March 26 Autocross Video

This is my fastest lap. Surface was a bit bumpy but what a blast. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/gUPrgvpMBxo

 

That was cool. I watched it twice, once for the track view and the second time just the g meter. Good driving

 

That's pretty fast there, MAGNUM!!!!

 

Thanks for the ride. Cool.

 

way to represent, Magnum

 

see what Higgin's has to say about that

 

A blast for us to watch as well -thanks for sharing

 

Very cool.

1.2 lateral Gs. Braking usually about 0.8 G. Acceleration pretty good too.

Nice line.

 

Cool! What was the camera you're using with the track, lap, G force etc showing? Very interesting.

 

It's a phone app called Harry's Lap Timer

 

Thx!

 

Ha ha yea that use to kinda irritate me like 20 years ago when I first got this car.

Now that I'm older and heavier I take it as a total compliment .... I think?

Glad you caught that .... it really makes me laugh because the dude seems so sincere when he says it.... He could be being totally sarcastic and I'm wanting to hear sincerity? .

cheers

 

The fact is the car is an icon and the reason for that (to the rest of the world) is because of the TV show. I consider the 911 an icon too but it does not have the recognition to any single identifier like Magnum PI. In fact, if you were doing this in a white TR i would expect a "Crocket" shout out.

 

Ha ha yea I had two thoughts in my head when I posted my comment. "Magnum" was part of it but I wasn't sure if the "That's pretty fast" part was sarcastic or not until I saw that I beat the CDI who drives a GT3 .

Here's the lap after which is my very last lap. After I banked the previous lap I pushed a bit harder and had a really nice drift at 1:03. I usually try and gather the car up when it gets that sideways but I'd been having fun on that corner so I kept it planted and she didn't snap back in anger like my old 911 has on me .

Enjoy cheers

https://youtu.be/RQ93cO0FvaQ

 

That's the right way, no brakes, a little power to keep the back end from coming around.

Of course I know this because I almost always let off the gas and maybe hit the brakes which usually results in going backwards and/or sideways in an unintended trajectory through cones or off the track with my head yelling at my feet, "What did you do that for?!?!??"

I have an autocross coaching lesson late this month (more fun than serious). Between your videos and this lesson maybe it will inspire confidence to try a real autocross in the 308, which I've never done.

 

Cool. What do you normally autocross? The 308 can be a real handful with the steering ratio and stock suspension setup.

When I first started autocrossing this car with the stock suspension it was semi laughable with the amount of body roll and nose dive under braking. Here's a couple pics from those days. There is no comparison to what the car was and what it is.

I actually have two 308's and one of them has QA1's and urethane bushings, the other which I autocross has triple adjustable Wilbers (which I had to re-valve) and metal control arm bushings. Both of them go well but the autocross car is really like a precision instrument in comparison to the car with the QA1's, and compared to a stock 308, you wouldn't think you were still in a Ferrari if you drove mine and then drove a stock one . There is so much performance potential waiting to be unlocked, but I understand now as values have gone up very few will want (or can afford) to have this kind of "fun" with these machines . If you're a hard core diy'er there's nothing to it ... and I encourage it .

cheers
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I don't! I haven't done an autocross since I sold my Spitfire maybe 20 years ago. But even then I maybe did six events? It's not like I did it regularly or was very good. Orange cones everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when I stopped showing up. I also autocrossed my old gen 1 Scirocco a couple of times.

I did a few seasons of LeMons and ChumpCar in a couple of different Miatas. This is where I experienced my favorite automotive landscaping experiments. My lap times were medium-good and I had a hell of a good time.

That's what I'm expecting here. I'm not going to mod the car to be competitive. I'll be there to have fun and to let all the guys who brought Civics go home and tell everyone that they beat a Ferrari. And I don't care.

 

Nice work! I'd be plowing over cones left and right. Haha.

 

Very cool Lucky. Where was this? I haven't done an autocross in about 5 years...unfortunately, it was a tight technical one...didn't get out of 2nd gear.

I gotta do another one...

 

As a former auto-Xer, I can honestly say "wow, great run!"

I feel so much better knowing you have upgraded the suspension. Neither my GT4 or 328 would look like that...as the body roll and resulting slow turn-in would have produced a laughable contrast to your car's razor-sharp reflexes.

Brian -- I can't believe you used Miatas in LeMons! There is such disdain for Miatas in crap-car racing...mostly because they're good out of the box, but usually wind up in the weeds. (Actually, usually they wind up past the weeds wedged one half on a stump and the other in the mud.) The one time I auto-xed a Miata, I wound up just shy of spinning through the end timing lights. My auto-x buddy, who we dubbed the "Spin Doctor", turned to me right as I was jamming it into reverse and screamed "ya see, it's not just me...when it goes, it GOES"

 

Yep sometimes I have to remind myself of that! Have fun absolutely!

cheers

 

Qualcomm parking lot ... probably only another year or two of running there. The asphalt is really nakered and they want to re-develop the site.

As long as you can keep 'er in 2nd that would still be fun. Having to downshift to first for a corner would probably be toooo slow.

cheers

 

Thanks for the compliment bruhdda. I'm really impressed with the 308's performance especially after all the comments about chassis rigidity with the GTS. I guess I'm just not at the point where that matters ... it's still fun.

I just ordered a set of re71's which are supposed to be 2 seconds faster than the Direzza. IF that is true, I'll be knocking on the door of top ten, which I NEVER expected with a 308 that is still really a street car! (not gutted, etc.)

I'll admit every time I did a tire swap expecting to have faster times it never worked out. At $130/each though I couldn't resist the experiment.

There's several very fast guys at the autocross that run Miatas. One was fourth overall and beat me by 3 seconds with the alleged 2 second/lap faster tires. He was telling me how much crate engines cost for them things ... $4k brand new I think he said? That is a lot of bang for the buck.

cheers

 

Thats horrible news!

I always envy the San Diego autocross crowd for having Qualcom: high(er) speeds and long run times. You folks have something really special.

 

That's what I thought. Keep us posted on future autocrosses there. I might be up for a drive down there to run...