Apparently the autox we had on April 9th was just for practice and did not count for points, so the onewe had this past weekend was actually #1 and counts for points.
Last time I met Scott (GMUND) for the first time and we had good conversations throughout the day that made event certainly more enjoyable for me; he and I were the only Caymans at the event. Unfortunately we were both beaten by a '99 911. And the course was too tight for autox purposes which was disappointing.
So, I wanted give another try to the Chasepeake region autox and then decide to actually participate for the season or not. Well, I have to say the this time around the event was better organized, the course layout was significantly better, though still few spots were too tight without spoiling the flow however, and I met Brian this time. Brian (REBEL) and I were the only Caymans, I suspect Scott was busy this weekend.
There were nearly 60 cars, so many very beautiful Porsches; especially one 911 RSR that was a joy to watch, which did one of the best times. I had the chance to work during the heat that Brian was running, so I got a very close look how the Cayman performs under the conditions, and I must say, combined with Brian's driving it was very graceful, yet determinetly fast; even though this was Brian's first autox (he has considerable experience on the track) and I think he did extermely well; autox and road course driving techniques are quite different from one another.
I drove in the third heat with the hope that the asphalt would be warmer for the tires in the afternoon; I was on my stock wheels and tires (Bridgestone RE050A). Unfortunately, as 3rd heat was getting ready to start, the clouds rapidly closed in and sprinkled with rain drops. Thankfully, by the 2nd runs, grip was back to normal. In overall results, I could only manage 9th place.
In terms of the tire pressures, I continued in trying various combinations: I started of with 33.8 f/41.5 r. With rain drops on the course, I had to lowerthe rear pressuresas I had too much oversteer on faster corners under throttle and increase the front pressures as I was getting understeer in slower corners. On the 3rd run I ended up using34.2 f/ 40.5 r. Frankly this combination worked very well for me.
At the end, I had fun and I got a even better understanding what the car is capable of and where its limits are. As I mentioned before in another writing snippet, with stock setup, the limiting factors are the tire sizes and possibly compounds.
I hope to see you there next time on June 18;... ooops, I will actually be at VIR that day, but you go fun for me, and don't let the 911s bite you [img]/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/thumbsup.gif[/img]
Results: http://www.pcachs.org/autocross/results.html
Few Pics: http://www.pcachs.org/photos_and_mov...-sj/index.html
Cheers,
Edited by - FT on 05/24/2006 06:01:04 AM
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