David and Kim's California Autocross Adventure

[Davidss]

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:


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:


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:


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: 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:


End of post #1

[CosmosMpower]

Cool writeup. I drove by that lot before but never got to race on it, it's huge!

[Davidss]

For the next week we were on vacation and we did all of the normal California vacation stuff (Disneyland, Universal Studios, beach, and drove the pacific coast highway) but I really didn't take many pics of that. We did get to see the bike and car from the matrix (which were quite green in person), the gran torino from gran torino, and the batpod from the new batman movie:


We booked our hotel on priceline which up until now I have always had good luck on. For this trip we got a 4 star hotel the Fairmont in Newport Beach for $70 a night which seems like an awesome deal, until you find out that parking is valet only and $30 a night (plus tip), and wifi is $15 a night. Other than that the hotel was - no suprise - super nice, even the toilet paper was fancy and you could order chef prepared, room service...... doggy treats:


Some of the SCCA staff was staying in the area that week as well so one day we went with some of them to the Peterson automotive museum. Honestly I wasn't particularly impressed, it was really more of a museum in the traditional sense and less of a high end car collection which is what I was expecting. The only cars I took picture of were an un-crushed GM EV1, a brand new alfa, and a gold delorean:


After that we got a private tour of SpaceX, this was the highlight of the trip for me. There are a lot of ex-Formula SAE kids working at SpaceX which is how we got to go on the tour, and ton of formula car influence in the rocket design. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside, but in one small facility in LA they design and manufacture the rockets, engines and capsules that will soon be delivering astronauts and goods to the space station. Even mission control is in a glassed off room in one corner of the factory are and was running a simulation while we were there:


And of course we did go to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles which was awesome, thanks to Jerret for the suggestion:


Then is was time for the ProSolo at El Toro. The site is really pretty with nice mountain views in the background. The course wasn't very good IMHO but otherwise the event was fun. Andrew ended up first, I in third, and Kim in fourth:


Adjacent to the autocross site at the same location is a public park called "The Great Park". It has got to be the nicest public park in the world with an outdoor movie screen, organic gardens, a farmers market, and a massive $411,800 carousel:


And the carousel isn't even the most impressive part. This public park has a HOT AIR BALLOON! The (handicap accessible) balloon goes up to 400ft and then is tethered back down, all day - every day. So even though the California government may be going insolvent in the next few years the hot air balloon rides are free!:


That is pretty much the whole trip. But while I was there I tried to keep an eye out for really fast cars that people here might be interested in and I found 2. The first is Charlie Davis's STX BMW, for the last few years the STX class has been whining that they can't keep up with the other ST* cars. Charlie used to run in STC in a Civic and decided he could build a BMW that was as fast as his Civic and did. I spoke with Charlie about the car and he was very open about sharing information, I have his contact if anyone wants it. The car was codriven by Brian Heitkotter who is a former autocrosser turned Pro Racer who won the Nissan GT Academy last year, and is a SUPER nice guy BTW. Here is the only pic I have of the car with them taking tire warming to a new extreme:


The second car people might be interested in is Michael Heinitz's STR NB Miata. Michael used to race a 1.8 NA miata in STS with me and was nationally competitive but sold it and moved to an NB miata in STR. He is one of the few NB STR cars in the country really making it work. Here is his blog with all of his setup info in it, and I have his contact info if anyone has specific questions:

[jrj512]

Love me some Roscoe's!

[OZMDD]

Great blog/report.

[sammm]

Very nice David...looks like y'all had a good trip!

[slowchildmiata]

Looks like a fun trip. Is your buddy in Tucson a hair dresser? Cause that sure looks like a hair dresser's car.

[ken o]

Nice post, thanks!

[onething]

Thanks for sharing. Good read.

[CosmosMpower]

Looks like a fun trip. Is your buddy in Tucson a hair dresser? Cause that sure looks like a hair dresser's car.

Win!

[Webspoke]

I have fond memories of the 2 trips I made to San Diego /Qualcomm with the CS and then DP miata. Glad it was a cool adventure!

[762]

Looks like a fun trip. Is your buddy in Tucson a hair dresser? Cause that sure looks like a hair dresser's car.

Says the guy whose car literally shoots rainbows.

[pyro4826]

That looks like an awesome trip and Roscoes was a very good idea. What were the fastest times being put down at Qualcomm?

[OZMDD]

Says the guy whose car literally shoots rainbows.

This is the best post you've ever made. Evar.

[slowchildmiata]

Says the guy whose car literally shoots rainbows.

Takes one to know one.

[Miatamoto]

I 2nd Mike's comment. Best photo post ever.

Great post Dave! I met Heitkotter at nationals when we were both running B stock. Really nice guy. Awesome that hE went pro. Great driver.

[apex2apex]

Great writeup! Thanks for sharing David!