Real

Heres the thing though...crowded at Holiday World is a Light day at CP. When youre used to 1+hr waits, a full Voyage queue is like 30min if I remember correctly and thats AWESOME. Granted, the water park does get a bit nuts but thats expected. Still, a crowded day at HW is still a walk in the park compared to the big parks.

I finished 1st in my second race and took first overall in the Novice Championship. First in class and first in overall... I will TAKE it. I was really, really fast. The new tires were absolutely fantastic. My last 2 runs I was pushing really hard and I know there was still more time out there. Heres my progression: Run 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7q-OUPmvl4 Run 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZeWSRVMzHM Run 4 Run 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53gV0NNeTA8 Couple comparisons: Run 2 vs Run 5 Run 4 vs Run 5 I posted pictures in the Cars Superthread that my wife took of me.

Ya know, if you can stop yourself at a set of AutoX Tires, you will just need to do slightly more maintenance and replace brake pads sooner. If you have a car thats built well (which, BMW's are) and you drive it pretty smoothly, I dont think you are putting that much wear and tear to increase your costs much. Yea, it can get ridiculously expensive but Ive sacrificed some of my photo budget to it because its just way - too - fun. Just depends what youre comfortable with. I know the WRX is made for work like this so Im not real concerned. I will probably do my own oil change next and put in the purple crack and when these pads go, ceramic pads will be put on next. Should last longer, better braking and less dust.

LOL Parktrips, yes I originally meant Motorcycles. Autocross #2 in the books. Win #2 as well Unbenounced to me I was actually being "noticed" by people not in my class because of my time. See, I run in whats called RTA which means Road Tire AWD. But I also could run in whats called D Stock, (DS). Difference is that in RTA I have to stay within the rules of the "D Stock" class but run a Street tire. It enables those of us who dont have slicks to be competitive in our own group based on the drivetrain. D Stock allows slick tires, RTA does not. Otherwise, the same class. I was only 1sec from the DS time which allows slicks and that was my first time at this track. They run the same exact track each time so they actually keep lap records. Anyways, I took first and now hold the lap record for RTA. These new Hankook R-S3's had some CRAZY grip the 3rd through 5th runs once they got heated up (being 92 + humidity helped too). Car responded so well and I didnt adjust my pressures at all, 45psi all around. Definitely drove it a lot harder than at Toledo and turned some heads in the process. Way more "ultimate" grip than the stock tires and response was slightly better too. Heres some pictures my wife took and then a video thats off-ride and on ride POV First, the WRX with its White Drag DR-31s wrapped in Hankook R-S3s 245/40/17. The Autocross ONLY tire Now the action shots: And video: I lowered that 4th run down to a 45.302 and that was with a VERY bad turn. So I think I could have gotten to 45 flat and would have been within .9 of the Track Record in DS long as I could get some slick tires. Too bad that wont happen for probably a year. But its a LOT of fun to scare people into realizing hey, Im actually a pretty good driver!

How would you say the 2x performs?

Did you really have to mention that three times in two days? Because it appears you are just trying to rile people up by mentioning it over and over. I understand it is your opinion, but there is no need to keep posting it. I kind of suspect you are trying to rile people up since you mentioned Mean Streak. One response to his trolling...

If I take a certain way home, Its almost inevitable that someone pulls up next to me and wants me to race them. Im only in a WRX, not a STi. However, one of them was pretty lulzy. An LS8. I had him at 50mph by a car length and thats without launching it. Ive had guys in bikes do it too. Im like wtf? Yea thats a fair fight.

^She must not be familiar with the sleeping patterns of cats, large or small The Fabbri ride...there is no excuse for track shaping that bad. None. That was crazy.

Well, theres many facets to grip but a main one is the contact patch with the road. It starts with how much tire you have. Then it moves to camber, deflection, etc to maintain that patch at all time to have the most grip possible. Obviously you can increase tire width but if your car isnt handling the loads well, you wont really get that much more grip if the contact patch isnt being optimized. Im still not sold that the 4lbs cant be overcome by good driving. I feel like thats something you do once your skills are already very good and it gets you those extra few tenths. I make too many mistakes to worry about stuff like that. Thats why Im only getting rims and tires this year. When I feel like Im maxing out the cars capabilities, then you look into Koni inserts or sway bars, etc.

The WRX runs 5x100 bolt patterns which tend to be rare for one. Second, Im trying to stay true to the rules (though Ive been told I can fudge the numbers a bit in regional events, just not in national events) so I also need 17x8 which is my stock rim. But 151 for 245/40 -17s I feel is very good. I can even go 255 but I feel thats pushing it on an 8in rim. I havent heard of many doing that. I dont have money to replace rims and parts if I rip the tire off the rim and destroy it. The extra 10mm of grip I lose, Ill get it back in better driving. Yea, a quick google search shows TSW's in my specs to be around 200 and up. If I was going to spend that much I would go with a set of Work's. But looks like for my car the TSW's arent really cheap either. I can get Drag 31s or Rota Torques for about 125-130 a wheel. One guy is telling me how much different like 4lbs a wheel will be...I dont believe it. Its autocross. Im not traveling at speeds itll matter.

