[RKDinOKC]

Okay, the track racers say I'm crazy...

Had an 88 944 Turbo S. Learned to autocross in it and updated the suspension over 3 years. 31mm rear torsion bars, 180-410 porsche motorsport front springs, Weltmeister front and rear adjustable anti sway bars, and yellow konis with rebound adj. And very well setup for 4 wheel drifting from turn-in to corner exit. There were a couple of mods to the engine and it dynoed 280 rwhp.

Driving it at our local PCA autocrosses I had become very adept at coming into the turns setting the immediately into a 4 wheel drift pointing at the apex. The getting back in the throttle just enough (had to manage to turbo) to maintain the 4 wheel drift thru and throttle steer thru the apex, and add enough throttle to increase speed just enough to carry the 4 wheel drift out of the turn until I was pointing down the straight at full throttle.

First thing the racers tell me I don't know what I'm talking about...

Once the car was setup I noticed on transistion (turn-in) the car would kind of rock like a table with a short leg and it would upset the car and cause it to go into a skid instead of a balanced 4 wheel drift. I felt it was lowering my corner entry speed. Corner balanced the car and found one of the front corners was 1/32" low. Balancing took 2 seconds of my autocross lap times.

Second...

Same car well setup set FTD. Took a 300lb person for a lap. Noticed while lapping with the extra 300 lbs in the car that my top speed at the end of the longest straight was 10 mph slower when I hit my braking zone. Found someone had left the timer on and with the 300 lb person in the car and slower top speed I had matched my FTD.

My premise is that autocrossing at speeds below 100mph the aerodynamics of a car does not effect corner speed as much as tire grip and the extra weight in my car increase the load on tire enough to provide more grip increasing my corner speeds to make up for the slower acceleration and braking of the extra 300 lbs.

After that I quit taking things out of my car to make it lighter for autocrossing.