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I just thought my first post ought to be in the Intro forum... My car is about as stock as you can get, but I do want to do some minor work on it. Right now I suppose it could be a poster child for Stock class autocrossing, but eventually I'll end up in STS when I can afford some new wheels. I autocross with a club at work that's pretty laid back, so what class I'm in isn't really important to me. We rarely have more than two cars in the same class, and a dozen cars total is a lot for us, but that means more runs in less time than a full blown SCCA event.

I'm pretty mechanically inclined, (I used to race RC cars and fly an RC plane) and I'm the hands on type (I build my own computers from parts), but don't have much experience working on a full scale car. Lurking this forum as a guest helped me see that some things are relatively straightforward. Now that I've got a garage, I'm looking forward to being able to work on my car.

My car's got just over 103k miles on it, so I've got a lot of things to work on:

• The orginal struts need to be replaced. I'm planning to replace them with Tokico Blues.
• I'm still on the original brake pads. I don't care how much is left, they're five years old, so I'm going to replace them with Hawk HPS pads.
• While I've got the brakes taken apart, I might replace the rotors with Brembo blanks. (?)
• New spark plugs; picking up some NGK Iridium IXs tomorrow.

All of the above were chosen based on stuff I read on this forum, it has definitely been helpful.

 
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welcome to the site man! sounds like uve got it all planned out for ur car....good luck with it. and oh yeah im gonna be doing auto x for the 1st time on sunday im excited....but like i said welcome 2 the forum!!!

 
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Thanks for the welcome. I've only been autocrossing with the club at work for just over a year. I know I was really excited and nervous my first time around. I had two goals at my first one: 1. Finish the course without getting lost. 2. Have fun. I'm happy to say that not only did I meet both goals, I even managed to turn in a faster time at the end than I did at the beginning. If you have the opportunity, either ride along with an experienced driver before your first runs or get someone to ride along with you to help you out if you get lost.

If you get into it, take a look at a book titled "Secrets of Solo Racing" by Henry A. Watts. I've learned a few things from it that I'm really looking forward to trying out, and I'm not even halfway through the book.

 
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Hey man, welcome to the forum. It's good to see new members reading around before posting away. I would take a look at your water pump too!

 
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Welcome to the site, I am slow at saying hello this month!

 
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thanks man ill check that book out.

 
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welcome

 
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I forgot to mention where my screen name comes from in case anyone was curious. It comes from my RC car racing days. The throttle on the pistol grip style radios was controlled with a trigger that you pulled w/your left index finger (assuming you were right handed). So I figured instead of a lead foot, someone who was fast would have a lead finger. After a few years of racing, I had gotten pretty good at it, so sometimes instead of using my name, I'd register w/the name Leadfinger just for grins.

I didn't use it online until years later. I first used it for online gaming; think of a heavy trigger finger on someone who is firing wildly all the time b/c he can't hit anything.

Usually people think it's some sort of spoof of the James Bond bad guy Goldfinger.