Miata Mailing List: May 1993, Message #47
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   From: (none)
Subject: autoX
   Date: (none)

Hi All-
	The driving school I went to in Minneapolis was hosted by the
Northstar chapter up there. We had about 30 Miatas show up. In the
morning we had four exercises: a 100 foot radius skid pad (drive real fast,
 stay close to the cones and donUt spin), a slalom course, an
acceleration/braking course (speed up to about 55mph and stop next to a
cone in less than 120 feet), and a decreasing radius curve (kind of a hard
U-turn to theright at about 30mph). In the afternoon some of the elements
were combined into a longer autocross course. The key to the school was
to have fun and improve driving skills. Of course, some of us
were there to drive like crazy. My times through the course in the
afternoon improved (as they should have). Two of my times were
some of the best turned in by non-pro drivers. Now, after all this
hard driving, my car is making new sounds it never made before! I
donUt know that I should worry, but I am. The day was great,
thunderstorms held off until the end of the school.
 
*during cut and paste apostrophes got switched to uppercase U*
 
Anyway, I have some notes: I ran with everything stock. Using the regular
Bridgestone tires (SF-325's at about 30 psi). The only improvement I had made
was swaping to a cooler thermostat. There was a gentleman with virtually every
imporvement possible: HKS intake, headers, splitfire plugs, 15 inch wheels, and
195/50 (A-008's I think). He was only about a second quicker than me on the
course (my best time was 54.99, his was low 54). There was a SCCA driver who
came out to intruct us. In his Miata he ran 53.11. I was pretty happy since
this was my first autoX ever.
	The questions I have for all of you seasoned vets are:
-What is the formula for figuring the G-force generated on the skid pad?
-At lunch I noticed a significant quantity of PS fluid leaking from the cap,
what can I do to prevent this?
-After running so hard, my lifters *started* tapping on engine startup - is
this anything to worry about?
 
Any help anyone can provide is appreciated.
-amp-