Re: Racing questions...

[Shawn Meze <Trnsfrma@ix.netcom.com>]

At 03:02 AM 11/8/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Well I and Jay are autocrossing for the first time on Sunday up in NY and I
>just have a few questions regarding the rules to keep my 8v in ES.  I was
>wonderiing if removing seats or any other body component (bumpers etc.)
>would move me to another class.  I want to keep the car completely stock
>right now so I don't have to pay for parts and the class is a little less
>competetive.  The other change I have a question is regarding removing the
>AC.  Is this illegal too?  I know I need to get the SCCA rule book sometime
>but I figured some of you know all about this already so why not ask now? 
>Thanks for the help and any other first-race-tips would be appreciated. 
>I've been practicing (illegally, unfortunately and I almost killed myself
>the other day but that's another exciting story I can tell you about if you
>like, AND I can make it sound a lot better than it was! =) 


You'll fall in love with autoxing!
You cant remove the seats or bumpers. If you do, it will put you in Street
Modified. You dont want to go there. As far as tips, heres my pre race prep,
the night before. First, do you have autocross wheels/tires or are you going
to use your street tires?
In any account, this is my prep:

Clean out the car of the weeks of collecting papers, trash, whatever has
gotten left in the car. Wash/wax the car. Check the timming. Put 50 lbs of
air in my Yokohamas (but now I dont need to with the BFG's.). Load up the
jack/toolbox. Load up my box of magnetic numbers and sponsors. Load up my
helmet. Go get a full tank of 92 octane fuel. Check all the fluid levels.
Sleep and go race.

You can remove the A/C if you wish. I happen to like cold air in the summer
and even in the winter sometimes when its hot here. (Damn sunshine. Day
after blazing day...) so I keep mine. 
You cant do any mods to your car to stay in E Stock. 
What you need to practice is braking, being smooth, look ahead, car control
and learning the course. There is much more than this to learn but thats why
your doing it. Learn and have fun. 

If your gonna run on street tires, just before you get to the track, put
about 50 lbs of air in the tires. Im not joking, do it. Once you get there
and are on the grid, bleed down the pressures to 42 front and 46 rear. After
your first run, check the pressures again and look at the tire and find
where it has rolled over to. (Find the wear marks from hard cornering on the
tire.) if its still pretty high on the tread of the tire, and feels really
hard on the course and the car doesnt turn so good, try and lower the
pressure a few pounds in the front. If the rear looks like this and it wants
to spin on you, lower the rear 2 pounds. 
If you can see the tire has rolled over on the sidewall (you were driving on
the sidewall in hard cornering) then you will want to add tire pressure. 
The main reason for adding so much air pressure is to keep the sidewalls
rigid. Thats the goal here. If you have a portable compressor that you can
plug into the cig lighter, bring it and fill the tires at the track. 

Keep a cool head, be calm (Yeah, just try! You'll be so pumped with
adrenalin youl shake like you've just chugged 6 pots of coffee!!) and most
of all, have fun!

Shawn
86' Jetta GLi
82' Scirocco GTi
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and 
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!

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