Interested in AutoX

[GR3GR1LLA]

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new to the forum, so far I love it! On here everyday before work. As of lately I've been reading up on diferent peoples builds and projects. More and more Im getting tired of the bulls**t "stance" fad that is going on in the car scene right now. Personaly I think its rediculouse. But the autocross bug has been chewing on my brain as of lately. My 1.4T Sonic is a daily, its bone stock, but I would love to get in to autocross and modding it acordingly along with keeping it as my daily. I guess what I am getting at is what mods I should go for, how to tune them/set them up and things of that nature. I would just like to know if there is anyone out there autocrossing/dailying their Sonics. If so please give me any kind of feed back good, bad, ugly. I want to know as much as posible. Please post links to other threads, websites, anything at all.

Thanks.

Ive read up on:
ZZP
DDM
Pedder
Borla
Injen
Trifecta

P.S. (I havent heard to many bad things about these companies.)

 

[$ub$onic]

I have been autoxing with the occasional road course trip with the sonic since this time last year. They are a fantastic car and do pretty well for what they are.

Your mods depend on how serous you plan on getting with it.

If your not sure how much you will like autox, don't go spending a ton of money right off the bat.

Personally, I would start with a tune, set of lowering springs and maybe exhaust. Then run a couple events and see what you think.


Ok, so now you have a couple events under your belt and your hooked, what do we do now?

Luckily with the 1.4, a tune goes along way.

But as we know in autocross, power is not everything.

We need to brake and turn.

A brake upgrade will be a must. The oem fronts do good for a couple events but you will slowly notice them taper off.

Upgrade to disc brakes in the back is a plus too.

So now to turn.

Lowering springs are a good start, you can either go one of two ways. Buy gm sonic rally sport struts and shocks,( what I did) advantage of this is you can go down to the local dealer and get replacements.

Or go coil overs. But your gonna spend right around a grande

Bad news racing front sway bar is also another great upgrade along with the ddm brace

Tires are another issue. The oem ones will do fine as your are learning but you will quickly out grow them.

Get a nice set of summer performance tires

 

[GR3GR1LLA]

Thanks man!!

 

[GR3GR1LLA]

There a small stretch of road that's behind some old aircraft hangars by my house, with like two or three turns and a short straight I love too scoot around. So autocross would be an even more fun, safe, and legal way for me to get my kicks.

 

[Larrymer]

Don't know if my post didn't get copied over with your deleted thread but just drive the car as is (stock) for the first event or two. Read up on the classing/modifications and find out where you want to be before you spend a ton of money on stuff that puts you in a class where you can't possibly win. A tune would bump you up to some prepared class where you'd be destroyed by crazy prepped cars, for instance. If you're just doing it for fun and don't care about winning your class or whatever, then go nuts and do whatever you want.

 

[GR3GR1LLA]

Yeah I saw your earlier post, and as for right now I dont give a sh*t about winning just want to "dip my toes in", see if I like it. But I could see this becoming a fun thing to get into, like a weekend thing or monthly thing. I'm sure the more I persue autox the more involved I'll become in it. Then I can see myself becoming concered about times, winning, mods, and things of that nature. But as for now I just want to drive my car like a bat out of hell around a track and have fun while doing it.

 

[whitnith]

Yeah I saw your earlier post, and as for right now I dont give a sh*t about winning just want to "dip my toes in", see if I like it. But I could see this becoming a fun thing to get into, like a weekend thing or monthly thing. I'm sure the more I persue autox the more involved I'll become in it. Then I can see myself becoming concered about times, winning, mods, and things of that nature. But as for now I just want to drive my car like a bat out of hell around a track and have fun while doing it.

Then do that. Leave the car stock-y stock stock. Go see if you like it. Read up on all mods and classes and don't get over your head. Something very small can knock you into a crazy class if you aren't careful.

 

[mitdr774]

^^^ That is what is holding me back from some of my plans. Even just swapping the LT steering wheel for a RS wheel would bump me to a class I cant compete in.

 

[$ub$onic]

^^^ That is what is holding me back from some of my plans. Even just swapping the LT steering wheel for a RS wheel would bump me to a class I cant compete in.

From what I read, you can change the wheel but can not delete the air bag.

