I was going from a 160-ish HP, FWD, naturally aspirated car with quite a few suspension modifications to a 100% stock, 265 HP, AWD, turbo monster. Time to throw out the rule book. Everything I had learned in the last few years about pushing my car is practically useless. And I approached every event in that same way… starting from scratch.

I just wish that someone had reminded me at the first two events that I had this new, fancy thing called traction control – and that I could turn it off. No matter… even with the traction control off I still finished 3rd in PAX at both events. I’d call that acceptable.

Throughout the season I’d end up as low as 7th in PAX and as high as 1st! That’s right, I even managed to win my first PAX trophy once this year (Event #7, Arnot Mall). And again, as a reminder – PAX is meant to equalize or handicap everyone’s times as if they were driving the same cars. So you’re essentially comparing driver to driver.

Even from the beginning of the season I had just assumed that I’d win my class (D Stock) for the year… but that was more or less because I’d never have any steady competition, as usual. Early in the season I noticed I was also leading the PAX points for the year… suddenly I had a new goal. PAX is far more impressive than just a class championship, IMO. But the thought of winning something like that with a brand new car was a bit of a pipe dream early on in the season.

As we approached the 6th and 7th events, I started to realize it may be possible! As it came down the wire it looked like it was going to be a 3-way battle and I was literally in the driver’s seat to hold on (yay for cliches!). A surprisingly ridiculous time at our Arnot Mall event gave me my first PAX event win and extended my points lead going into the last event. It was down to 2 of us.

After my 4 morning runs, I was really worried. I needed more time – but then found out we’d only get 2 runs in the afternoon. Ouch. Thankfully I managed to push just enough in the afternoon to better my morning times… by about half a second. Turns out that’s all I needed. I didn’t need a PAX win… I just needed to be within a second or so of Nile, breathing down my neck. I was just a half second back. Plenty of time.

Final PAX Results

Eight events. Our six best times. And I get the win by a whole 1.2 points. I looked back a few years and this is definitely one of the closest results in the last few years. And really it makes me more excited for next year.

I already have better tires stashed away for next season (ran OEM tires this year). I have a front sway bar and some brake pads on my xmas list… and I’m hoping these things give me just that little bit extra for next year to stay competitive in PAX yet again.

So how did I really do this year? Well, here’s a full summary with photos and videos!

Event #2 Conditions

To say that the 5th event was a wet one would be quite an understatement. It was a soggy one. It was beyond soggy actually. It was whatever that next level of ridiculously wet and uncomfortable would be. I don’t know the word for that.

Anyway… Jen and I skipped out on helping with registration for this event (there were plenty of other volunteers, so we didn’t abandon them or anything). And since it was going to be raining, standing out on course picking up cones while other people were driving really didn’t sound to appealing. That’s why I volunteered us for Timing & Scoring. When you do T&S, you get to sit in a comfy van, out of the weather. Best decision I made all day.

I was hopeful that with it raining and me having this fancy new AWD car that I should be able to do awesome all day. Not so much. The AWD is great and I’m sure it helped – but it was a slick course with more than a few tricky bits that I don’t really feel like I got down. But even with that said, I still had the fastest run of the first run group after we all completed our 4 runs. That’s not too bad. Turns out though, that time was the best I’d do all day.

Jen was also doing OK in her class – though she had some tough competition. She improved all of her morning times and was pretty satisfied after her first 4 runs. Similar to me (and everyone else, really) Jen would also not improve on her best time for the second set of runs.

After our half hour lunch break we lined up to start our second set of 4 more runs. During lunch the rain had subsided a bit to light (though still annoying) mist. As soon as the first car started off the line it started raining again. Not really what I would call “pouring” but more of what I would call “well this sucks, now the course is going to be soaked with more standing water” kind of rain. And that it was.

Like I said, not many people improved their times from the morning in the second session. There were a few that didn’t do so great in the first runs that had some room to improve – but not many people. That said, I did get within 2 tenths of my morning time on my 7th run (3rd of the afternoon session). I was fairly satisfied with that, given the conditions.

I was really hoping to be at the top of the PAX list for the day – but it was not to be. I was ousted at the top by two Minis. One, a regular cooper in HS. Pretty sure that guy has done this before. The second was a Cooper S that was slightly modified running in STX. Both of their PAX times beat me. Oh well though. Turns out not all is lost, as I’m currently leading PAX overall after 2 events!

So I don’t have any pictures from the event (because it sucked) except the one above. I do, however, have some video! First… here are a couple links to the results for the day:

Full Results & PAX Results

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWGPgV7vmQI

Well… one other thing has changed. We lost a great competitor and friend a couple weeks ago. And the event was not the same without him. We definitely missed you, Tom.

