Anyway, I am continuing my co-drive of the Austin Healey Sprite in GP (CPM locally) with Don for 2012. Kandi 2.0 is still under construction – I haven’t touched the 240sx at all since the engine swap last Summer.

The Sprite, on the other hand, has had its fair share of breakdowns and problems recently. However, most of it is sorted out and we are faster than ever (in raw time). Our PAX handicap has suffered due to 2011 Nationals GP performance.

During the practice, I got to try out our brand new Hoosier Wets: AMAZING!!! We were ridiculously fast in the rain. However, as it dried up, we changed back to the regular dry slicks. The whether was a bit too cold & still wet enough (but too dry for the rain Hoosiers) that we could not build up enough heat in the tires; still a fun day overall. It was unfortunate we forgot to record the wet runs – they were interesting, to say the least.

Here’s a beautiful picture Mako took of me running once it stopped raining:

For the championship, I managed to come in 4th for the 1st event of January. Not as fast as I needed to go, but overall we did very well considering our raw time. We feel the car is fully capable of topping our local Combined Prep and Mod class, but I’ll need to pick up the slack & drive better by quite a bit to top the C Modified vehicles. In any case, we are definitely on the way to trophying this year at Nationals.

My 2nd fastest run on Sunday (fastest one wasn’t recorded ):

Don’s fastest run on Sunday:

I won my first divisional this weekend, yay!

Car hasn’t changed much for the past few events; still learning the limits of the car.

In this particular Saturday run, I was trying to beat my 94.7xx; I tried a little too hard & ended up correcting a lot of little mistakes from overdriving certain sections. I still got faster (enough to be ahead of the competition), but not fast enough personally.

This run on Sunday felt fantastic. Definitely leaving plenty of time out on course, but that will change with more seat time & confidence in the car. This Austin Healey Sprite is coming along nicely; hopefully, I can make the driver faster in time for Nationals…

For those of you unfamiliar w/ Pro Solo, it’s basically autocross on steroids – mirrored courses w/ a drag tree start where you launch against a competitor: EXCITING! For more information, you can check out solo2.com and scca.com.

Luckily for me, Stanley’s regular co-driver, Joe, was out of town. He offered me a co-drive in his SSM Miata. 275 wide Hoosier A6′s all around & 180-200ish whp (since cylinder 2 was low & boost was turned down to 15 psi, haha); “slow” as Stanley puts it. How could I refuse?

I had an absolute blast, despite stalling the poor Miata all around paddock on Friday getting used to the competition clutch. I didn’t stall off the line during my runs, but I didn’t launch very well either; everywhere from the high .6xx to 1+ second range (.500 is the perfect reaction time). The car is a MONSTER. I was having a tough time all weekend since the course was coming up so much faster than I’m used to. I still had a blast & came in 7th out of 11 while Stanley came in 5th w/ about 1 second lead over me each side of the course; not too shabby considering it was my first time driving this car & not being able to launch manuals very well, haha.

This driving experience will definitely help me with the Sprite, which seems “slow” in comparison. If I can get fast in this Miata… oh the possibilities.

Here are some pics of me from Jeff Shyu @ ikonique.com from the weekend. Check his web site for more pictures.

We found a few issues while taking the car apart, as well:
- hardened axles were still not strong enough, slightly bent, but was okay – replaced for this event.
- rear wheel hubs were binding on brake caliper brackets pretty badly – spacers have been installed.

Other changes since past event: changed Quaiffe to welded, taller gears (can run course in 2nd gear instead of 3rd), and increased rebound to deal w/ corner entry push. We also finally bled the rear wilwood brakes correctly (outside AND inside bleeding screw).

Austin is now significantly more predictable with the welded rear-end compared to when she had the Quaiffe. It is also MUCH better than the last time we tried welded since we have now fixed more of the suspension problems.

This event was meant mainly for testing steady state turns & transitions, etc. It’s better; whether we’re actually faster remains to be seen.

Note there is some data drop out, so the speed/g’s for the very slow back corner is obviously off.

