Autocrossed '05 6MT Sedan
Went down to the Stockton Fairgrounds and autocrossed my sedan this weekend. Standard prep (removed superfluous junk) and increased tire pressure to 40psi all around. I'm completly stock (still have the dealer plates on the car and the temp reg in the window). This was my first autocross (I'm a rally and off-road racer normally) so I know my newb parking lot skills could be improved.
All in all, the car was a blast to drive. The stock tires did not seem to be offering the grip levels others were able to achieve, but that's pretty typical for a Nissan. Time to upgrade the rubber. In stock form, power oversteer was always just a right foot away. I was told I was the loudest car out there by a couple of folks because of the constant tire screeching.
I made conservative runs, on the edge runs, and over the edge runs trying to maximize the power advantage i had over some of the field. But, in the end, my fastest times seemed to be when i was really cooking the rears on the long sweepers and right on the edge of understeer during braking on the decreasing radius turns.
I found the sloloms were no real problem, and body roll seemed to be well controlled, so no messing with the sway bars or suspension yet. At the end of the day, my quickest time was a 37.116 seconds. The quickest cars (in any class) were turning 31 second runs. Most of these guys were in fully prepared Corvettes with Racing Slicks. There were certainly many Civics and WRX's that were running slower than I was. Unfortunately, there were no BMW's or IS300's in any of the run-groups I saw...so no comparisons there.
Changes for next time: Bring an air compressor so i can play with my tire pressures. Based on scrub marks, I was dead on with the pressure to use all of the intended contact patch. However, there may be some advantage to changing my pressure +/- a little bit in the rear to dial out some of the oversteer.
I did videotape the runs and will post if anyone's interested. As a side note, my friend took his new 2.0T Audi A4 Quattro (also completely stock). I smoked him repeatedly by 2-3 seconds a run. His car was much more composed, but ultimately pushed (understeer) so much that there was just no way to go faster. I think his car was easier to drive up to the limit, but ultimately the limits were lower. The G35 sedan, on the other hand was a pleasant and communicative handful!
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