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Sac events 9 & 10, V700s and crazy people

To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
Subject: Sac events 9 & 10, V700s and crazy people
From: "Clifford Richardson" <the_brain7@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 12:13:21 -0700
Aaaaahhh...a whole weekend of autoxing. Can it get any better? Probably. For 
now, I am content. On the way home, I noticed I was flooring the gas at 
every green light. It took some conscious restraint to hold myself back. 
(sorry for the long post, I ramble a lot).

I got to try, for the first time, the Kumho V700 on my car. Yeh, I'm a 
little late in the game, but you have to understand something, I'm clueless 
when it comes to this kinda stuff. I mean I only recently learned what 
negative camber was! I thought it was too much work (and $$) for only 3 runs 
to buy a trailer, another set of tires(or an entire car), an air tank(or air 
compressor), adjust this and that, do a run, adjust air pressure, second 
run, adjust, open the hood to cool the engine then final run. Then change 
tires back, pack up and go home. All that in roughly 4 hours. All this 
doesn't include all the other work that goes into the car of course. These 
people are nuts I thought.

Hehehe...please don't flame me, finish reading first. :-)

My very first autocross was at GGF on July 15th. While I had a blast, I felt 
my automatic 318i needed a lot more power (I still do, but that's another 
story) before I could really get competitive. Many of you encouraged me to 
work on my skills rather than blaming the car (What!?!? You mean I 
suck!?!?). Yeh, I did get a lot better(ok, maybe just a teeny bit). One BMW 
Performance Driving School and a few (6) autocrosses later, I think I 
finally learned the limits of my tires (Michelin Pilots) and so decided to 
try the Kumhos I got from Peter Thana. I was told I could shave 2-4 seconds 
on those tires alone. Well, I put them to the test this weekend at Mather 
Airfield.

The course was sweeeet! It was long, challenging, had some wicked turns and 
a chicane. I'm sure someone else could explain the course better than I. All 
I know is I was spoilt! 4 runs!!! Sunday's course was even better. It was 
the same course, but reverse with the addition of a slalom and adjustments 
at the end. On both days, the weather was pleasantly cool and there was 
plenty of time for fun runs.

Talk about relearning how to drive! I was still driving like I was on my 
Pilots(read slow). In my 4 official runs, I could go no faster than 
1:28.xxx. For comparison, Integras were pulling around 1:22.xxx give or take 
a second. I did manage to beat only slightly heavier or less balanced cars. 
Lucky for me, the Sac chapter only has 4 run groups for the entire day so 
fun runs soon followed. It was then, I got the hang of these sweet tires. I 
cut my time by 4 secs!!! And I know I could've done better cause on both of 
my best runs, I screwed up in the same spots. On Sunday, my time was more 
consistent after dropping 3 secs off my first official run. Time difference 
just hovered b/w .2-.5 secs. best time was 1:12.917. I didn't do much better 
in the fun runs: 1:12.719 no cones. I did get to 1:12.2xx but I killed a 
cone. Again, i could've done better. Kept screwing up at one turn..should've 
taken an early apex. Anyway, by then, I noticed the tires were starting to 
lose grip since I got them used with virtually no thread left, and also 
drove on them all weekend. Still, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat by the 
end of both days.

So what did I learn?

1> the difference 2-5 lbs of air pressure makes
2> brake HARD!
3> V700s ROCK!!!
4> this is gonna get expensive ;)

Now to most, if not all of you, this is not new. Indeed, the concepts were 
not new to me, but there's no teacher quite like personal experience. First 
thing I noticed about the V700s, they were virtually silent! none of that 
screeching my Pilots did almost all the time. Second, these things STICK! I 
felt planted and even when I took some turns a little too fast, recovering 
was so much easier. Some guy asked what class I was running and couldn't 
believe that my car was stock! Yup, I was grinning stupidly at the dubious 
look on his face. (teehee)

Thanks, Michael, for letting me use your air tank. It took 2 runs to figure 
out I needed more air in my tires and boy did it make a difference! Liam, 
thanks for letting me drive your 330ci! Put V700s on it and you'll be faster 
than me!!! hehehe...And thank you all for the many pieces of advice, 
solicited or not, that have encouraged me to keep coming back. So now, I'm 
shopping for a trailer I can tow my wheels in, an air tank and a 
professional quality tire pressure gauge. I'll be ordering a new set of 
Kumhos when these are totally worn. Looks like I'm hooked. I'm even 
considered purchasing a friend's Miata as an autocross car...I must be 
nuts...8-]~

Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. I have a hard time reading 
emails that are this long.:-) So now I'm asking for more advice. What should 
I be looking for in a trailer?

-Arnold
"Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try and take over the world!"


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