We had a lot of help & input from Jon, who drives an ST Civic in the region. Here’s Jon’s run earlier in the morning after diagnosing the corner entry push introduced by the welded rear-end:

He was faster in the wet than I was in the dry, and only after driving the car a few times, each time w/ different settings!

Recently, Lien from FRSport had some time to street tune my 240sx convertible, Kandi. She feels MUCH faster now. I obtained a set of 17×10 Enkei RP-F1′s (only 17 lbs!) and 245/40R17 Bridgestone RE-01r’s all around. The acceleration & turning response just from lighter rims is definitely noticeable, not to mention the stickier tires.

Between those upgrades, the much needed seat time, and the very slightly better CST (California Street Touring – basically, “run what you brung” with street tires of 140+ treadwear), I’ve recently moved up the rankings from the low 200′s all the way to 148 in the last event with CSCC / SCCA.

My buddies and I also attended the 2009 Pro Solo event at El Toro. Donny from FRSport & I competed in XP (bumped to R1 – Race Tire Index) class with our RE01r’s, hahaha. We had our “battle for 2nd to last place”, which turned out to be a complete blast. Pro solo’s are about as fun as autox’s can get, with the Lone Pine Time Trials coming in at a very close 2nd. It was very fun launching against Donny on Sunday.

I’ve also attended several events before that and the event directly after. The most recent autox had a practice slalom & figure-8 for testing & tuning during rest periods. Absolutely AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, something got screwed w/ my DVR setup & I don’t have any video from my February/March/April events . It’s more or less the same stuff, though . I’ll definitely work on getting some quality video this upcoming event – a bunch of friends and I will be working the Motorsports Z Autocross event, which gives us a free practice the day after. Stay tuned!

In any case, I found out my relative Donald was attending the Speed Ventures autocross on November 22, 2008 w/ his 350z. I didn’t even know he tracked his car at all, so I had to sign up. We bet lunch. Chris & I are pretty close in times at autox, so I figured it would be interesting to dual it out vs the 350z track edition + some federal tires (better than the oem ones in my opinion).

The Speed Ventures autocrosses are held in the small parking lot on the inside of Roval @ AAA Speedway. I was doubtful if it was going to be enjoyable at first (the GReddy Fest autocross had a bigger lot @ El Toro & it got boring pretty fast, though it was fun beating all the “hard parkers”). However, the course design was quite entertaining, with many elements stressing looking ahead and setting up correctly for the next turn. Not having to work was awesome as well. However, at $90 ($80 + $10/person fee to get in), I don’t know how often I’d want to go again.

Easiest lunch I’ve won in a long time, hee hee. It turns out he has only done drifting events, and it was his first autocross event. I was ahead of him several seconds in the morning. By the end of the day, he finally got within 1 second and some change – just a hair over 45 seconds flat for my relative, and a 43.7 for me. The fastest people of the day were in the 38′s & 39′s, so I still had quite a ways to go, but I managed to best the majority of cars there – something that NEVER happens @ an SCCA/CSCC event.

Mike Equina and Jayson Woodruff gave me great advice after they noticed how I was plowing into most of the turns despite my speed & not rotating the car very well. “Why don’t you stiffen up the rear suspension?” OOO YYEAAAA. I was running 18 all around for the past few months as a compromise between having it soft enough for more forgiving transitions but stiff enough that I don’t destroy my wiring harnesses that are right above the tires (can’t relocate those yet since the convertible has a factory brace that blocks the way). I ended up running 24 out of 32 in the rear. The car felt like a totally different animal. I was able to get on the throttle much sooner since I was no longer understeering out of the corners (in fact, I was able to sort of throttle steer my way through & out of the turns).

My fastest personal run from the Speed Ventures autocross:

^^^ Video comes out normal scale, but no “watch in high quality” – however, you can see it in all its glory on my gallery page.

The following weekend, I brought my Uncle Trinh to an SCCA autocross practice (November 28, 2008 practice). He didn’t want to take his 240z or his IS-250, so I let him co-drive my car. Since we shared a single entry, I also did the course work for him so that he could get the maximum (virtual Speed Ventures no-work style) enjoyment out of his first autocross.

