Well Boys and Girls - I did it, went out for my 1st Auto-X and crushed the competition**. ** Well, actually, I was swapping wheels when they announced it so I'm not sure by how much I won but I think I smoked 'em pretty good. I was 5 seconds off the pace of the instructors who were turning in times of 90.xx seconds and I threw down a 95.6 sumthin. There were about 20 cars in the Novice class including 2 Lotus Elise and a Corvette Z-06, amongst many other BMWs and Minis. Anyhow, you can sorta make out the 1st place engraving on the attached photo - trust me, it's there! I will get some video up on YouTube later. There is a pretty wild spin out I did in the process of munching 3 cones...I managed to not stall it and peel-out back onto the course without earning a DNF. Anyway, the video should make for some cheap entertainment. Pretty awesome day...I went out never expecting to do even half way decent, just wanted to slide the car around and ended up coming home with the trophy! Perhaps the best part was how cool everyone at the event was and how much love and respect they had for the F355. A number of guys came by throughout the day to say how cool it was that I would even run a car like this. Of course I should have known they would be a great bunch; being a BMW CCA member for 15+ years and I know how deep the passion for cars runs in that crowd. =) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Awesome! Can you imagine what you could do with more driver development and an alignment? You look a bit high in your photo. And if you want to spend a few more bucks Rob Schermerhorn is the coilover guru on these cars and can get you a great setup and super secret shock valving. I hope you are getting addicted. What are you doing 4/10/10? There is an open trackday with speed ventures at buttonwillow which is the most fun track in the area.
Thanks FBB! Your wheels made all the difference!! I was running Hoosier R6s (thanks GatorGreg!!). So, um, about me looking high. Until the November ballot in California, recreational use of pot is still illegal here. Ooooh, you talking about the wheel well gaps? Yeah, I thought they looked crazy high too. Any advice on that one?
Yeah, lower it a bit say an inch relative to factory ride height and put it on the scales and align it. A good shop like Westend Alignment in gardena can do this. I know you are in SD but darin is worth the drive unless you KNOW a good guy in SD. It will take even this pro about 4 hours to do the job with you sitting in the car for proper total weight and maybe 300 bucks but it is worth it. Many alignment shops say they do the job right but have no idea just trusting mal-adjusted machines and not a one of them will read to find out what rideheight should be where reference points are or have a clue what happens when you deviate from factory settings. How much street driving are you doing will determine how far you go with the alignment
Rick: Congratulations! You, my man are truly a hot **** and an inspiration to all in this forum section. Keep up the great work. Best regards, Scott
Thanks Scott but I think I'm way at the back of the line when it comes to deserving praise like that. I'm just having a lot of fun and drawing my own inspiration from others here on the forum. PS Vids are coming...just waiting for YouTube to finish processing the HD quality (standard is really crummy).
Here we go - the winning run for Novice Class! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlwBOS5Vwcs Be sure to click on 720p HD video quality. The ride is pretty violent at times - lots of quick turns and uneven pavement. If you are pregnant, have a heart condition or easily get motion sickness - please do not view.
I never noticed you shift so I just assumed it was a gts f1 but then at the end looked like you shifted stick into neutral...guess you just used 1 gear thru out the session? congrats, glad you had fun!
I really needed to shift into 3rd in about 3 sections of the course but was a bit chicken. I will post another couple runs (videos) where I did go into 3rd several times but still lifted way too early...guess that's why they call it Novice Class. Otherwise, yeah, I was in 2nd gear on that run for about 93 of the 95 seconds.
Looks like a great time, congrats! Have you verified that your bypass valve is working? Maybe it's just the video but your car seems a bit quieter than other Capristo equipped cars I have heard.
Brakes were great...when I actually hit them (!). I had a couple practice runs where my right foot had trouble finding the brake pedal. A bit scary to go dive bombing into a turn, think you're hitting the brakes and nothing happens. All of my recent track experience (non autox) was in a different car so I think my subconscious took over when things got hairy and sent my foot looking for the brake pedal in my other car! No, I haven't verified the bypass valve. I can't even ascertain what level Capristo this is (no annotation on the invoice from previous owner). How could I verify the valve is working properly? Here's the video of my last 2 runs. I have a wipeout 40 seconds into this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGLIgAnJLy8
Maybe 40 minutes to swap the wheels - that's it. If you're wondering why it took me so long to swap wheels, it was because I had never done it before and didn't have any power tools. A cordless impact driver / drill is now at the top of my shopping list.
You could have someone go wide open throttle in neutral (without over revving) while you watched the valve. Or you could wire the valve open and see if there is a great difference in WOT sound. That would be good evidence as to whether or not it is working. To check bypass valve diaphragm, open the valve by hand with the line off and cover up the vacuum port. The valve should remain open if the diaphragm holds vacuum. Also check all vacuum lines for leaks. When I got my car the valve would open for a moment then close. I found a crack in the end of the metal vacuum line (connects bypass valve and solenoid I believe) that was causing intermittent operation.
Nice job looks like a blast! But I gotta say I've never seen an autocross course with that many cones! I've been autocrossing for 15 years and other than a few guide cones, gates and slalom cones, we never have course outlined like that. Makes it fun to watch folks get lost. Glad you had a good time. That's how a Ferrari should be driven!
It's the GoPro HD Hero (Motorsports). Yeah, it does a decent job of cutting down the wind noise - there are 2 covers that you can swap out depending on conditions/speed which theoretically deal with the wind noise differently. Pretty slick.