First time autocross

[russiankid]

Overall the car performed wonderfully. I definitely need to get new struts and tires but I will be using different tires next time around. Overall, its fun and I am definitely doing it again.

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs114.snc1/5143_105985663254_620258254_2758307_1649700_n.jpg

I will tell you that the car lacks a lot of power on the straight aways. However, that allows me to put my foot to the floor when I am half way in the turn. So once I am in the next the turn the 4 wheel disk brakes play a big part. The car slows down very quickly so I can stay on the throttle a lot longer than I thought I could.

[danny nr crew]

freakin sweet dude if i had my lisence i would do it i jus need new struts as well lol

[russiankid]

It is an experience that you cannot replicate on the street. If you come there with an attitude of thinking you know the car(like I did), then you will be greatly disappointed of how you do not know the car. It took me one run to realize what the car does not like. It does not like when you come into a turn at full throttle, brake lightly, and cock the wheel for the turn. It will understeer a lot if you do that. So the second run I ended up braking hard and that helped a lot.

[2ndGenGuy]

That's awesome man! It is amazing what you learn, and sounds like you picked up on it pretty quickly! It's amazing how much harder you can push your car out there, versus whatever you think you can do on the street.

[Civic Accord Honda]

looks like hella awesome fun!

[russiankid]

That's awesome man! It is amazing what you learn, and sounds like you picked up on it pretty quickly! It's amazing how much harder you can push your car out there, versus whatever you think you can do on the street.
Totally agree. I know that I cannot run these tires again because I chewed the shoulders off with understeer. I am going to be using my older tires that I don't care for but they grip a lot better than these so I should do better. :wave:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/russian03rustler/Accord/S6302717.jpg


looks like hella awesome fun!
It was loads of fun!

[turabaka]

Totally agree. I know that I cannot run these tires again because I chewed the shoulders off with understeer. I am going to be using my older tires that I don't care for but they grip a lot better than these so I should do better. :wave:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/russian03rustler/Accord/S6302717.jpg


It was loads of fun!

yep. I did that same thing to my Falkens. I'm not very happy. Definitely need to try to find a way to change my driving style so that doesn't happen again.

[russiankid]

More air in the tires helped a lot. First run I had 38psi all around. Second run I put it up to 42psi and it helped a bit. 3rd and 4th run I ran 45psi. I may go to 50psi next time I run.

But in my case this is how the course was just setup because look at the right side.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/russian03rustler/Accord/S6302716.jpg

[turabaka]

More air in the tires helped a lot. First run I had 38psi all around. Second run I put it up to 42psi and it helped a bit. 3rd and 4th run I ran 45psi. I may go to 50psi next time I run.

my problem is that if I go much above 36psi I start to lose traction. If I set them that way cold then my first couple runs are good, but after that I start to slow down because the tires can't grab since they've spiked up to about 40psi from the heat. So, if I want to be competitive I end up having to set my tire pressures around 31-32psi cold.

[MessyHonda]

looks like fun

[Civic Accord Honda]

for canyon runs the civic handles best with the 195/60/14s with 42 PSI upfront and i have 165/70/13s in the back with 30 psi... wider tires really make a HUGE diffrence so you might want to look in to getting some 14" steelies with some 195/60/14 tires on them
when i ran with 165/70/13 all around it lost grip ALOT and had so much tire roll

[A18A]

looks heaps fun !!

[2ndGenGuy]

Can't you guys adjust camber on your cars? Looks like a little extra camber + tire pressure will help with that. Plus you'll get the handling benefits of some extra camber.

[russiankid]

Camber on my car? No, we cannot do that on the 3gee's.

[86AccordLxi]

Plus, double wishbone and shitty street tires don't like lots of camber anyway.

My shitty street tires also chunk a little bit on the outside edges, but so it goes. I have added more camber though b/c nissan is macpherson strut up front and they like a bit more.

The thing that I harp on with my friends is that you just need to learn to drive around the problems -- not saying I do this very well, but with time/practice/experience you start to set the car up in ways that it likes rather than trying to force it to turn/brake whatever when it doesn't want to lol.

[87Dragon]

awsome fun

[russiankid]

Plus, double wishbone and shitty street tires don't like lots of camber anyway.

My shitty street tires also chunk a little bit on the outside edges, but so it goes. I have added more camber though b/c nissan is macpherson strut up front and they like a bit more.

The thing that I harp on with my friends is that you just need to learn to drive around the problems -- not saying I do this very well, but with time/practice/experience you start to set the car up in ways that it likes rather than trying to force it to turn/brake whatever when it doesn't want to lol.

Yeah I need to do that. My tires are very cheap though so they don't really hold up to those situations very well.

[Rendon LX-i]

time for some new wheels and tires sam....When i went from narrow ass 13s to gsr with a 195/50/15 that was AWESOME. Then i got 205/50 boy o boy...bites the coners nice and smooth. you slide alittle but onces there hot they stick goood. IF your car was lowered it would make a big difference also bro.

[russiankid]

Yeah this is just for fun right now.

[Strugglebucket]

my problem is that if I go much above 36psi I start to lose traction. If I set them that way cold then my first couple runs are good, but after that I start to slow down because the tires can't grab since they've spiked up to about 40psi from the heat. So, if I want to be competitive I end up having to set my tire pressures around 31-32psi cold.

Can't you just jump out and adjust them once you're back in grid? That's what I've been doing.

[russiankid]

Can't you just jump out and adjust them once you're back in grid? That's what I've been doing.

That is what I did. I need to drop into 1st in a few turns. I am running the same track again in two weeks and there are 3 or so turns that 2nd gear is around 2800rpm.:toilet:

[turabaka]

Can't you just jump out and adjust them once you're back in grid? That's what I've been doing.

nope. We run our grid like pro solos. So I only have about 2-3 minutes between runs. I don't even get to shut my car off really because the line is constantly moving. I actually prefer doing it that way, because when I get to my later runs the tires are at the perfect psi and heat. So when I finally know the course really well the car is running at its best.

[Tdurr]

i wanna do this.... sigh...

[russiankid]

You should, its loads of fun. I picked up some spare tires and rims to use for autox so I don't tear up my DD tires.

[86AccordLxi]

Yeah, all the 'touge specialists' need to drive against other real cars and see where they stand :)

[MessyHonda]

i wanna do this.... sigh...

yeah same here...i feel its time to show what our 3rd gens are made of

[turabaka]

got an autocross this weekend, so we'll see if I can take 3rd in my class this time. Been stuck at 4th the last two autocrosses.

[RanchoRat]

AutoX'd my #g Sunday and placed 2nd in class. the car deffinatly performed better than expected!

[RanchoRat]

ST by the way

[russiankid]

I've be racing this Sunday and hopefully I'll have my in car camera mount finished so I can post videos.