:. Racing .:. 2003/08/02 - Autocrossing
Results:: Here
Writeup/Notes:
Wow, What fun!
This was a new style of course at Coors field - we started and ended more torwards the middle, which allowed far more entertaining designs than the normal "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" style that we normally get there. A style of course I am much better at, for whatever reason.
This event was a divisional, meaning that all sorts of cars from around the neighboring states were there. That was pretty cool to see.
So, what about the car? The car was great! The only significant new suspension change was the Z06 swaybar package, and *man* did the bars make a difference. I could carry so much more speed in the slaloms and turnarounds - it was great. Understeer in the slow turnaround was improved. The car is as easy to drive and planted as ever, however.
The new bars are much larger than my early-'97 sized Z51 bars, something on the order of 30mm versus 23 or so for my original pieces. Other than the rear spring now, my spring setup matches that of a Z06.
On the horsepower side of things, we have my new 3.90 gearset in the rear. I chose this ratio to most closely match a Z06's factory ratios in the M12 transmission. Verdict? Wonderful! Not only are they great for the street starting off and cruising around (I have noticed no reduction of mileage), but coming out of slow corners, the car can actually pull itself up to speed again. Whereas before the car seemed to be really out of its powerband, now it can really rocket out of stuff. I was actually able to get some tailhappiness coming out of some slow stuff (purely for fun, of course :-) ).
Since the event before, at the BMW event my factory POS #*(@ seat broke out from under me on a run (see the video where I take out a bunch of cones? yeah, that's what happened.), I decided I'd had enough, and installed my OMP RS racing bucket that I saved from the Eclipse. Along with the Hardbar mount and the lapbelt attachement, it was fantastic! You feel like so less of a passenger being thrown around, and can concentrate on trying to go fast. Makes it much easier to detect and fix slides. I will have to swap the seat out for long trips, as my buns get a bit sore after an hour of driving, but that's about it.
The end result of all this is fantastic - 901 points in an ASP car, on street tires! I couldn't be happier.
Oh yeah, enjoy the first video. The last car I'd driven before this was Doug Young's M3 on Hoosiers. 240hp on race rubber versus 350hp on street tires. Want to guess what happened?
NEW MODS:
- Z06 Swaybars
- 3.90 Gears
- OMP RS & Speedware seat mount
Media:
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