The autocross on July 17th was… FRICKIN’ AWESOME!!! I’ve been putting off posting about it because it’s difficult to not sound like an excited teenage girl…
The most important part is that I managed not to embarass myself — I kept the rear of the car to the rear, didn’t stall, didn’t hit any cones. On my first run I did pass the wrong side of an early cone but so did the four cars that ran just ahead of me. I did not repeat that mistake and my final (third) run was 3.1 seconds faster than the first.
It’s amazing how much drifting a (faux) WRX (wagon) at 40-ish MPH in Real Life resembles Gran Turismo.
I placed third in my class, which was also last place. The other two guys running D-Stock were brothers who’ve been running Sentra SE-Rs for like a decade. Their best laps were 4-5 seconds quicker than me. As a n00b I don’t feel bad about that. Overall I placed 136 out of 197.
Pictures from the event taken by my brother. They’re not so good because he accidentally put the borrowed camera (thanks Andy!) into Portrait mode. And he ignored my suggestion to not zoom in on moving cars, so you can have fun trying to guess what kind of car he photographed a quarter of… My car is the silver wagon with 192 on the doors, there’s actually a decent shot of me finishing off a 180-degree sweeper near the end.
Now I’m totally hooked on racing but I have a slight problem. This car is brand new, the second most expensive car I’ve owned and one I intend to drive every day for the next few years. Autocrossing is rough on cars. In a 2WD vehicle the tires take most of the abuse, but with 4WD the powertrain shock get shifted back to the transmission and the WRX is well-known for having a weak tranny…
When I moved back from Germany in 2001 I had plans to start racing. I wanted to run the One Lap of America — the modern Cannonball Run, organized by Brock Yates himself, done purely for bragging rights. 1Lap has classes but they are based solely on factory specs and pricing, creating a strong incentive to put wild upgrades into fairly mild cars (like stuffing an M3 engine in a 318ti). My plan was to find a cheap E36 325 Sedan, do the usual handling upgrades, and drop in a Turbo to lock in a class win. Then I made the mistake of test driving an M3. I had to have it but there was no way I could race it — 1Lap classing for the E36 M3 sucks, I’d blown my total racecar budget by about 100%, and I wasn’t comfortable with the thought of wreacking the most expensive car I’ve ever owned.
I was looking forward to a large bonus in early 2002 so I set my buddy Thomas out to find a car RWD car with a fully independant suspension that would run in a reasonable class and could be made ridiculously fast for about $10K. He came back with the Nissan 240sx (S13, pre-1995). Back then an early model could be had for around $3,000. Add $5,000 for a “Stage II” Turbo kit installed and it would make 300HP at the wheels, leaving $2,000 for handling upgrades. Not a guaranteed class win but competitive and pretty damned badass for it’s day.
Then I was downsized and had to put those ideas aside…
Now I’ve got the bug again. And a job. Some savings, too. The S13 has fallen under $1,500 if you can overlook blemishes like pop-up headlights stuck in the up position. Decent newer-style S14s are hovering in the $3,000-$3,500 range but can sometimes be found for $2,000. JDM engine swaps have become common — the Turbo engines from the non-US S13, S14, and S15 Silvia / 180sx drop right in. A mild 240whp swap can be done for $6,000, 400whp is attainable for double the money, and then there’s the nuclear option — Skyline engines.
I’m inclined to just update the original plan with an S14 chassis and do the upgrades piece-meal. The stock block doesn’t reliably go past 300whp without upgrading the internals, but that ought to be plenty while I work on becoming a better driver…
Another option if I just want to stick to Autocrossing is the Mazda Miata. They aren’t all that fast from the factory but phenominal handling allows them to own their stock classes, and it seems like there is an endless supply of 1990 models for $2,000 or less. Truly obscenely things can be done to Miatas as well — think Ford Mustang 5.0 powertrain, 0-60 in 3.6 seconds.
Toyota’s MR2 MkII (91-95) is another interesting possibility. I’ve always loved those cars, I think of them as the Everyman’s Ferrari. Good condition Turbo models run $9,000+, more than I’d like to spend on a stock chassis, but N/A models are falling under $3,000. Upgrade potential on either engine sucks but a JDM MkIII swap can be done for around $6,000. Have to do the research on how the N/A fares in it’s stock class…
My lunatic side says if I’m gonna think about a mid-engine car I should just save my pennies for another year and go for a Lotus Esprit — my one true dream car. I couldn’t have the Esprit V8 that I’ve always dreamed of buying in the first minutes after cashing my winning Lotto check, but the rounder body style was introduced in the 1998 model year and persistent searching can find them for… well, I don’t want to say lest this ‘blog entry create more demand for Esprits and drive the prices up. You probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.
