I was there. Blue miata with hardtop. Had a lot of fun and didn’t do too bad for the second time ever racing. Cant wait until next event
Oh I was Thier watching good ol cheeks fryin tire waapssshhh waaapssssshhh, hahaha
Ya i plan on running next time as well, i was just out feeling up my comp.
I think it should be mandatory that all Pittspeeders wear thier hoodies out there, I didnt realize how many of you guys were out !!
fun times… I had a lot of issues but at least the car managed to make it through 3 runs, lol. Having a strung out car is hard work. Hopefully I can have it sorted out before the beaveRun and national level events I am headed to this year. thanks for the kind words…
cheeks car looked like fun, being able to light up the tires definately looks sweet, a lot of the drift oriented cars looked like tons of fun to let loose for the crowd
where can I get a hoodie?
I want an STi or Evo. Actually, anything would be better than my GTI right now…
i cant wait for the school in a couple weeks. i hope its nice out…and i hope there will be ppl there that suck more than i do.
I know someone selling an 05 STi if your interested.
It’s not the car, it’s the driver. Were you running in Street Mod? If you were, I beat you and a couple WRX/STis and a V8 Mustang in my beater Civic sedan.
you also beat a Integra, but not me :booty:
is there a good website that breaks down the different classes, and what modifications you are allowed to have in each class?
no, I brought up the rear in dsp, but looking over the rules again, I think I might run sts as I’m legal there and won’t be in the same class as that rediculous STi.
I do realize that I have a lot to learn, but, I took my friends prelude out in a fun run and beat my best time by 1 second. This prelude is a car that I’ve never driven before.
My GTI was the red 2002 that was there. I just can never seem to get any grip. I have shitty tires on though, and I think I over-turn the wheel. Like if I start pushing in the turn, I shouldn’t keep spinning the steering wheel. Any other tips for front heavy front wheel drive cars are appreciated.
You ran against Tom, in the '89ish red GTI
you also beat a Integra, but not me
Pulled it out on your last run, eh? Good. It would have REALLY sucked to be beaten by a 80HP Civic sedan that’s way under prepared. 
I also haven’t driven FWD competitively in about four years and my new Civic has about double the horsepower that my last car did so I had quite a steep learning curve to deal with on only three runs. Expect me to be a bit faster at the next event (My LSD should be installed by then along with a final drive gear ratio change).
Seriously, you need some decent tires in the back and you need to be a little smoother on your runs and look ahead more. I noticed that you were setting up wrong for some of the sections which cost you a lot of time and made you react to the course instead of setting yourself up on the proper line.
Any other tips for front heavy front wheel drive cars are appreciated.
The best thing I can suggest is find me at the next event. You’re more than welcome to walk the course with me in the morning and I’ll give you some pointers on where you want to be doing certain things. Later, I’ll ride with you on your runs and you can ride with me on mine. After each run we’ll spend a few minutes reviewing what went wrong and what went right and I’ll make some suggestions for you to try on your next run. A days worth of private instruction will help you a lot.
Make sure you go to the North Hills Sportscar Club website and download the novice guide, here:
http://www.nhscc.com/forms/NHSCC%20Novice%20Handbook.pdf
Read it over several times before the next event. It covers all the basic stuff that you need to know and I highly suggest keeping a printed copy with your autocross stuff. I may be biased since I wrote it but I doubt you’re going to find a better guide anywhere.
The best thing i can suggest is that if you find the car pushing like that, you need to slow down a bit. Next time you’ll want to approach the corner entry a bit slower. It’s best to give up a bit of speed at the beginning of the corner, and make it up by powering out sooner.
As far as setup goes, you might consider a bigger front swaybar (you might already have one, i dunno). It’ll seem counter-intuitive, but on a mostly stock suspension it really helps the front tires work better.
Mike - I was impressed with how well you got your wagon moving!
Yea basicly everything Mike and Jim said lol. Sounds like your understeering your way around the course. Working the tire pressures might afford you a little more grip from your tires. As Mike said use more brake. When you slow down earlier you’ll be able to hold your line easier. When you hit the Apex of your turn and can see where you are going,then you’ll find it easier to go WOT.
Also never yank the wheel to turn in your forcing the tires to break loose. I shuffle steer a ton since the civic’s steering rack is so slow. Its sorta hard to explain, but basicly I try to never cross my arms over each other. Rather I keep my hands roughly in the 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions on the wheel, and shuffle my hands along the sides of the wheel to turn the car. Its not necessary for all cars, but it helped make me alot smoother.
If you want other help next sunday i’ll be there also (77 STS), just holler. NOTHING will help you more than seat time, both in your own car and other peoples cars.
Thanks guys, I definitely need to get back in the grove after a long off-season. While North park has a prettier venue, that is closer, and a little harder due to the camber of the lot, I really like the Steel Cities events because you get to run 3 runs back to back. I kept feeling like, “oh, fucked that one up, well, I’ll try to remember what not to do and hour from now”. I think riding along with a bunch of different people would be good, and I definitely need to break earlier and try that “shuffle steer” technique.
chris 32dsp
Yeah, I realized way too late most of the time that I was coming in too hot. I need to watch my speed, watch how hard I turn the wheel, and maybe most importantly, look ahead in the course.
From what I’ve read about the VW’s, I should be looking for a bigger rear sway to help the back end come around. I might have to read up some more.
Oh, and just to give me a reality check, vicoracers and azenis are both sts legal, correct?
I Was There I Saw That The Red Hatch Did That Miata Run The Best All Day?
no… the silver STI ran like 3 seconds better then everyone. he was insane.