Mercutio
SCCoA Member
For the first time since blowing the engine autocrossing in December 2008, I took my SC back to an autocross event. The good news is that this time I was able to drive the car home. Not much else went right.
I had one decent run. The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdLRcOoaB1k
It was extremely hot and the car definitely didn't like it. I boiled the PS fluid again, but at least I never lost power assist. Ultimately the engine got hot enough that I decided to call it quits after only 4 of 6 runs.
Since no one else was in my class, I actually moved up two classes to XP rather than race alone. XP is pretty close to anything goes, and it's an extremely fast class. XP cars are typically not street legal, run real slicks (not DOT-legal R compounds), are totally stripped, and have huge power. I finished fourth of four against this tougher competition. First in class was a very well built/driven 240SX. That car was way out of my league. Second was an E36 M3, and third was a 914-6.
Some conclusions:
-My front tires were 2 years old and the rears were 2.5 years old. There wasn't a ton of grip, but they weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be. In all, the car handled much better than I thought it would. Either my driving is a lot better than it was 2 years ago, or the last 100 or so pounds off the car has helped quite a bit. Probably both. But...
-I had forgotten how slow the steering was on this car. After autocrossing other vehicles for the past year and a half, I was shocked at how much steering input it took to negotiate the slaloms. I was constantly behind in steering. Ultimately, slow steering is to me the car's biggest handling fault. A quicker rack for these cars would be a huge handling upgrade, at least for my purposes.
-If I can't race without boiling the PS fluid I can't autocross this car any more. I've got a huge cooler and I was using Royal Purple synthetic fluid, but that wasn't enough.
-That ebay aluminum radiator might not be enough for sustained heavy use in hot temperatures.
-The SC did have more speed in it. Had I not had problems, I think I MIGHT have at least put pressure on for second in class. Maybe.
-The UHMW rear LCA bushings are fantastic. I had no wheel hop at all and the handling at the rear was very predictable, especially on ancient, worn-out tires. You all need to order these.
-Oh, and I've got a bunch of CEL codes now. Should be fun.
I had one decent run. The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdLRcOoaB1k
It was extremely hot and the car definitely didn't like it. I boiled the PS fluid again, but at least I never lost power assist. Ultimately the engine got hot enough that I decided to call it quits after only 4 of 6 runs.
Since no one else was in my class, I actually moved up two classes to XP rather than race alone. XP is pretty close to anything goes, and it's an extremely fast class. XP cars are typically not street legal, run real slicks (not DOT-legal R compounds), are totally stripped, and have huge power. I finished fourth of four against this tougher competition. First in class was a very well built/driven 240SX. That car was way out of my league. Second was an E36 M3, and third was a 914-6.
Some conclusions:
-My front tires were 2 years old and the rears were 2.5 years old. There wasn't a ton of grip, but they weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be. In all, the car handled much better than I thought it would. Either my driving is a lot better than it was 2 years ago, or the last 100 or so pounds off the car has helped quite a bit. Probably both. But...
-I had forgotten how slow the steering was on this car. After autocrossing other vehicles for the past year and a half, I was shocked at how much steering input it took to negotiate the slaloms. I was constantly behind in steering. Ultimately, slow steering is to me the car's biggest handling fault. A quicker rack for these cars would be a huge handling upgrade, at least for my purposes.
-If I can't race without boiling the PS fluid I can't autocross this car any more. I've got a huge cooler and I was using Royal Purple synthetic fluid, but that wasn't enough.
-That ebay aluminum radiator might not be enough for sustained heavy use in hot temperatures.
-The SC did have more speed in it. Had I not had problems, I think I MIGHT have at least put pressure on for second in class. Maybe.
-The UHMW rear LCA bushings are fantastic. I had no wheel hop at all and the handling at the rear was very predictable, especially on ancient, worn-out tires. You all need to order these.
-Oh, and I've got a bunch of CEL codes now. Should be fun.
