I had an autocross event yesterday at
Roebling Road near Savannah, GA. It was my third official event and my first event with the new rear sway bar, endlinks, and rear alignment. The course was sufficiently technical and overall pretty fast. I was in 3rd gear (DSG) for ~75% of it, and saw nearly 80mph at one point in the back half. There were some challenging sections where you could build up lots of speed but didn’t have much of a straight line for braking. It was bone dry, sunny, and in the 80s by the time I ran.
Here’s a low video of the course
My goals for the day were to suss out the new setup, not over-drive, and get a couple really clean runs.
Da mods:
- 25mm ECS rear sway with Moog endlinks
- -1.75° rear camber / 0.07° rear toe
- -1.2° front camber / 0.06° front toe
- ECS rear hatch brace
- Yokohama Advan Apex v601 tires
- CTS FMIC
- APR stage 1 low torque 91 tune
Wow wow wow, the car drives so nice now with the new sway bar and alignment! It’s lively, playful, and neutral. It did exactly what I asked it to do. This is a really enjoyable setup that is so much flatter and less dramatic than stock.
If you read
my post from the previous event, I was over-driving and plowing too hard into corners, inducing understeer and overworking the tires. I went into this next event knowing exactly what I wanted to fix. This time, I made sure to still brake hard but a tad earlier so that I wasn’t still hard on the brake as I started the turn (basically, string theory). Feeling this in action was lightbulb moment #1 — so clean and controlled. And with the stiffer rear sway, I was able to really rip it around some turns by just lifting off the throttle a bit.
I DNF’ed my third run because I came into a slalom too fast and started getting squirrelly. But I learned my lesson from last time — instead of trying to keep fighting for control when the rear started fishtailing around, I pulled out of the slalom and braked in a straight line to avoid spinning out. Lightbulb moment #2.
Second and fourth runs were mired by a cone. Same inside cone both times
... I realized I was actually compensating for the understeer I had come to expect pre-sway. Worked it out on my fifth run, which was my fastest and cleanest.
Ended up with 42psi front, 39psi rear (hot) as a good pressure to keep my v601’s happy, and the front and rear balanced. Lightbulb moment #3.
Overall really happy with my runs and the new setup. It feels like I’ve got it pretty dialed in and it feels comfortable and predictable for me. I’m definitely not competitive in any sense yet, but I was only 1.8 seconds behind a GS GTI guy with 200tw tires, a rear sway, and many years of experience. I can tell I’m improving and learning a lot — aaaaand I’m having a lot of fun, which is the point for me.