^ ^ i knew i heard it some where in these parts

 

i have never autoxed before, but have driven on a fair share of tires, (kumho's, yokohamas, toyos, nittos and bridgestone) of all imo, the proxes 4 hold the road much better than any, but i have not driven them to such an extent. so being the guru that eboy is, you should definitely listen to him

 

I really shouldn't have laughed. Sorry about that. My problem is that the proxes 4 may be a good daily driver tire, but once you start slaloming at 60+MPH and taking 180* turns in the 40MPH range, regular street tires just won't hold. Worse, the small treadblocks will start to separate and the tire won't be really driveable for more than a couple events. So you've lost tiem on the track and you've ruined brand new tires.

PLUS, performance tires in my experience are actually cheaper than their daily driver counterparts.

 

Sorry, I'm with Bobaab on this one. In my 7 years of autocrossing and track experience, tires are the #1 performance improvement on a car, hands down. And every racer I have ever talked to agrees. Just swapping to Falken Azenis knocked SECONDS off my times.

Also, it is important to find out what you plan on doing with the car. Honestly, if you want to be remotely competitive with a Lancer in SCCA autocross, put a set of R compound tires on stock rims, find some Tokiko shocks (stock springs for the rules), throw a 2" or 2.25" exhaust on it, and have fun in the H Stock class.

If you really want to make a great handling race car on a budget, keep your Lancer stock and buy a fully prepped '89 Civic SI for under $6000. That's less than the Lancer costs alone, plus I spent another $3000 in mods and tuning to STILL be 900 lb heavier than the STS competition.

Then there's the last route (the one I kinda fall into), which is to not give a crap what class you're gonna be in, mod the car however you want to and race in whatever they say it classes in and have fun no matter what place you come in. For the record, though, I have set my Lancer back to stock and am driving someone else's STS prepped Suzuki Swift GT. I race it in the STX class where it's not competitive, but they let me drive for free as long as I give them feedback to help them prepare the car for nationals.

 

It all depends on what class you want to race. Where as you want to do modifications then i would say STS is your best bet. Here is my setup for STS which I have finished no worst than 2nd in the class. It is in order starting with what i feel is most important (biggest impact) all the way down to the almost useless.

1. Falken Azenis RT-615s 205-40-R16 (i run some 16" wheels which may of been a bad choice.. id do 15s if i was doing over again.
2.Progress Rear Sway bar
3. Progress camber bolts (about -2 degrees in the front and -1.6 in the rear)
4. RRM Race Series Slotted Rotors w/Axxis pads (want to upgrade to Porterfield)
5. Progress Springs (ES)
6. Replaced blown sturts.. yeah i know stock but its better than blow struts.
7. Corbeau 4pt harness
8. front and rear strut bars and lower tie bar (RDD set)
9. Custom Intake
10. Custom exhaust
11. Stainless Brake lines
12. Apexi SAFC

I'm also working on ordering a full suspension. Either the NEX (money sucks) or Tein.. just stinks money is an issue.

That is just what I run and do well, it all depends onwhat you want to do. There are a lot of other cars that more competative but you do what you can. Glad you enjoyed autox, best of luck. Always remember that its more about the driver than the car. I just beat a 206 whp Acura RSX with a full suspension by a quarter of a second today with my 113 whp lancer. (hes a great driver too just not so great tires). Most importantly remember to half fun because its not worth it when its not fun anymore.

 

BTW if you're serious about suspension, neither NEX or Tein will do. JIC is the most competitive suspension for the Lancer. It comes at a price, but it is the only suspension that can be adjusted stiff enough for autocrossing. Even when I had the Tein SS kit, my fellow racers agreed that the stiffest setting was too soft for autocross, it's more of a street kit.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

wow, really? I was being tutored by an old timer and he suggested I go softer with my dampers. Sure enough- took three seconds off the first run, an additional click softer took another two seconds off.... some of this may be explained by tire pressures. Some folks that I've talked to turn their noses up at Tein for some reason (they all have Koni 5 ways- jeaolous ) so the folks you talked to may be biased against them, too. FWIW most of these people assumed (wrongly) that I just have the tein springs and when told they're a 9kg/mm Front and 7kg/mm rear coilovers with adjustable dampers, they looked confused and didn't really know what to say next.

But whatever you go with, I'll third the comment about having fun. My suspension setup was so horrible last time that even though I came in 12 of 13, just to have the times go down that significantly was a blast.

 

I can't run in H Stock because I have a front strut bar on my car, which I bought prior to autocrossing. I've been running (very uncompetitively) in STS. I do it just for fun, not really to win anything. It would just be nice to be a little bit competitive and be able to compare myself to some of the other drivers. Right now, my car is by far the slowest and has the worst suspension. I'm thinking of buying used OZ Rally wheels and new tires (like everyone suggested) and also buying the TEIN SS Coilovers. It all depends on how much money I make working this summer. I definitely agree with everyone about just having fun. I've had a great time at every autocross and I don't mind losing. I just love driving my car to its limits and learning how to better control it.

 

e-boy, it could also depend on how the surface of the pavement was too..there's lots of venues out there with bumps that'll throw off the balance of the car.

streetspeed, take off the strut bar, thats what i did. im pretty competitive at many events in HS with just a tire upgrade..this car is pretty underestimated, but still definitely not a autox car of choice tho.

 

if your venue is bumpier, you'd still want to go softer. The stiffer the suspension, the more it will want to "skip" over the bumps. If the suspension can absorb more of the bumps energy, your tire will stay planted better. our surface is both bumps, it has bands of asphalt and concrete and some of it is painted (because it used to be an airstrip)- so we're bouncing around and changing surface type all the time

Besides, if super high tire pressures and zero-settings on the dampers aren't making you the fastest in the group, what have you got to lose by running softer settings and lower pressures? It's about experimenting with the car.

 

word this is my second year... tires alone took 2 seconds off my times (guesstimating by time between me and leader) the rest of my suspension has taken off another 2 seconds, and me learning how to drive my car better and experimenting have given my another 1-1 1/2 seconds off. This last event (yesterday) i was about 1 second behind the leader. With a lil more skill and more experimenting i think ill be knocking off the rsx's and si's from their podiums.

btw: my setup is about 2 on the front and 14 on the rear. with the front tires at about 35-38psi and the rears around 44psi to help them slide (azenis) . What tire pressure and SS settings are you running eboy?

 

Last time I was at 2F/6R for the dampers and 42F/38R for the tire pressures. I know my tire pressures need work, but I don't need any help making the rear slide Actually, it did a nice job of rotating around the Z-axis (so good yaw) and I think it's just a matter of a little tweaking. I'll try the kinda firm front and ridiculously soft rear next time

 

Yeah I think I overlooked the possible difference in venues. We are fotrunate enough to have a newly resurfaced airplane runway and the parking lot to California Speedway for our events, so it's always quite smooth. When we did events at an old torn up parking lot at Hollywood Park, however, I did in fact have to go softer. Maybe we're just spoiled around here

 

man, id love to drive one of your lancers and compare it to one with just a tire upgrade

 

you are able to get your rear to rotate with it on 6? Is it from loosing traction or extreme speed and whiping that *** around? I know it was difficult for me to get the rear to do anything but follow the front when it was soft... what about you urban you remember your settings?