[SupraMK3]

Wow... this is a good topic. Road racing is a blast, but it is usually one of the most difficult forms of racing to get into because of the availability of events and the associated costs. With that being said I would definately recommend that you look into autocrossing. The availabiltiy of events is much greater, and the costs are typically much lower. Anyone can autocross in any car... that is one of the things that makes it so appealing. Also, it will help improve your driving skills very similar to how you would in a road race enviornment.

Now... setting up the car for autox and road racing... thats a whole different thread.

 

[SupraMK3]

I think my supra would get owned in autox? how do you guys fair?

I placed 7th out of 24 in my class (SSM) in the last event that I did. The 6th placed guy beat me by .01 seconds!! and the top 3 drivers in the class cosistantly place in nationals competitions every year. So I think I did pretty good.

The key is to have good power, but not too much of it. The nature of any turbo car is to have a very peaky power band. If you are running a setup that gives you 100hp in less than 500 rpm's you are going to have a very tough time controlling the car on a tight autox course. I have my car set so that the stock turbo spools as fast as it can but doesnt yield a ton of peak horsepower. This gives the widest and most linear powerband which is most easily controlled. Stock CT @ 11psi, full exhaust, intake, spearco IC + minor suspension and brake mods is a very mananagable and fun autocross setup. I will soon be adding even more suspension...

Who cares if you really get owned though? The point is that you're out there having fun, and becoming a better driver in the process. What is really cool is when you start out autocrossing, and you rank in the last quarter of your class almost every time... then a few years go by, car is still basically the same, and your consistently placing inside the top 10 in your class. You know you are getting better the more you drive.. now that is a great feeling.

Here is a funny story that happened to me at an event about 2 months ago. I convinced my friend Ryan who has a stock '03 Lexus IS300 to come out to an event. He had never done any kind of performance driving before. I coached him some, and we both did our 4 timed runs. He sucked as any newbie should, and I did pretty good in my MK3. After the event was over they opened up the track for fun runs, and Ryan let me take his Lexus for a few laps. On my first lap I ran 1 second slower than the fastest time I had run in my car, and on the second lap I beat my fastest time by almost 2 seconds!!!!!
That car was soooo smooth though... almost perfectly balanced. Just goes to show what you can do in a slower car with a damn good suspension.

 

[SupraMK3]

I'm glad this thread popped up again because there is one more thing id like to add...

The MK3 supra is one of the hardest cars to drive well... learn to kick ass in it and you will positively own when you get behind the wheel of a lighter car with more balanced handling and a more linear power band.

For those of you interested... I am halfway through a great book right now. It's called "Secrets of Solo Racing: Expert Techniques for Autocross & Time Trials" by Henry A. Watts. So far a great book... very well explained with lots of helpful diagrams. I picked it up at SoloRacer.com along with a helmet and tire gauge. Check it out...