gkmccready

Well, after many years of not autocrossing I got back out there this weekend. Prior to this I'd only ever done a single fun-run in a Corvette ('96 LT-4). I enjoyed it then, and was really hoping I'd enjoy it now. Prior to this I'd run a '92 Civic, '82 RX-7, and '87 RX-7 TurboII... so, basically, nothing like the C6.

As I'm sure we're all aware there's no 19" race rubber available, so I was out there on the stock Supercar tires, in fact, stock everything. I haven't even slapped the camber gauge on the car. According to the DIC cold tire pressures in the morning prior to the 1h30m drive to the event was around 28psi all the way around.

The great folks from Santa Clara Corvettes helped me get back in the swing of things for the Saturday event... ran a respectable time, but nothing great. Only competitor in my class was a C6 Z06 -- the joys of the C6s still being in "Performance Evaluation". The Z had two drivers, I slotted in between them by the end of the day. I left way too much on the table... I was coasting into corners all over the place, I don't think I really even had understeer once. Times dropped from run one through run five ... run one was everything on -- what an awful feeling... does TC really need to cut _all_ power? Second run I tried Comp Mode and did quite a bit better but the car didn't feel right somehow. The last three runs were everything off... the car felt much better to me, but maybe that was just the track time.

Sunday was much more fun. Still didn't touch a thing. Drove down in the morning, didn't even get the tire gauge out of the car... times got progressively lower each run... coned on the fourth run that I thought was going to cost me my best time. Went out for the fifth run in the "calm and smooth" mode... I'd been overcooking a reducing radius right-handed all day... got that in line and *wow* dropped 2.2s in raw time. Sounds like I found the right corner to get right to setup the back half of the course.

The Supercars did okay for me... the times I missed R-compounds the most were under braking which really surprised me. Part of that may have been how the course was laid out.

The car did well, too... it's a learning experience when you're used to rolling into the throttle a bit early so the boost builds for corner exit... it doesn't take much for the torque to help you out.

Dave Bonar of NorthStar Automotive (Mountain View, CA) had been watching the proceedings both days when he wasn't running... in the quick chat I had with him during the lunch break the one comment he had was "You really need the Hotchkis bars when they come out." I guess he was noticing some serious bodyroll -- inside the car it didn't seem that bad, but I was learning the car and willing to blame the lack of tires for most anything (including my poor showing ).

Anyway, after running a stock Civic, a stock 1st gen RX-7, the 2nd gen RX-7 both stock and modified, and driving a Miata with the Flyin' Miata suspension on the street, I have to say that it's a lot of fun driving the C6 Z51 Coupe at the autox. I'll be much happier with tires, but all in all, very very happy... a good way to put some miles on the car during the long weekend.

Now when's the next track day around here? Time to see if I like this car as much there when I'm used to the '87 RX-7 TurboII and the old '83 Pro7... time to order up those caliper brackets and some real pads... form the sounds of it some cooling might be in order, too. I wonder what that'll do to the autocross classing...

Nice to be back, and great to see that the autocross crowd is as much fun as I remembered.

glen

VetteDrmr

Sounds like you had a blast!

I've always run with TC/AH off autocrossing. I just don't like the way the aids intrude. I also find that running with AH will cause a lot of brake heat.

As far as replacing the bars go, my C5 experience has been that, although the bars are soft, the suspension works very well. I imagine the C6 is similar. I went almost 3 years before I started upgrading my suspension (shocks only at this point).

I'd look at a harness bar and harness as my first mods.

Have a good one,
Mike

gkmccready

Yeah. I'm in no rush to change anything until I'm consistent with what's there... it was just interesting to hear that as a first comment.

Based on how my knees feel, I agree. In the RX-7s there were decent places to wedge my legs... the C6 puts my left knee right against the Bose speaker grill, and my right against the tunnel... both pieces bend quite a bit... maybe volleyball kneepads are in order.

Thanks for the reminder, though. I should take the car over to my cage builder and see what he thinks... or is there a nice pre-fab solution for the harness bar? What about harness mounting?

Miguels

More seat time...http://www.americanauto-x.com/schedule/
I should be going in June... you were #4 correct? I heard you were new, but I guess new to this AutoX ahahaha...


I was working at station 2, Doug and I were talking about you and how smooth you were going...

THis was my 4th session, yesterday being my 3rd...yesterday I was all over the place, do to me adding more psi....I knocked off 4secs from yesterday buy going back to my normal psi.

I'm running stock tires, Yellow Z #76. I should be dropping in class next time, since I am putting back my stock air intake. I just cant compete with E1 drivers that have V710s...

