Video V6 Firebird AutoX

[nooncha]

I guess this is the best place to post this huh? Since I haven't taken any pictures of my car yet, this is the closest thing I have lol. This was the last autocross for the 2010 year at Belle Isle.

My car with what little modifications it has fared pretty well. I was ~1 second off the time of V8 Camaro's and Mustangs. My tires were underinflated (~35/30 psi) dryrotted and I have a broken right front shock. You can hear in the video from ~0:57 to 0:59 me spinning the tires in 2nd through the kink after the slalom .

Pictured below are my modifications over last summer when I was switching transmissions from an A4 to an M5. Since I was upgrading my transmission, why not a majority of the parts that I will use with it? I got a Stage III clutch to take the punishment of autox and track days with an aluminum flywheel and B&M short shifter.

I'm saving up over the winter for a set of Koni shocks and adjustable upper chromoly control arms. =) My goal is to run against the guys in ESP or B Stock and make my little V6 a track beast

[MunsterZ28]

good looking project! i wanna get into autox this summer!

[nascarnate326]

Very cool. I am going to try it this summer too. See what a stock LT1 can do.

[97rs4life]

an m5 in the v6 is not an upgrade over the a4, lol. those m5s can't take any power. but in autox you won't be throwing a lot of power at it so it might be good. any more and a m6 will be a good idea

[1fstss]

i loved doing auto X in my cobalt
http://www.baycityrides.com/files/autoX1.wmv

[bri2203]

I have only been the auto crosses that CCM hosts. I always had fun autocrossing. IMO a camaro is a hard car to be competitive with in autocross. But so much of auto cross is drive and understanding the concept that slow is fast. One of the first time there was a guy in a ford lightening and he was running almost as fast as my Tuner!

I will never forget the last time I Autocrossed with my tuner(Joel was in the car), The stability control was still on and I managed to get my FWD car to oversteer a good 90 degrees. I wish that was on video.

37991_794532543475_22401114_45031350_6421601_n.jpg39772_794532583395_22401114_45031353_232614_n.jpg

[MP81]

Haha, I think that OTTP Hardcore rear bar may have helped ya there, Brian!

Autocrossing is a blast. I finally did my first autocross in October, and it showed my tires are certainly the weak point in my setup, haha. Had an incredible time...especially when I did a full-throttle lap in my car around Dixie Motor Speedway, after riding shotty in DJ's Mustang around the track (gotta love helping to clean up, you get to do fun shit).

[bri2203]

Haha, I think that OTTP Hardcore rear bar may have helped ya there, Brian!

Sure did!

[MP81]

Still need to get me one of those. At least the street bar, the OTTP bar is the best out there.

[nooncha]

an m5 in the v6 is not an upgrade over the a4, lol. those m5s can't take any power. but in autox you won't be throwing a lot of power at it so it might be good. any more and a m6 will be a good idea

I guess it depends on who you ask. I went through 2 A4's and I finally had enough. I had so many problems with them that I got good at taking my transmission out of my car in ~2hours by myself. So to me my m5 is an upgrade in that it actually gets the power down now lol. Lets put it this way, I got beat by a beater 80's Chrysler mini van with my first A4 from some lights getting onto I-75. My second a4 just blew up inside. A seal probably went inside that one.

I like it for its simplicity, and the fact that its way more fun driving a stick then an auto with the added benefits of not worrying so much about your car being stolen (especially where I live). In terms of making my car faster, I'm doing that through the weight of the car rather than the engine since it is a V6. (I did rebuild the engine when I first got it, and was looking for high compression pistons etc while building it, but what I got was crap. The aftermarket "high compression" pistons were SMALLER than the stock O.E. pistons I pulled from my car! So I cleaned those up and put them back in) Gotta increase my power to weight ratio =).

If you any of you guys go to the SCCA autocrosses over the summer look for me there. I will be driving my car as well as my University's formula car since I'm on the racing team. I want to get a good comparison of how my car compares to the V8's.

[JoeliusZ28]

Look out, youre gonna have a V8 to go up against this year whose strategy is also all about weight The first time I went was with brian and i was in a full weight car with much more horsepower than suspension and terrible tires as well. Can you say wheel hop all the way around the course? What made it worse was second gear wasnt giving me enough so I was trying to ride the bull in first gear instead - which was faster when i was successful.

oh and brian is a freakin maniac in that cobalt

[nooncha]

looks like it will be a fun summer . Have you upgraded your ARB's? I had tons of body roll on my car, and that will probably be my first upgrade this year. It should definitely help lower my times. Are the Suspension Techniques ARB's any good? 35mm front and 25mm rear? I am contemplating that one or the Spohn 32/22 chromoly arb's.

I may also fabricate a cross brace in place of the front impact beam as well as the rear to save weight just on autox days. Thats a good 20-30lbs per beam and I already have my AC deleted as well. Unfortunately that mod alone puts me in E Street Prepared (ESP), basically against fully prepped race cars. So I race and compare my times with cars who's class I "should" be in.

[JoeliusZ28]

my suspension is all stock and completely terrible I have KYB replacement shocks in the back because I blew out a set of decarbons in 20k I also have tubular lower control arms which i believe are hurting me because they do not articulate... and yet my car clearly is

as far as air conditioning goes, that could be deleted from the factory. who knows the better?

[ITSSLOW]

I like the bit of mods you are already doing!

[MP81]

Sure did!

Though...I did manage this one without the bar, and at about 40 or 50.





Stupid shitty tires.