Quick autox tire pressure question

[endeffect0]

Hey guys. heading out to my first autox in the new dsm. its mostly stock at this point so I'm gonna run it in stock or stx for the first race. I have been autoxing for about 3 years now

Just wondering if someone can give me a good starting point for my street tires i'm running Nitto Neo-Gen 205/45/16 on light weight wheels. no suspension mods yet.

any tips for autoxing in an awd dirve would be nice if you have any... last 4 cars were Rwd.

thanks.

[eclipsh]

What works for me is running about 5psi more in front than in the rear. I run 40/35 with my suspension and I rotate nicely. Without any suspension mods your car will most likely plow like a pig. Make sure to brake enough and get on the throttle early so your turbo is spooled by the time you are starting out of the corner. If you brake hard and turn in it it will help get you a little closer to oversteer instead of plowing before you hit the gas.

[talonTSIDriver]

go to the event with the tire pressure at full, then let air out in the front/rear accordingly.

[endeffect0]

thanks for the tip man! thats exactly the kind of info i was looking for.

The understeer is going to be somthing new to me. I'm used to being able to drive with my feet so I'm sure this will be a frustrating experience but also alot of fun. Ill try the trail breaking trick and see if i can get the car to rotate better.
Thier also calling from some light rain on Sunday which could make things interesting. Frankly ill learn alot more in a low traction situation than i would on a normal day so i cant say i would hate it either way.

any suggestions for killing some of the under if it is too much?

i have an air tank i bring with me so i can make adjustments. ill probably set it up at 40 all around before i leave in the morning and tweak it from their. and ill be changing it all back to stock pressure before i leave too.

[everbruin]

neo gen tires are likely soft walled, and in need of high psi, say mid 40s hot. 205 is super skinny and should be the first car upgrade on your list. yeah, early braking, early gas is key; trailbraking may not be an effective tradeoff. i trailbrake more on my m3 than 2g awd (i think stx is its best class).

[endeffect0]

Well this autoX was a heck of a learning experience!
The awd drive thing was a lot of fun. i couldn't believe how stable it was mid turn I really could just chuck the car into it and not have to worry about getting unbalance. Very stable compared to the mr2, but the car felt huge in the slalom. its all relative i suppose.

The understeer was a problem in a few spots but i never felt like it was as bad as i feared. In one 2 point sweeper specifically it was just a waiting game till when i could put down the power coming out. I was talking to one guy running a Red 2g talon in SM who gave me tons of advice on suspension set up and alignment and some AWD driving tips. I still feel like i have alot i can get out of this car I improved by 4 seconds over the 4 runs we got and i still feel like i can break even later and accelerate even earlier than i have been doing.

trail breaking did defiantly help in one turn with great success but i didn't use it too often through out the course. A little left foot breaking defiantly did help with bringing up boost before corner exit on some turns.

I think the next mod for this car will end up being bigger sway bars and some form of adjustable camber and a proper alignment with some changes to rear toe.

as for the set up on these tires i did my first run at 40/40 lower the front to 35/40 which helped with the rotation but felt a bit sluggish so i moved up to 38/40 which was better and ended on 38/43 which i liked next time i will probably start at that point and move up in pressure on both ends and see what happens.

as for the tires them selves they are very good summer tires with good feed back. they are responsive and some times twitchy. they seem to heat up well atuox and don't fade with heat during a lap.
The down side of course is that they SUCK in the rain. and their are many stickier tire choices, if you have one set of wheels and drive on nice days and want to commute to and from autox these tires will work. but I'm sure their are better ones as well.

[eclipsh]

Glad you had a good time but I can't imagine going to an event with only 4 runs! The events I go to we get 6-8 runs that are 55-75 seconds a piece depending on layout. It still isn't nearly enough seat time for my taste.

[endeffect0]

yea man... tell me about it. and the rates went up this year. Its really frustrating and my favorite event got shut down. we used to get 5 runs at ripken stadium it was a huge course and it was usually more than 60 seconds.. now we have only two events, warminster which is a down a back sort of affair where we only get 4 runs of about 55 seconds and a tiny little event at Boeing which takes place in a small parking lot and 3-4 runs at 30-40 seconds.

Its hardly worth the price or the trip any more i went through a tank and a half of gas at 3.75 a gallon and an fee of 45$ for four laps. so call it 15 gallons + entry fee and tolls your looking at more than $100. or if you wanna break it down 25$ a lap or 25 bucks for every min (40 cents a second) of track time.

but thats the price of an addiction i suppose.

[jazzybeats]

Originally Posted by eclipsh

Glad you had a good time but I can't imagine going to an event with only 4 runs! The events I go to we get 6-8 runs that are 55-75 seconds a piece depending on layout. It still isn't nearly enough seat time for my taste.

You run Scca or BMWCCA?
-Jason

[eclipsh]

Originally Posted by jazzybeats

You run Scca or BMWCCA?
-Jason

RGRSCCA out of ALBQ. They run an event in Farmington NM four weekends a year that I try to make it to as often as I can. It is a big course and fun but spending all day for a few minutes of driving is getting old. Once I track down the oil lakes.. er leaks, under my car I'll hit a road course instead.