My first day at the track!

I did an autocross novice school at the track (Driveway Austin) today to prepare me for my first autocross event tomorrow. Holy crap that was fun!!! I got 16 runs on the track today. 10 of them with me driving with an instructor riding shotgun, 3 with the instructors driving me around, and 3 alone, racing against the other students at the end of the day.

My GTI did me proud. It handled impressively well in the slalom portions of the courses. I was also impressed at how well mannered and forgiving the GTI was when I gave it the wrong input.

I accomplished one goal which was to beat the '08 Civic Si that was there today in every round (since he referred to the GTI in jest as "the competition" during the morning signups). Yay! Regardless, he's was a nice guy and a good sport.

I needed to run much more pressure in my tires than I did today, especially the fronts. I went to fill them last night and found the gas station air nozzle was broken.

I've now borrowed an electric pump for use tomorrow at the actual autocross event. THAT is going to be a blast! :happyanim:

Welcome to the addiction! The more events you attend, the more you'll understand that autocross is 80% driver and 20% car (with some exceptions of course). Good luck and keep at it.

Awesome man. Glad you enjoyed it.

Nice. You're livin' my dream. I have to hook it up here in NW Ohio. Any autocrossers up here?

Thanks guys. I had a blast!

For the autocross that Sunday, I finished 13th out of 37 in the novice category. You can be considered a novice for up to 2 years. Finishing in the top half in my first-ever autocross was more than I was expecting. My goals were to 1) have fun and 2) not make an ass of myself. I'd say mission accomplished!

Johnny, I know what you mean when you say "Welcome to the addiction!" I've got to start budgeting now.

congrats man!!! Autox is the best. Now, as far as budgeting, get yourself a good set of soft tires and wait till you see how your car handles then. I'd just walk around and see what the other competitors are driving on, but here in southwest Ohio the majority is Falken Azenis 615RT's and I chose the Hankook RSII's because they last a bit longer than the Falkens and a better rain tire. A lot of people are switching to the bridgestones as well.

But most of all, just enjoy yourself, it doesn't hurt to add some "advantages" to your car as well.

cbursten said:

Nice. You're livin' my dream. I have to hook it up here in NW Ohio. Any autocrossers up here?

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come down to cincy for an event!! march 16th perhaps

Thanks for the tire tip xyouthx! Yeah, I need to work on some "advantages." My car is totally stock from a performance point of view.

BTW, here's a shot I took with my phone while in grid waiting to race at the end of the of the Saturday novice class. I was trying to get a shot of the guy's helmet sticking up out of the targa top on the Lotus Esprit Turbo in front of me. Pretty funny.

Yay autocross! I'm jealous of your area. SoCal is filled with too many pros. When I ran novice I was one a only 4 others. I got bored with that and bumped myself up to the normal classes, where I run midpack-ish. Doesn't really matter though. It's still crazy fun.

One thing I found out the hard way. Make sure you always have at least 1/4 tank of gas for practice days. I thought I'd be clever and show up with less gas and save some weight. Instead I ended up starving for fuel on my last runs. Doh!

As for mods. Just stay stock for a season or two. I'm 4 seconds faster per lap than another GTI with full suspension mods. Like JLove said, it's almost all driver. The best mod to make is the one behind the steering wheel

chadman said:

As for mods. Just stay stock for a season or two. I'm 4 seconds faster per lap than another GTI with full suspension mods. Like JLove said, it's almost all driver. The best mod to make is the one behind the steering wheel

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Point taken. Thanks.

I couldn't stay stock for a season if my life depended on it. I'd be afraid of rolling over.

Not really, but you get what I'm sayin

In So Cal the GTI isn't competitive in any class, so no point putting $$ into it. I'm putting the money into a "auto-x only car" fund. Besides, as long as I'm faster than the other GTI with the mods, why bother?

OTOH, when I drove his car, it drove WAY nicer than mine and I could tell there was a lot of time in it still.

ANYWAY, I hear what you're saying, but in auto-x you want to stay stock for a season just to make sure it's YOU that's getting better and not just the car. If you're serious about it anyway. You really don't want to get into the crazy mod classes and have to go up against the turbo'd Miatas. That ain't pretty (I'm assuming you're in an SCCA classed club - some clubs are more casual, in which case...stay stock anyway - or go bananas!). But, if you're just out there to hit up the practice days and have fun...go nutz!