Racing Ready

One of this past Sunday’s SASCA autocross competitors, in the SM2 class, was Ed with his 1999 dark blue Miata.  This is a very clean, well maintained car.   Ed is one of the Chairs at SASCA.

In the past couple of years he had run this Miata a in the stock class, pretty much straight up stock (just a big front anti-roll bar, and R-compound tires).  Since then, he’s modified it forward to a much more responsive & aggressive drive - taking it to the more competitive SM2 class.  Ed, like other Miata owners I’ve talked to, says that these cars take so well to modifications.  Also, there’s lot’s a space to work in & around the engine bay.

Here’s a list of what Ed has done to his ride:

• K & N cold air intake system
• Bell supercharger with a Bell intercooler
• modified/prototype BEGi™ (Bell Engineering Group, Inc.)Turbo (running @ 13 lbs. of boost) by Corky (who comes VERY highly recommended)
• 2.5″ full stainless steel exhaust
• Racing Beat muffler
• and a special ECU chip he can modify with a laptop

Ed is still running on the same Kumho R-compound tires and wheels he did when he was running in stock class.  But he already has new wider (240mm) rubber that is simply waiting new, aggressive wheels to arrive from Australia.  The suspension is still stock.  That will be a further modification in the future.

Ed mentoned that once you step up to a higher performance class, there can be no end to the modifications and budget you can spend on.  He calls his Miata a “tuner car”.  Another driver suggested that when picking your class, try to choose what you can afford at the high end of that class.

During the morning and afternoon runs, Ed was running very competively.  I was able to go on a ride along with him.  Wow, that car is definately not stock.  And he still drives it  to and from work as his daily driver!  He eventually won his class, that day.

So, choose well grasshopper, that you won’t go off the budgetary deep end when advancing to a more modified class.  I guess you can word that differently and say:

Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

So at Racing Ready we advise you watch your autocross/racing budget.

Dan

Although I have been featuring a majority of local/regional autocross-based postings here, there is a lot more out there.  For now, this is what I can do, see & vicariously participate in.  Once I DO get to autocrossing, I will consider it a step in the right direction to some sort of actual racing.

I’m not sure if I would go the route of Dave Gran, author of Go Ahead, Take the Wheel, but I would surely like to get a taste of road course action.  One can do this, at speed (& not racing) in an HPDE (that’s a High Performance Driving Event).  They seem to have them in various places around the USA.  Those of you in other parts of the world, I’m sure you can do an easy Internet search and find some event that is regional or even local.

The main ones that I have seen within 3 to 5 hours driving time from my home are: The Drivers Edge & the Evolution Performance Driving School.  There are many more, but these are the two that come immediately to mind.

Both of these schools allow you to use your own car/daily driver.  You build up your speed and confidence with an instructor by your side.  You don’t actually get to race, but you do start to see what you can do within (and up to) the limits of your enthusiast-based car.

Another thing, like Dalton commented about in my So Why Do We Do It? posting - its all about having the “man-cave”!  I like his logical justification - see if you agree…

So, again, please realize there is more to becoming Racing Ready than autocrossing - but it such an awesome, easy to start out method into motorsports.

Dan

Today, thanks to the threat of rain, SASCA had a relative cool autocross.  The guys & gals got in 10(!) runs apiece.  It was a long & fast course with some surprising decreasing radius sweepers.  Here’s a quick shot of the course map.

(Please excuse the dark & low res pix this week.  Other members of my family have my good digital camera at this time - hope they come back w/good pictures, to show me what I missed.)

Due to a combination of the Divisional autocross event in Fort Worth & a reported 60% chance of rain, the turnout was low, only 33 participants.  But those that did show really enjoyed having so many runs.

I was able to do 2 ride-alongs; 1st with Sondra of S2KCA “fame” & 2nd with Ed, one of the Chairs of SASCA.  This sticker (& her unique vanity plate) are on the back of Sondra’s Honda S2000.

I also want to publicly acknowlege SASCA’s President Rick for his support of my blog.  He was giving the play-by-play color commentary for the runs.  He also announced the blog over the PA & that anybody can talk to me about their car & I’ll make them “famous”.  Thanks again, Rick!

Slowly, more people are gaining knowledge of Racing Ready.  If you like what you read & see, tell a friend & toss in a comment.  If you don’t, toss me an e-mail (dan@racingready.com).  Thanks!

Dan

I’m about ready to attend to the SASCA autocross event tomorrow at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX (my town).  The thought I came up with today is: “Why do we do it?”

We spend a day, at least once a month, in the hot sun and abuse our machines (our cars) and ourselves (damned hot, out there at 100 plus degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon).  Most other people would consider a weekend day as a time to relax or putter around the house & yard - not us!