Glad you had fun, lots of folks hit the AAX at Atwater. I'll just run stock until I can get used to the car and learn how to drive...I'm basically just loving to drive the car right now...not really in comp mode since I know I need lots more seat time.

http://www.americanauto-x.com/schedule/

tahoeC6

After three years autox with my C5 my new C6 gets hear this week!!! You should come up to Reno and run with us. We are SCCA sanctioned and have a regional handicap for all cars running street tires. The stock C6ZO6's run in ASP and the stock C6's run in SS. We have a great group of vettes that run regularly. I agree that a harness bar would be a great addition, I'm not sure about the Hotchkiss sway bars. You can change the front w/o leaving SS but the rear will put you in ASP under SCCA rules. I will be running stock except with BFG KD2's instead of the supercars.

Check out Reno at http://www.renoscca.com we'll leave a light on!

97coupechuck

O gotta put my $.02 in. I just raced my NEW C-6 Z-51 at Hallet a couple of weekends ago. I was supposed to race my race prepared C-5 but my wife and I decided to extend trip after autox. I got car 5 days before hallet, turned 1k miles going into 1st turn after driving there from Houston. really glad I bought a second vette as now i can autocross the warranteed one sometimes AND drive to the race. Got home with 3,500 miles on it. WAy different car than C5, bars will help most of all I think. Buy some 18 wheels for the race tires, I'm looking around already. Tried to mount 17"race tires on front, not a chance. I might just leave it completely warranteed stock and work on better shocks and better tires, although I gotta say those supercar EMT's that come with the Z-51 REALLY work better Than I ever thougt they would. My $.02

gkmccready

Yup, I was #4. Yeah, I autox'd about 8 years ago back in Canada...

I appreciate that comment a lot, actually. Like I think I mentioned previously, I was trying a bit too hard to just be smooth and I was coasting in the early runs (and all day Saturday).

Excellent! The DIC told me 28psi all around before I left the house in the morning. I figured I'd be at 30psi once I drove there and got in the sun. My plan was not to touch the tire pressures until I could turn consistent times... so I'm still not touching the tire pressures on the car.

Sounds like a plan! I was on the stock Supercars, too... they worked out pretty well for me. I think a big chunk of that is the Corvette is just so much better out of the box than what I'd auto'd previously. Have you gotten an alignment yet? I'm thinking of going to see Mr. Bonar @ NorthStar...

Atwater is much further away from me than Marina so we'll see what happens there... I'd like to, though.

gkmccready

And I'm whining about driving to Atwater. :-) I poked around the website but "Stead" is all I could find about the location. SFR has events much closer, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the stress of 300 car events... I really enjoyed running with the Santa Clara Corvette folks.

We'll see how addicted I get this go 'round. :-)

gkmccready

I was at about 1600 miles when I got to the event Saturday. But we've had the car about a month now.

My wife like the car so much I have a feeling she wants rid of her '91 Miata ... there's already talk of a C6 A6 Base. But that'll have to wait a while, I think.

Guys are saying that if you change out the caliper brackets for the base brackets and run base-sized rotors you could put 17s on the front... since that's basically the same brake setup as a C5 Z06.

The part number on the caliper brackets (abutments) are 12455800 and 12455799. You'll need to order 2 of each. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm tempted because I want the drilled rotors off before hitting a trackday.

Agreed. I couldn't tell if it was just because I'm used to different vehicles and the car was just that good... did you find the Supercars difficult under braking? That's where I really noticed it... I was braking hard, but I didn't think hard enough for ABS, and yet I think I got into it a couple of times... of course, first car I've driven that's had ABS, so...

97coupechuck

I didn't get to push car enough to gage the brakes. We had lots of rain, so little real autoxing. I know that it had a lot more than I was giving it, as I had apex'ed the turn, I knew then I was was way to cautious on braking, next turn, etc. then the rain came etc. i smoked stock C6 Z-06 but then a twinki to mine smoked me! What a great position to be in, either race car or new C6, mmmm? Life is good.

VetteDrmr

I believe several of the normal vendors have C6 harness bars ready to go. As far as harness mounting goes, I imagine it'll be similar to the C5s, but again the vendors should be able to show you what's available.

I'm not much of a cage man myself; too many ways to hurt yourself when on the street in case of an accident.

Have a good one,
Mike

gkmccready

I found the Shark bar; it looks good. Looks like about $1k uninstalled with all the goodies (bar, mounts, belts, cut panels).

Oh, no plans for a cage in the 'vette, just thinking the guy that put one in my racecar would be able to slap a harness bar in pretty easy.