Witch I did. But no one cares....

 

[mitdr774]

14.2 (D) Alternate steering wheels are allowed except that steering wheels with an integral air bag may not be changed.

I read that to mean that if you have an air bag in your factory wheel, you cant change the wheel even if you put an air bag back in.

 

[usayit]

Never autox the sonic but I did in an early Miata several years ago. Loads of fun.. you should do it. A while back, there was this fellow that would show up in a Passat wagon. He would lay out a picnic for his family, throw on a helmet, and jump right back in the wagon to line up. He did pretty well.. but more importantly, he was having a blast.

I've seen very modest vehicles and very high end vehicles show up. Almost guaranteed that high power with a undisciplined driver never do well. There is nothing that matters more than the person behind the wheel. The combination of an extremely tight course with drivers are racing against he clock is the ultimate equalizer. Its part of the reason why these events are popular... you don't need a huge investment in your vehicle in order to compete.

I vote to just show up and have fun. Focus on what YOU can do to improve your times first THEN look at what you can do to improve the car. If I were preparing for a weekend autoX in the sonic, the only thing I would do is get better tires several weeks beforehand and wear them in prior.

 

[$ub$onic]

14.2 (D) Alternate steering wheels are allowed except that steering wheels with an integral air bag may not be changed.

I read that to mean that if you have an air bag in your factory wheel, you cant change the wheel even if you put an air bag back in.

I read that as as long as you have a air bag your fine.

 

[mitdr774]

To me, and my local buddies that run a lot, its fairly clear in the wording. Is the airbag part of the wheel assembly? If yes, you cant change it to a different wheel. Chances are that nobody would really car at the level I drive at. I just want a flat bottom wheel so I dont keep smacking my knee on it getting in.

 

[Larrymer]

Unless you're at a national event, nobody is going to care about that. And even then, only if you're winning.

 

[$ub$onic]

Unless you're at a national event, nobody is going to care about that. And even then, only if you're winning.

I don't even have a air bag

 

[dbarrett231]

[ QUOTE=mitdr774;255079]To me, and my local buddies that run a lot, its fairly clear in the wording. Is the airbag part of the wheel assembly? If yes, you cant change it to a different wheel. Chances are that nobody would really car at the level I drive at. I just want a flat bottom wheel so I dont keep smacking my knee on it getting in.[/QUOTE]
get an RS wheel. Problem solved



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mitdr774]

If you go by how we have interpurted the rule, I can not change the wheel. Not sure if it applies to STF or not, but in some classes if you change any part to one from another package you have to swap everything for that package.

 

[GR3GR1LLA]

Never autox the sonic but I did in an early Miata several years ago. Loads of fun.. you should do it. A while back, there was this fellow that would show up in a Passat wagon. He would lay out a picnic for his family, throw on a helmet, and jump right back in the wagon to line up. He did pretty well.. but more importantly, he was having a blast.

I've seen very modest vehicles and very high end vehicles show up. Almost guaranteed that high power with a undisciplined driver never do well. There is nothing that matters more than the person behind the wheel. The combination of an extremely tight course with drivers are racing against he clock is the ultimate equalizer. Its part of the reason why these events are popular... you don't need a huge investment in your vehicle in order to compete.

I vote to just show up and have fun. Focus on what YOU can do to improve your times first THEN look at what you can do to improve the car. If I were preparing for a weekend autoX in the sonic, the only thing I would do is get better tires several weeks beforehand and wear them in prior.

Yeah thats the plan for me, I just want to have fun. I brought the idea up to my girlfriend and she is actually thinking about competing now as well.

 

[whitnith]

Yeah thats the plan for me, I just want to have fun. I brought the idea up to my girlfriend and she is actually thinking about competing now as well.

That's awesome!

Try and do everything you can to make sure she *doesn't* end up running in a Ladies class. They are the one thing I *hate* about autocross; this stupid notion that women need their own classes, since driving is just soooo incredibly gender specific. :blankface:

Why yes, yes I did almost get in a fight at registration once when the dude tried to force me into a Ladies class and out of the class I was running with my friends.

 

[GR3GR1LLA]

I'll deff do my best from keeping that from happening lol. Shes a fire cracker so I'm sure she wont let that happen if I dont.