First Auto-X race

unclesams_svt

unclesams_svt

Budget racer
This Sunday I will get my feet wet in Auto Cross racing my Lightning. I have read Hals thread about tips and I was wondering if anyone has any other tips I should know about. Is there any "prep work" that I need to do with my truck? Any advise would really help

Thanks
Ryan
 
I dunno what tips you've been given so far, so I'll just tell you what I know.
Definitely get there early enough to walk the track a couple of times. If you don't walk it first, it may just look like a sea of orange cones on your first lap.
Bring some chalk for your tires. Draw a chalk line on your tires from the leading edge of the tread, down about 1/3 of the way down the sidewall. You can look at where the chalk rubbed off after to determine if you need to add or remove air pressure from the tire.
Make sure your truck is ready for tech inspection... Lug nuts torqued, battery tied down, no loose items in cab, no floor-mats, snell 2000 or better helmet (assuming that it's required).
Try not to get your tires too hot in the corners, they will get slick when they are hot.
For your #'s get window chalk, or I use magnets on my doors. Try not to write on your paint W/ anything. I've seen stuff made just for writing #'s on cars leave permanent marks in beautiful paint.
1 thing I try to think of is your tires have X amount of traction, so lets say you are using 80% of the avail traction to slow down for a turn, you only have 20% left to actually turn the truck, so try to do your braking before you begin the turn. (but not too soon) :)
Be prepared to have a blast & your next addiction.

Steve
 
Are you in a gen 1 or a gen 2? I have a gen 1, running Toyo Proxxes ST's... Start my front tires around 40 PSI & start my rears around 30-31.
 
A Gen II with 400hp and 480 tq. It is lowered 1"/2". I do have another ? for you will my lakewood T-bars effect the abilities of the truck, or should i take them off for the race? How can you tell when you have enough psi in your tires.

Thanks agian

Ryan
 
Hmmm... Do the traction bars lift the back of the truck, or effect the amount of travel in the suspension? if so, they may hurt you a little. If not, then you can prob leave them on.
For the tires, the chalk should scrub off the side of the tire, as far as the tread extends down the sidewall, or wraps around the edge. If the chalk wipes off further down the sidewall then the tread extends, you need to add air. If the chalk does not wipe all the way off the edge of the tread, then you have too much pressure & need to reduce pressure.
With that kind of power, be careful not to give it too much gas. Be smooth with your wheel movements and with your peadel movements. It will be real easy to bring the rearend around, especially once the tires start to get hot. I usually manually place the tranny in either 1st or 2nd gear, depending on how fast the course is to help keep the accelleration and decel smooth, and so I don't have any unwanted shifts.
Use all of the track you have avail... Start wide, hit your apex, then come back out wide. When I walk the course, I try to imagine that I'm driving it, to help me pick my lines. I try to pick a line that reduces the radius of the turns as much as possible. Sometimes I can drive a slolum (sp?) almost straight if I hit it right. Sounds crazy, but I've rollerbladed a course instead of walking it before to get a good line. I was surprised that no-one made fun of me for the rollerblades though. :D
 
My T- bars need to be adjusted, then they will hang down about an inch below the spring. I there any special seat position I should be in that will help me. ( seat back striaght up, seat tilted back, etc.)?
 
I sit with the seatback fairly straight... I think just 1 notch back from straight.. maybe 2 notches. Most importantly, it should be comfortable. A lot of people drive with the seat wayyy back, so the arms are extended all the way to reach the steering wheel. It's better to be a little closer, so you have a slight bend to your elbows. Watch a Nascar race & you'll notice that they keep the wheel pretty close. Like I said though... comfortable. you want to be able to make smooth precise movements. A lot of people turn the wheel fast with 1 hand... If you do, keep that technique for your 1st auto X since yoo don't have a lot of time to practice. If you ever take a driving class for this kind of driving, most places will teach you to shuffle the steering wheel.. kinda hard to explain, but, I'll try. Let's say you are turning the wheel to the right. Grip the wheel with your right hand & pull the wheel down, at the same exact time, let your left hand slide down the other side of the wheel, until it meeds your right hand @ the bottom. At that time grip the wheel with your left hand & pull up, with your right hand sliding up, until your hands meet @ that top... keep going until you have turned the wheel enough for your turn & visa-vesa for the reverse. The idea is that you always have a solid grip on the wheel for better control. It does take some practice to do it smoothly, but once you get it down, it definately helps.

