JDMac's Autocross Thread

[JDMac34]

Howdy y'all. I have been autocrossing for a little over a year now with my 2002 Mustang V6 and decided it was time for an upgrade. I loved how that car handled on course, but felt like the lack of power was really holding me back. Like any good story, I was scrolling through Facebook Marketplace one night and found something that I couldn't pass up. I picked up my new [to me] Mustang GT last week and am super excited to run this car from here on.

It is a 2011 Mustang GT with a few basic mods. For suspension it has: BRM rear control arms w/ relocation brackets, BRM springs, Steeda shocks/struts, Whiteline panhard bar, and OEM sway bar. For powertrain it has: Cobra Jet intake manifold, Kooks long tube headers, offroad x-pipe, and Lund 93/E85 tune. The tires that came on it are Nitto NT555 G2s with 275s in the front and 295s in the rear. I'll probably go through the mods and history of the car in more detail on the build thread.

Anyway, I had a thread on SN95 Forums where I posted my autocross videos and was hoping to continue that on here with the new car. Here is a link to my previous thread if anybody is curious. Thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

 

[Bill Pemberton]

We are seeing more and more Autocrossers on here, especially since many of us do both track time and cone killing. Glad you found us and signed in and do consider posting your car over in the " Build Thread " section. Lots of folks check that thread out and it is interesting for all of us to see what others have doing or are doing to their rides.
Welcome!

 

[JDMac34]

After getting the car back home, cleaning it up, and fixing some small things, I registered for an event that I'd use for practice. I have not ran with the group before, so I saw it as a great opportunity to test the car before I was in competition with one of my usual groups. It was also my first time at Pittsburg International Race Complex and was able to watch my friend compete in Time Trials.

This car feels the exact opposite of my New Edge. It had plenty of power to accelerate out of a turn, but I was not able to carry much speed through anything. It was a relatively open track, so my car did not do great. Here is the in-car video of my best run:

I was worried about the tires going into the race and was correct. I pushed through turns, almost spun out a few times, and just didn't have much grip. I really like the NT555s on the street, but they are far from the Falken RT660s on my last car on course. I'm leaning towards getting a set of 19x11 wheels and running a square setup with 315/30R19 Falken 660s right now. I love how the current wheels look but don't want to go with another staggered setup. Also, I like how the 19" tires will be an inch taller than the 18" tires (26.5" vs 25.5"). I'm also considering a set of 305 Falkens, but Tire Rack says they won't be available until November.

Another thing is alignment. I have no idea what it's set to now, but I'd like to get a more aggressive alignment on this car. I'm thinking 2.5 degrees of camber, all the caster available, and 0 to 1/8" toe out. I'd probably need caster/Camber plates for this but not sure which ones to go with. Any suggestions?

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Vorshlag is a Sponsor here, can give you plenty of advice also, and they arguably have the best Camber plates out there for Mustangs as they seem to have the most range. Other quality plates are M&M and Steeda, and 2.5 up front is a good place to work towards in my estimation.

 

[k_z]

Is that Pitt Race ? Talk to Chad Englert, he was the fastest CAM C man in the country last year and in a S197 - absolutely dominated the class. He would be an excellent source of set up info.

What's your gearing like (top speed in 2nd ?) . Something to consider with the tire / wheel choice (18" vs 19"). 18"x11" allows you to run 315 Yoks which miraculously are currently available.

 

[JDMac34]

Is that Pitt Race ? Talk to Chad Englert, he was the fastest CAM C man in the country last year and in a S197 - absolutely dominated the class. He would be an excellent source of set up info.

What's your gearing like (top speed in 2nd ?) . Something to consider with the tire / wheel choice (18" vs 19"). 18"x11" allows you to run 315 Yoks which miraculously are currently available.

Yes it is Pitt Race! That was my first time there and I was really impressed by they facilities. I saw him there but didn’t get a chance to talk long. Between the little bit we did get to talk and seeing his for-sale ad I think I have a good idea of what he has.

