Spoiler alert: Testing the new aero upgrades

Virginia Motorsports Park used to be my "home" track, but I
haven't been here in almost 20 years.

It felt like old times on Sunday! I made the tow down to Virginia Motorsports Park for an autocross with the Tidewater Sports Car Club.

I began my motorsports "career" drag racing at the track doing bracket racing on Friday nights in my first B13 Sentra SE-R, and TSCC was the first club I autocrossed with. Even results from my first autocross are still on their site (I think I DNF'd all my runs but they felt sorry for me and gave me a timed run.)

I've also done a bunch of autocrosses at VMP -- TSCC, NASA, Virginia Motorsports Club and SCCA Pro Solos. Even did one event there with the Tarheel Sports Car Club!

But I haven't been back in almost 20 years. My last autocross at VMP was in 2004 when I drove Karen's black 1997 Camaro. (She wasn't there for some reason ... maybe I snuck down there!) Nothing personal, it's just business. After moving to Maryland in the early 2000s and with FedEx Field opening for autocrossing in the early 2000s, there wasn't much motivation to drive almost three hours to VMP.

My last autocross of the year was going to be two weeks ago with the D.C. Region in Waldorf, but since I bailed after it started dumping rain, I went internet searching for another autocross in the area.

The scene from the last WDCR autocross. With rain and standing
water and no other CP competitors, I bailed.

The TSCC autocross at VMP yesterday was about the only thing within reason. And after a deluge of rain at the WDCR autocross, the weather called for 80 degrees (in October) and sun the whole day!

This was the first autocross with the rear spoiler and hood louvers so I was anxious to see if the aero changes did anything. 

And the car felt a little different. It seemed more stable in the slalom, and there was a tight 90-degree left-hander where the car seemed to really put the power down. I thought I'd have to lift a little, but it felt like the two-year-old Hoosiers had the grip. Reviewing the videos (forgot to turn the camera on for the first run), I probably should have been more aggressive in the sweepers to see if the back end would take it.

 

Overall, it didn't really feel like I put a really good run in. A couple mistakes or under-driving on one run, a little over-driving on the next run and a different mistake, etc.. Also, this was the first time driving at an autocross since Aug. 13 -- 10 weeks! Maybe there was also a little rust.

My times were a 39.6 (+1), 39.9 (+1), 39.1, 39.2, and finally 39.0 (+1). The last run felt slower than that! It was actually a re-run because I stopped on course not for a downed cone but a corner worker standing next to the slalom just as I was entering.

In grid for the last heat of the day.

There were about 25 drivers in the heat so there wasn't much -- if any -- downtime between runs to think things over. Park the car, check tire pressures, spray the radiator ... and then I was seven or eight cars away from pulling to the line, so I was getting back in the car, putting my helmet on and cinching down the harness. I didn't even try to look at SoloStorm data.

Since I've gotten back into autocross, clubs are aiming for smaller heats but with more runs. This event had 110-ish total competitors spread out over four heats, and everybody got five runs. Why not three heats with four runs?

Anyway, I won the "R2" class, which was all Prepared cars and indexed based on their PAX -- see final results. Now I can get into those discussions on "The Sandbox" complaining about how the yearly PAX updates are targeting me only!

Here's a five-minute video recap:

I think that might be it for the year and now figuring out what I want to do in the offseason to improve the car. I scored a set of used UMI camber/caster plates, which will be an easy improvement. The car has camber plates already but no modification to adjust caster.

I'll probably also upgrade to a power steering pump from TurnOne. My reservoir leaks pretty badly from the cap during runs, and I think it's from cavitation. I learned that term back in the Sentra SE-R days because those power steering reservoirs also leaked. Basically, the pump turns too fast from all the steering inputs, and the fluid "boils" in the reservoir. The fix for the Sentras was to install a Nissan Stanza pulley, which was a little larger in diameter, and it "slowed" the spinning of the power steering pump. 

Talking to a guy at a WDCR autocross who had LS-swapped his Nissan 240SX (still with this Nissan stuff), he had a TurnOne power steering pump and said it didn't spew fluid when cranking the wheel back and forth during an autocross. The propaganda on TurnOne's website also says it improves horsepower by not robbing as much horsepower, too.

So those are two relatively easy improvements. The hard and/or expensive stuff is going to be upgrading from the Koni shocks and fabricating a front splitter. I've already been talking to Sam Strano on the former. Rear Penskes aren't too hateful -- less than $1500 for a pair. Fronts might be a little more difficult (and too expensive) to acquire, but Sam thinks the single-adjustable Konis I have on the car already might be good enough.

The front splitter I think is going to come down to internet research, then mocking stuff up with cardboard like I did with the rear splitter. I still have leftover lexan, so I'll probably use some for the finished product. The only thing is there isn't an "easy button" to copy somebody else's thirdgen Camaro design.