69boo307
Nov 8th, 04, 12:27 PM
Well, with all the handling and braking work I've done I figured it was time to put them to the test, even though I'm still sporting the original 307 under the hood.
I entered an autocross put on by the TarHeel Sports Car Club. It was at an old airstrip,so the course was fairly long and narrow. This meant alot of slalom type obstacles, and one 'u-turn' or 'pivot' cone where you had to do basucally do a u-turn. The course had some nice open areas which could reward strong acceleration (followed by hard braking). Everyone got 4 runs. The field was definitely dominated by small imports, although there was a variety of other vehicles there including a couple of 4th gen fbodies, and a '67 camaro.
Here's my results/observations:
-Most of the autoX folks were very friendly and helpful towards newbies, it was a good experience. I only encounted one jackass, who seemed to have a superiority complex about his little girly-car, and thought that because we (myself and the '67 camaro owner) had old american cars, we must be totally ignorant as to principles of handling, braking, etc.
-I didn't hit a single cone, and only once did I experience a 'loss of traction event' due to a poorly timed turn (on the u-turn part of the course).
-I was very pleased with the way my car behaved, and it didn't give me any problems. Nothing overheated or broke. My brakes never got very hot, I didn't tax them at all. I did manage to lock the tires down once, during the aforementioned poorly timed turn.
-The NAPA steering box I installed last week was a savior, I couldn't have negotiated the course well at all with the stock steering ratio.
-I was pleased with my HTH suspension components. the car was just smooth, never felt out of control. It's supple enough to keep the tires on the pavement, but firm enough to prevent excessive body roll. Upon examining my tires I found that I got about 1/16" past the 'edge' of the tread, which tells me the tires were planted well and were'nt trying to fold up under the car as is typical of a big heavy car. Bottom line, I have nothing to rave about and nothing to gripe about. It just got the job done with predictibility and no drama. I didn't squeal and smoke tires, didn't get the rear of the car out away from me, didn't plow through the corners.
-All that said, my times were poor. Most street-tired cars were in the 58-63 second range. The '67 camaro, on a rebuilt stock-style suspension and considerably narrower tires than me, ran a best of 60 seconds and change. He did pretty well and was right in the mix of things. My two best runs were 67.7 and 67.8. I was dissappointed in that, considering how well I thought the suspension and brakes performed. The fact that I hit no cones, always felt under control, didn't get my brakes really hot, and only had one real loss of traction tells me for one that I wasn't driving aggressively enough and pushing the car hard enough. There was probably at least a couple seconds left there just in the driving. Secondly I think my absolutely pitiful power-to-weight ratio cost me 3-4 seconds on this course. It was a pretty fast course and allowed for some good speed if you had the power on tap. The numbers don't lie, I was definitely lacking somewhere.
It was good experience and I had fun despite my numbers, but I think I'll wait until I get a new motor in the car to try it again. smile.gif
I entered an autocross put on by the TarHeel Sports Car Club. It was at an old airstrip,so the course was fairly long and narrow. This meant alot of slalom type obstacles, and one 'u-turn' or 'pivot' cone where you had to do basucally do a u-turn. The course had some nice open areas which could reward strong acceleration (followed by hard braking). Everyone got 4 runs. The field was definitely dominated by small imports, although there was a variety of other vehicles there including a couple of 4th gen fbodies, and a '67 camaro.
Here's my results/observations:
-Most of the autoX folks were very friendly and helpful towards newbies, it was a good experience. I only encounted one jackass, who seemed to have a superiority complex about his little girly-car, and thought that because we (myself and the '67 camaro owner) had old american cars, we must be totally ignorant as to principles of handling, braking, etc.
-I didn't hit a single cone, and only once did I experience a 'loss of traction event' due to a poorly timed turn (on the u-turn part of the course).
-I was very pleased with the way my car behaved, and it didn't give me any problems. Nothing overheated or broke. My brakes never got very hot, I didn't tax them at all. I did manage to lock the tires down once, during the aforementioned poorly timed turn.
-The NAPA steering box I installed last week was a savior, I couldn't have negotiated the course well at all with the stock steering ratio.
-I was pleased with my HTH suspension components. the car was just smooth, never felt out of control. It's supple enough to keep the tires on the pavement, but firm enough to prevent excessive body roll. Upon examining my tires I found that I got about 1/16" past the 'edge' of the tread, which tells me the tires were planted well and were'nt trying to fold up under the car as is typical of a big heavy car. Bottom line, I have nothing to rave about and nothing to gripe about. It just got the job done with predictibility and no drama. I didn't squeal and smoke tires, didn't get the rear of the car out away from me, didn't plow through the corners.
-All that said, my times were poor. Most street-tired cars were in the 58-63 second range. The '67 camaro, on a rebuilt stock-style suspension and considerably narrower tires than me, ran a best of 60 seconds and change. He did pretty well and was right in the mix of things. My two best runs were 67.7 and 67.8. I was dissappointed in that, considering how well I thought the suspension and brakes performed. The fact that I hit no cones, always felt under control, didn't get my brakes really hot, and only had one real loss of traction tells me for one that I wasn't driving aggressively enough and pushing the car hard enough. There was probably at least a couple seconds left there just in the driving. Secondly I think my absolutely pitiful power-to-weight ratio cost me 3-4 seconds on this course. It was a pretty fast course and allowed for some good speed if you had the power on tap. The numbers don't lie, I was definitely lacking somewhere.
It was good experience and I had fun despite my numbers, but I think I'll wait until I get a new motor in the car to try it again. smile.gif