Steve
 
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Thanks man I really appriciate the help and advise. I just hope I don't get to throttle happy when I get out there.

Ryan
 
Happy to help... I know you are going to have a great time & aquire a new addiction. It will be hard not to go throttle happy, but I'm sure you'll do fine. Throttle happy reminds me of a story... My 1st auto-X was with a Miata club... actually pretty nimble on the track. Anyway... everyone kept getting lost on the last turn, & getting a DNF for going outside of the cones. Did my lap & that last turn was a decreasing radius turn, so I just laid into it, and white smoked em' as I drifted it through the turn & tripped the lights. Everyone loved the show of power & more than that, they loved the 2 black lines that showed them where to go so they wouldn't go out of bounds anymore.
Good luck & have fun. Tell us how it goes.
Steve
 
Thats a great story. I will post some pics of the brick on the track and hopfully have some good stories to go along with it. The club that will be down there is made up of mostly Miata's, VW's. So I'm sure my truck will stick out like a sore thumb.
 
Great advice.

I only have a couple of points to add:

Purge/bleed your brakes, especially if it a long fast track.

+1 on the transmission braking, just note a couple of items.
1. YOu are limited to how much braking you are going to be able to do w/ stock or street pads so let the tranny do some of it.
2. Note to self, baby tranny after wards until it cools down.

If you like the X then you will probably want to ditch the slappers and go with a Tbar that is connected at both ends.

You may not understand what a late apex is yet, but once you do know that thw L loves them. Watch the lines the other V8s are running. Other cars wont run quite the same line.

1st and formost: HAVE FUN. Speed and control come with seat time, the smile should come everytime.

Bryan
 
Just don't make any abrupt actions out there. Great advice from a couple of guy's that know. Have fun and let us know how you did......
 
Thanks everyone for the tips. But I have one other question: should I drop my rear one more inch for a total of 3" or should I leave it where it is at (2"). I was just wondering if it would help to drop it or would that hurt me more handling wise since I don't have a panhard bar yet.
 
Lower center of gravity is always good. As long as it isn't sagging in the rear. If the rear sags, you might have a tendancy to push the front wheels in a turn, or understeer, because of the way the weight transfers.
 
Lower is better, but for the first time I wouldn't sweat it. I would drop the spare tire and the hitch just to have less mass swinging aroound back there.
 
unclesams_svt said:
Thanks agian. I guess I'll just leave it as is for now, and see how she does.
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Until you start competing, just have fun. The X is an inexpensive way to thrash some asphalt w/o getting a ticket. My best advice I can give is:

Don't over-analyze it. Just go, have fun. Once you get some seat time and have a basis to judge what kind of mods you might want. Once you get that and it is something you want to do a lot the mods I would recommend are:

BBK on the front.
Very stiff front coils
Hotchis sways
Clunk washers
Hotchis rear springs
Pan hard bar
another 2" drop in the rear (many methods to do this)
Pan hard bar
C-notch the frame
Racing seats w/ harnesses
correct length shocks
Metco upper link T-bars
good rear pads
all of the weight reduction you can live

This is close to what I was running and worked for me, but there was always an EVO that was really close to me, he was my best competition.

Just remember to have fun. If you have fun then you are doing the right thing. If if isn't fun then it probably isn't the right thing. Just like I don't enjoy the drag, I would rather watch it than do it, but if you gave me a 1320 with a hard 90 at the end of it, it might be more fun.
 
Thanks, I love to drag race my truck and on my bike I love the twisty roads. So that is why I wanted to try this in my truck. To see how much fun I can have. Right now I have ground force front springs and just 2" drop shackles in the rear. What are clunk washers?
 
unclesams_svt said:
Thanks, I love to drag race my truck and on my bike I love the twisty roads. So that is why I wanted to try this in my truck. To see how much fun I can have.
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My G1 won't out corner every bike, but I know that it'll out corner a 600cc Yamaha... I definately enjoy the corners more than anything else:D
 
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