Autocross #2

[Dirty Sanchez]

I had my second go yesterday at Joliet Junior College. Fun, fun, fun. I was bumped in class (from B to C) since installing a new cat-back exhaust. Some tougher comp. was expected.

First three runs were in the wet and man that couldn't have been more fun. I set fast time (57.0) in all of the Audi classes in the wet (some of the E-class cars were on R-compounds though so they were at a bit of a disadvantage). I was stoked.

Course layout was wild... a few of the gates were single cones that you had to go around from either direction (basically a zig-zag or loopty loop were the options.) Experimented with a lot of different lines!

Once it dried up in time for the 2nd group of runs, the times started coming down big time. The R-compound doods who were running 58s/59s in the wet were down in the 52/53sec range! I could only drop about 2.5 seconds (54.6 after 6 runs) though and decided that I was looping when I should have been zagging the third cone. I thought it was better to loop in the wet but faster to zag in the dry. Thankfully, I had 3 runs left to test that out. After 6 runs I was about 1.5 seconds back from class leader... dood with a modded TT-coupe that I saw pull 251hp at the wheels on a dyno run last weekend on a 100 octane program. :eek:

TT guy dropped his times further in the final runs and topped out at 52.4! Damn! (He actually ran a 51.9 also but that was DNF'd). My 7th run was quicker at 53.3... tried the new line and liked it immediately. I knew it was quicker but I needed to find time elsewhere too. 8th run was the shiznit... 52.2... smoothe like butta. 9th run I screwed up the first cone badly so I just cruised around :gomer:

Moved up in class and scored a win=w0ot!!! :thumbup:

Kicking butt on stock Conti crap rubber felt pretty good.

I got drunk after all that :gomer:

[Sean O'Gorman]

Sounds like you are getting the hang of it pretty quickly. It took me something like nine events before I finally took my first class win but I haven't lost since. Have you talked to the fast drivers with similar cars to see what they think of your driving? Its always fun to get tips from them only to end up closing the gap in only 2 or 3 events. ;)

When you are ready to step up your car's performance, get these:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=Ecsta+MX&vehicleSearch=true&partnum=34YR8EMX&fromCompare1=yes

$150/tire for the S4 and its the closest you'll get to race tire performance on the street.

My auto-x yesterday didn't go too well, but I still got the class win. My head was somewhere else all day, and it showed. I missed a section of the course my first two runs, one of which otherwise probably wouldve been my best because everyone's car was getting slower as they went on. Still got the class win, by .6 over my co-driver. I owed a friend of mine $40 so I figured it was easier to let him drive my car than it would be to pay him back. :D

And of course, the mandatory cool photo (thumbnail only so I don't eat up the club's bandwidth):

http://server.tekro.com/~autox/albums/album09/P5230001.highlight.jpg

[Dirty Sanchez]

I'm actually hoping to get through the rest of this summer on the contis... haven't yet decided what I will go with next. Michelin PS2s are at the top of the list though... stickiest thing going in a max performance tire from what I've read. I have at least 2 more auto-x this year (maybe more if I seek out other club events) and 2 driver schools (4 track days). If that goes well I may try to get the good stuff--Hoosiers or Victoracers or something like that.

First things first though... the weakest link in my car is me. Driver upgrade is needed before any other serious mods. I am getting some pretty good feedback from people and a couple of the guys I'm running against are track instructors. Unfortunately, I don't know how much of my early success is me and how much is my car. There is only one other B6 S4 that was running (he was on Michelin Pilot Cups-R compound... and I was still quicker than him) so I don't have much of a direct comparison. Lots of heavily modded stage 3 A4s, lots of TTs, lots of B5 S4s... not many B6s at all. :saywhat:

One thing I do know... I'm having alot of fun! :thumbup: