Mods February 18, 2006
The group I hang out with at most autocross events have their own web site: Pastelito Racing. They have t-shirts and decals and yet-another-phpBB system. Mostly Subaru owners but a few have other cars, and of course there is me with the Saabaru.
The site has a “Garage” section where you can list your cars and all their mods. I’ve pretty much got mine filled in, the tally comes to $2,786 not including installation, the second set of Kumhos ($625-ish shipped and mounted), a waist-spoiler I picked up that I don’t think is going to fit ($200-ish), and several hundred dollars in autocross supplies (canopy, coolers, chairs, tools, etc).
It didn’t sound that bad before I started adding up the not included costs…
Autocross #14 February 13, 2006
The winter storm that dropped record snowfall across the northeast gave us a high of 50F (10C) on race day at Indian River, windy and humid and cloudy with no sunshine to be had. And I made the mistake of wearing a light jacket instead of my hoodie.
On the plus side, I brought home another 1st place trophy. No other STX entrants showed up so I was bumped into D Street Prepared with a single competitor that managed just one clean run. That was a very lucky turn of events. One, my car is classed ESP so the Street Touring bumping order puts me at a disadvantage. Two, my performance flat-out stunk and I would have gotten creamed in ESP.
My first mistake was in not looking far enough ahead. The goal is to be looking at or past the exit of whatever feature you are entering, which has the effect of smoothing out your steering inputs. The irony is that I am always looking far ahead on the road — in traffic the retards that weave never stay ahead of me because I’m paying attention to the flow several cars ahead. On the autocross course it’s a different world, faster and more exciting. I’m going to have to stick a Post It note on my dashboard…
The other mistake is probably a symptom of the first. At this event and the previous one at Homestead I converted the big sweepers into two separate actions. A smooth run is a fast run, straightening out in the middle of a broad turn is not smooth.
