April 3rd PCA AX...Anyone?

[gabkwong]

Anyone is going to the PCA AX on Sun April 3rd? I think I will go to the PCA on Sunday too! It will be a double header for me this weekend, S2K on Sat and PCA on Sun.

[tailchaser]

Definite maybe

[srivendel]

Definite maybe

"

S.

[Ataim]

Definite maybe

no

[altiain]

It'll be a double-header weekend for me, but in Houston.

If you go say hi to Wendy & Cody & and the Porsche gang - they're good people.

[Kestrel]

Indefinite unlikely

[TurboDuane]

Nope, my late fathers 1st Birthday since his passing in January, need to spend it with Mom and attempt to keep her from

[tailchaser]

Odd.... I don't recall seeing gabkwong there.

But... ManiacMitch, lost216, a new guy who works for Park Place and has a super-cool Azure package '04, and I had a lot of fun. Lots of other familar faces. Mr. Yamada spanked OJ with an 81.xxx. Mr. Garner cleaned OJS with an 83.xxx, beating me by 2 full seconds.

Great weather, but a bit windy. The bus lot was the bus lot... Nice once some rubber got put down, though.

[redbullforbreakfast]

ended up being lazy and watching formula one instead, we were kinda planning on going out though......

[tailchaser]

You missed a tough one... Lots of folks spun in lots of places. lost216 posted some fantastic times! Forgot to mention that earlier. Can't wait to see what happens when he gets some faster tires!

[Maniac Mitch]

Yep, the surface was slick as shit. We had to run our 4 morning runs the very first thing...Lauren and I were in the 1st 3 cars out IIRC. I dropped 4 seconds between my best morning and my best afternoon. I would guess a combo of surface heated up and rubber put down like mentioned...and my adjusting tire pressures DOWN.

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but I was on 2 year old RT-215 Azenis and got my best lap with a COLD pressure of 28/26. Any higher and it was oversteer city. "Backing it in" style of driving around the two skidpads may be fun, but not good for lower times. Anyway the tires are 205/50-15s on 6.5" rims. WTF???? What kind of AX pressures are you guys running. This cold setting was showing 30/28 after the drive back to the paddock when hot.

But enjoyed seeing everyone. Hope to see some of you guys at Mineral Wells on 4/23.

Now if I could just learn how to drive......

[tailchaser]

Not hijacking at all... We did post-mortems on car setup after events a lot last year.

I dropped down to 33/31 "warm" and probably would have done better with 2-3 pounds lower. We autocross nuts get lost on the bus lot, since it's different than any other surface we run on. I came off the morning runs at 42/40 from a starting point of 35/33 cold... I didn't feel the tire pressures were causing me oversteer issues, but I certainly wasn't using much of the tread. I think the official MME term for the bus lot is "slicker than owl s***"...

IIRC, we finished the morning with you at 92.xxx and me at 88.0, afternoon with you at 88.7 and me at 85.7. I chickened out through the last turnaround to stay cone-free, but I don't thank I gave up more than a half second. Wish I'd had a 3rd run in the afternoon to find out.

I had to soften my front shocks, as I was getting lots of chatter in the low-speed, tight turns. I backed the rears off an extra notch to help tame the oversteer on the skidpads. Both moves were highly successful, letting me power out hard from the tight turns, but leaving the car dead neutral in the fairly high speed skidpads.

For those keeping score, that meant the car handled well with:

35/33 HOT pressures
KYB's (on FM springs) set at 3/2
FM 1 inch sway on full stiff in front, FM sway on full soft in rear

Your mileage will, of course, vary.

[Majik]

I have found that with azenis and even some of the azenis copycats, the sidewall is so stiff that you dont need the high pressure to support the sidewall like a normal tire needs. I ran right around 28psi on my khumo ecsta MX at mineral wells last saturday. THat dropped my times by around 5 seconds from the morning when I ran over 36 PSI cold.

[tailchaser]

I have found that with azenis and even some of the azenis copycats, the sidewall is so stiff that you dont need the high pressure to support the sidewall like a normal tire needs. I ran right around 28psi on my khumo ecsta MX at mineral wells last saturday. THat dropped my times by around 5 seconds from the morning when I ran over 36 PSI cold.

I'll buy that. I was tempted to drop a lot of pressure on Saturday, but didn't. Based on my experience Sunday, I'll know to do so next time. OTOH... joe.miata runs 45+ psi cold (or at least claims to...)

[Majik]

All I know is that hot, the pressure was 43 and the car wouldn't grip at all. The tires were rolling over above the arrows. After I dropped the pressure, the roll over was just to the bottom of the arrow, so the sidewalls were still ok.

[joe.MIATA]

I have been running super high pressures- and never have any roll-over on to the sidewalls. At the end of the day, after sitting for over an hour, pressures were at 50 psi. However, with this info. I'll surely give lower pressures a try.....since I got my hat handed to me this time out.
Good driving guys.

[tailchaser]

I have been running super high pressures- and never have any roll-over on to the sidewalls. At the end of the day, after sitting for over an hour, pressures were at 50 psi. However, with this info. I'll surely give lower pressures a try.....since I got my hat handed to me this time out.
Good driving guys.

Notwithstanding the fact my last run would have been in the 84's if I hadn't been having such a good time (lost track of the gates in the last sweeper ), I don't think .3 seconds is "handing you your hat." I'll try to next time, though...

[Majik]

I have been running super high pressures- and never have any roll-over on to the sidewalls. At the end of the day, after sitting for over an hour, pressures were at 50 psi. However, with this info. I'll surely give lower pressures a try.....since I got my hat handed to me this time out.
Good driving guys.

Sorry, I guess I made a typo, I was running 65psi all around...

[TheWhiteMR2]

I had a really good time at this event, the weather was beautiful. The last autocross I attended had triple digit temps, and I couldn't wait to get my helmet off. Much more pleasant this time of year.
This was my first PCA event. I liked the course, it was easy for a novice to follow. It allowed me some time to collect my thoughts during the straights and skidpad sections. The surface was slippery, I remember running on it once before and was surprised at how different it was than Pennington.
I had Gabby as an instructor on the my first two runs, and he was quite helpful. He said that I was losing a lot of time in acceleration (not early enough). I had trouble remembering the late apex corners too.
The car felt really good, I think my tires were overinflated though. I don't think I was making full benefit of the grippy rubber either, it was my first time to try out the Yokohama A032Rs.
I told myself that I'd be happy with an 88, and once I posted that, I drove a little more aggressively. My final run was my quickest, at an 86.592. I think the higher temps and more rubber on the ground played a big part in that. The entire field seemed much quicker (1.5 seconds or so) in the afternoon runs. I probably would have dropped more time had I shifted into third, I sure seemed to be bouncing off the rev limiter for quite a while during entry into the ricochet corner.
Sure was glad to get some seat time in, it has just been too long for me. :)

[tailchaser]

Looks like results were posted... Looks like we need some faster Miatas to come out and defend our honor...

Developing Driver for TheWhiteMR2, eh?