The result: crappy tires (many years old yokohama yk420′s) + 4125lb curb weight car (meaning it’s probably more like 4200+ lbs) = VERY HARD TIME for QV to transition, haha.

First run:
- Traction control on (just to see what it was like)
- Top up (just for fun)

Subsequent runs:
- Traction control off (much better, more control & power)
- Top down (let the good times roll).

The car handles like a boat (expected) – pushes everywhere the second you apply power. The traction control cut off WAY TOO MUCH power when it detected any kind of sliding at all. You have to be extra smooth with the inputs since the suspension was so soft & the tires were so crappy. I went from a 78.xxx second first run down to a 74.910 10th run. I had a couple of instructors drive my car; definitely helped, but they both spun the car since they were a little too aggressive – still learned plenty though. Amazingly, with the roll bar down, none of the fishtailing action was enough to get it to pop up (I’m pretty sure it still works properly, haha).

There were also 2 other Mercedes there: a newer SL55 AMG & an SLK 320. The driver of the SL55 was ahead of me for a few runs, and his instructor ran an impressive 75.0xx lap time, but I beat them both in the end, YAY R129!

This car obviously isn’t made for autocrossing, but it can be a force to be reckoned with after some modifications, namely getting a set of nicer tires, shocks/struts, and a front sway bar, which will still keep it in the stock class (all SL’s fall under H Stock, the lowest class available, hee hee). I feel much more in tuned with the car now that I have “broken her in.”

I took out my regular track car (the orange 240sx convertible) for the championship on Sunday, and did much better time wise – estimated at about 5-6 seconds faster than the SL500. I still ended up 4th place out of 5th place in class. The car is definitely capable of at least getting 2nd place, but the driver still needs much improvement.

Some pics from Theo Osifeso from our CSCC autocross group:

And a video of my first run (I’m all over the place) & my best run:

Here is a video of my fastest championship run on Sunday in the 240sx (course is run backwards with some modifications – estimated at about 1.5-2 seconds faster than Saturday’s course):

And for fun, here is a slo mo video capture of my car on Sunday from Mako Koiwai from out CSCC autox group as well – I’m pretty close to the apex cones, could probably get a lil closer:

Q DNCU from Mako Koiwai on Vimeo.

I was still able to floor the car leaving the turns & through a couple sections. Throttle modulating is something completely new now, hee hee, but I’m glad I’m able to actually need to modulate the throttle as opposed to just flooring it most everywhere before when I was n/a.

My basically fully prepped 240sx (everything but the 5-speed) still lost to Chris’ stock 350z. Though I had a lead pre-lunch, Chris pulled away by over a second by the end of the day. I think Chris is finally getting used to his car – can’t wait to see what he can do w/ the Z once it has nicer tires. I really need to pick up the pace and get my head back into this – the only consolation is that I am faster relative my previous performances (comparing the times I’m ahead/behind most people through the past few events, with the exception of Chris, of course, since he’s been improving as well).

The video below is my first run with the turbo setup. Jenny finally took a ride-a-long with me after accompanying me to a few events.

Higher quality version is available if you watch it directly on YouTube.com.

By the end of the run, the car is on fire… literally! Luckily it was very small & easily put out. After lunch, I finally figured out why (a few different factors):

- after first installing the setup, the hi temp thermo-coat was not enough to keep the area near the turbo cool -> partially melted my brake reservoir.

- after that, I wrapped some exhaust heat wrap on the dump pipe & covered the brake reservoir and hard lines in high temp heat wrap (2000 F stuff).

- during the autox run the brake fluid splashed around and seeped out the hole/grap created by the partially melted reservoir & reservoir cap.

- after drenching the heat wrap around the bmc (explained the brake fluid smell after the runs) it leaked onto the thin heat wrap around the front brake hard line, which was directly touching the dump pipe heat wrap.

- in the end, hot dump pipe + thin heat wrap directly touching it + brake fluid = small fire.

After I removed the rest of the heat wrap, the car ran fine.

I have since replaced the reservoir & everything seems okay now, hee hee. I’ll see what happens the next event.

Video of my fastest run during the morning can be found in my gallery.

Overall, I got 13 runs – they were hoping for 16, but we ran short on time, but I was only expecting 8-12. The course layout was AWESOME. It was really nice how they minimized the space used for parking & maximized the course size while still fitting everyone.

This was my first autocross (not counting Lone Pine since it was a time trial, officially) with the Power FC & 265 tires all around. Second gear feels SOOOOO good thanks to Lien from FRSport, who hooked up the Power FC adapter & base map off Cat’s S14.

Early in the day, Mako, the one who always takes awesome pictures of everyone’s cars, took a ride along. “I didn’t realize your car was automatic until you started driving, then I just felt sorry for you.” Sad, but true. Mako noticed that I was taking the turns really wide & said I should be taking the apexs much closer than I currently am.

I had developed this style because of the lack of acceleration of my heavy stock automatic car – if I took turns wider, I was able to maintain a much higher speed average. If I slowed down and took turns too tight, the acceleration coming out of the turn felt like dog poo. Of course, I am positive I took it too far & take turns WAY too far out. During the morning, I was running 75 seconds down to 73 seconds. That was enough to be competitive with most of the newbies, but embarrassing for the class I am in (and considering I’ve been doing this almost 3 years now, yikes).

I spent half the day working on this and got ride alongs with faster guys & girls.

During my work assignment, I got lucky & only had to do gate duty, woo hoo! I still managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders because I took off my long sleeve half way through the day & didn’t reapply sunblock.

By the afternoon, I was getting into the high 71 & low 72 second range. I was lucky enough to get Jason Flores (races an 89 Honda Civic SI in STS with Steven Yeoh, check out his codriver’s blog here: http://yeohbaby.blogspot.com/). Jason gave me some tips, notably that I was entering the hairpins too fast and too sharp. After applying his techniques (which I still need to practice better), I was able to shave about .4 seconds off my time.

Here’s the video with some of his comments @ the end:

Run w/ Jason (YouTube version):

Run w/ Jason (Hi Quality version):

All available videos @ higher quality (640×480) available here: http://www.bewbews.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=1447

Thanks for the tips, Jason!

No pictures this time, I got too lazy. For those who want to see pictures from the championship (next day), you can check it out on the solo2.com forum thread: http://forums.solo2.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=203.

I was suppose to show up to the championship on Sunday too, but didn’t make it – half way into the day I realized my tire was STILL rubbing into the driver side harness. By the end of the day, relays were clicking like crazy & exposed wire was looking really sketchy. I spent Sunday patching up the harness & readjusting the coilovers – seems like they keep getting a lil loose on one side.

I’ll be prepped soon enough to get a baseline of where I stand overall – hopefully by July.

QV