Hyper-X

Before I go into anything, I'm going to take this time to say that Steve is the man for placing 3rd in overall times!

This month's course layout was fun, exciting, tight and LONGGGG. It started off in the staging area for drag racing, then it progressively went into a very slow section designed to rob any speed, and made use of the middle transition crossing over to the drag strip ending near the hairpin turn. Thank goodness it didn't rain. BTW, how's that tornado over Kunia?

Steve kicked ass in his first run and took me out by almost .5 seconds. That being said, he continued to shave off another 3 seconds to come within .8 seconds of the 2nd place finisher and 4 year autocross veteran, Pat Olsen in his Subaru Legacy. This has definitely made things very interesting where a newcomer with less than 1 year of auto-x experience was able to place 3rd overall ahead of the experienced drivers. The fastest Subaru isn't a WRX or an STI and is normally aspirated.

Colin outdrove me (regardless that we're in different classes) into a solid 12th place overall. Observation and video evidence shows that he was fighting to find the right rhythm this month. Despite the problems, he managed to best the ASP class Z3 by almost 4 full seconds. He put on a nice show in the off camber with a nice drift to the outside (note to Colin: leave the drifting to the 240SX and the AE86's). Speaking of drifting, Earl Huang in the 240SX put on an awesome show, skillfully drifting around the cones. Nice job Earl!

I had to re-learn to drive with the new front sway bar, and I liked the improved feel. What I completely forgot was I ran the same tire pressures as if I was on the OEM bar which induced understeer. This made understeer more likely and I lost the front end (totally 180 of what I'm used to) and ended up eating cones like candy. The rear was so stable, it felt like I jumped into another person's car. IMHO, a 66-67 second run was very possible in my car, but according to the in-car video... by best run was far from the best.

Once again, the S2000's were able to triumph in their respective classes, although the pattern would indicate that the modded cars secured the top 10 times, I wasn't able to take the fastest stock-class car title away. A 1st gen Miata driven by the skillful Avery Tsui had almost a full second on me and finished with an astounding 14th place overall time! The part that pisses me off is when Avery refers to his car as being a "girlie car", that only fuels my anger as I don't like to lose to anything "girlie". AAARRGHHHH!

Colin

I made a movie that describes my feeling of yesterdays autocross

smccurry

Thanks Jimmy. You're really overdoing the praise though. Although I'm happy with my results, let's not forget that Colin used to get 2nd place with his S2000 in stock class! Also, Curtis is still over 4 seconds faster than me.
One goal at a time...
My immediate goal every race is, of course, to beat Colin. We seem to split our races right down the middle. The pressure is on him to win the title back and continue the trend next month.
My secondary goal was to beat Ken Van Orman. He is an excellent driver, and he has his e36 M3 dialed in very nicely. I'm always amazed at the precision of his driving; never more than a few inches separates his car from the cones in a slalom. He struggled this month though I'm sure he'll be back in form and a formidable challenge again next month.
Avery had an awesome day. He was very fast for having a "girlie car"

The video coverage we had this time around was great. We managed to get almost all of the runs recorded correctly this time, despite forgetting the remote at home, and Jimmy's footage from outside of the car was especially enjoyable (Jimmy, don't forget to erase the part where I half spun out on my last run!)

I can't wait to get those Tein's installed and start chipping away at the leader's times. I know that it takes a while to get it right, but that test and tune day is coming up in May.

smccurry

I can't load this movie. What's in it?

Hyper-X

Steve, does your computer fit these requirements? If so I can provide the link to acquire the player.

Mac OS 9.x Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1, Netscape 4.8, Netscape 7.x, Mozilla 1.x, and Opera 6


Mac OS X 10.1.x or Mac OS X 10.2.x Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.2, Netscape 7.x, Mozilla 1.x, AOL 7, Opera 6, and Safari 1.0 (Mac OS X 10.2.x only)

Hyper-X

Naw, the praise is well deserved, you drove great and out drove everyone but 2 people who have tons more experience than you do.

I am glad that I was able to take the top position for my class, but I'm very upset that I didn't do better because I can't be just 2 seconds better than the guys running on stock tires... I need to shape up and get with it. With in-car and exterior video footage, I'm certain that all 3 of us can benefit a lot from having the best quality information available.

Colin

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hyper-X
Steve, does your computer fit these requirements?

Hyper-X

Colin

More movies

Bus' up

Slick

Excuses

avery

I watched you guys drive on Sunday. You guys got some major skills.

Colin, Great subtitles in your "foreign films"

By the way, I'd like to watch some of your racing vids. I was asked to help with the SCCA Banquet video presentation. Can we get some of your video for the Banquet? I hope you folks are going.

Jimmy, Great summary. You'll get me when you figure out the tire pressures. I still need to work on my driving. I bet there's still one or two seconds to be found.

Regards, Avery (Team Girlie Car Test Pilot )