autocross the s197

[jayel579]

Originally Posted by olds350 jayel579, thanks for the reply. Yes, FS it is and I'm looking forward to it. Ran in various classes over the last 8 years, 5 of which was running my 328i in STS. Tired of spending stupid money. At least stock class slows that down (some). I got another reply on mustang evolution from another autoxer and he gave some very good tips. He mimiced some of your advice, so I think I'm on the right track. As for your tire pressures, I'm surprised you ran that low. I was at 38 for the bimmer, but that was a more narrow tire, so this may be the trick. What width do you run? As for the hawk + pads, not a big fan of those, no modulation. They are either on or off. I had a set of BHP CR6 pads on the 328 and like those a lot, but I think BHP is now of biz, so need to find something else. Next year will be a search for shocks/struts and front sway. I see you said your changing out your catback. You doing that to remove weight or is there any performance gain? You have any dyno sheets to back your catback install? thanks.... Tires pressures will change pending on the tire you run, so it isn't an exact science ya know. I run a 275/40R17. My brother has a Spec E30 that he runs in DSP, his tire pressures were 30-31 psi on a 205/50R15 hankook Z211. Not really an autocross tire more of a track tire, like my RA-1s and your Victoracers but you get the point. It is all different depending on the tires and sizes. We will both be on better autocross tires this season and it will take an event or two to find the optimal psi out of the tires we'll be running. As far as the exhaust, I have heard the system I am getting is lighter then the factory system but I am guessing it is marginal. Maybe just a few pounds, not enough to effect anything I don't think. I just like the sound a whole lot better An alignment will help also. I have the same camber bolt kit in my car that Kirk mentioned. Actually according to the rules, it is the only stock class "legal" camber kit you can use. But if you aren't running against Strano at nationals, I do not think you'll have any issues locally. You can grind out the bottom hole of the strut to help gain some static camber, you won't want to get more then 2.0 neg camber. Again for the rules, if you have more people will wonder what else you did that isn't stock class legal. If you pull out the strut and look at the holes there are kind of like parenthesis around the holes, looks like (o). You can file out those holes to those lines, I did it with a hand file on my Koni's. Once you do take it for an alignment to see what you can get. I run -2.0 camber with the toe set to zero. I do not have any tire wear issues. Caster is at 7 degrees from the factory which is plenty.

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[olds350]

UPDATE:

Well, I have 2 events under my belt now in the S197. First event was disaster, throttle management is new to me coming from the 328i! With an event w/ 120 folks, I place mid pack in both raw time and PAX. I had the tires, but no alignment. On to the second event.

Much better the second time autocrossing. To preface the mods, I'm running 275/40x17 kumho victoracers on stock wheels and now have a proper alignment. I was able to gain 1.6 neg degrees camber and running zero toe. I will say the brake pads are next, stock pads not quite cutting it on course. As for tire pressures, I played w/ several setting and liked 40f/38r the best.

Out of a field of 105 drivers in the second event, I placed 8th over both raw and PAX times. First time in my 9 years I've ever done this. Even with this, I placed 2nd in class. What's interesting, on my last fun run at the event I relaxed and actually shaved off 2 seconds on my run. That would have placed me 3rd in raw time and would have won my class. Lesson learned here is to trust the car and the tires. This is my first time out on r-comps and I'm holding back.

Speaking of class runs, all 3 mustangs running this past weekend placed in the top 10 raw. All are running in FS. I think that's pretty impressive considering we had vette's, G8's, 135's and an M5.

My impression of the car is great. It has the power and even w/ r-comps, the car is predictable when it starts to break out. If you're not autocrossing one, you should be!!