TheBlau

I've talked a bit with PorscheG96 about autocross and he made the suggestion that we create a thread dedicated to autocross. Videos, specs, anything you want to ask or talk about. I would encourage EVERY one of you to get out and try it. It's a great way to learn the limits of these well-balanced cars in a safe environment, and is a ton of fun at the same time. I've been at it for 2 years now and attend ~8-10 events per year (mainly just with PCA or Track Club USA). I'm just out for the fun of it and to get in as many runs as I can SCCA, being a competitive national league.

My car is a 1994 968 M030 with LSD (currently with 94k miles) running on the original non-rebuilt suspension. Nothing modified other than the airbox holes and a front splitter that scrapes the ground on braking. My alignment is set to max caster, 2.8° camber front, 2.3° camber rear and zero toe. I run my adjustable rear swaybar on the softest setting. I usually run ~37psi front and ~36psi rear on the Dunlop Direzza Z1's, which makes the car feel very balanced to me.

Here are a few of my videos.







And an example of learning car control in a safe wet environment (although not how you want to go through the finish line)


Please post up any videos, specs, questions here!

PorscheG96

Thanks for starting this, Adam.

I tried the rear sway bar on middle and soft settings like we'd talked about and really couldn't feel any difference in cornering or rear tire traction. Although, I was playing with other settings and found just how sensitive the 968 is to weight balance after lowering the front of the car too far. Not only did it rub the front fender but it had chronic oversteer that neither shock nor sway bar adjustments could overcome. I raised the front ride height 1/4" and that completely fixed the problem!! Soft rear sway bar sure is more comfortable on the street though!

I've also found that too many people run stiff front strut rebound which results in some nasty handling characteristics: the car doesn't want to turn in and the weight transfer doesn't happen quickly enough on corner exit so the car oversteers excessively. I've always liked 1 turn from soft on the front strut rebound.

Here's my best raw lap from day 1 SCCA National Tour @ Crows Landing this weekend where the m030 got 2nd place trophy in C Street.

soltino

TheBlau-your vids are not working for me ion either ie or Firefox.

Do you have hot links?

tino

soltino

G96- that was one of the best i've seen- so violent. (-%

tino

monteolsen1

Those are great videos. I've never auto crossed or tracked my car. Not brave enough. Is that airport abandoned? Where is it?

Thanks.

Monte

Rich Sandor

Mine's gone now.. but I miss her..

Although it was never a contender for FTD no matter what tires I had on it, it was SO much fun to drive fast.. very tail happy with the initial suspension, then later calmed down with KW V3's installed.

Rich Sandor

whoooo

Rich Sandor

hooo

Rich Sandor

I also used the 968 to carry all the autox gear around with the trailer. Custom fabbed hitch.

MC 968CS

It's good to see people using these cars. Well done.

Paul Waterloo

Very cool with the trailer.....but after doing both autocross and then tracking my car, I always ask myself why would I want to autocross my car for 90 seconds at a time, 4-8 times in one day when I can go and get over an hour of track time in one day during a track event?

I've done both, respect both, but I feel tracking a car is much more fun!

PorscheG96

I get that question a lot, even from my close friends who think that ax is a waste of time. I absolutely love ax, far more than track days. Some of the reasons are...

It's a mental challenge to learn new courses every event. It's not only an exercise of driving as fast as you can but learning new courses and making adjustments to your car as quickly as possible.

When you only get 3 or 4 runs then it's a challenge to perform, often under competitive pressure, given only a few chances. When you nail everything on only lap 2 or 3 is an incredibly rewarding feeling.

Competitors often separated by hundredths of a second or sometimes only thousandths on full minute course with completely different car models, setups and people driving. It's like a miracle that such different things can compete so closely.

Much safer than track days where I often felt that I couldn't push 100% due to total loss or injury in fast corners with walls or no run off. Driving absolutely 100% is more fun than 98%...

Autocross transitions are their own art form that I haven't experienced at track days.

Autocross operating costs are so much lower than track days. I could easily spend $1k on a track weekend including reg, lodging, fuel, brake pads, tires, etc etc. For ax, I've used the same brake pads for 3.5 years and a set of hot street tires getting switched between 3 different cars lasts about 1 entire year or 25 events!!

Paul Waterloo

Good response!

PorscheG96

Just got home from Porsche Parade. A few other 968's and 951's showed up to the autocross on DOT-R tires so I was a little worried but I got by them on KW V3, Wavetrac LSD and Dunlop Z2 street tires.



Final Results: http://parade2014.pca.org/docs/2014_...nningTimes.pdf

TheBlau

Fixed my youtube links above. Two days of PCA autocross coming up this weekend, more videos next week.

Nice driving at Parade G96, those are very open courses and difficult to determine a line, but yours looked great.