My first Autocross

[Sandeep]

MAN THAT WAS FUN !!!

Pete and I spent Friday evening tuning my bug trying to get the front end to stick ... problem was 14yr old front tires (195/50) and 3 month old rears (195/65).

I had understeer and we finally got it to the point where I wasn't fighting the car that much.

The event was pretty cool, 4 aircooled bugs in my class including me and I finished LAST !! I just couldn't get the gates figured out... I had 5 runs and the last run was ALMOST perfect but I missed 1 gate. In this event, if you miss a gate its a DNF.

The course was tight, and there was one hairpin turn that was too tight for a dropped bug. The turning radius was not there, but the watercooled cars ATE that corner up.

My best time was 71s and the overall winner had 61s so about 10s off the pace. The fastest bug on the course was 74s.

All of the other bugs had T1 engines and you could tell they were shifting between first through second on the course ... but with my T4, I peeled out of the starter box and then kept it in second through the rest of the course. The car never bogged and the torque was there ... but so was the understeer.

IF I was going to set the car up for AX, I'd use 944 NA brakes and 16x7 and 16x8 Fuchs with appropriate rubber .. but I'm not .. I'm a DIE HARD Road Racer :silly:

I had some nice comments from some of the watercooled AXr's .. they said my engine sounded HUGE ... Might be the dynomax muffler ? .. and that I had the best run "visually" out of all the bugs.

Anyways, I had a blast, but I'm really looking forward to the day I take my bug on a racetrack !!

Sandeep

[Rob]

Hey sandeep,

Yeah you looked pretty good out there, and the Bug does sound awesome.

Did you guys get any rain that afternoon ?

Can't wait to see the videos

Rob.

[petevw]

got some rain, lasted about 15min.
sandeep was taking his car DEEP into the turns. he put on a good show. don't worry sandeep we'll make your bug turn on 3 wheels! i have a couple ideas . motor sounded much better after cleaning that jet. lots of hiding spots under that carb!!

next year i will compete in the autocross. WAY too much politics in the show judging for my liking. i lost the superbeetle modified class, to a guy with empi's, front porsche seats, and a some chrome on the motor. i guess my car was looking too stock .

next year, autocross will be different, along with sandeep, ALEX , rob, lanner?, bryan?, we WILL clean house and show the waterpumpers aircooled rules!! should be awesome.

later,

[Rob]

Alex ? Next year ?
Then who will be pushing him around while he sits on the pan ?


Just kidding alex chances are your car will be on the road before mine

BTW, I heard back from Trev, I'll shoot you an email / PM soon.

Rob.

[Alex]

Hey Sandeep,

at least you won the sound contest. That motor has an awesome sound. Will get the vids ripped soon I hope. My basement is a mess because I am getting bigger windows cut tomorrow and the computer is stored away until Wednesday.

I am hoping for next year.....if not I get you guys push me around in my pan.

Alex

[petevw]

Originally posted by Alex

I am hoping for next year.....if not I get you guys push me around in my pan.

Alex

i'm not pushing anything!! you WILL have it done next year. i see a few late nights in your garage....around october/november. you will drive it. all the pan needs is a motor, so you can drive around bodyless!:silly:

[Aurumen]

I wonder if it was just the tires causing all this understeer (most likely) or something else. At my last autocross, i finished in the middle of the pack and was down about 3 seconds to a fully sponsored VW Rabbit. I think i lost 2 seconds because of driver error...so I don't think i'll have any problems catching up when i get back into the swing of things.

If you consider autocrossing more regularly and don't wanna drop 130 bucks each for race tires, consider buying some falken azenis. They're almost as sticky as most autocross tires and a lot cheaper! buy some junk 15 inch or 16 inch rims and slap a set on.

I've been running zero camber for my first two races and almost zero caster. Now i'm putting some caster shims in tomorrow and got my eccentric adjusters put in along with some new upper ball joints. Gonna see how 2 degrees negative camber feels

Nick

[Rob]

Nick,

How do you measure these settings ?
Do you take you car to an alignment shop ?

Thanks,

Rob.

[BWE]

What about finding (renting? ) a parking lot and setting up our own AutoX course for an afternoon sometime?
Who's in? I'd like to see how much I can push my car (once the carbs get tuned!) and what the changes have done to the car.
Dave

[Aurumen]

yeah, I take it to my local alignment shop. They said they can do it to any specs i want. If i want 2.138 degrees negative camber, he'll give it to me I lost all my caster cuz i had to raise the back end of the car so i could get my wheels under the fenders without rubbing. Front end is lowered.

Nick

[Rob]

It's extremely difficult to get a parking lot for an event like this.
Check some of the threads onsoloontario.com for more info.

You need insurance for this, and apparently that is a real problem.

Rob.