Tire Rack AutoX, 1st in class!
 

Just got back from an Audi Chicagoland autocross event at the Tire Rack headquarters. They have a newly redone test track that was just phenomenal...a mini-road course. This was my first event of the season and first time on Bridgestone RE-11s. Let me say this: best tire I've ever driven. They were flawless, and I finished 1st in class and 2nd overall (beaten only by a 911 with R-compounds).

This course was just ideal for the Z and the RE-11s are worth every penny.

FWIW, people have complained of bogging or throttle lag when they stomp the accelerator. I was having a lot of issues in my early runs with the car just falling on its face off the line at the start. The solution was just more RPMs for the launch...too little she bogs, a tad more revs and she's a jackrabbit.

:tup: Congratulations!

Nice lot, but why the hell was the course so tight?

Good job btw, see told you the RE11s are great on this car :)

Oh yeah, your car sounds cool too.

Nice job! What size RE-11's are you running? What wheels?

It's not a parking lot...it's the Tire Rack test course. They have two sizes of skid pads connected with some other segments of track. It makes it a mini road course.

The RE-11s have just solidified their position on my car for the remainder of its service life. Thanks for the strong recommendation.

Once the high flow cats and CBE heat up, she gets nice and throaty. People always like the way she purrs once she's hot and bothered :).

I'm running 265/35/19 up front and 285/35/19 in the rear on the sport 19" Rays. Cossie has gone crazy and put 285s on the front, which definitely is beneficial for the really tight turns in autoX. However, I think the car's balance is perfect with the 265/285 combo on fast sweepers (well suited for road courses).

good run man! and grats on the placement.

They could have gone faster on the course, too many slaloms :) I am just jealous as I didn't get over 48mph in the last autox.....

I have only done one event on the new setup. I can't say for sure how much faster I am as everyone I ran against with last year got new A6s. The only thing I can say for sure is that you will still get the plow, but the difference is that the backend seems to have a lot more rotation at lower speed. The car was still stable enough at the higher speed corners. We had 2 figure 8 at the last course, the backend actually stepped out for the first time on these tires. I think the 285 is slightly faster in terms of raw time, but the car just FEELS better.

What psi did you run?

It looks like you have aftermarket suspension on the car, so our feel might be different.

Congrats man :tup:

I wanna try auto crossing sometime this summer.

Wow! Awesome -- congrats! :tup:

Nice job!

We did 16 runs (yes, awesome). For the first 4, I let the PSI drift up from 35/35 to 37/40. Traction really dropped as the pressures climbed. I bled back down to 32/35 and that gave me my best time of the day. The rears were rolling to the indicator perfectly, the fronts were about halfway down the triangle...maybe from a couple plows.

The only suspension changes I have are front and rear sways and 15f/20r spacers. The improvement with the sways in slaloms is profound, while the spacers make a much more minor improvement but make the car feel more planted.

I agree...you can still make the car plow. But if you brake appropriately and trail brake to get good turn-in bite, the car rotates beautifully. It's a great feeling when the car follows your intended line.

I'll post up two hairpin videos...one with a bad plow and one with a perfect dive through the corner.

Nice run there, thanks for representing for the 370Z :)

Thanks for the info! One more noob question, what do you mean by this:

Nice run...and Congrats for 1st! :tup: