hey, what are the main principles in a setup for autox? Im thinking light car, low end power and good suspension? The thing is i want to autox and have a fast car but also have high power in the high end range. is it possible to beat wrx's and is300's ect in autox, b/c i just looked at the cars that entered in this season and they are mostly those kind. Thanks. anyone autox?

 

The main principles for autocross setup:

1) Cheap, light, nice handling car (e.g. crx si, sentra se-r, etc)

2) Good shocks (koni yellows are great, tokico illuminas, KYB AGX etc)

3) Good R compound tires.

Thats it.

If you want to be competitive in autocross, youre best off starting with a decent car and remaining in the stock classes. This means that the only mods you are allowed to do are shocks, tires, brake pads, safety stuff, and the like. If, for instance, you drive a crx, you will have no need to worry about WRXs or IS300s or S2000s, because they are in a different class. You're really only racing against the drivers of comparable cars--i.e. cars in your class, not every car at the event.

But to get a better idea of what would be you best course of action, we need to know what car you drive, what (if any) mods you have, and what your plans for the car are.

Autocross is set up so that just about any car can be competitive within its class. Its more of a test of drivers than it is a test of cars.

 

i have a 00 lx sedan. I plan to drop in a b18b and turbo it.

 

Turbo's aren't exactly the greatest for Auto-X unless it's a small quick spooling one. Larger turbos that yeld more power aren't suitable for Auto-X.

You want to look into upgrading ALL suspension components (ie: sway bars, shocks, springs, bushings, etc.) getting better brakes that can take higher temperatures for extended amounts of time without brake fade, sticky tires. Stuff like that.

 

would the 6th gen sedans even be worth auto-x'ing?

 

You can auto-x just about anything with 4 wheels

Just leave it in D2 or something.

 

d3.

2-d3-d4 :fawk:

and my concern is weight factors vs. power.

 

power means very little in most autocross classes. Case in point: My car is a '92 VX. For those of you unfamiliar with this model, that means its ass slow (92 hp). Yet I have managed a number of 3rd place finishes and a 2nd place finish in H-stock (which is where most civics would end up in stock form). After I got my GC and konis, I got a pretty respectable finish (5th or 6th--i don't remember) in STS against cars like gs-Rs and the like (e.i. double my horsepower). Really all you need for autocross is good tires and good driving skills, power has very little to do with it until you get into mod classes and so on.

 

Any engine swap will put you in a modified class which basically means that you (and your competitors) can throw just about any modification they can afford at their car (short of major bodywork, massive fabrication and whatnot). Competition is stiff in mod, and you'd need to do some thorough work to most of the car in order for it to be up to snuff. If your main goal is to be competitive, stick to stock classes. If your main goal is to have a tricked out car, a daunting (although possible extremely rewarding) challenge, and you don't mind forking out the $$$, then swap away.:thumbup: Its really your choice.... I personally have gotten sick of driving a slow-ass shitbox, and have decided to swap also and move on to bigger and more ex$pensive things. So I understand all that.

B.T.W. non-factory turbo systems and autocross generally don't mix. If youre trying to pull out of a corner and find nothing but lag when you hit the go pedal, its very slow and very frustrating. I wouldn't bother with the turbo, and instead just do the LS, gs-r, or b20 swap.

 

Read the autocross help page in my sig.

But in most cases hp means nothing at an autocross. I've been autocrossing for years and learned to put my foot in my mouth on several occassions I have a friend with a Fiat that has like 80hp than can run circles around cars with 4-5x more hp.

You'll learn that autocross is more driver skill than anything else. The more seat time you get the better you will be become. At most events I will try to get in 8-15 runs before I pack up and head home. When I was a newbie I asked for rides in other people's cars, had instructors ride in my car, and just car whored (as we say in our group).

And plus swaps and turbos will just throw you into harder more competitive classes where money is no object. Guys who won Nationals in SM (Street Mod) spent around $20-30K on their 2002 WRX! Now that's crazy!

But on a lighter note I know the guy who won STS (Street Touring Street Tires - same class as me) last year and he only spent $5000 on his 1989 Civic Si and killed the rest of the class by about 1.5 seconds on day one. THAT'S ALOT OF TIME!