jrfroe

I'm having some problems with my Subi lately:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/dealorship-messed-up-my-cv-joints-150916.html

The problem I'm having is that the dealer won't acknowledge that I have a problem with my drivetrain binding up, which was obvious when I had my summer tires on. Since I just had my new snow tires mounted, it doesn't bind up because the tread blocks give more.

Does anyone in the Milwaukee/Waukesha area happen to have a set of summer tires on rims (that fit a 2006 legacy) that I could borrow for a few minutes to show the dealer what's wrong? I can compensate you in some way in return.

My other option is to pay to have my summer tires re-mounted for a day, and then re-mount my winter tires... again. I'm trying to avoid waiting til spring, when it might be too late to get the dealer to pay for the repair.

A couple questions:

1. How exactly does the auto-detection work? Is it a sharp cut, or does it take a while to kick in/out... I'm thinking along the lines of using it for GPS navigation on my iPhone while listening to AM/FM radio.

2. I currently have mvigneau's aux-in solution. Do I need to uninstall the old one, or can I simply keep both installed? Will having both installed affect the sound quality or anything?

3. How will the two inputs interact with each other, for example if I have a friend's ipod going to the mvigneau input and the gps navigation app on my iPhone going to the lepronix input, will the ipod cut out and the gps nav turn on when the lady tells me to "turn left in one quarter mile" and then go back to the ipod when she's done talking?

4. How long would it take to get to my door if I were to order one today? Do you have any in stock?

I came there and saw a bunch of subaru's. I was taking some photos. I mainly got corvettes though. A few WRX's and some other cars. Didn't see any legacy'd fly by me. Maybe I was too late or left too early?

All the corvettes were in heat 1 and 3, so you probably left too early.

WAI this Weekend June 29th at Miller Park.

I'm be there.

Anyone familiar with Evolution Driving School? One of the director's in my department here at work (Drives a Boxster) invited me to head to an event they are holding here at Miller Park (July 17th). It sounds like you get lots of training and lots of autox track time. The cost is $260 which is high compared to the cost of just Autox.

 

Is it worth it?

 

http://www.evoschool.com/index.php

I haven't done it, but the people I've talked to that have, say that its really good. The instructors will really push you no matter how good your driving is and will always insist that there is always room to improve. I've stayed away because of the price, but there is a WAI driving school that costs around $60 on June 28th. The WAI driving school is more focused on beginners (less than 1 or 2 years experience)... I did it last year and was pretty pleased with it.

lol great stuff. Do you ever take any vids of your runs? That would be pretty cool to see. I wonder what class my non-turbo 2.5i would run in. There's just no way I could compete against a LGT.

Your car would compete with an HS (H-Stock) index. Which means that if Living Legacy had a time of 67.491 in his LGT with a D-Stock index, you would need a time of 69.195 to place in front of him for 3rd place. So there is actually a way you could compete against an LGT, because 1.7 seconds is actually quite a bit.

Great job last weekend Living Legacy. I was in Denver for the weekend, so I wasn't able to make it. I will be there on the 28th though.

forecast isn't looking good for this. I won't be there if it's raining. Sorry.

That's when it gets fun... Its about the only time you'll actually have a real chance at spinning an all-wheel-drive car. Plus the all-wheel drive cars will usually clean up when it rains... all the other cars, especially the rear-wheel-drive cars, need to park it in each corner and gain it all back on the straights, while the AWD cars can still power through the corners.

I'll be at MKE autocross this Sunday, hope to see some of you there. I think there is also a WIA event on Saturday that I can't make it to.

I won't be able to make this weekend since I'm going to be in Denver. I will however make the WAI event on June 29th.

Hmmm, I could do August 2nd but it sounds like it's more than one day? I'm going to search around and look for info on that.

 

zzz, like the pics and hope you get those rims soon!

August 2nd and 3rd are the GASS event (Great American Solo Series) and they are sort of one event in that they only give out trophies on the 2nd day for the combined time between the two days, but you can show up for only one of the days if you want to, and still compete like a normal autocross.

It looks like most events are on a sunday and I'm booked every sunday through summer with my hurling league - Sunday is game day. The one Saturday race I need to head to a wedding. Doh!

 

I'll have to pick one game that I'm going to miss and come to a race.

There are a few more saturday auto-x's. June 7th, July 19 is day #1 of the SCCA National Tour but you need an SCCA membership, August 2nd is the 1st day of the GASS event which is always a blast, and then SCCA has another event on August 16th. Tri-State also has two saturday events in September (13th and 20th).

ZZ...Car looks nice! I can't help but think that the only thing you're missing is a turbo...Hope to see you at some auto X events shortly!

