How competitive in autocross?

[240novice]

I had a chance to look at the result of Solo pro and national tours for 2 years, and hardly found S13 or S14 with KA in GS or STS class. Did they all move to D1 instead? I'm just wondering how competitive S13 and S14 are in autocross.
Modified by 240novice at 12:12 PM 12/8/2004

[nismojason]

Will just a good suspension set-up and a high performance tire, they are very good. I have an SR, and I'm pretty competitive in Street Mod. Where are you located?

[240marcuSX]

its all about driver and tires bro, me and catty on here are pretty competitive. with a bit more practice we should be doing some big things.

if you plan on racing in any shape or form, auto-x is a great place to start out. plus its safe and fun, for the money, you cant beat it.

[240novice]

nismojason-I'm in Champaign, Illinois. I watched my local events a couple of times, and would like to participate in the next year. Since I'm a novice, I'm wondering how I could learn autocrossing. I know there's an autocross school usually at the beginning of the season though.

[240marcuSX]

novice-

just show up at an event early, get registered, walk the course, try to talk to the old guys, they always know whats up. there are links to more info in the suspension faq.

[Andrew300zx]

A lot of the solo II chapters offer a novice school- thats where I began. Also, tires first! more important than anything you do to your car

[Altiman94]

I agree wtih andrew, a good set of tires is better htan any mod you could possibly do.

[Thrwnsprkz]

I caught a Solo II event here in Erie at the end of the season, I was the only 240... I ran in STS with my small mod list (i think it was my strut bar?) and my best was a 55.397 i ran in the 56's most of the day. the slowest times overall on the course were in the 59's (cone penalties) the quickest were 49's... it was a ton of fun tho the 240 did better than I expected, with crappy tires on it. (note: first time autoX, so I also suck at driving)

[SeVa-S13]

If you're autocrossing mainly, invest most of your money is suspension and tires like everyone said. Oh, and an LSD will change your life.

[nismofly]

lsd i believe would bump you up to sm though, would it not?

[SeVa-S13]

I'm not up on my AutoX rules but I thought you were allowed to use parts from other iterations of your car (i.e.-Super HICAS S13s or SE S14's with VLSD's.) and remain in the lower classes?

[nismofly]

ahh ya, factory vsld in sts it says, i thought you were talking about like a 2 way, so i was like, wait a sec...lol

[SeVa-S13]

Ha, I would never put a 2 way in any street car anyways. *skerred*

[574-240sx]

I finshed 2nd in STS this year twice out of the two event I ran. I needed better tires, the 205 kumho 711 don't cut it. All you need is tires and decent suspension. Falken Azenis are a good tire to start out with on oem rims with some minor suspension work. If you are starting out run your car stock in the stock class(GS). Walk the course and ask. Autocross people are very friendly and will to help a noob.

[nismojason]

I'm not up on my AutoX rules but I thought you were allowed to use parts from other iterations of your car (i.e.-Super HICAS S13s or SE S14's with VLSD's.) and remain in the lower classes?

I'm almost positive that you can use the v-lsd in a stock class. However, you may not use an aftermarket unit like Kaaz.

[nismojason]

Sorry, didn't see other people answered already.