My wife, my best friend in his Mini S, and myself went to the local SCCA autox event this past Sunday. All three of us were novices, so we learned quite a bit. I have been wanting to do this for almost three months, but circumstances have just not allowed it to happen.

I gotta say it was a blast. Terms like "throttle induced oversteer" are no longer merely words that I read in car magazines. It's definitely confidence inspiring to learn the limits of your daily driver.

My first run was a 65s DNF. I just plain missed some cones, not being able to read the course correctly. My final run was my best, with a 56.7 + 1 cone = 58.7. The mini's best run was a 58.x + 1, which was surprising. My wife's best run was a 64.

So here's what got me. On my first run, I left VDC on so I could get a feel for the car. After the first few turns, with the throttle being cut, I reached down and turned it off. I left it off thereafter, and I am sure it definitely helped my times. The wife's car, however, was completely different. She ran with it of for 3 of her 8 runs, and her times were decidedly better with VDC ON.

I consistently had runs of 5 or 6 seconds better than the wife, which makes me wonder Why? I know she can drive the snot out of the car. So, assuming drivers are equal, why was my best run 9 seconds better than hers? My 05 obviously has the sports suspension, the VLSD, and the stock goodyears. Her 05 has the standard suspension(much lower spring rates from what I've read; don't know about the shocks), no VSLD, and the crappy turanzas. So, if you had to attribute likely causes, would you think the turanzas were the greatest factor, the suspension, or the VSLD?

Oh, and I realize that the lap times that I've posted are meaningless without some point of reference. The official times haven't yet been posted for the event. But I know that an experienced M3 Driver posted a 52 second run, a bad-a$$ Sti driver posted a 51, and I think the top miata posted a 49. It was nice beating a couple of friends in their stocker miatas though

 

I was the Bad *** In the Miata.

 

Assuming driver skill is equal, I would say the biggest factor is the tires. IMO grip is the most important thing, then steady state balance, and last transitional balance. Those Turanzas definitely are not performance oriented tires at all. The Goodyears are summer tires and have much better levels of grip at the limits. Next time have your wife drive your car and you drive her car. See what happens then.

 

That isn't a bad time compared to the other cars for a first timer. I have been doing autox for years, but never ran the G35 till this upcoming Sunday! This will be my G35's first autox. So I will definitely let everyone know how it does.

Just remember, the smoother you are on the course, the better you are and the better time you will get. Not the faster, the better time. VDC on the G35 will definitely get in the way for a autox, but it would be very useful on a roadcourse type of race.

 

I offered to swap on the final run, but she didn't want to do it. We planned on swapping for at least one fun run, but they didn't run any yesterday.

 

In my original post I stated that the times were not yet posted. Now they are(http://www.alscca.org/solo2/index.shtml). When I looked at the RAW times, I didn't do as well as I had originally though. After cone penalties, I finished #49 out of a total of 61 entrants that actually ran. According to the Pax numbers(whatever that is, some kind of adjustment is all I can tell), I was #38 of 61 total, which is much better .

After thinking about it, I know I made a lot of mistakes. For one, I tried to crash through the course, using speed to get better times. As a result, I came into some of the tighter corners with too much speed, braked too late, and totally messed up the exits. And although I understand this "intellectually", whenever I got back into another run, all that flew out the window. When I made my runs, I was "reacting" more than I was actually driving. I think it's instinct to just mash the pedal and correct for speed with hard braking, and you have to work against your natural reactions to actually perform well. At least I do.

Yesterday, after the event, my tires looked alright. Before the event, I had inflated all tires in both cars to >40psi cold. But looking at my rears over lunch today, I think I rolled the sidewalls on the rears way too much. I can correct for that with earlier braking. Any other suggestions

[BTW-I realize there's an area devoted to autox'ing. But originally I wanted opinions to explain the vast differences between our two sedans; hence its presence in this forum]