Private Tuning Hands v3.0

Ahh, the last round of the '08 auto'xing season. Dave Theodore co-drove my car. One of my co-workers are there also. He was checking out some of the S2000's at the autox becasue he is interested in buying one. Anyways, the car felt great; neutral handling and the r-comps aren't overcoocked like it did in Marina. I was cranking out fast times during this round, I was in the upper 20% in overall time! Of course Dave got even more faster time, but what's cool the fact that my car is putting out pretty fast times!

Matt, my co-worker was really thrilled when he rode with me and Dave. Championship novice trophy, Slush trophy, a couple of drift competitions and a ton of autocross/drifting events. 2008 season draws to a close. What a blast! I can't wait for 2009 autocross season! Slush 5

This is my first time autocrossing at Marina. Before I said to myself that I would never travel that far just for three runs. But now, I am excited with my new r-comps and auto'xing in general I made a trip down to Marina! I also heard that the surface on this site is excellent so I just had to check it out. It was a nice warm sunny day with just a few drivers. During my runs I had trouble modulating the brakes. As you can hear from the youtube vid, I always locked up my brakes for a moment entering a corner. I'm still feeling out the sticky tires. Also I felt that I was too hot on corners. Large chucks on the front tires confirm this. Anyways, I still posted respectable times that I would probably not do in street tires. This vid posted is my fastest run. Round 4

pic by ground-speed.com

Forecast for this weekend were rolling showers in the morning. So I decided not to bring my r-comps and roll on my trust rt615's instead. Just as the were setting up the course, the fast hard drizzle hit Candlestick. There were not much people so organizers combined groups.

On my first run, I tried to run hard but spun out in one of the corners. My 2nd rund was the best run; cautious on the corners and easy on the throttle. My 3rd, I had a spin out and my 4th (yes, we get 4 runs this event!) was clean but few thenths slower than my 2nd. The surface was really slick coated with slurry gravel specially when you are wide on your line. There are also some sections were even if the slurry is cleared away, it has less grip than the rest of the sections. What I tried to do is to figure out which sections I can try to really open up the throttle. The top dogs (James in FFR Cobra & Howell in turbo Miata) in OSP is not running this slush season. So I might also have a chance to nab a slush trophy as well! whohoo! round 3

I finally bite the bullet. Dino (Skizzup) was selling his Kumho v710 r-comps in rota rb's in club4ag for a very good price. I knew then that I would never have another deal lke this so I bought the tires/rims. As seen on the pic above, the kumho v710/rota rb's are smaller than the azenis/konig's by about 2 inches.

No question here. the v710's lays much more rubber on the road than the rt615. Dave from baautox.com saw that I got new r-comps and was really interested in driving my car. He is developing a corolla that would be very competitive in FSP class since the 86 is dumped down from DSP. When I fitted the v710, there was a bigger gap between the tires and the fender. But since I felt that the current ride height works well for autox, I kept the ride height. Dave helped me walk the course. He pointed out where are the critical areas in the coure. One particular area is a 'kink' on a fast section on the course. Normally, I would hit the break and slow down to negotiate that kink. Dave suggested that it would only require a quick lift. Wow! that much difference in grip? I walk the course 2 more time to remember the important parts. Dave was first to srub down the tire for me while me sitting as passenger. I can't belive the grip these tires have!!! He just DNF'ed on the last part just before the finish only becasue we were flying down the track hella fast!!! Our first runs were dirty. 2nd runs were even faster but still both of us have scratches. On the 3rd runs, I asked to drive alone. And yes it was even for faster than ever but still dirty.

 I really don't think about the scratch. I know (as well as Dave) we can clean up our scratches. What is more important was our raw times. Without the scratch, Dave would have placed ~15 and me ~20, overall time!!! R-comps really transformed my car into a beast. The v710's are wider than the rt615. But with the difference in offsets between the two rims, they both stick out of the car about the same. Yet somehow, I felt that the v710's are sticking out more. Maybe because I much more closer to the cones than before. With the azenis, I lead the turn-in into the cones so I would be close. With the v710's, I don't need that early turn-in becasue the response is instant. (at least compared to the rt615) Maybe that's why I kept on getting scratches. I would have to adjust to the increased grip from the r-comps. Also, knowing that I have that much amount of grip gave me more confidence. With more confidence, I was being more aggressive than ever. I was really pleased with the car this round. Also, I disconnect the rear swaybar so that really helped. The car feels much more neutral than ever. Punching the gas off a corner, both front and rear have about the same slip angle, awesome! Man, this r-comp tire really up'ed the fun factor in autocrossing. Can't wait to use these badboys again! slush 2

