Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Racing => At The Track => Topic started by: gumby on June 22, 2008, 07:26:47 PM

Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 22, 2008, 07:26:47 PM
after a build that took longer than planned, a budget that ran out of money, and scheduling that just did not work out, i finally got to my first autoX event today! :burnout:

the event was held at an old airport/CDL test site. the section we used was roughly 1.25 miles around w/an access road thru the middle.
the course was set up in one half of the oval, and we ran in a u-shape. it was very open and fast. the surface is rough and broken in spots, but very grippy. total run length was 0.8miles.

overall, the car felt great. i doubt it will need any suspension or brake upgrades, other than tires, for a long time. i really need some seat time before i will be able to use everything ive already got to its fullest extent.

my runs were all either clean(w/o any cones) or DNF :hick:

60.225
56.573
DNF (pushed out of a fast turn and missed a garage)
DNF (looped the car in a slalom)
55.303
55.004

i will update here after the final results are posted, and the pics are up
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: V8Demon on June 22, 2008, 07:36:19 PM
Cool!:burnout:
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 22, 2008, 08:16:31 PM
here is a shot of the site
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/walesborosite.jpg)

we setup and staged in the lower half of the runway you can see(the wider long road) and raced on the upper half of the run way and access road; in a u-shape. start was at the cross road, around the u, and finish was at the cross road again. flying finish with lots of shut down room. then around the lower half of the oval back to staging.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Prototype Services on June 22, 2008, 10:39:01 PM
Sounds like fun. You should try to find an event on a roadracing track. My first ever track event was on the roadcourse at Lowes in Charlotte.
Needless to say, it was addicting......
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 23, 2008, 06:22:53 AM
as soon as i have enough money, or start workin events for credit, i will be takin the car out to putnam park road course.

http://www.putnampark.com/
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Tbird232ci on June 23, 2008, 05:00:28 PM
Beating up on Porsche's?
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 23, 2008, 05:06:45 PM
Quote from: Tbird232ci;224385
Beating up on Porsche's?


meh, i dunno....i was probly "mid-pack" and really "tearing up the course!"

:rollin:
Title: usually that's a good thing
Post by: t3skidoo on June 24, 2008, 04:26:38 AM
Quote from: gumby;224302

DNF (pushed out of a fast turn and missed a garage)


wtf, a garage?  ya'll's autox's must be different from ours....

Anyway, were there any fox bodies (or anything else) there that could give you a benchmark to compare the performance of yours?
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 24, 2008, 06:33:34 AM
a garage:

....
.
.[COLOR="White"]...[/COLOR].
.[COLOR="White"]...[/COLOR].
.
....


basically a box with the entrance and exit on the same side


there was one sn95 car, no foxes. i dont remember what class he was running, or his mods if any...i hope the results get posted soon.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 24, 2008, 04:08:05 PM
overall results are posted. i came in 42nd of 55.

overall:
http://home.comcast.net/~vbrunamonti/cscc/2008_Jun_Overall.pdf

by class:
http://home.comcast.net/~vbrunamonti/cscc/2008_Jun_Class.pdf


hooray for not being the slowest, nor makin the biggest mistake of the day! one guy in an 05 mustang GT went four off into the dirt after he looped his car in the slalom :hick:
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Prototype Services on June 25, 2008, 01:53:49 AM
Are you using sticky tires?
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 25, 2008, 06:30:49 AM
nope.

5yo, 320 treadwear, street tires. good tread depth, but heat cycled to death by now im sure....
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Blackout on June 25, 2008, 12:01:15 PM
A group of us here in Wisconsin are trying to get some scratch together so we can do an Auto X day at Road America.  I'll have the bird up there if it pans out!
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Blackout on June 25, 2008, 12:19:41 PM
For those of you not familliar with RA, here is a link to the course map.

http://www.roadamerica.com/images/information_maps/map_08_main.pdf
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Prototype Services on June 25, 2008, 08:58:49 PM
You need to try some sticky tires. The difference is amazing. I bought two sets of shaved DOT legal racing tires from a local SCCA racer. They were molded with very shallow tread, and then were shaved to be almost slicks. They WERE slicks after the morning track session, but lasted all weekend. I felt like I had 50 more HP and my tires were twice as wide with the grip they gave me. I still have the second set, wish you were closer.
I used street tires my first trip to Lowe's, and got black flagged during our second session because my RF tire was smoking in T-4 of the NASCAR oval (about 125mph). I knocked some more neg camber in it, they saw that it was just the tire smoking, and went back out. That tire chunked from the heat, but lasted me another few thousand miles on the street.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 25, 2008, 10:36:13 PM
i plan to setup up to a more aggressive street tire when these are totally dead.

i am not gonna worry about gettin slicks or DOT-Rs until i learn to drive w/o them.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: t3skidoo on June 26, 2008, 05:41:15 PM
Quote from: gumby;224439
a garage:

....
.
.[COLOR="White"]...[/COLOR].
.[COLOR="White"]...[/COLOR].
.
....


basically a box with the entrance and exit on the same side


there was one sn95 car, no foxes. i dont remember what class he was running, or his mods if any...i hope the results get posted soon.



okay, we call that a "box", or unofficially, [name of last driver to demolish the obstacle]'s "wall of death".

as for the results, can you indicate the "competition", either by class or similar platform?

