Wet track autocross

[Pumbaa]

I just got back from an event up in Everett, WA. It was tough because I ran first and worked second in the morning run group. I have heard many complaints about the Michelin tires that come stock on the Elantra GT and I'll have to say I have no complaints. I was running in Stock Class and my competition just happened to be small, a Mini Cooper S, and 2 Subaru WRX's, 1 wagon and 1 sedan. The conditions during my run were the worst of the day, because it was raining cats and dogs with alot of standing water and rivers of runoff on the course. It stopped raining just after my 4 runs were over.
I ran the GT very soft and smooth on the first run, not pushing, I had no understeer on the first run, just a course familiariztion run. I finished with 50.5 seconds on the run.

The second run I pushed it to where I was getting full understeer on the corners and a little bit of the TCS kickin in. I have heard a few autocrossers say they dislike running with the traction control on. The TCS on the GT was distributing the power very wisely in the wet conditions and it saved me on a couple of corners where I cornered late. Also the ABS worked superb, it saved me on 3 late brakes along with the TCS keep the traction down after the failure to brake in time. I finished run 2 with 48.5 so I cut 2 seconds off.

On the third run I pushed just as hard but tried to be more finess but I took a corner a little soon and clipped 1 cone and finished with 48.8 with 1 cone +2.0.

So on the forth run was my best. I finished with 48.12 and a clean run. I was 1 second slower than the black WRX wagon and 3 seconds slower than the Red Mini Cooper S.

I found if I was going a hair fast into a corner I'd tap the brake and smoothly turn into the turn and the body roll, in the GT, was big, but the refined suspension held strong without smacking the bump stops while setting up for the corners. There was no tail swing in the sloloms, Understeer was very prodominant. I had driven my Excel in the rain, and during a slolom the tail would try to swing out. I also playd with tire pressure with the Excel and having the tail swing in the wet meant I had the rear tires to high a pressure. If I wanted to play with tire pressure I would have set the rear on my GT a hair higher than the front and see if that would help the rear around a corner.

Over all I felt the tires on the Elantra were very good, but I would like to work with decreasing the body roll on the GT. So in a month or so I'll swap the rear sway bar with the Tiburon and order a KORE front strut bar. Then I'll look into ordering a set of Koni Adjustble Struts for the GT and I think I'll have a very competative package. Then it will be time to get some performance tires and cheapo wheels...

Anyways. Just felt I should talk about my experiance with my GT in the rain. Next weekend hopefully will be a dry run down at the Port of Seattle near downtown Seattle.
:smoking:

[Edited by Pumbaa on Apr 13, 2003 10:47 PM]

[91cavgt]

Very good news!! I too have autocrossed against the WRXs and the Cooper S and must say that to be that close to their times in the wet is a MAJOR accomplishment!! Congrats!