[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

[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.