I went to my first autocross on Sunday in Lynchburg, VA sponsored by SCCA. I was going to enter my car stock but decided I wanted to put my intake in before the race and entered as Street Touring (STS) Novice.

The weather was awesome, 60F with clear skies and bright sun all day. The course was slow overall and VERY narrow, but fun never-the-less.

I had 4 runs, 10 minutes apart. The first time I was pretty nervous at the start gate, but adrenaline kicked in as soon I launched. Took the course pretty easy and ended up hitting 2 cones in a 180 turn and had a raw time of 50 sec.

Same result in my 2nd run, and in my 3rd I hit no cones but still had a 50 sec. run. I was frustrated my times weren't getting better, so I decided to really take it hard on my last run. Finished the 4th with no cones and 48.7 so I was really happy.

A good experience for a first time autocross. AutoX is way different than normal street driving, you really need to let go of any inhibition or fear of taking corners ridiculously hard. I thought I had a good idea of what its like, but had no idea till I was on the course.

I had been practicing heal-toe, but that all went out window when I was on the track. There's a ton of information to process at one time. You have to look at the corner you are taking and control the wheel, look ahead to see the next cones, brake and keep track of your RPM's and up and down shift. AutoX is definately more about the driver than the car, a stock GSR came in 5th, and did much better than a modded ITR and various other cars.

As for the car, I really need to push it harder to see its full potential. The course was slow so I didn't have fast turns to exprience much understeer. The brakes didn't get too much of a workout but held up well with no fade. In the only hard braking parts the ABS kicked in and helped quite a bit. Steering was exceptional, the car is so responsive and it never fights when turning the wheel in a tite area. The turn radius did bite me in one area where we did a 270 in a really tite box. I hit cones there twice, but by comparison 2 EVOs never cleared it in their 4 runs. A couple of FWD cars e-braked it, but I didn't feel comfortable pulling it on my first AutoX.

After racing I really want to get some performance tires. I don't think I pushed my Michelins to the max, but they were squeeling like mad around tight turns. I didn't break them loose but didn't feel all too comfortable with them. I have to watch the video of my runs to evaluate the body roll, but it didn't feel too bad in the car. I'm looking to get a rear sway bar to make the car more neutral and springs to lower the center of gravity.

I'm hitting up another one in 2 weeks, hopefully I'll perform better in that one and really push my TSX.

I posted my pics here

 

The rear sway will help with the switchback turns. You might also try putting an extra couple pounds of pressure in the rear tires to help the car rotate.

 

I would go the other way instead. I used to run with higher rear tire pressures, but I switched to running lower rear tire pressures around summer of 02. You can get the car to rotate with both, but what I found was that with higher rear tire pressures, the rotation was more like a snap oversteer, whereas the lower rear tire pressures provide a more gradual oversteer. So it's up to the driver's preference. I personally prefer lower rear tire pressures.

xizor, did you turn off the VSA?

 

I guess it's all about personal preference and trial and error. Tires have a specific pressure zone that they produce maximum grip. In general, lowering the pressure will increase grip whereas raising pressure decreases grip. If you lower the pressure too the extent that the tires are cupping (i.e. the middle of the tire is hardly touching and most the weight is on the edges) you'll end up losing grip. I prefer having more pressure so that the center of the tire is doing the work. But hey, that's just me....

 

I slightly inflated my tires to 34 all around (so a slight boost in the back over the front).

I did 3 runs w/ VSA off, 1 w/ VSA on. I didn't push it hard enough w/ VSA on, but I'm sure it would've hurt me on my last/best run because my tires were squealing around every turn and it would've probably been braking them.

 

Hi, nice to know someone else is using their TSX to do autocross.

I ran in G-stock with my pure stock TSX with Pirelli P Zero Nero 225/45/17. And I am not too far off from the class leader with R compound tires and upgraded suspension.

Change the stock tire to P Zero or Azenis, they will definitely worth the money. Stock tires can't take too high of a pressure, so 34 probably is getting close to the max. But for autox, you probably want something like 40.


Good luck.