Dearest List,
I kinda ramble here, so feel free to press the magic <Delete>, although I do
have a couple of questions at the bottom.
This past Sunday, I participated in an SCCA RGR (Sports Car Club of America
Rio Grande Region)
racing school. I've never autocrossed before, so thought this would be a
good way to get started.
What a blast! First thing we did was practice high-speed braking. You
would haul-#&% towards a
yellow cone, do a 180, and haul-#$% back towards the start/finish line,
stopping your car as fast
as you could, once you reached a certain point. Next they set up some cones
in a circle, and
you had to go as fast as you could, as close to cones as possible. Then do
the same thing going
the other way. The third lesson was weaving in and out (slalmon) of about
10 cones staggered in
a straight line.
After lunch they set up an autocross course, that incorporated all 3 of the
lessons, 180's, circles, and
slalmons. We each got to take 3 runs on the course, the first 2 with an
instructor, the last by yourself.
I wasn't the slowest, but I was more towards the bottom than I was the top,
although I did take
2nd in my class, ES (OK there was only 2 of us in ES). I had the oldest car
out there (67.5 1600), the
next oldest was a 69 1600, then a 70 240Z, then a 76 TR6. Everything else
was pretty new, Z3s, Corvettes,
Camaros, MR2s.
I was really happy in my car's performance, but it did miss a little at high
RPMs. Not sure how high the RPMs
were as I never even looked at the tach (Didn't we already talk about
this?). And the brakes probably aren't as
good as they should be, and the tires are probably 15 years old.
Questions:
- Any tips on the high RPM miss? I have fairly new SU's on a stock 1600
- Any suggestions on tires for my stock wheels. I like the stock wheel/hub
cap look, so I'm
looking for a street tire than I can autocross on, once a month or so.
Thanks for listening...Robert - 67.5 1600 - ABQ
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