bimmer635csi's Autocrosses

Nothing super exciting, just a history of my autocrosses in the GTI.

Completed:

Ax1] 2013-Apr-28: SCCA Saginaw Valley Region - Nexteer in Saginaw Charter Township, MI

Conditions: Wet, Bumpy, Clean, 62°F
Place: 3rd in class, 18th PAX overall
Course Layout: Ultra confusing (DNF'ed first run, along with 90% of the heat)

Ax2] 2013-May-04: Furrin Group at Western Michigan Auto Auctions, South of Grand Rapids, MI

Conditions: Dry, Rough, Dirty, 77°F
Place: 1st in class, 5th PAX, 15th raw time overall
Course Layout: Great for such a small parking lot

Ax3] 2013-May-05: Furrin Group at Western Michigan Auto Auctions, South of Grand Rapids, MI

Conditions: Dry, Rough, Dirty, 77°F
Place: 2nd in class, 4th PAX, 18th raw time overall
Course Layout: Great for such a small parking lot, copy of Ax2

AxS] 2013-May-18: SCCA Detroit Region Starting Line School at The Silverdome in Pontiac, MI

Ax4] 2013-May-19: SCCA Detroit Region - The Silverdome, Pontiac, MI - Season Opener

Conditions: Clear skies, >90°F
Place: 6th in class, 45th PAX
Course Layout: Flowing & fast, very entertaining
Notes: *RTF was in Heat 3, so it was nearly 4 hours since walking the course before I got to run, which explains the comments in the first run of the video

Ax5] 2013-May-27: SCCA Detroit Region at The Silverdome in Pontiac, MI - Memorial Day

Conditions: Cloudy with very light rain, 65°F
Place: 9th of 24 in class, 41st of 153 total
Course Layout: Shorter that typical Silverdome courses, but very entertaining and gradual speed increases
Notes: Passenger for each run, so the car was an extra 200 pounds heavy on the right side

Ax6] 2013-Jun-09: Alfa Romeo Owners Club, Detroit Region - Oakland University, Rochester Hills, MI

Ax7] 2013-Jun-22: SCCA Detroit Region - The Silverdome, Pontiac, MI - Dual at the Dome, Great Lakes Solo Series Divisional, Day 1

Conditions: Windy, approximately 75°F
Place: 7th of 25 in class, 29th of 120ish overall
Course Layout: Great course with 2 optional slaloms, very fast sweeper and uphill hairpin turn
Notes: Started practice of watching previous run several times before next run - very effective

Ax8] 2013-Jun-23: SCCA Detroit Region - The Silverdome, Pontiac, MI - Dual at the Dome, Great Lakes Solo Series Divisional, Day 2

Conditions: Mostly sunny, approximately 80°F
Place: 9th of 25 in class, 52nd of 120ish overall
Course Layout: Same course as Ax7, but in opposite direction

Ax7 & Ax8] Overall Event Results: 6th of 25 in class, 31st of 90 overall, sufficient for first trophy of the season with SCCA

AxT1] 2013-Jul-05: SCCA Detroit Region Test & Tune - Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, MI
No results other than being able to find suitable tire pressures for the smooth, abrasive cements of the former B52 lashing stations. Not that it will do me any good in the future because I'm going to a 10mm wider front tire now.

Ax9] 2013-Jul-06: SCCA Detroit Region - Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, MI (Pro format) - Firecracker Solos

Place: 4th of 7 in class, somewhere between 17th and 32nd spot overall (because I made the challenge, but lost to the 4th place finisher in the 1st round)
Course Layout: Nearly perfect mirrored courses & simple to remember while still being extremely fast
Notes: My first ProSolo format autocross ever. It was a lot of fun and learned that to hit the green light just right, I have to start leaving at the initial glow of the second yellow.

