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Mark, nice photos. I found two of me, one of my buddy with the green E46 coupe, and two of his friend with the black E46 wagon.
Interested in posting the pics of my car on Facebook or Twitter.. how much to buy a digital copy? (Zenfolio seems to only offer prints, shirts, and mugs for sale.)
Great event everyone and glad to see Jeff scheduled the rain for Sunday only. I had a blast. Don’t remember driving this course before but don’t think I was at the August AutoX. Sorry if I didn’t have any fresh jokes for my announcing gig… will prep more with some next time. I believe my two buddies–both first timers at AutoX–had a great time too.
I rented Rush last night and plan to watch it today after the Super Bowl. Aparently doing things in the wrong order…
I think i voted for September but now seeing the preliminary vote tallies, September has no chance and I should have voted for August to give it a chance against April and June.
Maybe someday we can pave a link to the karting field and have a huge AutoX course in two parts, kind of like Thunderhill linking the current East track with the new West track.
Yes I have that compact one too an take it to events. On my 3rd one… 1st one developed a piston return problem, replaced under extended warranty. 2nd one failed due to user error (I didn’t block wheels or apply e-brake on slope, so car rolled off the jack and bent it). 3rd one has been going strong for 18 months and many events. I used it to raise the car onto jack stands several times, but if you want to make the car high to work on the shifter, driveshaft, etc. (and not just drain the oil), it takes some work moving the jack back and forth from front to rear and using wooden block to lift it an extra 1.5″ higher.
My original Kragen/O’reilly “Xceed” 3-ton floor jack still works but its minimum saddle height is about 5″ so I have to put car on 2×4 blocks (sometimes using the small HF aluminum jack) to get that Xceed jack under the car, and it doesn’t lower the car smoothly so it’s going to scrap metal recycling now that I have the HF 3-ton floor jack.
Oh AMD, don’t confuse me with logic! If I take the ratios of the times, it will probably turn out I was just as far behind the fast drivers last Saturday as I usually am on the 53-second courses.
Likewise if I swapped cars with one of the E46 drivers who is running on all-seasons and doesn’t have coilovers. There’s the risk we will just swap times, proving I’m only faster because of car mods, not driving skill. I have to protect my ego!
I have two HF jacks, the 1.5 ton mini aluminum racing jack Jeff has (often available for $60+tax with a coupon), I take the small one to AutoX or track days and leave the big one at home.
The one jack I bought, returned (unopened) and wish I’d kept was the Arcan 2-ton or 3-ton low-profile steel floor jack that Costco was selling several months ago. Was either $100 or $130, long, low-profile, and implicit ability to return to Costco anytime for a refund if something goes wrong. They don’t have it any more, but they are selling a different Arcan aluminum jack in the warehouses now. It’s $99, lifts more weight and higher than the HF 1.5-ton aluminum racing jack, and weighs around 50 lbs. But the minimum height is 4″, so if your car is lowered, or if a tire is flat, you might not be able to get it under the side jack pads.
I wasn’t sure that jack would fit under my (lowered) jack pads, so I just got the 3-ton HF floor jack for $89 (minus 20% coupon, but +tax), which goes as low as 3″ and as high as 18 or 19″. It weighs 72 lbs. Doesn’t go as low or as high as the bigger HF one with the foot pedal, but weighs less (that other weighs 93 lbs) and should be enough for me.
Edit: Here’s link to the [url=http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/floor-jacks/3-ton-heavy-duty-floor-jack-with-rapid-pump-61253.html]3-ton HF floor jack [/url]I bought. But for me it’s too big and too heavy to take to events.
From that standpoint I need a good excuse after every event!
I’m trying to show improvement by comparing to myself. Since the course is different every time, the standard of comparison has to be how many seconds slower I am compared to the better drivers. (Or maybe how consistent or inconsistent my runs are.)
Every 3 or 4 months if my times are not getting any closer (because my driving is not improving), I console myself by spending money to make the car handle better! Eventually my car will be exactly like Jeff Roberts’ car except I’ll have 4 doors and he’ll have a sub-woofer. And then when he is still faster than me I will have no excuses left!
The best run I have on camera, 46.00x seconds. Best run was almost 1.3 seconds faster (44.7xx).
And my worst run, fun run #3 with less grippy rear tires and trying to drift some corners with very limited success. Took out bunch of cones after first left hand and at least one more in the slalom.
I forgot to add, big thank you to my two coaches, who helped me drop 1.3 seconds from my 2nd run to my 6th run. One was Howard Yao and I can’t remember the other coach’s name.
Yes, Next month if Dave designs a course with more tight turns, it will be my nemesis and I will once again be 7 seconds behind Dunwoodie, 4 seconds behind Jeff, Jeff and Jack, 2 seconds behind Eric and Jared, and the Focus will beat me.
Hey I was only 4.7 seconds behind Dave Dunwoodie this time–an improvement! 3.2 seconds behind JeffC and Jack Yu, 2.6 secs behind Rodger, 1.1 behind JeffR. I think this is the first time I was ever faster than Jared or Eric, but Eric was driving a different car and having an off day. But every non-BMW was faster than me, except the Ford Focus.
Someday soon I will get real AutoX tires and remember to look ahead, then I’ll only be 4.2 seconds behind Dunwoodie and 2.7 seconds behind Cowan and Yu. And the Ford Focus will never catch me! At least that’s the plan.
My 2nd run, 4th fastest time (46.004), carrying 2 passengers.
My 3rd fun run, on the old Bridgetone rear tires, with lots of oversteer. (As Ryan announces at the end, I destroyed the course.)
Hey could use some setup/tuning advice. I put a fat Hotchkis front bar on my car using its softest setting and ran it at Laguna Seca. I felt it improved turn-in but am wondering if the middle setting would be even better. Or would it overwhelm the front tires and cause understeer?
Hotchkis 30.2mm hollow bar supposed to be about as stiff as a 28mm solid bar, so just slightly stiffer than the popular 27mm sold front bars. Any advice on whether it should be on sold or medium?
Tires are Continental ExtremeDW in 245/40/17. Do stickier tires normally rate a stiffer swaybar setting, while stiffer springs mean one should use a software swaybar setting?
