D_Eclipse9916
20+ Year Contributor
- 1,430
- 16
- Mar 4, 2004
-
Vienna,
Virginia
The date was 5/20/06, the day before was preparation and getting my car ready as it was completely in pieces. I had put my car down for fmic, gm maft setup and 1g throttle body. I was lazy and kept putting off getting the work done until that day in which I realized I needed to get it running. So I called up my friend, got an angle grinder and we knocked everything out pretty quickly, turned her on and no problems. I felt releived and *thought* I was ready for the next day.
I woke up at 6:00AM ran out the door and thought I had everything. Met up with a few fellow friends at 7am and headed from Northern Virginia up to Cal Ripken Stadium. I watched my temps and timing as I took the 2 hour drive up to Pennyslvania. Stopped a few times to pick up food/bathroom breaks, and finally got there with no problems.
It was only then that I realized I had forgotten to pick up my friend's helmet that I always use for autocross. So I had to wear the dorky-ass bright yellow loaner helmets, oh well, not like I hadnt done that before. I registered and took my car over to tech. They raised an eyebrow as to me running straight to the turbo, and then let me go. It would be 2 hours before I could take my runs so I took the time to look at the competition and inspect the course. Competition was nowhere as near as competitive as it usually was in Street Modified so I was fairly confident. A few evos, wrxs, vws, and a really nice 240sx. The 240 I knew would probably beat me out easily as he had an sr20 some wide-ass tires and full suspension. I felt I could roll with the rest of them if I was on my game. Then, I took a look at the course, 2 tight low-speed hairpins...shit. My car, the 2g awd has suv turning radius, and this was not going to be fun. 1 of the turns I could trail-brake heavily into the turn and "drift" it to get it around as much as I could. But the third had the timing equipment next to it, and I didnt think the hosts would like me playing around right there.
At around 3-4 pm they called for the fourth heat, which I was in. I jumped in my car, pulled it over to the lanes and got out to get my yellow helmet. I let my car warm up the whole time to the staging line. As I got to the line, I decided not to use my stutterbox and did a small 2-3 grand ####y-launch. The car got off relatively well for not launching and I hit the first slalom, first two turns right, then got out of synch and had to catch the wheel to avioid the last cone in the slalom, a rookie mistake. After that came a long sweeper, came outside and then back in using a 2-point apex turn situation, worked very well and I came in actually way too hot for the next turn, braked hard and understeered into a right 90 degree. Had a short straight so I finally could see how the car would do with the fmic, well, it straight surprised me, I had 1.5 second fuill of acceleration before I realized it was accelerating so fast compared to what I was used to. Slammed on the brakes, went wide into the turn and yet again understeered into the turn. Now was 1 of the hairpins, I came into it trail brakin but not enough, understeer, yet again. The car was feeling really loose, I knew I had forgotten to up the pressure. Then came 2 90 degrees in which I cut the first one perfectly, albeitly slowly but then going so slow I cut too far in for the 2nd 90 in which I had trouble getting around. Then a small slalom I cut through nicely. Then came the last turn, a very tight 90 degree. I had to come in real slow, barely give any acceleration and accelerate as much as I could out of the turn to the timing equipment 3 meters outside the turn.
2nd run. I was determined not to make the same mistakes. I decided this time to use my stutterbox, but did not have time to turn up the psi in my tires. Brought up the stutterbox to 5000rpm and came roaring out of the staging lanes. However, awd could not make up for my shitty tires and I burned all 4 all the way through first. This made for a slow first 20 meters. Got through the slalom perfectly, hit the 2 apex turn and slowed enough down for the 90. Got through that nicely, but again got too much speed on the straights and had to catch it again through the left 90. Hit the hairpin slowly with understeer again. This time I came through the two right 90s perfectly and made it through the slalom again. The last hairpin was still slow, but I went through just a little faster. Came in having the same time as last time....only .6 seconds faster.
Then came our last run of the day. I set my stutterbox even lower at 4750 rpm and launched, a lot of wheelspin halfway through 1st but caught at the end. I started hitting the slaloms with excellent speed and came through most of the course to hit the first hairpin, I did not nearly trailbrake as much as I should and hit mad understeer, I must have lost 2 seconds in that turn I was wAYYYYY to outside. The next 3 turns I executed nicely, not perfectly but then came to the last hairpin. Came in hard and whipped the back around to get enough speed to pass through the timing lights 3 seconds faster than any of my previous runs.
At the end I met up with two of my friends that ran in the same heat, altough different classes. One with a wrx with ant-roll bars and full coilover suspension with falken azenis, he came in 2 seconds slower than I. Then my friend with a 328i, some suspension setup and falken azenis. Intake and exhaust also only. Came in 5 seconds slower than me, so I had beaten my friends, but we all enjoyed the event.