But Tom wouldn’t want us to stop the show on account of him. So we proceeded as normally as we could. And turns out, the event was great. We had awesome weather, a very cool course, and 8 total runs. Can’t ask for much more on a race weekend.

As I said, this was the first event with my new car. It has been a long 5 months waiting to see how it will actually perform. And despite much learning still to be done, I think it turned out OK. I ended up in 1st of 3 cars in my new class, D Stock, and 3rd overall according to the PAX index. So 3rd out of about 30 drivers with a brand new car? I’ll take that.

It’s not just a new car though… when you compare a 160hp FWD car to a 265hp AWD car, you’re really comparing apples to orangutans. So I basically have to learn how to autox all over again. Sure, the concepts and principles remain the same. But how you apply and use those things is a LOT different. Unfortunately, a few cones may have to be sacrificed in that process… as a few were yesterday. Whoops.

Jen also did great returning to the course this year. Her morning runs were better than the afternoon – but she definitely wasn’t the only one with that problem. Not to mention that her progress in the morning was very good. She reduced her time by about 7 seconds in just 4 runs – ended up with a 67.something seconds as her best time. And that time was good enough for 1st place of 2 cars in H Stock.

All in all… it was a good day. And fun was had by many. And to show off that fun… here’s a video of all of my runs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMwd5s5T3k4

Two of the things I’ve removed are technically suspension pieces – front and rear strut bars. The rear one actually goes inside the car and is visible in the trunk. The front one goes in the engine bay and connects the two strut towers there.

It’s long been discussed that these two pieces do next to nothing to increase performance on the tC. Mostly because the areas they’re connecting are already supported quite well. I’m wondering though… perhaps at the limit (while autox-ing, for example), they may do more than first thought?

Here’s what I’m thinking…

There’s another guy I autox with fairly regularly… he has a decently prepped Mazda Protoge 5. Can’t say what he’s done exactly, but he and I are typically neck and neck on most courses. The only exception when I got beat by any extended margin was on a rainy course. Other than that one even, we trade top times on a regular basis. Usually only a tenth or two off of each other’s time.

Yesterday – after having removed both of those strut bars, he handily beat me by just over 1 second. Doesn’t sound like much time – but in autox, that’s like an hour in a day. My car felt OK overall I think. Didn’t seem as stiff as it usually was, but that’s incredibly hard for me to judge without being and expert driver or anything.

So it is possible… just possible, that the front and rear strut bars on a tC do more than initially thought.

But… would an every day street driver ever come close to noticing a difference? No. Don’t think so.

And then again, maybe I’m just trying to find a reason that I got beat so bad this time…

The first thing I added to my spreadsheet was the current SCCA Solo (autox) class each car would be in. Currently I’m in ST with my tC but it is actually an HS car if in stock form. So what would I be doing with each of these cars? Well, here’s the list and their classes…

• Volvo C30: G Stock
• Mazdaspeed3: D Stock
• Mini Cooper S: D Stock (finally)
• Subaru WRX: D Stock
• Genesis Track: G Stock (no specific mention of Track model)
• VW GTI: G Stock

I was actually surprised there was such an even split. If you’re reading that wondering why a 170hp Mini is in the same class as a 265hp WRX and 263hp MS3, you’ve obviously never seen a Mini DESTROY everything else in its class when it was in G Stock. One word: gokart.

Personally I’m a bit surprised the C30 is in G Stock as well – I may have to look up some national results and see if any of them ever run. It’s got decent power and torque (227hp/236ftlbs) so I would think it should be quick – but I cannot speak to the handling yet. Interesting info either way.

I also looked at tires. If I’m going to be autoxing this thing, I’ll want good tires – but I don’t want to have to spend a fortune for a set of tires if I can help it – especially if they’re only end up lasting me 1 season. So I priced a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE-11s for each car to see what I’d be paying. The RE-11 is kind of a random selection – I mean, it’s a damn good tire but I may end up with something more budget friendly anyway. But here’s what I’m looking at right now (this list may not be 100% accurate – but was made from what I could find)…

• Volvo C30: $988 (215/45/18 – for R-Design wheels)
• Mazdaspeed3: $876 (225/40/18)
• Mini Cooper S: $692 (205/45/17 – for 17″ w/ sport package)
• Subaru WRX: $836 (235/45/17)
• Genesis Track: $1006 (225/40/19, 245/40/19 – 19″ staggered wheels w/ Track package)
• VW GTI: $772 (225/45/17)

Quite a range there… the lowly Mini Cooper just under $700 to the top of the heap Genesis Coupe just over $1000. Of course a regular Gen Coupe would be much cheaper without the 19s… but those are the stock wheels for the Track package (which I would be getting).