 The last round of the season. Finally, I have completed a whole season! Sure I don't have a regular competition at my novice OSP class, but I would like to think of this season as dedication and perseverance to go to most SCCA championship rounds. On this round most sfr scca regulars just ran funs runs because most of them already got enough points to get their own trophy. I can seem to remember how I did this round, but I'm glad the season is finally over. Round 16 

The American Auto-x Series is usually held in Castle Airport and is catered to domestic v-8's. This time however, they were able to have a deal with the city of Alameda to snag the old Alameda naval base as an autox site! Of course I am going! I have never been to Alameda. All I have heard is that it has one of the smoothest, gripiest surface around the bay. Boy they were right! Just smooth, dust-free asphalt. I came there but was late for a course walk. I just pick a work station that is farthest so I can kinna walk the course. The course was a long series of slaloms, off-center slaloms, and more slaloms! I realized that on a long course like this, an error in one of the series of slaloms really magnify the time. I messed up on a couple of turns and slaloms and that really lengthend my time. Anyways, I was just enjoying the track and I hope that AAS or SCCA could use this site for future autox events. Round 12

I'm late! I wasn't able to make the morning course walk so I'm kinna worried that I might cut crappy times. I looked at the cars at the course but that wasn't enough info to remeber. Luclily, I switched work groups, just before my run group and I chose a station far back so I can kinna make a little course walk. The course was very tight. First run; went out of line due to fast speed and understeer, I cut a 49.xxx. Well that's a good place to start. I tought my run was around 50's. 2nd run, I was more tucked into the correct line and didn't overspeed entering the tight sections. Got 47.3xx! Nice! A good 2 sec. improvement! 3rd run I tried to push a little bit but was overspeeding enerting the tight sections. I still imporved 47.1xx! That felt really great. If I had my 2nd run where I didn't overspeed on the tight corners for my 3rd run, I would probably got a high 46's. Overall, I felt good. Never felt okay with my driving since round 7. I hope I can contiually improve on my times in future autocross events. Round 14

It was suppose to be a two-day drift weekend for me. But big, important stuff happened on Saturday so I didn't make it. (Geoff is the man!!! He refunded my Saturday payment fee!) However, there's no way I'd miss the Sunday competition event. The usual gang, Carlo & Clarice, was there to hang out and cheer for me. (yeah right) Competition was in the north paddock rather than the usual pad we were using. Thunderhill was being re-paved that time and that includes the pad! Yes, pad will be bigger next time I drift.

Anyways, morning was set for practice/ tandems. I had good Falken zeix 512's for my tires in the rear. I still had the ones from the other drift event and they were good. I set higher tire pressure in the rear ~ 42psi. At first my rear was really squirmy. I can't seem to finish the standard sweeper and that's not good. So I started to fiddle around with the rear shock settings. Initially, it was at 3/8. Ok, I set it at 1/8. It made it worse; really loose at the back. So I adjusted it to 4/8. Man, that's a little better! Much more stable at the sweeper plus I can hold the throttle a little more. Then I adjusted it to 5/8. Man, felt like I'm drift king! At this setting, I can pretty much bury the throttle throughout the sweeper. 

So I was really feeling the car during the practice, until my tires pooped. The thread peeled like a banana. I'm like, fine I'll just pop the other pair of zeix I have. Felt a little different than the last set, but I say it's gonna be okay. Sexy Luis also asked to tandem with me. It was awesome! I was always in the front and me and Luis were having a blast. There is this extra element in tandem drifting that makes it more exciting. 

After lunch, competition time! Three runs to semi-finals. My first run was a spin! WTF?!? Felt like D.K. during practice. Why can't I lock this down? 2nd and 3rd runs were okay. Some corrections, but okay. It just feels a little less stable in the rear for some reason. Luckily, I made to semi-finals. 2 runs, of which both are considered. 1st run, spin. Great. 2nd run, lousy; lots of corrections, etc. So I got dropped there. That's okay because there were other guys there that were super consistent at was really tearing it up. After the single and tandem competitions, open practice again. This time, this hawaiian guy (sorry forgot your name!) wanted to tandem with me. He has an sr s13. I was okay and man so much fun! It really fun trying to get close to the other car when our following and kinna nervous that you keep pace and don't spin out when leading. I was exhausted in the end but really had tons of fun.