Well Derek's post about his new wheels and tires made me decide to put this up. I've secretly been practicing my driving skills in preparation for CB'10. Last year was my first time ever trying to man handle 3500lbs of steel through the cones. It was a good learning experience, but went by so fast I didn't ever realize what I was doing wrong or the changes my suspension needed.

Well since then I have added some new sway bars, I wasn't even running a rear bar before and a matched set of Nitto NT-05's. Getting behind the wheel and pushing the car close to it's limits is really the best learning experience anyone can have. I am still learning a lot about driving and need a lot more practice at choosing my lines and being smooth, but that will come with time.

I have been trying to get all my car enthusiast coworkers and friends to come out and run their cars. I encourage anyone here to get out and drive. I have met so many great people and had so much fun it is amazing.

Someone told me they took some pics so I'll try to post those up when I get them. I want to invest some money into a video setup so I can record my runs to post.

Here is the clip my friend took:
YouTube- SCCA Daytona Autocross

A pic of the Chevelle resting before my runs in Dayton International Speedway:
http://bionicengineering.net/media/daytona_autocross_resting.jpg
There was another SCCA race going on around the big road course.

I ended up 4th out of 31 cars in the Novice class. You can run Novice for your first 3 events or until you trophy in the Novice class.

Results: http://cfrsolo2.com/2010/2010_05_02_daytona_final.htm
Just search for Chevelle it's the only one in the list. The post run time clock wasn't working so we couldn't tell if our changes were improving or hurting our times.

Great job, love seeing the old cars out there. Comparing your times to other classes like CP (where I would run), you would have been quite competitive.

If you haven't already, get yourself some runs with an instructor, and ride alongs with someone who is fast... it will really help you to figure out where you can be faster, as well as where your car needs improvement. :thumbsup: I thought my car handled well, until I rode in a much faster car... then I had a better "feel" of what mine was doing poorly.

Yeah I had the instructor ride with me my last run this time. Should have done it earlier, but I wanted to try it myself, he did give me some pointers between runs. Last time out he rode with me a few times and then I let him wheel the car twice. He always has a lot of good feedback. I need to do some research on standard racing terminology and technique. He was explaining trail braking to me and I think it's something I need to try, but not sure exactly how to make it happen.

I need to do more ride alongs with other cars. It's starting to get so hot down here I was mostly hiding in the shade when I wasn't running or working.

Ride with different instructors if you can. I have found that I get lots of different view points depending on the instructors experience.

There are not too many instructors that have been in, driven and understand larger cars like Chevelles. Miata's and Honda 2000 guys are easy to find. It's the Mercedes guy you want to ride with. You will find the smaller guys stuff is not all applicable to the larger cars.

Ron

Ride with different instructors if you can. I have found that I get lots of different view points depending on the instructors experience.

There are not too many instructors that have been in, driven and understand larger cars like Chevelles. Miata's and Honda 2000 guys are easy to find. It's the Mercedes guy you want to ride with. You will find the smaller guys stuff is not all applicable to the larger cars.

Ron

That's a very good point! My first ride-along was in an S2000, so when I tried to copy his technique in the sloloms, I found myself running over cones with the rear wheels... later learned to add a little distance to account for the longer wheelbase. :clonk:

Keep it coming guys. You are all my inspiration to get my rust bucket '67 on the road and do some autocross.