First time tracking ever

HondaRedbullF1

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Hey guys. Today I had my first ever autocross event. This was my first experience doing any type of tracking. It was very nerve racking because my friends ended up being in the afternoon session, where as I ended up in the morning session. Thankfully everyone was so open to sharing info and giving me pointers throughout the session. Once things got going it was tons of fun. I was able to get in about 8 runs or so, which I was told was a lot of seat time. Really cool environment and experience. I look forward making it out to more and seeing how much further I can take my skills and what more I can learn about the car.
P.S. Cone duty sucks, mainly for my feet and my back aha.

Currently my cars mods are
Flex-fuel E30mix
Hondata
Rv6 front/down pipe
Hks legamax exhaust
Rv6 camber arms
Rv6 lower control arms
Te37 time attack saga 18x9.5 +45
Firestone Indy 500 255/35/18
Cusco front/mid/rear brace
Spoon ridgid Collars
Tuned on a basemap.

Few questions about tracking. Is a hondata basemap okay for tracking? I know a custom tune is ideal but at the moment I’m just on a basemap. They are meant to be somewhat conservative and more so to just get you by, but what if it’s being raced “hard” on the tune. Are there things I should be concerned about if tracking on a base map?

I did turn off VSA, but was curious whether i should turn off or on (forgot which it was) cruise control for hondata’s traction control too. And if any, any other driving assistance I should know know about turning off.

Last thing, I saw a lot of people running potenzas. What’s your ideal summer tire for a good balance of street and track. Long lasting is a plus!

You guys are welcome to throw me any tips or suggestions. Open to learning more and still new to a lot of it.
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REDRAGN

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Nice...welcome to the darkside!

As far as tunes go...like you said, a custom tune for your mods and intended use will be best. However, since you are doing autocross currently and the runs are short you likely wont experience the issues people who track their CTR have (overheating mainly). I would definitely use the Hondata to datalog your runs, enter your car in the https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...erience & Reliability Thread (for all models) , and @gtman will take a look and give advice!
 
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HondaRedbullF1

HondaRedbullF1

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Nice...welcome to the darkside!

As far as tunes go...like you said, a custom tune for your mods and intended use will be best. However, since you are doing autocross currently and the runs are short you likely wont experience the issues people who track their CTR have (overheating mainly). I would definitely use the Hondata to datalog your runs, enter your car in the https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...erience & Reliability Thread (for all models) , and @gtman will take a look and give advice!
Nice, I will go ahead and datalog the next event I get a chance to attend. Thanks.
 

AlphaDigital

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Glad you had fun, seat time is incredibly important, so if your area hosts test and tune days, I highly suggest attending those to get as much seat time as you can.

As far as a custom tune goes, I highly suggest you datalog what your current tune is doing. The Hondata basemaps arent always conservative, case in point , I was seeing a fair amount of knock retard on my basemap, so I got a custom tune asap and cleaned that up. Guys like @kefi , Mike at Kinetic, and Drob at IMW can get you taken care of ezpz.

Tires that I recommend for a decent amount of grip and life are Yokohama Advan Apex, Michelin PS4S, maybe Firehawk Indy500s which are all around 300aa for treadwear.
 
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HondaRedbullF1

HondaRedbullF1

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Glad you had fun, seat time is incredibly important, so if your area hosts test and tune days, I highly suggest attending those to get as much seat time as you can.

As far as a custom tune goes, I highly suggest you datalog what your current tune is doing. The Hondata basemaps arent always conservative, case in point , I was seeing a fair amount of knock retard on my basemap, so I got a custom tune asap and cleaned that up. Guys like @kefi , Mike at Kinetic, and Drob at IMW can get you taken care of ezpz.

Tires that I recommend for a decent amount of grip and life are Yokohama Advan Apex, Michelin PS4S, maybe Firehawk Indy500s which are all around 300aa for treadwear.
It was a lot of fun, every lap was a little improvement on time which was very addicting haha I will definitely look into those tires. It sounds like data logging is pretty important, so I’ll make it a priority to do so next event. Thanks!
 