Gearing is why I’m wanting to go with the 19s. I don’t remember what top of 2nd is in this car but I know that the 3.73s are a little much for this

 

[JDMac34]

Tomorrow is my first autocross with the setup! I am a little worried about the front tires rubbing the fender, but that's only happened once so far during my "testing." Anyways, here is the course layout for tomorrow:



I normally like to plan a preliminary line based on my car's strengths and weaknesses, but I don't know how capable this car is right now...so I'll do my best.

My last car taught me the importance of carrying momentum through turns and to increase the duration of acceleration when possible to make the most of all of the 195hp. While I agree that those are good lessons to carry over, I'm guessing that this car's acceleration will be an advantage and the quick/tight transitions will be where it struggles. My plan is to focus on accelerating and braking in a straight line as well as carrying as much speed through elements. Even though I think that acceleration will be where this car shines, I don't want to depend on it. I did that because of the crappy tires at the last event, which definitely hurt me.



One thing that I look for are cones that you don't want to hold a tight line on; I have marked these with red Xs. There is probably an official name for these but I've been calling them "dummy cones." There were 3 or 4 that caught my eye. I'm not sure about the one that is circled. This event is held at Lake Erie Speedway, which is a banked 3/8 mile circle track. I'm guessing that the actual course won't have us hop up on the bank then come right back down. If that's the case, then I think that the cone will be moved (orange arrow) and the green line will be better. If the cone is not moved, then I'd think that the blue line is better.

I'm already planning on my morning session being a mess. I have to learn where and how far I can push the car as well as fine-tune things like the tire pressure and rear sway bar. As always, I'll take the first run easy and ease into it as I start to get comfortable. Wish me luck!

Any feedback is appreciated, but I also understand that I am posting this late the night before and that I probably won't look at it in the morning before I leave.... I'll post earlier next time

 

[JDMac34]

I didn't check the weather until after I made that last post. It ended up raining all morning and stopped just in time for the first morning session to begin. Most of the course was dry by the time the second morning session (mine) started, but there were still some puddles. I was able to figure out tire pressures and get an idea of where the car's limit of grip was. The afternoon session was mostly dry but it began to sprinkle for the last couple of runs.

Here is my best time of the day. I took one of the big sweepers at the beginning wider than I needed to and entered a turn towards the end a little hotter than I wanted to. It was a clean 63.289 run and my best time of the day. I was able to clean up my line and ran a 63.085 the next run, but I hit a cone on the slalom.

We had a few CAM guys from other regions which made the class pretty competitive. I ended up getting 5th out of 7 drivers in CAM, 19th of 42 in raw time, and 15th in PAX.

The only problem I had with the car was the front right tire just barely rubbing the fender. I don't think that they are hurting me, but I also think that I could benefit from stiffer springs than the Eibach Sportlines that the car has now. I don't know the exact spring rate for each, but I'm thinking about a set of Steeda's competition springs. They aren't as low and [I'm assuming] have a stiffer spring rate. In my mind that kills two birds with one stone. Maybe over the winter.

 

[JDMac34]

Another weekend, another autocross. This event was at the I-X Center in Cleveland, OH, and was the last scheduled event for the NEOhio Region SCCA. Gravel on the pavement and transitions between different surfaces were difficult to figure out during the first few events. The weather was good, so it was time to see what the car could actually do.

I didn't change anything on the car since the last event. Other than adding a pound more than usual of air to the tires than I had last week, everything else was the same. The front sway bar was set to 4/4, the rear sway bar was 2/4, and the tires were 36 psi front and 37 psi rear.



The course looked like it would be very open and fast based on this map. By the time they did the final adjustments to cones, there were a few tight elements but still fast. There was a box at the top left that had a blown-out section that allowed you to take the turn much wider than the box might suggest. There was also a dummy cone 3/4 of the way through the hairpin. Other than that, the course was pretty straightforward.