Ax10] 2013-Jul-07: SCCA Detroit Region - Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, MI (Standard format) - Firecracker Solos

Place: 3rd of 5 in class, 31st of 70ish overall
Course Layout: Very fast with lots of grip if not overdriven
Notes: Used some of the elements from the day before, but still had to drive slowly for the tighter turns to prevent pushing

Ax11] 2013-Jul-21: SCCA Saginaw Valley Region - Nexteer, Saginaw Charter Township, MI

Place: 1st in class, 11th of 73 overall
Course Layout: Typical for Nexteer facility, long course weaving around employee cars in the parking lot and manhole covers
Notes: The new front tires (235/40/18) gave a tonne more grip and took the push out so much that I had to run more balanced tire pressures front to rear.

Ax12] 2013-Aug-10: Furrin Group - MSU Commuter Lot 89, East Lansing, MI

Place: 2nd of 5 in class, 22nd of 86 PAX overall, 39th of 86 RAW overall
Course Layout: Very low average speed with two "loop backs" to lengthen the course.
Notes: Ran in first heat and there was basically no grip out there. Ended up running about 9 psi delta to get the car to rotate, but man would it turn once I figured that out. Determined in the fun runs after the event that because the speed was low, it was best to stay in 1st gear as long as possible.

Ax13] 2013-Aug-11: Furrin Group - MSU Commuter Lot 89, East Lansing, MI

Place: 3rd of 4 in class, 23rd of 97 PAX overall, 43rd of 97 RAW overall
Course Layout: Exactly the same as previous day.
Notes: With the 2nd heat running the day before, and then the same R-comps running this morning also, the track was well rubbered in and had much more grip. The R-comp cars weren't any faster, but the Stocks and Preps all dropped about a second. I suppose I didn't get as fast as everyone else did.

AxT2] 2013-Aug-16: SCCA Detroit Region Test & Tune - Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, MI

Ax14] 2013-Aug-17: SCCA Detroit Region - Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, MI - Great Lakes Solo Series Divisional, Day 1

Place: 3rd of 9 in class, 30ish of 110 overall PAX
Course Layout: Very similar to the last Oscoda event, but designed by an ESP driver (a.k.a. Big Power, Big Speed). Thankfully nothing requiring a shift into 3rd like last time though. The second half of the day was the same course backwards.
Notes: I had won the morning session, but was so tired for the afternoon session that I dropped to 3rd place. That sucked, but it taught me that I need to take a nap for long days of autocross.

Ax15] 2013-Aug-18: SCCA Detroit Region - Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, MI - Great Lakes Solo Series Divisional, Day 2

Place: 3rd of 9 in class, 36th of 100 overall PAX
Course Layout: Same course as yesterday afternoon, but with some small tweaks to "take 5 seconds out" of a lap so that we finished early.
Notes: The rear tires are done. Time to put the other 225s on to finish the season.

Ax16] 2013-Sep-08: MSCC - Belle Isle Paddock, Detroit, MI

Place: 1st of 8 in class, 14th of 101 overall PAX, 31st of 101 overall RAW
Course Layout: Very short course with an optional slalom that made for lots of discussion
Notes: I think for this surface, a damper adjustment is needed to take the push out. The grip is just less here than elsewhere.

Ax17] 2013-Sep-15: SCCA Cincinnati Region - Wilmington Airport, Wilmington, OH - GLSS Season Ender

Place: 3rd of 5 in class, 25th of 114 overall PAX, 66th of 114 overall RAW
Course Layout: Very long course and great for the GTI. Able to full-throttle without wheelspin in many places.
Notes: Amazing that there were 114 drivers and we got 5 runs each on a 60-ish second course. Very well run event.


Ax18] 2013-Sep-22: SCCA Detroit Region - The Silverdome, Pontiac, MI - Fall Into Autumn Solo

Place: 1st of 12 in class, 5th of 124 overall PAX
Course Layout: Very technical and made you exercise the brakes to slow down from a 3rd gear WOT straightaway into a VERY tight 270 degree turn. Very long course also at 81 seconds for the fast time of day and 87 seconds for my fast time.
Notes: I think I finally have the suspension and tire settings worked out. Front Dampers = Middle, RSB = Full stiff, Rear Dampers = Full stiff, Tires 38 psi front, 45 psi rear (Car rode like crap on the way home, but was a dream to drive during the race)

Ax19] 2013-Oct-06: SCCA Detroit Region - Belle Isle Paddock, Detroit, MI - Season Ender

Place: 1st of 9 in class, 2nd of 101 overall PAX
Course Layout: I really liked this course. You had to be precise and controlled. If you drove too hard, you suffered.
Notes: Same setup and tire pressures as last race. I feel the car is really dialled in for my driving now. And I think the results show that.

