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Did my first autox on Sunday in STS with my 04 HX (I know, it's butt slow and will never be competitive, but that's part of the challenge). Man, what a blast! Decided to go for STS because it came with 14x5.5 wheels and no sway bars, which means I could only add a front bar for H stock and it would be butt slow and still handle like crap. At least in STS I can have a slow but decent handling car that teaches me how to drive. For Sunday it had:

Engine: stock
Suspension: stock springs & shocks, 25.4 EX front bar, 19 RSX rear bar (custom installation since car came with no holes or threaded inserts)
Alignment: stock camber front (close to 0), push/pulled rear camber to get it close to 0 for more rotation, 0 toe front, close to 0 toe rear
Wheels/tires: 15x6.5 all around, 205/55 Bridgestone RE750 front @43, 195/60 Michelin all season rear @41, rollover just about right
The car would probably still be in H stock if it came from the factory with this prep

Results:
3 runs, no cones, 9 second improvement from 1 to 3
Back of STS pack in raw time but not DFL (beat a Subie RS2.5 on Azenis, go figure!)
Back of PAX but not DFL, beat some poorly driven FSP cars and ST2 Miata (huh?)
Back of novice PAX but not DFL, definitely hurt by tough STS index

Key notes:
1. Even with minimal prep, the car handles muuuuuch better than it goes, speed maintenance is key.
2. Learning to drive a slow car fast is much easier than learning with a fast car, lots of novices were spinning, coning, missing apexes all over.
3. On some slow sweepers, I think I went too wide trying to preserve speed and hit the apex cone, might have been faster to go slower and stay tight on more cones & shorten the course.
4. Ultra tall 2nd gear is a killer, shorter tires like 205/50/15 or even better 205/40/16 would help a lot more than engine mods but that's for later
5. Negative camber in front will be next mod & should permit better contact patch/lower tire pressure/less wear, shocks after that (should help slaloms which were the slowest part of the course for me). Springs would probably help the least and I really don't want a low/stiff ride, I'd be tempted to try 25.4 front bar/22 rear bar first.
6. Understeer only when I overdrove the corner, no wheelspin issue because 2nd gear is so tall

Signed up for a driving school on May 7th, it'll be fun to see what the instructors recommend for lines with such a slow car.

Boilermaker1, your tag line is perfect: "A single cam is not an excuse for going slow... its a reason to build a car that doesn't have to slow down for corners."

 
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Theres a lot of Wise things in your Key notes...


any way, 3 most important things to bring to an autocross (I learned about them the hard way)


1. HAT
2. Sunscreen
3. Water

 
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Yeah, wasn't very hot but still got lots of sun, STS was heat 4 so I was starved and thirsty by the end!

Zzyzx - have you found any worthwhile gains from intake/exhaust? Seems like there's not much to be had as far as torque improvement in the 4-6k region but is there weight savings?? I saw several mini drivers with straight pipe exhausts for the weight benefit only. Of course, they're driving competitive cars...

 
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Weight savings maybe ... power, No not really. I'm acutally looking to trade some one locally for a sock EX exaust...

 
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Actually you should use swaybars for fine tuning. Put springs on it first, well second. Konis first. A set of Konis and OTS ground controls won't be that hard, and you can set them as high as stock.
I wouldn't use a 22mm bar with the stock suspension. a 19 yes, 22 no.

As far as exhaust/intake power. Umm, not much. I gained some by putting a stock integra airbox in it. Exhaust, eh. It sounds good, probably helps your top end a touch, but I never dynoed it.

 
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good info

 
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Run in HS where you are even more challenged about what you can do to your car vs the Mini's.

 
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i was thinking of gettin 2in piping done. i was told i need some back pressure for torque. would this be good for autocrossing?


oh andy by the way congrats on your fisrt autoX, mine was kik *** too. it stil is. lol