I'm BAAAAAACCCCKKKK.....or something like that, Can you re-teach an autocrosser old tricks? Options

[trackbird]

One of my buddies suggested that all three of us misfits drag our cars out to an SCCA autocross event to play. This would be Bill and Billy (Racerdad916) and me. We have a rather odd assortment of cars. Bill has a very nicely built 1992 Mustang. This is a full track car with a 331 stroker, flared carbon fiber fenders, etc (it's the car he was autocrossing when we met in 2000, it's actually how we met). We've been breaking stuff together ever since. Racerdad has a 3rd gen that was a bare stripped shell that we collected many years ago. It has a full cage and a particularly nasty small block (Jesel shaft rockers and all) with a T56 that we picked up in pieces in Kentucky one morning. (There were actually four misfits, Billy's neighbor brought out a supercharged Mustang that makes about 480 RWHP, he swapped tires and went to play in CAM and left us behind in CP).

The obvious choice was to go play in CP. Their cars were more CP car than mine (by far), but we knew it was a class we couldn't get protested out of.... Of course a real CP car showed up to play as well. The more the merrier. I took the heaviest car with the least HP and I fully expected to have a good time. And, we did.

I haven't driven an autocross event in 12 years. I'm really RUSTY. Rusty as in, I kept forgetting to look ahead and I logged a couple DNF's from blasting through a section of the course and forgetting to keep looking at the next part. My reflexes aren't what they used to be, but I still had some moments of solid mediocrity as a driver.

The real national level CP car ran 36.809. My friend Bill in his gutted track car Mustang (it's a built 331 stroker, etc) ran a 38.677. I clipped a single cone on a 39.141 (it was a cone I shouldn't have hit and the car certainly would have done that clean). Racerdad916 ran a 41.215 on some ancient Toyo Proxes that are likely old enough to drink in a bar.

Overall, it appears that I might still sorta remember how to drive....sorta.... The car was brilliant. It was well balanced and it did everything well. The UMI coilovers are amazing and I couldn't have been happier with the complete setup. I actually was amazed that the tires did as well as they did. They were 4 year old Hoosier "wet" competition tires on a nearly 90 degree day with no water in sight. I'm not sure they loved the weather, but they made good grip and didn't get particularly greasy.

So, I signed up for another event this Sunday....

[BumpaD_Z28]

Glad you got back out there !

We had a similar experience, and all of us also choose CP as a catch all, so we could run together, compare times etc.
Only to get badmouthed by the starting line crew for not running the OVERFILLED CAM class ($50K+ average cost car) in my 3rd gen (I could hear in my helmet, even though they thought I couldn't), maybe I should go back and protest all the CAM class cars! Some people take their parking lot racing too seriously (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (I normally don't call it that, but in this instance it applies)

On the bright side, I did get my '82Z working much better, went from an OLD set of Falken 615's (not K's) to a set of NITTOs, and softened up the rear suspension that I sorta had "locked out" Changed from 225 springs, to 175's and down from a 24mm bar to a 21mm got the car to rotating much better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I may be able to switch back to the 24 bar (I loaned out my 23)

~DaVe

[GCrites80s]

Glad you got back out there !

We had a similar experience, and all of us also choose CP as a catch all, so we could run together, compare times etc.
Only to get badmouthed by the starting line crew for not running the OVERFILLED CAM class ($50K+ average cost car) in my 3rd gen (I could hear in my helmet, even though they thought I couldn't), maybe I should go back and protest all the CAM class cars! Some people take their parking lot racing too seriously (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (I normally don't call it that, but in this instance it applies)

Next time they do that pop off one of your rear seat cushions and say "See that? Exposed floor pan!"

[trackbird]

Glad you got back out there !

We had a similar experience, and all of us also choose CP as a catch all, so we could run together, compare times etc.
Only to get badmouthed by the starting line crew for not running the OVERFILLED CAM class ($50K+ average cost car) in my 3rd gen (I could hear in my helmet, even though they thought I couldn't), maybe I should go back and protest all the CAM class cars! Some people take their parking lot racing too seriously (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (I normally don't call it that, but in this instance it applies)

On the bright side, I did get my '82Z working much better, went from an OLD set of Falken 615's (not K's) to a set of NITTOs, and softened up the rear suspension that I sorta had "locked out" Changed from 225 springs, to 175's and down from a 24mm bar to a 21mm got the car to rotating much better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I may be able to switch back to the 24 bar (I loaned out my 23)

~DaVe

Yea, I thought CAM T (CAM in general) required a roll bar. I haven't put one in yet. Oddly, CP has no such restrictions. So, I skipped CAM and we decided to play in CP. And, the other two cars are much more "CP" than I am.

I'm signed up to run Sunday again. I bought a GoPro to play with. I really figure I might learn something about my driving if I can actually watch it. I was a "decent" autocrosser and I even won a local championship many years ago. But mostly it was because nobody consistently showed up in a real "Street Mod 2 car". When someone did, I'd often get beat by a handful of seconds. I was fast and consistent enough to pull it out, but it was a combination of luck, the competition (or lack of) and showing up every time. Even so, I was a semi competent driver. I hope to at least reach that level again...if I can surpass it, ever better.

Unless you greatly lower the rear roll center, I've never seen a 3rd or 4th gen car "work" with a bar larger than a 21mm solid or 22mm hollow. I can't imagine you'd ever go back to a 23 or 24mm.

[slowTA]

The CAM rules are pretty open, which makes it a slippery slope to becoming a builder/spender class.

https://www.scca.com/downloads/52793-2021-c...andout/download

[SuperMacGuy]

The CAM rules are pretty open, which makes it a slippery slope to becoming a builder/spender class.

Exactly, that's my beef with all CAM classes, it's a horsepower war. /end

[trackbird]

The GoPro Hero 7 Black was a lesson in frustration. It was difficult to get it to connect to my phone. It said to open the app and turn on the camera....and it sat there. It doesn't seem to connect that way. I ultimately went into the setup menu and "forced" the connection by selecting it and pushing the setup through. So, it's working...

I assembled the suction cup mount so I could toss it on the car for some testing while I drove to work. The mount was a little frustrating to assemble, but once I found the right combination of parts, it worked perfectly. The phone will control it and we're all good.

I ran 18 minutes of 4k/60HZ video on my way to work and used 29% of the battery. That's ok, it will get me through plenty of autocross and likely a few track sessions if needed.

I came home from work ready to get started on this adventure. I looked around for a while and I found some software for it and some aftermarket software for it. I downloaded them both. I hooked up the camera to my laptop and tried and tried and tried to connect it. Nothing I did would get it to work. So I decided I'd try downloading it and processing it with the app on my iPhone. It warned me that my phone is unable to play the video codec it uses for the recordings. Ok, I can't get it on my laptop and my phone won't work. I screwed around with it for the rest of the evening and finally decided to stuff it in the box and request a return receipt from amazon. I dropped it at UPS tonight.

Does anybody have any other ideas?

[slowTA]

I just put the memory card in the laptop, but I don't do any editing that requires other software.

[trackbird]

I'm running again tomorrow. I'm still on a quest for a decent video/datalogging setup. I'd like to see what I can learn from having some basic telemetry and the ability to watch my boneheaded driving and silly mistakes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Rentedmule]

The CAM rules are pretty open, which makes it a slippery slope to becoming a builder/spender class.

Exactly, that's my beef with all CAM classes, it's a horsepower war. /end

A few years ago I whooped an older, more experienced member of our club in his brand new Mustang GT. He protested that my $3400 f-body had 180 TW tires on it (cheap Sumitomo's) that disqualified me from CAM, while his RE71r's were legal. I was happy to go back to being an under-prepped ESP car for that reason!

[trackbird]

The CAM rules are pretty open, which makes it a slippery slope to becoming a builder/spender class.

Exactly, that's my beef with all CAM classes, it's a horsepower war. /end

A few years ago I whooped an older, more experienced member of our club in his brand new Mustang GT. He protested that my $3400 f-body had 180 TW tires on it (cheap Sumitomo's) that disqualified me from CAM, while his RE71r's were legal. I was happy to go back to being an under-prepped ESP car for that reason!

We ran CP in the Teal Wonder on Sumitomo tires. The 160 treadwear version. We often beat a local CP car on slicks (we typically beat that particular car....often by 2 seconds). Those tires aren't awesome, but they are seriously cheap and good enough to have fun on. They do get greasy when hot.

Here's the results:

https://axlive.ovr-scca.org/

I'm 18 CP. But you can look around and see the CAM and ESP times and such and get a feel for what I "actually ran". And Gordon came out to join me in CP because I told him he should. Unfortunately he was on tires that were also old enough to order a beer and the car might have been faster on 4 "dummy spare tires". (Those tires were HARD). Gordon ran super consistent times and it seemed that he was going as fast as those tires would allow (he's driving the IROC that we swapped to a 6 speed a couple years ago). So it wasn't a fair fight between his tires and my 4 year old Hoosier H2O "rain tires" that are actually still pretty sticky.

[GCrites80s]

Yeah I'm used to "taking it easy" on the first run than grabbing seconds at a time on subsequent runs until settling on a time 3-5 seconds faster like most people. This course was only 35 seconds so I didn't expect to grab 2 seconds at a time but I wasn't able to do anything like pick up half a second per run because of the tires. Most runs were withing 2 tenths of each other since the car couldn't go any faster no matter what I tried.

[trackbird]

Yeah I'm used to "taking it easy" on the first run than grabbing seconds at a time on subsequent runs until settling on a time 3-5 seconds faster like most people. This course was only 35 seconds so I didn't expect to grab 2 seconds at a time but I wasn't able to do anything like pick up half a second per run because of the tires. Most runs were withing 2 tenths of each other since the car couldn't go any faster no matter what I tried.

Yea, it was obvious to watch your runs that those tires were rock hard and super slick. You had two runs that were .001 apart (as I remember), that's pretty consistent.

[GCrites80s]

Yes there was a .378, a .443 and a .444.

[trackbird]

Yes there was a .378, a .443 and a .444.

Is autocross "bracket racing" a thing? Should it be? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[GCrites80s]

You just gave ProSolo even more of a chance to have timing problems.

[Eredin]

Awesome to hear that you're back at it. Coming to UMI next month?

[trackbird]

Awesome to hear that you're back at it. Coming to UMI next month?

I've been registered the last two years and didn't make it for one reason or another (last year I found the battery hold down was broken a few days before I was scheduled to leave to come to the event and I couldn't get parts in time). This year, I have the time off, but I didn't register to come. Now I have a fresh helmet, some semi appropriate tires (though I think UMI does 200 treadwear limits) and all that....and I'm not set to come. I'm even on vacation that week....

[Eredin]

Awesome to hear that you're back at it. Coming to UMI next month?

I've been registered the last two years and didn't make it for one reason or another (last year I found the battery hold down was broken a few days before I was scheduled to leave to come to the event and I couldn't get parts in time). This year, I have the time off, but I didn't register to come. Now I have a fresh helmet, some semi appropriate tires (though I think UMI does 200 treadwear limits) and all that....and I'm not set to come. I'm even on vacation that week....

Bummer! It's worth coming to hang out; it's a fantastic event and amazing people all around.

[trackbird]

Awesome to hear that you're back at it. Coming to UMI next month?

I've been registered the last two years and didn't make it for one reason or another (last year I found the battery hold down was broken a few days before I was scheduled to leave to come to the event and I couldn't get parts in time). This year, I have the time off, but I didn't register to come. Now I have a fresh helmet, some semi appropriate tires (though I think UMI does 200 treadwear limits) and all that....and I'm not set to come. I'm even on vacation that week....

Bummer! It's worth coming to hang out; it's a fantastic event and amazing people all around.

I agree. I LOVE team UMI and the people. I've had a chance to become friends with the UMI crew and I always say they are the best bunch of gearheads and genuinely awesome people that you'll ever meet.

I'd love to get to come to the event. I am all setup and ready to go...if I only registered this year. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)