.05
Integra 56.45
06 Mazda 3 56.49
Fit 56.69
Civic Hatch 57.17
01 Maxima 59.04


11/23/10

Riley's EvoX 45.70
Steves 03 WRX 47.15
Me 48.73
Rob's Supra 48.95
Red Miata 49.89
AP1 S2K (SCCA decals) 50.16
Joy's 03 Mustang 50.36
240z 51.67
300zx 53.19


11/30/10

Red 92 Miata 47.33 R comps
95 Cobra 47.92 NT01
Impreza 48.07 ??
Me 48.53
DB7 Integra 48.68
06 WRX 48.74
Evo X 49.11
06 Civic Si 49.19
[B]Joy's 03 Mustang 49.46
92 Miata 49.52
92 Miata 49.82
370Z 51.00
AP1 S2000 51.42
James's Fit 52.01
David's 06 Si 52.52
Paseo 53.16
05 Passat 53.35
09 M5 53.87

 

Nice improvement. Now spend 10k in parts and join the str fun!

 

Spend the money on driving schools and seat time first. Get the simple mods/basics for your car while you learn. Best of luck!

-Marc

 

I agree with marc. Seat time is the best mod. Check out Evo school near you and run on your all season tires for the first season. It will show you all the flaws in your driving much quicker then on sticky tires.


Then join str haha

 

I don't have a set of all season tires right now, just my Kumho XS. I would rather learn within the temperature range of these tires than within a tire that grips best when its cold. It looks like the Evo classes are $250, which isn't bad considering how Speed Ventures autocross costs $80 for a day in my area and SCCA Cal Club isn't much cheaper.

 

I wouldn't consider the current driving "autocrossing."

It's great seat time, but go-kart tracks are usually a semi-hybrid of a track day and autocross.

Evo school is a good option if you're looking to do some real autocross in the future.

 

Added times for 11/30. My braking inputs are sloppy and ABS is kicking in frequently. There is a hairpin 180 turn where VSA is kicking in every time, making it difficult to accelerate out. This feels unavoidable. I am still hunting apexes.

 

Why don't you just turn off VSA?

 

My plan was to run with it on until I can't go any faster. It always fires on my outside front wheel on two sharp corners. Usually one person will damage their car on any night, and this time the civic si hit a tire chicane at the end of a 70mph straight and cracked his bumper. My car is shiny and I don't want to risk going home broken until I have better car control.

 

The problem with that approach is that VSA actually *prevents* you from learning car control. You may be unwittingly doing things that are upsetting the car terribly, and being saved by VSA, and the likelihood of that being the case increases the more you pick up the pace. Better to turn it off earlier, then work your way back up to your previous pace without assists.

As an aside, no one likes to hear it, but if you can't afford (financially or emotionally) to wreck your car, you should really think hard about whether you want to track it. As you mentioned, stuff happens on the track. Buying an old Miata is an approach that worked for a lot of us.