OMG LOL That picture is full of win! Coil-overs wont come for a year. At least. Im pretty hooked on the Hankook RS-3's. The Star specs are basically the stickiest you can buy to stay in the stock wheel class but they will run 175 a tire. The RS3's are 151 a tire and the only downfall to the SS is in colder temps, they dont grip AS much. To be honest, As much as AutoX is about grip, its about carrying as much speed as you can and good driving can trump someone with better grip long as you drive better. So while Ill be up against someone who has better tires in October, long as I can outdrive that person Ill be ok. but no other mods till next year other than Tires and wheels. Looking at Drag's/Rota's. Pretty affordable for what you get. Ill look at TSW's, but the ones I always find are super expensive.

You would probably be in a class that wouldnt include the turbo'd cars Id think. Maybe E or F class. There were cars in H stock. I swear I saw a stock Aveo! Ill check that out. I don't think sway bars come till next year. I want to hone in my racecraft on better tires before I start seriously altering the cars balance. People say "Oh you cant get an AWD car to break the back end" Oh you can. Its called shifting the weight under braking. So I'm going to set myself to learning how to do that so when I do dial in the cars performance, it will be that much faster. Thanks for t comments on the plate and flaps! Plate was bought because I HATE Ohio's front plate laws and the flaps were needed because I was starting to see pitting on the rear wheel fenders from small stones. Not pleased about that!

Um. Jealous.

Yea, its bone stock. I'm going to invest in a set of wheels and sticky street tires and call it a day. Maybe a sway bar or better shocks (adjustable) but its too expensive to do too much to. That and I don't want to jeopardize the integrity of the car over the long haul. Hey, I still manage to hit up my parks What ya gotta do is just have a daily driver capable of driving kinda hard without it dieing. I saw a few neon's, even a few stock Cobalt's. Granted, for every one of those I saw 2 SRT-4's and a couple Cobalt SS's but I even saw someone bring a Malibu. Race what ya got!

AOE2 is one of the best all time RTS games...ever. and ever.

I have gotten into Autocrossing this year after getting my 2012 Subaru WRX. Wanted something I could push a bit harder than your standard daily driver that I knew would hold up. If youve checked out the Cars! Thread youve seen pictures of it. Well June 3rd I had my first event. Was held at the Toledo Express Airport and we (NWOR SCCA) had a record crowd of 220 entries. Thats the largest turnout for a regional event in the country excluding National Level events. The National Tour is making a stop at the Toledo Express Airport this year and I bet a lot of people came out to run, get data and sample the perfectly flat, extremely grippy concrete that we race on. Anyways, I am running this year in the RTA class which is stock class for cars that run a road time on an AWD car. I did much better than I thought, placing FIRST out of 6 cars including a 2011 WRX with mods (stickiest street tires allowed + sway bars), 2 older WRX's and a 2011 STi. The guy in the STi must now know how to drive, he should have slaughtered us. Anyways, heres a video of my first two runs. I held first after the first round and then extended it after the second and third runs. My third run wasnt captured by the GoPro and was by FAR the cleanest run I had. By far! Heres my numbers: Front: Anyone else race?

Ive felt completely secure in Windseeker. No issues. Fun ride, nothing special and certainly not the most nerve racking ride I can say Ive been on. I still think that goes to Intamin third gen towers. Great fun, but the wait...it kills me lol

Wish it wasnt the case that you had to single out the General Public. Still, great report!

Why did everyone look happy? Were they actually enjoying the ride? All i hear is all the bitching about "its so painful". Haha Good report. Does look like a heck of a machine. Also, you mean to tell me that 8+ empty seats hurts capacity?

Thank you. ha. So far, one of my XBL names wont need to be changed. LebronHazNoRing But seriously, theres no excuses for him and that team now. Wade took a team to win a title. Now Wade has LeChoke and Bosh and they cant close these games out? I dont care if theyre injured, so are the Celtics, even more so. But it just shows how fragile that system is with those 3 players. It all has to be perfect or it goes horribly wrong. Lebrons language after the game was perplexing too. Talking about "give ourselves a chance" HUH?! Thats how you talk in Golf because of how its played. You are LeBron James. You have Dwayne Wade. Please dont tell me you go out there and your thought is "Lets just give ourselves a chance". They are way better than that. It should be "Were going to go out here and win this" Just, so much defeated language from LeBron. Its almost like if the teams dont lay down for him, he cant be bothered to really push it to that next level.

If you hold your mouse over the icons, it tells you what they are. The second one is actually LMAO. It shows you that on the side too if you hold the mouse over it.

DROOOOOLLLL My WRX and me would carve that road up...What fun that would be. Though Id need to install a stiffer suspension to really take those turns like Id want to... Great TR! Love the bits inbetween the parks like the roads too.

^Thank you. Once you hit that frequency it doesnt take much more to increase it. Also, just because its not blowing at 20ft doesnt mean it isnt at 120ft. Buildings, etc can shape the wind and obscure things that you "think" should be blowing just as hard.

Thats nothing, thats normal. Seeing the supports reverberate like that, THATS not. Ive watched Raptor and Mantis track flex a few inches several times - not even over the ball joints. Theres a support that moves a bit on Raptor as well in the downward helix after the brake run. This is flexing several feet in either direction. And its supports. They shouldnt do that just in the wind. I know steel moves andd flexes, Im completely ok with that. This is quite a bit more than that!

Even if its fast forwarded, that kind of movement is still insane. A few inches here and there - that seems normal. This just seems really excessive.