So there it is… even more info to make my decision harder. Sick thing is that the $1000 set of tires really doesn’t push me too far away from the Genesis. Guess that means my data is kind of useless, huh?

At this point, your gut instinct should kick and be like: “LOL! A Mini can’t beat a Porsche!”

Ya, well, you’re probably right. More on that in a minute. Thing is… our buddy Jim never said the Mini would win. He said… “There’s one thing that I don’t know about Porsche… can a Mini beat a Porsche in a race? I think we should find out.”

At this point you should also be thinking “there’s no way they’re going to have the balls to do a straight up race at the Road America race track. They’d get smoked!” And again, you’re probably right. But you should also then think… “Hmm, this could be interesting.” And indeed it could. Surely there’s no way a little Mini could ever trounce the incredible 911! It would have to be rigged!

Welll… it sort of was – but not really. See, the race wasn’t destined to be on the actual race course at Road America – instead, a smaller infield course (basically a dedicated autox track) that Mini had prepared to use. Sad part is though, Porsche had declined! They wouldn’t do it! Conveniently, Hyundai saw an opportunity and offered it’s own challenge to Mini… they’d take Porsche’s spot with the Genesis Coupe (this has not happened yet)!

You have to wonder why Porsche would even refuse… I mean, surely they wouldn’t be afraid of the little Mini beating their Porsche? What an embarrassment that would be. And for Mini… even if they lost, they could just say “well, it’s an $80k car, ours is $20k… take your pick.” Either way both companies get a ton of press out of it.

Well the time came and there was no Hyundai and no Porsche USA… but Mini did bring their own Porsche and the race was on.

The Mini lost.

It was kind of sad – but pretty much everyone knew it was coming. This is where I get confused… on a lot of the blogs people were just bashing Mini for such a stupid challenge (though in the previous stories there was nothing but praise for such a fun and interesting challenge – ironic). I say more power to them. They got what they wanted out of it no matter the outcome – they got a TON of press that shows they like to have fun and no, they can’t stick it to a Porsche, but who cares?

You don’t cross shop a Porsche and a Mini – ever. And that is likely part of the reason Porsche was chosen… the outcome wouldn’t matter! But it seems that a large portion of the internet thinks otherwise as apparently many people have “lost respect” for Mini after this whole thing… why? I think this all boils to one thought I have…

If something like this negatively affects your opinion of Mini THAT MUCH, then you didn’t have a very high opinion of them to begin with and might as well keep your trap shut.

They say that if you try hard enough, you can have or be anything… I disagree. Not that someone should not be optimistic about things – because there are a lot of things people could do if they were to try. It’s just that the list is not infinite. Like I could never be a member of British Parliament. And if you try to say that I could be, you’re either lying to yourself (and me) or you’re an idiot. I could also never be a race car driver. At least not without a lot of help.

If you have been reading my site at all, you’ll know that driving/racing is a big part of my life. But I “race” around cones… in a parking lot… with my regular car. And while this is tons of fun as it is, it’s still hard to call it racing – especially when I explain it to people who don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s kind of like saying you’re a Chef – but you assemble cheeseburgers at McDonald’s. Just not quite the same thing. I’d love to be an actual race car driver – and I’m not even being picky here, I don’t need to shoot for Formula 1 or anything, I’d just like to drive an actual race car. Professionally. Continental Tire, Rolex, ALMS, World Challenge, any of this would be ideal.

I like to think I do well at autox… and that I have some skill. I would also like to think some of this would translate into driving on an actual track and that I wouldn’t be awful. Sure, there’s a LOT (even a “lot” is an understatement here, I realize that) that I would have to learn and would like to learn (hell, there’s a ton I still need to learn about autox)… but I would like to believe I have a tiny amount of talent and wouldn’t make a total ass of myself.

But how do I even get to that point? I don’t even have the budget I’d like to be able to prep for autox like I want to… let alone to build and field a race car in any sort of series. I also don’t have a racing/karting background like many of the drivers out there (note: I’m leaving NASCAR out of this b/c it would be a very cold day in hell for that to really be where I ended up). I’m just a regular guy who likes driving and would like to race for real. But what kind of chances do I have? None that I know of.

How about driving schools? Sure that would be awesome, but chalk it up as another thing I don’t have the $$ for. So is it just that I don’t have enough $$? Do only rich people race? Do you have to be rich, in order to get into racing to become more rich? Is that the only way? And yes, I realize that getting into racing to become rich isn’t how it works – that’s not why I want to do it – I’m just illustrating a point.