Run 1 (XX.XXX): I was planning on taking this run easy to learn the course, but I saw enough people run while I worked in the morning that I decided to try and push it more than I usually would. I almost missed a couple of cones, but the run felt good other than that. There was an issue with the timing system and it said that I had a 6.197 run. For some reason, they didn't change this on live timing for a while so I had FTD by a mile for half of the afternoon session haha.

Run 2 (45.830): The run felt about the same, but a little more smooth since I knew the course. There were elements where I felt like I could carry more speed through.

Run 3 (45.864): I noticed that I was trying to be too violent on the first straight-ish section in this area. The biggest thing was that I was staying in 1st gear a little too long which made me shift right before a turn (the first bump up on the map) which upset the car. Another weird thing that happened was that I noticed some off-throttle rotation on the way up the left side of the map. I hadn't experienced this before, but remember somebody telling me about it and that you give it a little throttle to transfer more weight to the rear of the car. This put me around 12th of 70 for raw time.

Run 4 (45.223 +1): I tried the previously mentioned things and both of them helped me. The first section felt much more controlled and the car felt planted through that turn. Unfortunately, I sent a cone into low earth orbit so the run was thrown away.

Run 5 (44.644): For some reason, I sprayed my tires as soon as I got back from the previous run instead of waiting until right before the next run to spray and set pressures. There was an error with the timing system so I had about double the time between runs than I expected. My tires cooled down a lot more than I was hoping for. Because of this, I planned on making my next run as smooth as possible with less aggressive inputs. Some sections felt slower because of this but some felt much faster.

I didn't see where this run put me overall, but I know that I beat my friend/rival in his C6 Z06 which was the main goal for the day. The next goal was to win CAM-C. A GT350 with basic mods was 1st in CAM-C with a best time of 44.358 sec. With less than 0.29 seconds away from me and one run left, I would have to give it my all.

Run 6 (44.054): Using what I learned on my 4th and 5th run, I was able to piece together my best run. Everything felt great on this pass.

This run got me 4th of 70 in raw time, 1st in CAM-C, 2nd in all CAM, and 5th in PAX. This is by far the best I've ever done at an event, so I was super excited.

 

[JDMac34]

I made a video that showed all my runs from that last event. Should I keep doing this for future races?

 

[Bill Pemberton]

You could, but probably just your best run would do for folks to give you tips or just to view.

 

[JDMac34]

Here is my best run from the event last week. It was a short and simple course which was challenging because there was less room for error.

I could have entered the sweeper the first time with a little more speed. Also, I messed up exiting the sweeper the second time. I cut in too early and had to correct it in order to make it through that gate before the slalom. I was frustrated after that and almost messed up the slalom too. Not a pretty run, but was still my best time of the day.

I ended up getting second in class again. The same Camaro that had swept the class won again, but I was only 0.667 sec behind him; so much closer than I'd ever been. I made another long video that goes into much more detail and that is processing now. I'll share it once it's done.

Side note: Does anybody know how to get to your saved drafts? I started to make a writeup on one of the races that I haven't posted on here and it's now gone.

 

[JDMac34]

In case anybody wants to see more from that day:

 

[JDMac34]

I was debating on posting about my last event of the year or not and just decided to go ahead and do it. I went to a club that I don't usually race with and decided to try a few new things; mainly driving more aggressively. Between my brakes feeling a little weak and overdriving the car most of the time, it wasn't my best performance.

The courses here are usually longer and faster than most. The video that I'll post was my fastest but not the best time; apparently I hit a cone somewhere.

I decided to try and shift into 3rd on this run and don't think that it helped me. I kind of butchered the downshift and wasn't as focused on the box as I probably should have been. I also gave it all the beans on the last slalom and finally found the 8k RPM rev limiter as I crossed the finish line.

Again, this is not my best driving. I was trying new things and just hoping to have a fun day before winter hit.

 

[JDMac34]

Not autocross related, but here is the video from my first Track Night in America. It was a cold and rainy day at Nelson Ledges.