A day at the Autocross (with a 500hp QV)

I took the 500+ hp QV to the autocross today....my G*D it was hard to drive, well easy to drive I guess, but incredibly hard to keep on the course. I've probably run at 3 or 4 dozen events over the years, but never before today have I missed the very first turn. I couldn't believe what was happening. I launched the car and got way too much wheel spin, so I decided to just grab second, but got into it too hard again and found myself sideways and on the wrong side on the first real gate, run #1 over. That has to be some kind of a record for shortest run. Very embarrassing. And since it was the only ferrari ever to come to one of their events, I think everyone was watching. I was also in the first run group so I got to spend the rest of the day answering “Was that you in the ferrari, what happened on that first run?”

Run 2 I decided to just start in second gear which worked much better, but still quite a bit of wheel spin. I made a nice gentle run to a 46+ second time.

Run 3 was still gentle and clean with a 43 flat. I had a really hard time keeping traction in the final dash to the light and end up bouncing off the off the rev limiter a bit. Not a great run but it put me first in class.

Run 4 I figured the car had about another 1.5 seconds in it (I was just running my street tires) so I pushed a little harder. Made a pretty good run through the first few turns, but over cooked it on the first little straight and nearly left the course again. Smoke from the front when I cut for the turn followed by smoke from all 4 tires on the brakes to keep from leaving the course when I realized I was way to hot, followed by smoke from the rears getting it rolling again. I don't think the car was even visible from the sideline through the smoke( I wish I had that on film). The rest of the run went great, but the damage was done, 45+. I got it in 3rd on the last turn which got me a prefect run to the finish crossing the line at about 80 mph (most street car were hitting maybe 45), after which a small group people came over to ask "what the heck is in that thing, I've never seen anything accelerate like that, and those wonderful ferrari sounds it makes". Just an awful time for the run, but that was cool.

Under the better off lucky than good heading, the 43 was good enough for a class win....but I don't think Shumi would have approved. The front end was pushing terrible, which is what I guess I should have expected since (like a moron) I took the rear antisway bar off the car because it didn't fit right with the big tires….I guess I convinced myself that decreasing the rear roll stiffness would be good with the add hp to help it bite…it did that I guess since I could give it quite a bit of throttle coming out of the turns but it sure didn’t help the front get in and around the turn. There is another run at the same site in 2 weeks, so I’ve got until then to get the antisway bar sorted out.

What a day, a little frustrating, but fun.

 

Penn National again. I think there will be one next weekend too, but it's my turn for a birthday party, my great uncle turns 100.

 

I ran SM2. I think you'd be Emod...but I think some regions might have an SM-unlimited kind of class

 

Well come on out next time! I'm sure we could find one a little more in your direction. It is a good time. I can tell you that 308 was much better behaved before, so I’m sure the 328 will be a joy to drive. I had it out a couple times with the old engine and before that with the stock engine and it was very easy to drive. The front end pushed quite a bit with the stock springs, but stiffer springs made it a lot better (I had 350 front and 250 rear – a little soft in back). It is a lot of fun though and there is very little change of hurting either you or the car.

The way it is now it is a bit on the evil side. A few years back in college a few friends and I built and race an Amod car, the fastest autocross class and I did well with it, never had a problem. It’s basically a small light formula car with a big engine, very fast but way way easier to drive than the QV is now. I need to fix that. Just driving it around I knew the car was a handful, I just didn’t realize how much so. If you want to find any flaws in your cars handling, an autocross is the place because you can push it right to its limits without any real worries. You can’t do that a high speed track event, crashing is always in your mind.

 

Done, it's down a little less than 1"

Done, the fronts are 8.5 x 18 with 225/40-18 and the rears are 10.5 x18 with 285/35-18.

Done.

I'm pretty sure that getting the anitsway bars sorted out will add a little more grip up front, and that will help a bit. DOT race tires would make it faster though the course (lucky for me no one in my class had them), but won't make it any easier to drive...I would think worse if anything because it will be going faster....

No, I think I need to put most of the blame on the drivers skills or lack there of. I need to get out to some more events and get some practice because I've built a car that is just flat well beyond my ability to drive. I put a few sections of the course together well, but I still need a lot of work.

I just don't know how to describe how hard it is to drive this thing well. I won the first autocross I ever entered years ago. I roadraced motorcycles for several years and finished in the top 10 at the few national events I raced. Won a Northeast motorcycle hillclimb championship my first year racing and then raced pro the next year. Some tournament slalom water-skiing. But I can't jump in the seat of this car and even keep it on the track at race pace. I think I've met my match…the first battle clearly goes to the car, but the war is not over…

 

Maybe. What are you thinking?...maybe the best place to discuss it is the mid-atlantic region?

 

A day at summit sounds very tempting, but after reflecting a bit, I still want a roll bar and harness first and I would like brakes too ( I have rotors, I just need to pick calipers). I've been thinking about a roll bar for some time anyway since it would let me run SCCA solo1 track events. The only real hold up is that my car is a street car first, so I want to be sure the top still fits behind the seats and things like that.

I design medical devices for a living and everything needs an FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis). What we do is try to look at anything that can break and see what the effect would be. If it would probably cause serious injury, then there needs to be a design solution built in, like a reduntant system or an auto shut down, something like that. That way at least 2 things need to go wrong to hurt someone. If it could kill someone, we require 3 things to go wrong. I just always end up thinging about things in these terms, what is acceptable safety and I've never been able to get past a couple things about using a street car at the track.

First is the seat belt. They are designed to be effective up to about 65 mph. From what I've seen, they become lethal in a head-on crash at over 100, they just don't have enough surface area to distribute the load and can't keep your body straight. So a track like NHIS were a brake or tire failure would send you straight into a wall at 100+ is totaly out of the question without a proper harness. A race harness gets you back to 2 things need to go wrong...although I'm not sure that the car has enough structure to make that a survivable crash....NHIS might require a full cage to be safe. It sounds like Summit doesn't have this problem though, so that's good!

Second is the roof/head room, or in my case the lack there of. Anything that caused a rollover at speed would most likely smash the drivers helmet into the pavement and could easily be fatal. I just don't see any way past that except a proper roll bar to be sure what little clearance there is stays and a 5 point harness that hold you down in the seat, the standard 3 point just can't do the job.

I'm going to try to solve these problem over the winter, so maybe next year I can come out and play

I've been using the factory specs, in part because I mostly drive on the street, but also because they seems right. Maybe post the question in the tech section, there are quite a few 308 owners who track there cars and Rexracer sometimes will chime in, he seems quite knowledgable.