 

JRFroe, Nice times! I know "James "browning", so it's funny to see that he was that "EVO". As for Eric (driving the Saab), he is was the guy that finished just before me at the last event, he consistently performs well.

 

Hope to see all of you at some more auto X events soon!

Thanks, Both "James" and Eric are really nice guys also, and they usually provide good competition. Its Eric's wife, Katie, that drives the other LGT that was there sunday.

I just recently found out why Mitsubishi drivers always use fake names... apparently they'll google your name to see if you do any autocrossing before approving any warranty work.

Next events are the WAI#3 event on June 7th, and the SCCA#3 event on June 8th. I'll be trying to make at least one of these, but not sure which one.

Hey man, thanks for the info...it slipped my mind on Sunday and I forgot to head down. I'm less than a 10 minute drive to Miller Park so I'm going to keep my eyes open for the next thing.

 

Also, a guy I work with has an 03 Boxster and has done autox at Miller Park. He and I are talking about going to one he knows about in August.

Last weekend was probably the most fun I've ever had autocrossing. I took 3rd (of 9), but the lead was changing almost every run. I led most of the morning, had it taken away for a bit, and got the lead back the next run. Then in the afternoon, me and another guy in a Saab 9-2X (basically a WRX sportwagon) were each taking the lead away from each other pretty much every run until the 2nd to last run when he put down an awsome time that beat my best by 0.5 second, only to have an EVO that wasn't doing all that well, drop about 1.5 seconds off his top time to take the lead for good.

Here's the results if anyone is interested: http://www.waiautox.org/2008/wai%202008%20event%202_fin.htm#A

where do you guys find details about all these events at Miller Park. Can I get on some emailing lists or what?

You just have to look at the schedules for the clubs that run the events:

http://www.scca-milwaukee.org/Solo/2008/08sched.htm

http://www.waiautox.org/2008/2008.html

http://www.tsscc.org/ - travels all across WI, IL & IN, so usually has 2 or 3 at Miller Park.

Are you going to be there tomorrow?

got the Azenis's and I love them. BTW what pressure do you run them at?

Well, if you're going to keep getting trophies in the future, maybe I shouldn't tell you.

Actually I'm still trying to figure out where the car likes the tire pressures, so I'm contantly tweaking them, but the last couple events I've been running 48-49 psi in front and 44-45 psi in the rear, and it seems to be handling decently. Seems that no matter how much air I put in the front, its always rolling over past the indicator, and I'm afraid to use more than 50 psi.

The Azenis's are quite an upgrade over the RE92's. I'm sure you probably noticed the big difference in responsiveness. I had to really smooth out my steering inputs after making the switch since the car was jumping around with the jerky steering inputs I needed to use to get the RE92's to respond.

Not sure if I'll make it... I was at SCCA at Miller Park last weekend, I finished 4th out of 22!

Very nice.... is that on some new tires or are you still on the RE92's?

They could pretty much split the "North Central" forum into this:

Great Lakes - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin

Midwest - Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota

Kentucky would then be moved to the South-East which might want to be split up also.

I like the cop in the background in the first photo. You know that state park sticker is a few years old. LOL

... he's there alot during these events, because every once in a while you'll have some yahoo that drag races down that road outside the parking lot.

... Good eye on the sticker... those buggers are impossible to get off... I've been meaning to get the razor blade out.

Didn't know I had a fog light out either... I think I've had those fog lights on for about 35,000 miles straight, so its probably about due. Usually I'll turn off the lights and A/C for autocrossing to reduce the drag from the alternater, but I forgot about it until the 4th or 5th run.

You all missed out on a fun time at Miller Park yesterday. I wasn't able to make saturday's tri-state event at Miller Park... Was anyone else there for that?

I did fairly well, with a best time of 63.070 (also had 62.492, but I hit a cone that run) which was good for 2nd out of 8 in the All Wheel Drive Street Tire Class. http://www.waiautox.org/2008/wai%202008%20event%201_fin.htm

Anyway here are a few pictures from sunday (again courtesy of Andy Seipos):

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/jrfroe/DSC_2000.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/jrfroe/DSC_2027.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/jrfroe/DSC_2028.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/jrfroe/DSC_2029.jpg

Not good man... I am going fishin at Dad's cabin for opening weekend and won't be making it to this event:mad:. I should also point out that this event is a "WI autocross event (SCCA?)", not a Milwaukee SCCA so this will not count towards your points with the MKE group.

 

I will be attending as many Milwaukee SCCA events as possible this season.

 

On another note, I'm going to be buying tires and I'm leaning towards the Azenis, anyone have a suggestion? JRFROE, where did you pick yours up and for how much?

 

Anyone know of a good track event? Most of my weekends are already full for the summer, but I wanted to make it out to a real course, anyone interested in a meet at one of these??? I'll see if I can find some good dates and post them up here in the next couple of days...