A couple years ago VW started their Jetta TDI Cup series and at one point I actually thought “hey, I could try to get in on that…” but then you need to front like $20k for the car and stuff. Not to mention go on the road with the series for all of the races. There is just no way… where do I get that money? How do I pay my bills on the road? Do they pay you to race in this series even if you don’t win? The questions go on and on…

Point is… unless someone can point out something obvious to me that I’m missing, I see no way for me to ever follow that dream… not at this rate anyway. Is it so much to ask?

Jen and I both went up and both raced. The weather was perfect – and when I say perfect when referring to “the depot,” that is a very difficult thing to come by. In the last 3 or 4 years I’ve attended events up there, I really don’t recall a day this nice. We either get bitter cold and windy, rainy and overcast, or blistering heat and sun. Yesterday was none of this and it was awesome.

The course was setup to be fast, mostly smooth, and a lot of fun. It felt like one of the longest courses we’ve ever done. The paddock area was practically backed up to the entrance! We ended up with just under 70 cars I believe… which is a good number for that event. It gets crowded and frustrating sometimes when we approach 85 or 90… but anything less than 50 would have been disappointing for such a large venue. I think we really hit the sweet spot. And save for a few minor issues getting going and with the computer, we easily got 6 runs in and could have pushed for another if we had just a little bit of extra time.

Regardless it was a good day. Jen brought up the rear in the HS class (3 or 4 cars I think) in her Scion xD – but improved quite a bit on the day. She’s definitely improving and the only thing that can further that even more would be attending more events! I ended up taking 2nd in ST out of 6 cars. First place was far out of reach (damn you Weaver!) so the rest of us were racing for 2nd. Thankfully I irked it out by a mere 0.106 seconds!

I have pictures and videos to share as well (my videos below)…

• 100+ Pictures
• Jen’s 2nd/3rd Runs Video
• Full Results

Best Run

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRX7vnkJn4

All Runs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P76lwR4u6DI

Hopefully I feel up to attending the next event after I return from 2 weeks in CA. That will be Sunday 6/13 at the Arnot Mall – one of our best spectator locations! Come out and watch!

EDIT: Added results link to list above.

The first Glen Region event was this past Sunday at The Shops at Ithaca Mall and I missed it. That was for good reason though – was coming home from Chad & Pam’s wedding. Their wedding > autox.

I also have a fancy new DG-Spec rear sway bar to install at some point. It is currently sitting on the floor in our dining room. I’d like to find time to do that soon – as the next autox event (and the one I think I might be able to go to) will be next Sunday (5/16) at the Seneca Army Depot.

After that though, I don’t know… the third event is scheduled for 6/13 at the Arnot Mall but I’ll be returning from 2 weeks in CA the day before that. So it may depend on what time I actually get home that Saturday. I really like running the Arnot Mall events though… gives people a chance to watch and occasionally a small, tight course can be a lot of fun. Hopefully I’m not totally jet-lagged and can make it.

There’s also an event in July that I may miss as I’ll be returning from 2 weeks in Salt Lake City at that point. Again, will depend on when I get home and how I feel after a full day in and out of airports. So far it is looking iffy that I’ll even have enough events to contend for the ST season championship. Who knows…

I almost need a few days to just slow down and breathe… but then I remember I have some shit to do.

Normally every year you would try to improve in some way – whether it is the car or the driver or both. Usually you try for both. It’s common that many drivers spend their off season buying parts, prepping the car, just getting setup for a long season to come. The past few years have contained a lot of that for me. Each year I would end up with something majorly new and hope that it improves what I’m doing.

This year is a little different. Nothing really incredible coming. I’ll have new tires of course. And probably some new brake pads. But that’s about it. Oh, and a special Dan Gardner Spec Progress Sway bar for the rear. It’s a solid 25mm adjustable bar with adjustable endlinks. Though I have to say I’m not sure if I should really expect any performance benefit from it. My current rear sway bar is 27mm (but hollow) and also adjustable. So I might even out there going from a larger hollow bar to a smaller solid bar.

Anyway, that’s really all I’m doing differently. This year will really just be about driving and having fun. Why? Because there are already sugar plums dancing in my head looking forward to my next vehicle. Be that in 2011 or 2012, I don’t want to dump a truck load of money into a car I’m going to be getting rid of in the near future.

Sure, I could probably take off and sell whatever else I put on the car – but that’s just a PITA. Skip.

Am I still going to try to win and be competitive? Absolutely. And hopefully in the process I can improve upon the guy behind the wheel.