AlphaDigital

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definitely datalog on the street by doing some WOT pulls to see if youre getting any knock retard.
 

MadMage

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Something else to keep in mind, tires and pads for Autocross are some what different than for road course tracking. You won't be needing/wanting the high temperature endurance that you might want on a road course. So pads you will need to make sure they have a good low temperature bite to them. Many track pads have poor friction until they get over 200F, which is way too late for A/X. Also, with tires you go go with hot lap or A/X type compounds. That are good and sticky for a lap or two, because that is all you will be doing with A/X. You won't want/need something that is consistent over a 20 minute session.

And when you do get new pads and wheels, IMO go ahead and pay to have them pre-bedded or thermal cycled. Track time is too limited to use it to do such for me.
 
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HondaRedbullF1

HondaRedbullF1

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Something else to keep in mind, tires and pads for Autocross are some what different than for road course tracking. You won't be needing/wanting the high temperature endurance that you might want on a road course. So pads you will need to make sure they have a good low temperature bite to them. Many track pads have poor friction until they get over 200F, which is way too late for A/X. Also, with tires you go go with hot lap or A/X type compounds. That are good and sticky for a lap or two, because that is all you will be doing with A/X. You won't want/need something that is consistent over a 20 minute session.

And when you do get new pads and wheels, IMO go ahead and pay to have them pre-bedded or thermal cycled. Track time is too limited to use it to do such for me.
I see, okay. This is really good information, probably will look into pads as well. Another thing on my list was new rotors. I am still very new to all this. Any preference you have when it comes to pads, tires, or rotors? A little hesitant because I'm not sure if I'd be optimizing these parts until I fully understand all the technical aspects that go into getting great times in track.

Edit: Thanks for suggestions
 

MadMage

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So I don't A/X, but I do road course. After the OEM pads, I went to Endless MX-72s. I like/liked them a lot. Good for daily and much better on the track than OEM. But, I've started melting them on the track. Not something you would do with A/X though.

Here are two videos on pads. The first is a review of Carbotech (which I'm trying next on the track). Gives you a really good idea on how a brand will have a range of pads, and how those pads are god for different use cases. The second I'm not sure is as authoritative as the narrator thinks, but it is good info on pads as well.




Rotors; so far I'm on 2020 stock. The most popular seem to be Girodisc or Paragon. There should be some good posts around here with opinions.

For the track I'm running 18x9.5+38 Advan TC-4 wheels with 255/35R18 90W Yokohama Neova AD08 R tires. But those aren't what you will want. If/when you get new wheels, then you will want to get a wheel with a higher offset. I got mine used for a good deal so the offset was enough. There is a lot of good tire info here; https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/track-wheel-or-wheel-tire-guide.53688/ In post #47 I summarize road course tires, which means if you find the others listed earlier the ones I didn't list should be good for A/X, with some caveats.
 
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HondaRedbullF1

HondaRedbullF1

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So I don't A/X, but I do road course. After the OEM pads, I went to Endless MX-72s. I like/liked them a lot. Good for daily and much better on the track than OEM. But, I've started melting them on the track. Not something you would do with A/X though.

Here are two videos on pads. The first is a review of Carbotech (which I'm trying next on the track). Gives you a really good idea on how a brand will have a range of pads, and how those pads are god for different use cases. The second I'm not sure is as authoritative as the narrator thinks, but it is good info on pads as well.




Rotors; so far I'm on 2020 stock. The most popular seem to be Girodisc or Paragon. There should be some good posts around here with opinions.

For the track I'm running 18x9.5+38 Advan TC-4 wheels with 255/35R18 90W Yokohama Neova AD08 R tires. But those aren't what you will want. If/when you get new wheels, then you will want to get a wheel with a higher offset. I got mine used for a good deal so the offset was enough. There is a lot of good tire info here; https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/track-wheel-or-wheel-tire-guide.53688/ In post #47 I summarize road course tires, which means if you find the others listed earlier the ones I didn't list should be good for A/X, with some caveats.
Awesome, thank you for this
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