We did a course walk and took some ride-a-longs during the first heat so he could get used to the whole course setup.

By the time it was our turn to run, I let him have the first few runs. He DNF’ed all over the place, went to slow in the fast sections, and turned too late in the slow sections. In one of the videos, you can hear me screaming “YOU’RE KILLING MY TIRES!!!” As the day went on, he got more comfortable with the course and car and managed to go from 91+ seconds DNF’ing to about 77/78 seconds clean.

The most important thing is, he’s addicted to autocross now, hee hee.

I managed to go from 73.xxx seconds to 71.8xx in 4 laps. The new digital recorder messed up in the afternoon, so the fastest run I have recorded for myself is my 72.xxx run & an 82.xxx run for my uncle.

Uncle Trinh said he’ll be able to beat me after a couple more events. I wonder how many lunches I can milk out of this deal .

*Videos are stretched because of codec I used – I need to remember what settings I use to get high quality video without the video stretch on youtube. The following videos can be watched in high quality if you watch it directly on youtube. You can watch the high quality unstretched versions on my gallery page.

One of the advantages of having an open face helmet (I was wearing a closed face one) is that you can hear & talk easier. I was yelling over the sound of the exhaust making sure my uncle heard me, fun times… not for my tires tho.

Trinh’s first autox run:

Trinh’s fastest recorded morning run:

My fastest recorded morning run:

Lastly, I attended the autocross championship event on November 30, 2008 – which essentially runs the practice course backwards. A lot of the regular CSM guys weren’t there (I didn’t know this), leaving only me, Art in one of his 280z’s, and Vincent with his MR2 Spyder. Jason Flores instructed me my first run, managing to get a 63.8xx second lap time while taking it “slow” and talking me through what he was doing. This is only his second time driving my car, but as with most instructors, I always learn a lot from having better drivers take my care around the course.

Even with his instruction, I choked and coned my first run with a 66.xxx second lap time. My second run netted a 65.6xx, but I knew I was a good 2 seconds off from where I should be. The final run was back in the 66′s. In my set of x-runs, I finally managed to get down to 64.1xx seconds, but my driving was not nearly as smooth as Jason’s. I was still happy I was able to get relatively close.

After cleaning up course, much to my surprise, Michael Palero yells at me “Did you see how you did?” I check the results, and BAM! First place in CSM by 1/10th of a second. SWEEEEEEET. This will probably be my only trophy for a LONG TIME, considering the SM class guys were running 58 second lap times. I still have quite a ways to go, but at least my car is finally getting closer to the condition I’m trying to get it in; and as I said before, the car, despite the automatic transmission and weight, are definitely not the bottle-necks in my driving.

I’m really glad I came out to the championship this weekend .

Jon was able to make it out with a GTR (sorry, no pics of that, forgot to bring a camera)!!! Since that car was so new, there was no class for it, so he ended up running in my class (CSM – no holds bar California Street Modified). He did very well, running a clean 33.833 – which is good enough for 1st place in CSM, but he was put in the novice class & got 2nd because of the indexing vs another NOV in STS. Yours truly got 4th… out of 4 people, hahaha.

This time around, the stock exhaust is back on (didn’t feel slower, mostly quieter) & the timing was retarded a bit (was way too advanced causing some knock & bad gas mileage).

Despite the low number of runs because it’s a championship as opposed to practice, I’m really glad I came out. It was a great experience, and I’m definitely attending this again next year.

For those who don’t know, the Pro Solo differs from a regular autocross with a “drag light” christmas tree start & 2 mirror courses, which 2 competitors run @ the same time, then loop around to the other side, line up, and run again.

I’ve done a few local championships, which I’ve also placed pretty low, but this should be a great new learning experience. I’ll update as the event comes closer.

In the mean-time, I found this picture of me running @ a practice down in El Toro last year in my little sister’s Sentra (yes, it’s also automatic) – IIRC, the course was based on a previous National solo or pro solo course, so I thought it was appropriate: