Just Went Autocrossing!!!
 

I just went autocrossing for the first time, it was awesome!
Had a great time, the car ran great.

screwed up a couple times, hit a few pylons but its all good..

one question though, did you ever see those front skirts that some cars that autocross have?
they look like lawn edgeing, except they are on the front bumper, and they prevent pylons from going under the car?
who makes those?
or is it just lawn edging?

thanks
chris

Check regs before you mod...
 

Used to autox regularly a few years ago in a C Stock RX-7. Depending on the organization, even a few mods will move your car into a different class, sometimes with other cars with $1000's of race mods. Check the rules before you mod!

Front air dams are not to keep cones out, but rather for aerodynamics. Once you hit a cone and knock it down (or out of the box), you get the time penalty, and the only problem with dragging a cone is making the next car wait for the course workers to chase the cones down and reset the course.

Even if you don't win, autox is a great way to learn the limits of your car. Check the organization putting on the event - we used to offer performance driving courses through our local SCCA chapter, and other car clubs. You can really learn a lot about driving techniques through courses like that.

But most of all - have fun! :)

i know that the front air dams are for aerodynamics, however i cant go out and get a fibreglass or urethane lip because it would get damaged by the pylons. i also need something lower on my front bumper to prevent pylons from going under my car

i was wondering if anyone would know where i could find the black universal plastic/rubber ones, or if anyone has ever seen or knows what i am talking about

thanks

Pigeon, where in Ontario are you?
Check out http://soloontario.com/solo2/ for schedules and clubs in the province.

There were a total of five diffn't Proteges out at two separate events this past weekend.. that's gotta be some kinda record. Hopefully soon to be broken.

hey man, this was my first time, gimme a break :)

the reason i hit the pylons is cause i downshifted to first too late into the corner, and the car locked up
then i plowed into 4 pylons and scratched my bumper
thats not what really bothered me, but a guy in a miata drove over one and it got jammed in his driveshaft.
he was trying to get it out for like an hour
obviously we dont have driveshafts, but i dont want it hitting my cv boots or a brake line or anything
am i making any sense or does that stuff just never happen in autocrossing?

hey rjakobs, im from hamilton ontario
i was at the event on saturday july 13th at the hersey centre in mississauga
there were i think 4 or 5 proteges there
where u one of them??

Well, if you have a 1st gen, then my lower tie bar doubles as a pretty good cone catcher :D :D :D

(if you look closely, you can see it in my sig pic)

CAUTION: Jesse may have a smart ass remark!

i'm in 6th place (out of 25) in my clubs cone count....<gulp>:eek:

i'm trying to convince myself it's because i drive so damn fast, that they just get in the way......;)

its alright

i just dont need cones being jammed up in areas of my frame
if i could get a front lip thats not going to get damaged by cones, ill be satisfied

what suspension mods do u have done to ur car?

Does downshifting into first really help? I wouldn't do it if I was you, but then again I never went auto-xing :(

most of the time down shifting will only hurt your times.

Most people say downshifting will hurt your times if you are not proficient at it. To get faster times you have to be on the gas (of course), if you shift you will slow down a bit even if it's for a split .5 seconds.

It's actually better for a newbie to stay in 2nd gear the whole race and stay focused on your driving and your lines.

Now of course I experimented this past weekend and found shifting into 1st at the finish (right hander coming out of a slalom) helped my times a bit, but another guy shifted from 2nd to first before the slalom, shifted to 2nd IN THE SLALOM, and shifted back into first before the finish and got fastest time of the day :)

Agreed. Almost all top-level drivers I've talked to have agreed that (a) it's too easy to blow this shift, and (b) you will usually have to shift back up into 2nd again immediately (autocrosses are RARELY tight enough to actually stay in 1st) and you will lose more time shifting twice than you will gain by driving in 1st gear. Leave it in 2nd and let it bog.

Actually, I've volunteered to instruct at numerous autocrosses, and unnecessarily shifting into 1st is a very common novice mistake. Most novices don't realize how fast they can take tight corners if they drive the correct line :D

thanks for the advice guys
that was the only time in the course that i did downshift
my first 3 runs i stayed in second the whole time
and while marshalling i saw everyone downshift to first around the one bend, so i decided to do it too
then i screwed up

i guess ur right, it only makes for faster times if u know exactly when to do it and you can do it fast

thanks

Pigeon: yeah I was driving the Silver P5 on Saturday (and Sunday too).

About the downshift to first gear....

Our courses up here in Ontario must be more tight or something than the typical American course because there is almost always at least one place where you can make up time by downshifting, as long as you do it smoothly.

I don't usually do it yet, at least not until the third run at least .. but you can usually see a not-insignificant difference in times between those who downshift and those who don't.

Not that it's always the best strategy, but just that I think it may tend to be more beneficial on our courses than the ones you guys down there are used to.

Hey man, give me your email address....
do you remember seeing me downshift to first gear around the last bend right before the stop box ??

i was driving a brown protege with an aluminum wing, and rims and exhaust

i showed me friends the video, and now everyone wants to try
when is the next one??
it doesent have to be part of the series, it could just be a regular club meet
we just want to go to another one

Downshifting does take finesse. I got it on a couple of occassions, but it helps to have an aftermarket exhaust so you can listen to your revs and such.

My way is just as I'm slowing down, right foot is on the brakes, left foot is getting ready to tap the clutch. Just before I get to the apex of the corner I quickly stab the gas to bring the revs up, clutch in with left foot, downshift into 1st, and feather the clutch out to not jerk the car. There were times I've let the clutch out too fast and jerked the car rearward. Then other times I didn't get the clutch-in in time and bogged the car coming out of the corner.

Pigeon, you should check out toprotege.com to hookup with more Toronto peoples.

The next event at Hershey centre is August 24 I think.

If you don't mind a bit of a drive to London, there is an event August 18th that they have on an oval track down there. Pretty fast and fun.

thanks a lot man
im going to try to make it to this one with a couple friends
thanks alot

yeah, Delaware speedway is an oval just out of London and is pretty cool. I would like to aoto-x but my wife thinks I will hit something- or someone.

No way man .. you would have to really screw up and make many mistakes in a row to hit anything other than a cone.
Of course, Delware speedway does have those nice big walls.. but they aren't really as close as they look on the first couple of times around :)

But the chrome-moly makes excellent sparks at night. :D

On my recent trip, there was some road work across the road. For some reason, they thought that having a big bump in the middle of the road would be a good idea (maybe tires just compressed the stuff on the edges). Whatever it was, it didn't look that bad, so I didn't slow down and hit it at 35mph. The hit was hard enough that it felt like the car launched (it didn't), but my friend following in his Miata was treated to an excellent spark show.

Sorry to go off-topic:

Usually the only cars that benefit from downshifting to 1st are the ITRs (Integra Type-Rs). Why? They have a long 1st (about 40mph), a killer LSD, and a tall 2nd with little low-end torque (at least compared to the tons of Hi-RPM HP that they have).

Until you get consistant, you have no idea if the downshift made you faster. Most newbies will see huge improvements from 1st run to last. If you picked up 1 second after downshifting on your last run, you might have picked up 2 secs if you hadn't downshifted.

Of course, all this is course dependent. Where I started autocrossing, the parking lot was so tight, that I often ran half of the course in 1st gear. On full-sized courses, I can count the number of times when a downshift to 1st in the Protege was useful on one hand (in 10+ years of driving).

im still interested in this event on august 24th

its at the hersey centre
what car club is hosting it??

and is it the same rules and everything as the last one?

thanks

chris