My first win

On July 14th, the local Corvette Club held another amazing autocross event. Last time, it had poured rain throughout the entire event, and since I have never autocrossed the STI before that, I never got an opportunity to autocross the STI on dry pavement.

And yes, it makes a huge difference.

The day before the races, I posted photos and updates on Facebook and Instagram as they happened. There were a lot of preparations that needed attention, so that took around 40 minutes to sort out.

Had to make sure the intercooler water spray tank had enough fresh water.

Checked all fluid levels and conditions. Though the brake fluid could have used a change, it was fine for Autocross this time.

Re-torqued all lug nuts, and checked all cold tire pressures.

Prepared some light supplies: Extra engine oil, torque wrench, breaker bar, scissor jack, extra lug nuts and their locks and keys, foldable chair, plastic tarp, and a spare tire.

And last but not least, racing gear: Helmet and Shoes.

Registration for that day was at 8:00 AM, so I arrived bright and early and started to settle down. As the time for registration drew near, more and more cars started to pull in. There were a couple of cars that were known to take on corners, and this made me nervous, but also very excited.

As the day progressed, it had gotten really hot, and the STI's Bridgestone Potenza RE070s were hooking up really well. So well in fact, that I had to raise the launch control RPM from 5200 to 5500! I was quite nervous launching so many times at such high RPMs in the blazing heat, but as it turned out the STI handled it like a pro.

In the morning, the temperature was at a perfect 75 degrees, but by the end of the day, the ambient temperature had risen to 87 degrees! It was so hot in fact that two cars were put out of commission due to leaking radiator hoses, and radiator caps blowing off. Seeing two cars overheat made everyone very nervous. Everyone did all they could to cool down their cars as much as possible between the runs.

At the end of the event, everyone parked their cars, and gathered together as the organizers gave out prizes to the top four drivers. Since it was a Corvette Club organized autocross, they had one prize for the fastest Corvette on street tires, and one on racing tires. Then they categorized any other make of cars under the "Sports car" section, and also gave out prizes for the fastest street tires, and fastest racing tires.

I had earned my very first win, for being the fastest stock car with street tires that day with a run of 68.557 seconds. I had won a hat, and a small set of tools: Flashlight, tire pressure gauge, and a pen. The prize was light hearted and fun, so I smiled as I received it.

To me, the most important part of this was that it was a great learning experience, and it really showed me, and the others, what the Subaru Impreza WRX STI can really do.

The episode will be airing later. I will talk more about the driving aspect when the episode is released. Cheers!

First Autocross with the Corvette Club

This was the very first autocross with the Subaru STI. It was an extremely rainy day, and the Bridgestone Potenza RE070 summer tires were not made for the weather. However, with the AWD system, earlier braking, and light acceleration, the car was manageable.
A couple of things I've learned from this first autocross, brakes are by far the most important thing to modify. I believe, a lighter car would do a lot better around the corners as well. The one thing I did want to modify to this car after experiencing the lateral g-force were the stock STI seats. The USDM seats do not hold me in well enough. Originally, as you can see in the video, I had my launch control set to 4500 RPM. However, even in the rain, after the tires were warmed up, it was not enough power to break traction, so I ended up bogging down the car slightly. I proceeded in using the Cobb Accessport's handy on-the-fly launch control settings, and dialed it up to 4700 RPM. 
I'm looking forward to more racing, and more modifications!

Impressions of first Autocross

On June 16th, I took the STI to my very first Autocross event, and what a way to celebrate the anniversary of Machine Zealots' Subaru Impreza WRX STI! That's right, it has been a full year!

The day before the event, I went through a check list of things to do. I checked the torque of the lug nuts, checked the tire pressure, checked the car's fuel levels, and made sure all of my other fluids were up to specifications.

Some stuff to bring to any Autocross event.

I actually spent some time online, reading through other people's experiences, and some useful advice given from other drivers. It's useful to bring several tools with you. For one, if you have an air compressor, you can change your tire pressures according to what you need. A spare tire, or a spare set of tires could be rather useful. If one set somehow fails, you can go home in another set. However, most people bring a different set of tires for the different driving conditions. I met a Subaru owner, who brought a full set of R-compound tires, but ended up driving in a set of all seasons because it was too rainy that day.

Subaru Impreza Wagon, owner of the R-Compound tires.

Checking out the rain.

The course was extremely large, like looking into an ocean.

Corvettes and other stuff.

After racing, my impressions of the STI were actually very different. I learned to appreciate all the flawed characteristics it had, and I really appreciated all of the good qualities it had too. It was good practice, and I felt a lot more confident in the car. A couple of thoughts that came to my mind after the racing, mostly things I thought that needed improving on the STI. The USDM STI seats were not supportive at all. I was tossed around the car like a garden salad, and ended up coming home with backaches because I had to tense my body up so much to counteract the g-force generated in the car. Another thought was, never over estimate your brakes. I almost felt that was the most important aspect of the autocross. I am glad I took the time to install the HAWK HP Plus Racing brake pads before I went because, boy, the STI really needed it.

Clean wheels.

After one day at Autocross.

Close up of the brake dust.

I am very glad that I did not modify this car too much before going, because if I had modified everything already, I wouldn't appreciate how the car is now, and certainly wouldn't appreciate how much it can improve. Since this Autocross event was far too rainy for me to judge the tires and suspension characteristics, I will leave that assessment for a dry Autocross event. The Bridgestone Potenza RE070s did surprisingly well in the rain, it wasn't composed, but it wasn't as bad as I had imagined either.

Oh right, one last thing, at the end of the day, I had won an award! For the first person to eat 3 cones in a row. LOL. I was given the title, Cone Head. I was far too aggressive...

Anyway, the episode for this Autocross event will be posted in a couple of weeks. Will talk more about the runs, the times, and the competition later. Stay tuned!