My setup (anything to do with autocross, neglecting many supporting and random power and comfort mods):
Shittty Intrax springs
Stock shocks
stock anti-roll bars
big16g turbo
3000GT SL wheels, 16x8
The original tires that came on that 3000gt from the factory in 1994. Literally peeling if you want pictures. Some random all-seasons.
Here are pictures: (Pictures compliments of TEAMWTF.ORG)
I woke up at 6:00AM ran out the door and thought I had everything. Met up with a few fellow friends at 7am and headed from Northern Virginia up to Cal Ripken Stadium. I watched my temps and timing as I took the 2 hour drive up to Pennyslvania. Stopped a few times to pick up food/bathroom breaks, and finally got there with no problems.
It was only then that I realized I had forgotten to pick up my friend's helmet that I always use for autocross. So I had to wear the dorky-ass bright yellow loaner helmets, oh well, not like I hadnt done that before. I registered and took my car over to tech. They raised an eyebrow as to me running straight to the turbo, and then let me go. It would be 2 hours before I could take my runs so I took the time to look at the competition and inspect the course. Competition was nowhere as near as competitive as it usually was in Street Modified so I was fairly confident. A few evos, wrxs, vws, and a really nice 240sx. The 240 I knew would probably beat me out easily as he had an sr20 some wide-ass tires and full suspension. I felt I could roll with the rest of them if I was on my game. Then, I took a look at the course, 2 tight low-speed hairpins...shit. My car, the 2g awd has suv turning radius, and this was not going to be fun. 1 of the turns I could trail-brake heavily into the turn and "drift" it to get it around as much as I could. But the third had the timing equipment next to it, and I didnt think the hosts would like me playing around right there.
At around 3-4 pm they called for the fourth heat, which I was in. I jumped in my car, pulled it over to the lanes and got out to get my yellow helmet. I let my car warm up the whole time to the staging line. As I got to the line, I decided not to use my stutterbox and did a small 2-3 grand ####y-launch. The car got off relatively well for not launching and I hit the first slalom, first two turns right, then got out of synch and had to catch the wheel to avioid the last cone in the slalom, a rookie mistake. After that came a long sweeper, came outside and then back in using a 2-point apex turn situation, worked very well and I came in actually way too hot for the next turn, braked hard and understeered into a right 90 degree. Had a short straight so I finally could see how the car would do with the fmic, well, it straight surprised me, I had 1.5 second fuill of acceleration before I realized it was accelerating so fast compared to what I was used to. Slammed on the brakes, went wide into the turn and yet again understeered into the turn. Now was 1 of the hairpins, I came into it trail brakin but not enough, understeer, yet again. The car was feeling really loose, I knew I had forgotten to up the pressure. Then came 2 90 degrees in which I cut the first one perfectly, albeitly slowly but then going so slow I cut too far in for the 2nd 90 in which I had trouble getting around. Then a small slalom I cut through nicely. Then came the last turn, a very tight 90 degree. I had to come in real slow, barely give any acceleration and accelerate as much as I could out of the turn to the timing equipment 3 meters outside the turn.
2nd run. I was determined not to make the same mistakes. I decided this time to use my stutterbox, but did not have time to turn up the psi in my tires. Brought up the stutterbox to 5000rpm and came roaring out of the staging lanes. However, awd could not make up for my shitty tires and I burned all 4 all the way through first. This made for a slow first 20 meters. Got through the slalom perfectly, hit the 2 apex turn and slowed enough down for the 90. Got through that nicely, but again got too much speed on the straights and had to catch it again through the left 90. Hit the hairpin slowly with understeer again. This time I came through the two right 90s perfectly and made it through the slalom again. The last hairpin was still slow, but I went through just a little faster. Came in having the same time as last time....only .6 seconds faster.
Then came our last run of the day. I set my stutterbox even lower at 4750 rpm and launched, a lot of wheelspin halfway through 1st but caught at the end. I started hitting the slaloms with excellent speed and came through most of the course to hit the first hairpin, I did not nearly trailbrake as much as I should and hit mad understeer, I must have lost 2 seconds in that turn I was wAYYYYY to outside. The next 3 turns I executed nicely, not perfectly but then came to the last hairpin. Came in hard and whipped the back around to get enough speed to pass through the timing lights 3 seconds faster than any of my previous runs.
At the end I met up with two of my friends that ran in the same heat, altough different classes. One with a wrx with ant-roll bars and full coilover suspension with falken azenis, he came in 2 seconds slower than I. Then my friend with a 328i, some suspension setup and falken azenis. Intake and exhaust also only. Came in 5 seconds slower than me, so I had beaten my friends, but we all enjoyed the event.
My setup (anything to do with autocross, neglecting many supporting and random power and comfort mods):
Shittty Intrax springs
Stock shocks
stock anti-roll bars
big16g turbo
3000GT SL wheels, 16x8
The original tires that came on that 3000gt from the factory in 1994. Literally peeling if you want pictures. Some random all-seasons.
Here are pictures: (Pictures compliments of TEAMWTF.ORG)
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
