First time autocross event - Any Advice?

[smeredith]

Tires and too much power seemed to be my biggest problems. Depends on the track also. Did a couple of autocrosses on really small courses with a ton of turns and felt like I was a drifting car. I just run my street tires (Goodyear Eagle II) since my budget doesn't allow for a whole set of different tires. Bigger courses with longer strait aways seem to allow you to use your horsepower more. I finally came to the conclusion that smoother is faster on time. Less tire spin and drift, the better you are, even if it seems like you're going slower. Just my 2 cents from a rookie point of view.

[RICK LAKE]

N2VENOM Go and have a good time. Tires, Suspension setup, and then power have alot to do with time and speed on an auto cross. Learning to drive SMOOOOTH is the big factor for being fast.
We also need to know some things about your car, first is was it weighted and balanced in all 4 corners? you want a 48/52% bias of front to rearend weight. The next is your suspension on the car. If your car is a street car the springs are way too soft for autocross or road racing. Under hard braking the car will nose dive or plow if going into a turn. If you are serious about doing this kind of event, you will need a total different suspension setup. A good shock like QA1, Penske, or Koni with multi adjustments for dampening and rebound of the car going around turns. Figure about a 35-40% spring increase rate in the front and 20-30% in the rearend on springs alone.
Tires, this is another big thing. I used to run 15" tires and wheels, I now run a 17" wheel tire combo. 335/35-17" Micheins in the rearend and 255/40-17" in the front. The car will pull almost a "G" now from .76. Softer the tire, the better the grip until they get slimmy and slick.
The most important thing is to overfill your oil pan for this, 1- 1.5 quarts over. This is a safe way to protect your motor from running dry in long "g" turns. The problem is the oil getting back to the oil pan under hard turns. I run my motor 1 quart over full and have a 3 quart accusump for backup to portect my motors in roadracing and autocross. More info about your motor would help like what oil pan is being used. This is your first lession. Put Max air pressure in the tires. The spec is on the side wall. Good luck. Ps drive the course easy the first couple of times, walk the course if possible first. It's like dancing. Stay smooth on your feet, nice and relaxed. Rick L.

[N2VENOM]

Thanks Rick Lake, I have a Kirkham 427 Lemans with a Roush/ Shelby block 451FE. I have a 8 Qt. canton fully baffled road race oil pan and a accusump pre-oiler with electornic valve. I am running Avon CR6ZZ tires. I'm to understand that the airport surface is rough.