Ok so compliments of the U.S. Army, I get a 2-month stay in the cloudy and rainy state of Washington. I do get a few days off here and there and it just so happens that I got 3 days off this weekend so I can attend the events in Packwood, WA. I don't know the area or their rules, nor do I have my car here, so I rented a car (tried for a Charger and got upgraded to a Cadillac DTS... hey it's a V8 RWD!) and will do my best to get there and fit in. Is anyone on this site from NWR and going this weekend that I could meet up with?

Also I'm assuming a DTS is F-stock, right? Anyone have advice for AXing a Cadillac?

Thanks in advance,

Andre

Should be FS, yes. Don't know much about the DTS, but I hear the CTS-V is very neutral-handling at autocross speeds. I'd probably start with about 45# F 40# R tire pressures and see how it goes from there. Don't jerk the thing around, you are likely to go into either limp mode (gas) or ice mode (brakes). Also, I think these things are fly-by-wire, so the throttle will be a little sluggish. You can expect as much as a 1/2 second lag between opening the throttle and that Northstar actually doing anything.

Does it have traction control? Cool. You may be able to use that to it's advantage. Also, you can probably drive in a little deeper than you thought due to the ABS.

Let us know how it goes. I'll ask Roger (the REal) Johnson if he knows anything about the Packwood site. He used to live there.

Hey that thing doesnt have Onstar does it?

John

Yeah, it's Onstar/Northstar )

I've got a good story about Onstar during the 04 One Lap Of America in one of the CTS-v entries. Just think of this. Hi Mr Noble this is Onstar, you are exceding the design Parameters of the car!!!!!!! Oh did I say this was at speed at Road America. In AX trim you shouldnt have any issues. It did happen twice during the wk, other time was at Hartland Park. This time he thought it was a fluke. he found out that the other CTS-V team had to cover there anttena to avoid this in pre-event testing.

John

I believe that you can pull the fuse to shut off the onstar system, but I don't know which fuse that would be.
(Perhaps interior lights??) -- a quick google found this.



Good Luck!

Brian

The DTS is FWD. The STS, CTS, XLR, SRX are RWD. And the ESV, EXT, SRX are AWD. Cadillac is doing a hell of a job naming cars.
I own 3 DTS's, weigh about 4000lb, 300 hp to the front wheels. Traction control doesn't quite turn off, and you can't turn the Active Stability control off, but that is not too intrusive. Top speed is governed at 130, and it still pulls hard right up to it. Suspension is decent considering what it is. Car feels anso looks lighter, and shorter, smaller than what it is. It is a long car, tuning radius is huge. Transmission is interesting. It downshifts automaticaly when you take fast turns, even if you didn't hit the throttle.

blah... I did horrible. I ran a best of 70.x seconds on a course most cars were hitting 55-60. The acceleration and handling was nowhere near an LS-1 F-body. Steering was so spongy with body roll and nose dive that made me sick. The weather was horrible - Cold, windy and rainy all day and the stock tires gave me little traction. Add to it I'm still pretty much a newb to AX and there you have it. I think I'll skip the next AX here and just wait to get back w/ my WS6.

On the plus side, I did get a lot of questions and comments and I was probably the most photographed car/driver that day. I suppose the amount of roll and dive was impressive.

Update:

I ran my first pro-solo out here and then another normal event in a rented Chevy Aveo. Very different with a low HP FWD car.
Afterwards, I went canyon carving to see Mount St. Helens and had a lot of fun tearing up the rental. Disregard the fact that it wasn't very competitive.

It was neat seeing how other SCCA clubs do things differently. These guys at NWR are a tighter-knit group than OVR, and seemed less friendly to newbs. At OVR, it's very common to see some people putting numbers on "normal cars" with tape. Here, I was the only one. They started opening up to me after seeing me 4 separate race days. They also group certain groups into classes: Like FS, AS and SS are grouped into what's called "Stock1" and compete against each other under PAX. They have Stock 1-4 and Non-Stock 1-4. Kinda wierd. I guess it's because they had little to no competition in certain classes. They also drive unheard of distances to compete. I talked to a Canadian who drove 8 hours to compete and there are plenty of Oregonians and others who drive 3+ hours. From Columbus, OH, there are at least 7 AX clubs within a 2 hour drive if not many more, and if you're willing to drive 2 hours, you can find an event every single weekend. They had a flat, open asphalt lot at a closed lumber mill probably the size of our OSU lot and they were all ecstatic about how big it was, since there's not a lot of flat land around here... and the little flat land they have is not usually open for AXing. Wierd how we take things for granted out East.

That's great! I'm glad to hear that you're tearing up the local rental car fleets up there. BTW, if you can find a new V6 Mustang, they run in G Stock and are going to be the cheapest RWD car you'll be able to rent, probably. A Focus ZX3 might also be a decent rental to find, and would be a lot more fun than the Aveo (more power and more tire).

Can you post pictures of the DTS ax-ing?

I looked into getting a better car but I think I'd have to go all the way to SEA-TAC airport to get a v6 Mustang which is probably too far. I'd have to drive the rental up there, leave it there while I ran the Mustang, then return the mustang and drive back in the aveo... that's a lot of unnecessary driving for 4 laps Besides, I rented a v6 rustang once and wasn't very impressed... still ...thinking maybe more competitive than an aveo but ...DAMN THE AUTOMATIC RENTAL CARS! Maybe... I'll keep you posted.

I didn't bring anyone with me to take pics when I ran the DTS so I'd have to ask some of the locals which ones took pics and get some from them. They don't do the photographer takes a picture of everyone thing and post it on the web like OVR does... another thing we take for granted.

Good news, though... I may be done with this temporary duty sooner than i thought. I can fly out as early as Aug 3rd (if I can find a flight) which means I MAY be at the OVR Governor's cup! Woo hoo! ( I just have to justify to my wife that I just spent 2 months away from her and the kids but want to spend the whole 1st 2 days I'm back auto-crossing... anyone got a suggestion for that?)

Tell them your flight lands the day after and act shocked when they tell you your car was stolen. If it works for that Chip Foose stolen car show then why can't it work for you?

Trackaddict,

I went with your advice and tore up a rental V6 Mustang. More fun than the Aveo but the automatic, throttle by wire and lack of anti-lock brakes on stock tires in the rain was driving me nuts. - How can an american teenager-magnet muscle car not come standard with anti-lock brakes in 2007? ugh. Next AX will be back at OVR with my baby.

Hopefully, my wife will get over it.