What’s it all about?  Is it the adrenalin rush of not experienced speed/driving dynamics from our daily driving routine to work?  Is it the bragging rights of doing better than our co-competitors?  Is it the knowledge that you are doing something that the average driver has no clue about doing?  Is it your satisfaction that you know you are taking your car to its limits unlike the average daily driver in the lane next to you, Monday through Friday?

Well, I think its a unique combination of ALL these thoughts.  Its the “Walter Mitty” coming out of all of us who participate in any sort of local, amateur motorsports activity.  It allows us to continue the Monday through Friday routine with some sort of semblance of sanity.

I hope YOU are working on some sort of local motorsports activity this weekend…

Here at Racing Ready, this blog is helping me to keep my life’s sanity!  I’m hoping the same is true for you!

Dan

Yesterday I got an e-mailed response from Russell (aka Rod Rat Russell) about his 1957 Chevrolet Belair 2-door I featured here a couple of days ago.

Here’s what he had to say:

You’re right about the chassis.  Right now it has what we call our caddy chassis.  No swaybars, and long soft springs with little to no valving on the shocks.  If UPS makes it I’ll have sway bars, dual adjustable shocks and some shorter stiffer springs.  Then all I need to do is destroy those general tires and get me something that will grip & not slide on the front when I go into a corner and slide on the back on the out side of a corner.

He also sent included a video -  you can almost feel all that power!

We’ll see what he has to say when I meet him in person, at the SASCA autocross this Sunday.  This is the way to get the word out about Racing Racing!

Dan

John is the SPOKES Novice Coordinator.  On the morning of an autocross, after registration, he is responsible for conducting an informative course walkthrough with the novices.  John specifies what possible safety concerns there could be.  He also gives a variety of course driving strategy hints & methods of steering, looking ahead, and so on.  It is always recommended to have the novices do some ride-alongs before their first run.  Also, its good to have some experienced drivers ride along with them on at least their first run or 2.  John does a nice job.  Without his guidance, novices would get lost and/or a be a hazard to others.

John’s ride is a recent model Subaru WRX STi, which he’s sufficiently modified to the STU SCCA class.  During last month’s autocross event his car was in the shop, so he was kindly befriended by Vitek, and was able to co-drive in his Subaru which I featured here: Timing Is Everything

At this time I don’t know about the modified details of John’s Subaru, but I do know something about some of the different external stickers.

So what’s with the “As Seen on TV” sticker?  A few years ago, a local Austin, TX news station ran a short news interest feature about autocrossing.  They interviewed John & featured his car – therefore the reason for his cool sticker.  He drove the newscaster (on the road course at the Driveway Austin Motorsports Academy) to show her what this was all about.  Then John had her drive his car, too.  Here’s the video!

Lastly, what’s with this owl picture on the trunk?  Apparently this is a little dated now.  A few years ago, there was this saying that became popular on the Internet.  It was referring to the ”Oh really?” owl.  Here’s a link, if you’re interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_rly 

So that’s how it really goes, here at Racing Ready!

Dan

What kind of cryptic title is this?

It’s to describe the variety of vehicles I saw participating at the SPOKES autocross event this past Sunday.

I witnessed a very aggressive, high modified Yugo.  You could see by the big tires & hearing the turbo blow- off valve during his runs to know this wasn’t your average Yugo.  His times seemed very competitive.  Here are some pix…

When one thinks of bringing a vehicle to compete in autocross, it is usually of a recent vintage.  Russell brought this highly modified ’57 Chevy.  I’m guessing it was his first time out, as he seemed to be sorting out some handling issues.

Later, I found out the truth beneath that over 50 year old GM shell.  It has a modified C4 Corvette chassis with an awesome 1994 Chevy LS1 Corvette motor (354HP)!  Check out Hot Rod Jim’s Website for the full story.  Here is a teaser chassis picture - WOW!.  I ‘m sure he’ll be back for more autocrossing…

To illustrate the truly international flavor of vehicles in attendance, Zac brought his ’04 Pontiac GTO (the original GTO’s nickname was the Goat).  These vehicles were developed and built in Australia off of the Holden Monaro model from GM.  Click to look closely & see the Holden LTD. proof on the VIN sticker…

Thanks to Bob Lutz, the USA had a three year run (2004-2006) of the Pontiac GTO model.  Unfortunately, it didn’t sell as well as GM would have liked.  Oh well, its still a fun car & Zac is enjoying modifying an already potent vehicle to the ESP class.  This is what he has done so far:
- coil over shocks
- KW suspension
- SLP headers
- SLP chip
- SLP mass airflow sensor

Zac’s GTO is now up to 410HP (stock was 350HP).  All that remains to upgrade are his wheels & tires.  He was running on the factory units, still!  Looking good Zac!!!

If you can drive it & think it is worth competing with, even if you know you won’t win, go ahead, have fun.  Bring your daily driver and autocross it.  It will give you a taste of what racing is all about – this is just one way to get to be Racing Ready!

Dan