David and Kim's California Autocross Adventure
So I just got back from 2 weeks of autocross/vacation in Southern California. Here is what happened:
The drive out to SoCal is almost 24 hours. On day 1 I found an awesome rustic BBQ joint where you just point to whatever meat you want in a smoker, a dude cuts some off and puts in on your tray (no plates here) and you pay by weight:
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...a/IMG_1565.jpg
After that I saw a super badass semi-undercover cop car, a 2012 Mustang with the 5.0 coyote motor, and made it to Tucson to crash with an old buddy whom many of you will remember:
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...a/IMG_1568.jpg
Day 2 I hooked up with Mark Sipe and we convoyed over the mountains and through a few border patrol checkpoints. We made it to Qualcomm stadium in the afternoon quickly unpacked and headed to the test and tune. For some reason the test and tune is in a different location and surface than the actual course so the real reason for me to run it was to get some sound readings. Qualcomm has one of the toughest sound restrictions in the country 93db at 50ft and the whole site is a bowl shape with lots of surfaces for sound to reflect off of. I made a few runs on the test and tune, each time I would fail sound then readjust my supertrapp and then go out and fail again. This was really frustrating as I had choked off the exhaust soo much that the car was really losing a lot of power and the sound readings weren't changing. A few of the locals explained that it wasn't the exhaust that was too loud anymore but my intake noise alone was enough to fail the meter. The locals all run crappy or stock intakes but suggested as a quick fix that I seal the hood around the intake area and plug up as many openings as possible:
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...IMG_1573-1.jpg
The next day was the tour, and Qualcomm is without a doubt the best autocross site in the country. The site has massive elevation changes, it is sort of a half bowl shape with a raised center. To give you guys some reference points:
MSR 1.7 Road Course - 30ft elevation changes
MSR 1.3 Road Course - 70ft elevation changes
Eagles Canyon Road Course - 70ft elevation changes
Qualcomm Stadium Autocross Site - 50ft elevation changes
Everyone told me going into the event to expect the locals to have a big home court advantage here but until I walked the course I didn't understand fully the extent. The course was awesome, there was a big banked third gear sweeper, smaller sweepers where you would start on camber and end off camber (and vice versa), and a slalom with a massive incline left to right. Kim drove really well and ended up in third place, I didn't drive as well and ended up in fourth but it was still a ton of fun to get to drive on that site. If you are ever in that area try to go to a local event even if it's in a rental car.
I tried to take pics or find some video that really shows the elevation but had a hard time. This is the best video I could find: http://vimeo.com/12067348 And here is the best pic, note in the pic that apparently there they have to blow off all of the white lines that line the course, must be some weird site requirement:
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...a/IMG_1582.jpg
End of post #1