WAI events are completely independant of SCCA. Except for a few differences, you can't really tell the difference. Biggest difference for us, is we'll run in an All wheel drive class (A) instead of being grouped with the front-wheel drive class (F). So its less competition, but you will get more runs, and the fun runs are nice to have if you like to bring people for rides.

I'm very happy with the Azenis's. The tire wear thing is an issue, but if you plan to autocross any significant amount tire wear WILL be an issue. I'm thinking I'll get two summers out of each set of Azenis's. Just remember if you plan to do alot of autocrossing a tire like the Azenis will last longer than one that not made for it, like the RE092's, which will be shot after less than 10 events. Someone once explained it like this: you take 2 drivers on all-season tires... one is granny's car and she baby's them to get 70,000 miles out of them, while the other is an F1 driver on a high speed track where they'll last about 5 or 6 laps if that. Now switch the all-season tires for racing slicks. Granny babys them and maybe gets 2,000 or 3,000 miles out of them, while the F1 driver gets 100 - 150 laps out of them. Which tire wears less.... well it depends how you're driving them. You'll probably get 20,000 miles out of the Azenis's with autocrossing (rated for 40,000 with normal driving).

I got my tires at Big Bear Tire in Oconomowoc (www.bigbeartire.com) and I think the whole package was close to $600, including mounting and balancing. Something like $125-$130 per tire, and $60-$80 for mounting and balancing. I bought the 235/40-17 size, which is wider than the stock tires (215/45-17), but will still fit on the stock wheels. Big Bear does a good job, and I've gone back there to get my winter tires and alignment.

I'm glad to see more of us going to Auto-X events. They are alot of fun.

Me too. This last weekend was the first time I've seen more than 2 Legacy's running (I think we had 5 drivers). Most events last year, it was either just me, or me and one other Legacy.

You should just bite the bullet and enter your car May 4th. If you're too protective of your car, you'll one day realise that it has 200,000 miles on it and you still have no idea what its really capable of, because its simply been a means of getting from point A to point B. This next event I've even offered a friend of mine to co-drive my car, for his first time autocrossing. I figure the first time, he can cover his own entry fee and a bit for gas, and if he wants more after that, he can start paying for tires also.

Plus, its really not all that hard on the car (except tires, brakes, and wheel bearings) for several reasons:

1. You're only running for 50-70 seconds at a time. So it really isn't long enough to heat up the engine more than normal. I'll usually let the car run for 5 minutes after a run to let everything cool down with the radiator and intercooler running. Much of the time you're either on the brakes or in a turn, so you're not on the gas the whole time anyway.

2. I have yet to bounce the engine off the rev limiter while autocrossing since even the fastest courses are slow enough to stay in 2nd gear. Besides bouncing the engine off the rev limiter for a second or so will not hurt the engine (its there to protect the engine). It would likely take going 1000 RPM's or more past the rev limiter to actually do any damage. You should see what some of the Evo's with launch control will do.... They'll sit at the start line with the engine bouncing off the rev limiter before they drop the clutch, letting the computer take over.

3. Since the driving surface is smooth and clean, you're not going to hurt your chassis or suspension. Hitting a pothole at 45 mph is going to be much harder on your suspension than a few autocross runs will be.

It was good to put some faces with the screen names. I enjoyed meeting you guys, and chatting for a minute. My apologies for disappearing, but we had a long day ahead of us and I wanted to check out some of the other cars that were there as well.

 

On another note, autox is usually ok with the dealerships, until you start modding the car beyond the rules of the stock classes. Then the mods get more visually noticeable, and they tend to not like it. I wouldn't push my luck by giving them a copy of the tape or anything though, or by doing mods that can't easily be reversed before takling it in for service, if you know what I'm saying.

I actually did get some of my autocross caused "damage" repaired under warranty. The little plastic door for the oil filter was ripped off when a cone got stuck under my car. I ripped it off and was going to live without it because the plastic screws were a pain to deal with anyway, but when I brought it in for an oil change, they offered to order a new one.

You can see it in this pic

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn252/jrfroe/DSC_6726.jpg

actually this brings back bad memories... zero clean runs and I was schooled by my co-driver (even without the cone penalties)

Here's some pics from sunday, courtesy of andy seipos:

http://64.81.138.60/modules/gallery/v/album04/2008/20080420/DSC_8093.jpg.html

http://64.81.138.60/modules/gallery/v/album04/2008/20080420/DSC_8094.jpg.html

http://64.81.138.60/modules/gallery/v/album04/2008/20080420/DSC_8191.jpg.html

http://64.81.138.60/modules/gallery/v/album04/2008/20080420/DSC_8192.jpg.html

couldn't figure out how to post the pictures with the way andy has his gallery set up.

Jason