Planned:

Enjoy the videos in posts that follow which you can get to via links above.

Coding:
Ax = Autocross; AxT = Autocross Test; D = Drag (just in case)

First Autocross: Wet Mess



I held 1st gear too long on the launch, but otherwise, not so bad.

This was the 2nd run of the day, but the 4th run was about 1 second faster.

Data from new phone app:

Nice. The cameras, are they yours or set up by the organizers?

andy_uranium said:

Nice. The cameras, are they yours or set up by the organizers?

Click to expand...

They are a data acquisition system we use at work. But it seems like I use them more for "off job training", if you know what I mean.

Sweet perk!

Yeah, lots of car data logging equipment aroun these parts. Can't tell you how many cars I see driving around here with manufacturers plates and laptops running inside.

What phone app are you using?

I know, but I've never thought to borrow a V-box for autocross from work...

Though I uses the shop at work all the time to work on my car...

Brendon said:

What phone app are you using?

Click to expand...

RaceChrono on Samsung Galaxy S2 (Harry's Lap Timer seems to be preferred for rainbow-fruity-phones)

RacingManiac said:

I know, but I've never thought to borrow a V-box for autocross from work...

Though I uses the shop at work all the time to work on my car...

Click to expand...

Do it! If you present it as "free training for the company" it gets more acceptance with the boss-types.

I've used TrackMaster on my GNex last year at 1 track day, but without any external receiver. Worked ok I guess as timing but might have some accuracy issue with the phone GPS. I haven't tried it for autoX at all since I think timing with it might be a bit wonky even though it says it can do it(not sure how it knows when it ends).

bimmer635csi said:

RaceChrono on Samsung Galaxy S2 (Harry's Lap Timer seems to be preferred for rainbow-fruity-phones)

Click to expand...

Thanks dude


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Brendon said:

Thanks dude


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Click to expand...

Just for clarity, the video is not from RaceChrono, only the plot of the course is from RaceChrono.

I believe the accuracy of RaceChrono can be improved with some bluetooth GPS gizmo, but the cost seems a bit high for a severe maybe in data improvement.

bimmer635csi said:

Just for clarity, the video is not from RaceChrono, only the plot of the course is from RaceChrono.

I believe the accuracy of RaceChrono can be improved with some bluetooth GPS gizmo, but the cost seems a bit high for a severe maybe in data improvement.

Click to expand...

Yeah I was aware of that it was only for course plotting. Thanks for the feedback


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Pretty good day today. Finished 1st in G Stock against a BMW 325i and another GTI and a Buick of some kind.

Was able to tune some of the push out by softening the front dampers 3 clicks after pumping the front tires up to 53 psi (which seems insanely high). I need to double check the pressure against a known good gauge, but I think it is correct.

I think some of the push is because the lot was almost covered in gravel, but I think I can tune a little more tomorrow. We got 6 runs today which gave plenty of time for tuning, but tomorrow should help also. No fancy graphs yet because I'm in a hotel tonight and very tired. I'm hopeful the vids and pics can get up tomorrow when I get home, but maybe unlikely.

bimmer635csi said:

Pretty good day today. Finished 1st in G Stock against a BMW 325i and another GTI and a Buick of some kind.

Was able to tune some of the push out by softening the front dampers 3 clicks after pumping the front tires up to 53 psi (which seems insanely high). I need to double check the pressure against a known good gauge, but I think it is correct.

I think some of the push is because the lot was almost covered in gravel, but I think I can tune a little more tomorrow. We got 6 runs today which gave plenty of time for tuning, but tomorrow should help also. No fancy graphs yet because I'm in a hotel tonight and very tired. I'm hopeful the vids and pics can get up tomorrow when I get home, but maybe unlikely.

Click to expand...

Nice. Sounds like a good day indeed.


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