Advice doing Solo 2 / autocross with Cobra SVT

[kurtfriedrich]

Does anyone have any experience doing solo 2 with 03/04 Cobra SVTs?
What tire pressures did you settle on?
Traction Control on or off?
Have you fooled around with the alingment settings?

Any other tips/advice?

thanks
Kurt

[tnturbo]

Tire pressures depend on the tires you are running. Start at around 40 and then drop if you aren't rolling over. Traction control off.
Alignment, you want all the caster you can get equal on both sides. I run -1.5 camber on the street and usually for autox too, but if you are doing your own alignments you would benefit from a lot more camber as it will wear the outsides of your tires less. I run .050 toe in for the street. Ideally for autox you would want some toe out, but this will make the car dart around in street driving. You will probably need caster/camber plates to get much alignment change.

[SIUNARA]

If this is your first time autoxing the following will apply, if not, you probably know most of this stuff already...

- Walk the course. You will see things walking the course that will help when you get out there in the car. Walk it as many times as you can before you run.

- Go slow where you are supposed to go slow, and fast where you are supposed to go fast. Many people make the mistake of trying to blister through corners that need to be taken at slow speeds to maximize corner exit speed. Going in too hot will kill your exit speed.

- Remember that the gas pedal is not an on-off switch. Practice throttle modulation and you'll be able to transition the car better through the course which will result in faster times.

- Lastly, remember that just because the car sounds loud, does not mean that it's fast. Don't be afraid to shift gears. I've seen a lot of beginners leave the car in first gear thinking that it's faster because it sounds loud, but most of the time your better off in second gear. As you progress and get better, you'll learn when to shift back into first and when not to.

Have fun and good luck!

[justagt]

Originally Posted by SIUNARA

If this is your first time autoxing the following will apply, if not, you probably know most of this stuff already...

- Walk the course. You will see things walking the course that will help when you get out there in the car. Walk it as many times as you can before you run.

- Go slow where you are supposed to go slow, and fast where you are supposed to go fast. Many people make the mistake of trying to blister through corners that need to be taken at slow speeds to maximize corner exit speed. Going in too hot will kill your exit speed.

- Remember that the gas pedal is not an on-off switch. Practice throttle modulation and you'll be able to transition the car better through the course which will result in faster times.

- Lastly, remember that just because the car sounds loud, does not mean that it's fast. Don't be afraid to shift gears. I've seen a lot of beginners leave the car in first gear thinking that it's faster because it sounds loud, but most of the time your better off in second gear. As you progress and get better, you'll learn when to shift back into first and when not to.

Have fun and good luck!

You, like, sound kind of like, you know, an instructor or something.

[SIUNARA]

You sound like a valley girl.

[scocher]

Originally Posted by SIUNARA

You sound like a valley girl.

You DO sound knowledgeable and us novices appreciate all the assitance we can get. I'm looking forward to trying autocrossing sometime. I really did love drag racing

[98banana]

Hey Don... he said 03/04 Cobra. It doesn't matter what gear that thing is in. He can run in 6th if he wants and that thing will still scoot around the course.

I have the vast experience of one whole AutoX event and 1/6 of that event was in an '03 Cobra with about 440rwhp. I don't have near enough experience in it to give any good advice except: throttle modulation, like Don said, will be critical.

Oh, one more thing, get ready to wear a grin on your face for a few weeks!

[SIUNARA]

Good point Tom! Those cars have gobs of power.

On a side note...got the power steering issue fixed. Turns out the pump went bad. Apparently the last pump didn't like the extra forces of turning on track...hopefully the new one will.

[cowboyharry]

Mabie walking the track is good for others but it dont do a thing for me. I just gotta get in buckle up and go.

[98banana]

Originally Posted by cowboyharry

Mabie walking the track is good for others but it dont do a thing for me. I just gotta get in buckle up and go.

That's actually pretty impressive. How in the world do you know where the turns are. I would think there would be too many surprises that way. At the one I did, I walked it 3 times and still felt like I could find something new if I walked it again.

And Don, good deal on the Focus. I can't remember if they told me that my problem was the pump or the pulley, but they replaced the pump anyway. It's starting to act up again, so I guess I'll be changing it on my own dime next time.

[SIUNARA]

Tom,

You're having the same problem with the power steering again? Any way to improve the system to avoid problems in the future? It will not be fun replacing the pump time and time again...wonder if we can improve things to avoid future work.

[98banana]

Originally Posted by SIUNARA

Tom,

You're having the same problem with the power steering again? Any way to improve the system to avoid problems in the future? It will not be fun replacing the pump time and time again...wonder if we can improve things to avoid future work.

I hoping that if we've had the problem 3 times in 2 cars, then many others have too and they've fixed the problem. Maybe they'll do a recall. I mean heck, what's one more?

[beerkat]

I did some AX during Mustang Week. I ran 40 in the front and about 35 in the rear. I did stay in 1st the whole course because it was tight and did not get over 45mph. the worst thing about my '03 is the tires. The course was a little rough and the tires lost some chunks of rubber. If you want a real fun AX do the one in Oct. at 411 track.

Hey Will (#32) you kinda of sound like a Instructor too, You work with me in my Lightning at the last CMP event in March.

[kurtfriedrich]

I had done autocrosses about 10 times in a WRX. Friday our track had a practice day and I got 19 runs in one day (that's like 5 or 6 normal race days - it was great) then Sunday I did a real event.

Yes, TC must be off. When it kicks in, its ugly - the motor dies and takes a while to come back on.

I marked my tires with a tire crayon - the idea is you want as low a pressure as you can WITHOUT getting any roll over onto the sidewall. 40 front and 35 back was plenty for that, I think a pound or two less might be ok. You want to measure this with the tires hot, not cold like the owners manual says when it gives you cold tire temps. It was about 85 degrees and after each run I had to let air out as the tires kept going up and up as the tires/wheels/brakes got hotter and hotter.

The bad news is, this is not a natural born autocross car. Too heavy, and too much weight in the front. It runs against STi's, Porsche Boxster S's, and all but the latest Z06 vettes. I think the best driver in a Cobra can beat mediorce drviers in those cars, but a good driver in any of those cars will beat the cobra.

However, don't let that turn you off, its still a blast to drive your ass off, your driving will get better, and its still fun to look at all the cars that cost more than yours that you did beat (I got my 04 for $29K).

Kurt

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kurtfr...CornerComp.JPG