Farting around at an Autocross

[subparpunk03]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HwV2U8FojE&feature=youtu.be

[youtube]9HwV2U8FojE[/youtube]

The tires are old, dried out and cracked, and it needs an alignment, but holy crap this truck is FUN!!!

I'm not sure if it was the Auto-LSD, or my generally hamfisted driving, but I wanged my head real good on the last run. Let's just assume it's my driving

The brakes weren't as awful as I was expecting, in fact, the only thing I didn't like was the traction control beeping at my coming out of every corner.

I will be autocrossing this bad boy again REAL soon!

 

[Torspd]

That looked pretty bad ass! Can't wait to get my turn this weekend!

Going to need to hit up some autocross events as well.

 

[Miami_X]

Good on you, subparpunk03. Lots of people talk about doing this, but you actually went out and did it! Major props to you, man. I'm ordering some lowering springs for my 2012 because I don't want to Auto-X on 2" lowering blocks - that's my hold up. When they're in, I'll be doing the same here in Miami, FL.

Can you offer us any driving tips for these trucks? With AUTO-LSD, you must have a '09 and up X-Runner, correct?

 

[subparpunk03]

That looked pretty bad ass! Can't wait to get my turn this weekend!

Going to need to hit up some autocross events as well.

If I'm reading your mod list right, you're going to be playing with the modified classes. Get ready to get loose.

 

[subparpunk03]

Good on you, subparpunk03. Lots of people talk about doing this, but you actually went out and did it! Major props to you, man. I'm ordering some lowering springs for my 2012 because I don't want to Auto-X on 2" lowering blocks - that's my hold up. When they're in, I'll be doing the same here in Miami, FL.

Can you offer us any driving tips for these trucks? With AUTO-LSD, you must have a '09 and up X-Runner, correct?

Yes, I have a 10, and a real LSD would make this truck much much better. Regardless, it's still WAY fun to drive.

Mine is bone stock so I ran in H-Stock, not going to work at a national event since it falls into HS under a generic catchall rule of "Not otherwise classified - V6 Pickup" SCCA rules are weird. Not that I'd be anywhere near competitive at a national event.

If you've done anything other than replace 1 swaybar, shocks, and a cat-back exhaust, that will bump you up to one of the street touring classes I believe. I personally like to stay in stock class, as my driving is usually never better than the limits of a stock car. I'd rather drive a stock car near the limit, than a modified car way below its potential.

I'm a pretty average driver, so I can't give any really specific tips for these trucks. I can tell you it's easy to get the rear end to wiggle a bit, and with auto-lsd, too much wiggle will confuse it and it will grab the brakes HARD and really upset the car. I was babying the shifts at first since I read about the grinding and transmission issues people had, but I had gotten a bit more aggressive towards the end.

This thing isn't bad in the slaloms, very predictable and progressive loss of grip. The turn-in is a bit mushy, and it's loose from the factory, so a little extra tire pressure up front (38 psi maybe?) should help that.

The factory suspension is actually really good, I'd put an enormous swaybar up front to tighten it up and reduce a bit of body roll.

In my video, you can see how painfully slow I am going through the sweeping turns, it'll take sweepers WAY faster than you think. I left about 3-4 seconds out there on those alone.

Bottom line: Bring it to an event. Drive the shit out of it. It's UNREAL how fun it is for an H-Stock car.

 

[Torspd]

Current engine is stock, but the suspension and tires will definitely bump me out of the stock class.

I do feel quite happy to say though, that my first time racing will not be on an autocross course, but a road course. Once I get a taste of the racing though, I will need to keep my fix going. Ha.

 

[subparpunk03]

Current engine is stock, but the suspension and tires will definitely bump me out of the stock class.

I do feel quite happy to say though, that my first time racing will not be on an autocross course, but a road course. Once I get a taste of the racing though, I will need to keep my fix going. Ha.

We have this discussion a lot on the Lotus forums... Different strokes and all that. Some people love road racing, others like to stick with Auto-X, and some people just prefer to drive in the mountains.

Autocross is my motorsport of choice, I may branch out and try rallycross in the XR too. I can drive every weekend, and the events are relatively cheap, and easy on the cars.

In the end, do what's fun for you. These trucks will be pure awesomesauce on a road course, or anywhere else you can open them up and hurl them around a turn.

 

[Torspd]

I might find that I love doing road coarses more, but I will definitely be attending both. Besides the fact that the autocross events are much cheaper to attend than even a Charity event at MSR Houston.

I do plan to hit up some very nice road courses during the Track Daze events though. Seriously plan on hitting up VIR.

 

[Miami_X]

I might find that I love doing road coarses more, but I will definitely be attending both. Besides the fact that the autocross events are much cheaper to attend than even a Charity event at MSR Houston.

I do plan to hit up some very nice road courses during the Track Daze events though. Seriously plan on hitting up VIR.

I'm with you on VIR, torspd. Post here when you're going and I'll try to make it too. It's a haul for both of us, but I'm down for a weekend trip If other XRUers will do same.

 

[Slywhitty]

Nice man!! I love autox as well. Here's a vid of my first run in over a year. Took it easy getting used to having the blower now. By the end if the day I had shaved off about 7 seconds of the time in the vid. Tons of fun and cheap to do

http://youtu.be/Qx_qdd6WkKk

 

[subparpunk03]

Nice man!! I love autox as well. Here's a vid of my first run in over a year. Took it easy getting used to having the blower now. By the end if the day I had shaved off about 7 seconds of the time in the vid. Tons of fun and cheap to do

http://youtu.be/Qx_qdd6WkKk

Nice!

What tires are you using?

 

[Miami_X]

Nice man!! I love autox as well. Here's a vid of my first run in over a year. Took it easy getting used to having the blower now. By the end if the day I had shaved off about 7 seconds of the time in the vid. Tons of fun and cheap to do

http://youtu.be/Qx_qdd6WkKk

Thanks for the vid, slywhitty. Love that tire chirp when you get on it out of a turn. Man, I cant wait to try my hand at this.

 

[Slywhitty]

Bfg kdw2's. trac bar went on the week after that so should have my traction issue resolved somewhat now lol. I have another vid that I haven't uploaded yet that has tons of smoke cause my buddy told me to go balls to the wall haha

 

[TommyXrunner]

Nice man!! I love autox as well. Here's a vid of my first run in over a year. Took it easy getting used to having the blower now. By the end if the day I had shaved off about 7 seconds of the time in the vid. Tons of fun and cheap to do

http://youtu.be/Qx_qdd6WkKk

man you need another muffler!

 

[Slywhitty]

man you need another muffler!

Nahhhh. Lol

 

[TommyXrunner]

Nahhhh. Lol

haha dosn't that incredibly annoying after a while though? i added a resonator right aways after i finished my exhaust. it was just too loud, too raspy, and too much drone cruising on the hwy