Autocross Practice. Seriously.
You probably won’t believe it. For the first time all year, I went to an Autocross practice on Saturday.
On Friday evening, Ani and Luisa helped me put the cob-webbed Azenis competetion tires on the 900. Luisa practiced using the wrench on the rear quarterpanel of the 900. “Don’t bang the wrench against the car, sweetie!” At least it wasn’t the R.
On Saturday morning, I headed off to practice. The 900 did great. The new shocks really helped the car handle a lot better. There were no scary chassis oscillations during the 2 slaloms like I used to get last year on the worn out OEM shocks.
I set the front tires at 42 PSI, and the rears at 40. I was pulling numbers equivalent to an ‘04-’05 Honda Civic SI hatch, and equivalent a modified ‘06 Mustang (the cars I was able to consistently see run that were not AWD turbos), so I felt pretty good. For the first 3 runs I dropped time each time.
The limiting factor was definately traction. I just kept spinning my tires on accelleration and through turns, which I guess I was taking too fast. I thought that perhaps I had too much air in the tires, and that they were too hard to get traction. So for the 4th run I lowered the pressure to 40 PSI all around. That didn’t help. It only decreased my traction, causing me to add time on my 4th run.
On my 5th run, I followed a suggestion to enter a slalom on the left instead of the right. That wasn’t helpful, and my final run had the worst time of the day, compounded by seemingly the worst traction of the day.
I had a great time. I need more practice so that I can learn what tire pressures work best. I also think that I’ll be needing to do brakes sooner rather than later. Trying to slow down in a big hurry, the 900’s brakes don’t inspire confidence.
next time stay for the whole thing
Glad to see Team KR back in action. What is that blue sticker on the back bumper? I don’t remember that being there before? -Jim
I’m glad you are having fun with this racing thing. Your wife must be a more brave woman than I. I would be so freaking out about your safety!!! Good job on those first few runs. I want to hear more about the physics of tire traction sometime (’cause I’m a nerd like that). -Dr. A
Zane- Yes, next time I should stay for the whole thing. Of course, next time I’ll brobably have plans and, again, be unable to come. At least I made it to half of the practice…
Jimmy, The blue sticker is for the Sockit Wenches, a Rat City Rollergirls (roller derby) team here in Seattle. The stickers are free at bouts, and I needed the sticker to cover the end of that silver trim piece where it is broken off…
Amy, don’t worry! Autocross is fairly benign… the car never gets out of 2nd gear, and we’re never out there with another car. As for the physics of tire traction… evidently I’ve got plenty to learn, as I can’t figure out how to get traction out of my fancy tires!