http://titantrucks.net/russ/sasca080705/

Since I was in the 2nd run group, I took mostly everyone in the first group. My friend says he can work cameras well and had a camera class, lol, well he can't even work my simple Canon S1 IS very well that he chopped off a ton of cars at the end. You should be able to tell which ones he took. At least he got a few good ones of my car...like the one below.





The Class I was in was DS. I was only up against a IS300 5mt and a Celica GTS. Per my friends that were watching, I beat both of them in the times. I won't know for sure till tomorrow when the results are posted. I was doing bad in the morning trying to still learn the car and the track. I was doing 69,65s,64s. Then the afternoon I tried a different way of driving and got it down to my best of 60.40~. The IS300 had race tires on it and I was bone stock. The best he got was 60.90~. There were many areas I could have worked on getting better, but not enough runs to do it in. Wasn't a great time, but wasn't bad either.

One thing I learned about the G35, 1st gear is useless on a autox course. All you do is spin, spin, spin and tail happy. It's best to stay in 2nd most of the time unless you need 1st.

 

Nice shot of the car, and congrats on what sounds like a good time.

 

Sounds like you had a good time. Glad to hear you did so well. But I do have a few questions. First, what year/generation was the celica ( curiosity only )? Also, were either of those drivers novices? The reason I ask is because both cars are quite a bit lighter than the g.

As you know, my first experience with both the g and autoxing in general was just last week. Although I was pleasantly surprised at how capable the car was, I could definitely feel just how heavy the car was.

On last sunday's course setup, there was a loooong 180 at aboud half-way through the course, with a slight kink midway through the turn and an acute exit. The first two runs, I went in waaaay too fast, and the weight of the car just didn't allow it to turn in very well(driver error more than anything else). However, on my last few runs, I could get the car to wag out the tail end and drift through the entire pass, almost. And although I realize drifting hurt my time as much as plowing into the corner, it was a helluva lot more fun.

 

I was not in the novice class. They have their own class for that. The guy in the Lexus has ran many times as you can tell with the type of tires he had. The Celica GTS was the late model GTS. Right, but much less hp than the G and the G35 handles better than both of those cars.

One other thing I think they changed on the 05s is the VSC does not turn off. It was still bumping in the way of me doing the autox a few times!! I was a bit upset because my 04 never showed that.

 

That's really odd, I have an '05 Coupe and I've never felt VDC kick in when I have it turned off, on track, autox, or skidpad. Mind you, having the VDC toggle right next to trunk release is horrible - once I left it on and tried to turn it off during the run and I hit the trunk release instead. Up here, we have a stopbox at the end of the run so I got to use my trunk as an airbrake. D'oh!

In your pic, it almost looks like the sedan is more stiffly sprung. Here's one of me...

 

It looks like you are hard on the brakes while turning. That would give the impression of more suspension movement compared to the pic of the sedan.

 

Your local group has separate run groups/classes for novices? Interesting... at our events, the novices run with the others in the same class.

The reason that I asked about the celica and the IS was because I was surprised at how well your stock setup ran against lighter cars, particularly the IS with the race tires. And your statement that the g handles better than both cars took me by surprise. I'm not arguing, just surprised.

Regardless, good showing. And love the photos.

BTW - maybe I was just fortunate, but when I turned the vdc off from the pushbutton next to the trunk release, it never kicked in again. Maybe I wasn't approaching/pushing the limits as hard as you.

 

That's a great shot man.

 

One of these days I need to get out and run the auto-x. It looks like a lot of fun.

Concerning the 00+ GTS Celica. All the stats I've seen show it handling as good and usually a tick or two better than the G35 sedan with the Sports Package (17" and 18" wheels). The GTS pulls fractionally better Gs (.89 vs .88) and 1mph more through the slalom (67mph vs 66mph). Braking from 60' is 112' which is right in line with the G. The GTS was touted as one of the best handling FWD cars ever made. With auto-X tires and coilovers, SCC magazine pulled an amazing 1.17 g's and 75mph through the slalom with the 00 GTS. I have a hard time seeing a modded G35 pulling those numbers.

 

Per others, the sedan didn't lean much. It might stiffer as people say than the older models. But VDC only kicked in when I was pushing the car so hard, I had no control over it at one point and VDC kicked in. It was off, but it still kicked in. I felt the ABS hit on one corner. My passenger even asked what that was!

 

Well in tests I thought, the G35 handles better. The released the results and the IS300 had one early run with a 60.249 which beat my best of 60.400~.

Here is the link to the results

http://www.sasportscar.com/forum/upl...-08-07_fin.htm

Look at DS stock

 

Were you under braking when it happened? VDC doesn't turn off ABS, and it's entirely possible for ABS to kick in on only one corner. I've done 180s, 360s, and everything in between during skidpad training without any instance of VDC coming on.

 

Truthfully, not sure. I was too busy looking where I was going.

 

You sure that GTS driver knew what he was doing? The reason I ask is a "F" stock Impala SS went through the course .5 seconds quicker than the GTS That's just sad.

 

I couldn't tell you that. But the Impala has some damn good tires on it and I have rode with Mike (the owner of it) a few times and man talking about grip. That thing does damn well through the course.