[Shotimes] First AutoX!

[Donald Mallinson]

The advice to add air to the rear tires is wrong.  If what 
you want to do is get the back end to come around, you need 
to have the rear tires lower than the front.

If you have typical street tires, start with about 44 psi in 
the front and 36 in the back.  See what happens.

When going into a tight corner, with FWD you have two 
options if the car won't turn, you can get on the gas and 
see if the front can pull the car around, but this works 
better on high speed corners than autox corners.

The better solution is to left foot brake and stab the brake 
  pretty hard.  This unloads the rear, loads the front.  The 
front will bite better, and the rear may come around.  It is 
a skill that takes a bit of practice, but on really tight 
corners, I can get my 89 to rotate almost like a RWD with a 
"hand brake" turn.

There is a good article on autocrossing the SHO coming out 
in the new issue of the SHO Club magazine that will mail to 
members in a couple of weeks.

Don Mallinson

Michael Humbert wrote:

> Hello all.  Just figured Id chime in and talk about my first autox
> experience.  It was an event set up by the sports car club at my school,
> and goddamn did they make it a tight course.  My speedo got up to a
> whopping 40 mph (or so says my passenger), and that was on the only
> straightaway of the course.  I was somewhat disappointed with my
> performance.  It was tough to take the 90 degree turns, and I actually
> ran over some cones the one time because I gunned it out of one such
> turn a bit too early.  Front wheel drive is certainly unforgiving in
> terms of power sliding, which is almost impossible to do (any
> suggestions on this?).  I did very well on the slalom part of the
> course, but I definitely need some suspension upgrades to tighten it up.
> Its a shame I dont have the money to actually proceed with this
> thought!  It was some good fun though.the first time Ive spun my tires
> at any time other than street races or to show off the power of a SHO to
> my surprised college friends.   I hope I still have tread left after my
> last run because I just went to town with the gas!  That was awesome
> though, definitely got a good laugh, though I was upstaged by a turbo
> MR2 that did a 360.  Cant wait for the next one (anyone know of any
> SCCA events in the Albany, NY area?)!
> 
> Mike Humbert
> 90 titanium SHO w/ 157k
> Troy, NY
> 
> Exterior:
> http://www.rpi.edu/~humbem/pictures/sho.jpg
> 
> Interior:
> http://www.rpi.edu/~humbem/pictures/SHO%20interior.jpg
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