+1 on skipping the tires right now.  the py ones will give you a better indication of what you need next (if anything).
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 26, 2008, 10:41:00 PM
Quote from: t3skidoo;224743
as for the results, can you indicate the "competition", either by class or similar platform?

yeah, i was waitin on some pics so i could identify cars and numbers, but that aint happening yet....

i went diggin thru some old photos and found the sn95's number. ESP #5
on the results page he has a 0 tire handicap meaning he was on a tire under 140 treadwear. other than that, i dont know what mods he has. his best time was a 48.836

as far as my car classification, it runs in SM. you can find the other SM and SM2 times on the class results sheet.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: t3skidoo on June 27, 2008, 01:52:44 AM
Okay, looked over the results.  You said it was a fast course, do you think the ESP car has a power advantage over yours?  Are those SM cars built to auto-x or are they really street cars?
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on June 27, 2008, 07:19:36 AM
honestly, i didnt spend alot of time socializing or checkin out other guys cars this time around. i was more concerned with gettin around the course, and gettin a feel for the car.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: t3skidoo on June 28, 2008, 03:49:52 AM
well, I can completely relate.  next time, make sure they know they got beat by a 4-banger.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on July 01, 2008, 09:46:06 PM
w00t! pics of the car in action :burnout:

(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/P6220437.jpg)
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/P6220380.jpg)
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/gmby23/87%20turbocoupe/P6220410.jpg)
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: Prototype Services on July 01, 2008, 10:25:04 PM
Awesome!!!!
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: V8Demon on July 04, 2008, 12:57:03 PM
Git those foglights in there!!!!


Looks like a great time!
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on July 04, 2008, 01:12:46 PM
Quote from: V8Demon;225885
Git those foglights in there!!!!

we dont need no stinkin fog lights!!!

those openings are now the inlets for my brake cooling ducts.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: V8Demon on July 04, 2008, 01:59:47 PM
Oof, I do believe you posted that somewhere before too....

How's the chin spoiler working for you?
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on July 04, 2008, 04:33:44 PM
looks good, works great. what more can ya ask for? ;)
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: 83-88T-Bird Guy on July 10, 2008, 01:27:54 PM
Car looks great Gumby !!

We went to our first auto-x on June 22nd at Fort Knox, KY and I really want to take one of the T-Birds and try it this month.

There is a Street Tire Open class here and I have e-mailed for info to see if I can run the 460 Turbo Coupe in that class for fun.:D

They say we need a treadwear of 140 or higher on street tires. Hope the big block is legal tho.

I have been wanting to auto-x for years.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on July 13, 2008, 08:24:24 PM
they will find a class you can run it in. should be interesting tossin all that nose weight around!
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: fordguy545 on July 25, 2008, 01:49:24 AM
I autox mine regularly.  Going to another one on sunday, but it will be the first time out for the holset and the megasquirt that I put on after catjam.  Its not perfect but getting closer.  I just hope its spools the turbo quick enough, lol.  I dont think it'll be too bad though
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on July 25, 2008, 06:32:28 AM
nice, let us know how it does.

ill be goin out again on august 9th. our region is holding a drivers school that i am gonna attend.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: fordguy545 on July 27, 2008, 05:32:22 PM
well, the car definately was more handleable with the ihi, because it made less power and spooled quicker.  Now it spools late and has WAY too much power.  I guess running 20psi out of a holset might not be smart while autoxing, but It did help with the tuning doing this.  It actually seems to run a bit better:D I'd guess it has somewhere between 300 and 325 rwhp now.  I think I need to figure out how to put subframe connectors in it before I do anymore tuning.  Hoping for around 30psi.  I will be ordering some rcompounds soon in a smaller diameter size to get it into maybe a more usable rpm range.  OH, I did have my first spin today too, and my first full corner drift, that I will have to figure out how to put up video of, mainly cause I came in the corner about 60 mph and slid it full sideways all the way to steering lock, hit a cone, and it rolled around and landed back in the box standin up:bowdown:
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: t3skidoo on July 27, 2008, 06:44:02 PM
There are a few things you can try, although some might sound counterintuitive.

Try advancing the cam (and maybe ignition timing) to give you a little more down low.
Turn down the boost a little so it won't hit so hard.
Turn up the boost so it hits a lot harder. 
Keep the revs up so that it's more consistent.

what are you using for boost control?
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: fordguy545 on July 27, 2008, 08:56:40 PM
gillis.  I have a boport 1.9 cam in it with a twin scroll manifold, so it comes on hard about 3000.  Tuning it with megasquirt(bamafuel).  I think I just had the boost up too high trying to get the megasquirt dialed in.  Definately helped
heres video of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmX2sQZTcZY
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: gumby on July 27, 2008, 08:57:13 PM
sounds like a handful....and alot of fun :burnout:
pretty much what i expected to hear with that holset on there.

SFC's FTW!
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: bhazard on July 27, 2008, 10:29:04 PM
You need a new camera man. Last 20 seconds were pretty exciting though.
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: fordguy545 on July 27, 2008, 11:34:19 PM
no its the stupid uploading .  looks great on the tv being played off the camera.  Unless you got a better way of uploading?  This is really the first thing ive uploaded and very dissappointed
Title: FINALLY autoX'd the car
Post by: 83-88T-Bird Guy on July 28, 2008, 04:43:29 PM
Quote from: gumby;227211
they will find a class you can run it in. should be interesting tossin all that nose weight around!


I found out I am legal to run in Street Touring Open. As long as I have a treadwear of 140 or higher, I am good to go.

I know one thing. I won't have any problem trying to rear steer that nose heavy monster. One blip of the throttle and the rear is coming around :D