Now has come the day I take the lead and I make you follow, Yesterday was the Florida Corvette Racing Club's Autocross session. Looking at the agenda this morning it appeared as though it was going to be a pretty rough crowd tangleing with the Chevy flagship car and not just some grey hair's mind you, but a performance car in the hands of experienced tuners. My morning started early, real early. I stired this morning with a somewhat slow pace, and a bit behind schedule at 6:00. My intial plans for getting ready for this event ment picking up my Mechanic Brian Seckle of SP motorworx, and a ton of tools, ya know just incase. After packing up and getting on the road a bit late we made good time down the interstate making our way to Brooksville. When we arrived the track was yet to be set up and it seemed as though we were going to be the first people to show up. While waiting on the motorized gate to be opened from the inside four other contenders for the day showed up, the first of which was a Subaru WRX, behind him was a fox body GT Mustang Steeda, followed by another Fox Body GT mustang and behind him was a trailer queen 69' Camero. With all the power in the contenders I was almost certian that the outcome would have been an embarassing one to say the least. None the less I wasn't disheartened, afterall I had the expertise of Brian Seckel to help aid me. Once we got all set up and aquainted with one another and after a handful of Vetts show up we began our general walk through of the track. Judging by the set up of the track with its big vast long stretches It was sure to be a hands down corvette event with no contest. HOWEVER an autocross is still an autocross rain or shine, as we went over our drivers meeting a looming storm front made an impressive approach over the open fields our way and brought down a good amount of rain just as the first cars began to make their run. Brian and I had decided to run the car as it was, as a daily driver setup. I was the last person to go on the first heat so I had a bit of an advantage I could see the cars in front of me and plan a line to drive. My first run of the day in the rain I produced a 1:03.442 lap time, after making the first pass I had to look at the times to see how bad I was in a field of cars that either had twice as many cylinders or some form of forced induction. Much to my surprise I was inside the top three, second only to the Might of the AWD Subaru WRX who clocked a 1:03.399. It was on the first lap I kew that my field of challengers was narrowed down to a handful-none of which were V8's.The next series The WRX followed up with a much faster :58.557 and to that the Prelude anwsered with a :58.476 just nicking out the AWD Turbo Monster. The driver decided to take a bit of a break for one heat but another contender arrived very quickly, in the form of a Mini Cooper S which triped the clocks at an even faster pace of :58.171. This however didn't go unnoticed, with the news of having the WRX reeling in astonishment the confidence was high, I soon turned a faster lap of :56.986. As the rain came down harder the prelude only got faster I posted another three laps of :53 sec and some change leaving even the next best by about a second with the exception of a later run by a VW golf that also posted a :53sec time but ultimately not faster than the Prelude. The hardest part of the day was not actually driving the car, it was not talking ****...and for those of you who know me, you know I talk ****. It was hard not to pick on the $50,000 vette or the $30,000 Turbo AWD WRX or even the Modified Mustang GT's I left just as humble as I came, almost. At one point I was giving pointers to the WRX driver complimenting him on getting with in a 1/2sec of my then best time, then added that he should probably try the pedal on the right... and from an automatic none the less. As soon as I figure out how to post pictures here I'll post the lap time print out. You could cut the tension with a knife in the paddock area...showing up to a Corvette event in a Honda and posting better times. If things were dry it probably would have been different.But they weren't
ST Front and rear Sway Bars, Tanabe front chassis brace, DC sports lower tie bar, RSR drop springs(1-1/4") KYB AGX struts, Energy suspension bushings, Ingalls Camber kit, cheap-o ebay front and rear strut bars. I was also rolling around on a pretty fresh set of Fusion ZRi's (225 50 R16).
The course was set up in a really big figure eight style of sorts, you started off heading to the left through two gates then you had to make a slight turn to the left again followed by a medium right hand turn then back the the left, then you made the first jog across the track reaching about 85mph before you had to commit to a left hand turn which would strighten you back out then another sharp left then a big sweeping left that turned you around to face the starting gates, at this point your now on the second half of the figure eight loop, after making the sweeping left hand turn you had to jog back to the left mildly then to the right really hard pulling you to the very edge of the track, after exiting that corner you had to race across the track again, making an "x" in the figure eight pattern then through a series of chicanes a short stright, some more chicanes then a short burst to trip the clock. This is all on an aging concrete runway in Brooksville Florida. I went out there again this weekend with the Florida Corvette Racing Club again, and in the dry with a similar set up it was a different story, I was 4th of about 17 cars, only bested by a BWM M3 and two C5 vette's, The remainder of the field was Mustangs,Vette's, Miata's, a WRX, an Integra, a Turbo RSX-S, and a hand full of BMW's to name a few
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and from an automatic none the less. As soon as I figure out how to post pictures here I'll post the lap time print out. You could cut the tension with a knife in the paddock area...showing up to a Corvette event in a Honda and posting better times. 
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