I would like to get into autoX but I am curious if its bad for the car? I not really into abusing my cars....am I totally off base with this??
I just changed the rotors on the maxima. (yeah they warped) and I guess I am worried that doing this will messed them up...am I crazy?

Thanks

 

If you drive correctly, you shouldn't be damaging anything. Just go easy on your car when you start. No gung-ho. Here's an example. There was an RX7 guy, his 1st time. Entered a sweeper too fast. Cranked the wheel all the way, gunned it to swing the rear, somehow pushed/understeered the car, and broke something in his steering. Good gosh it was sad. Had to be towed home.

Stay within your car and your own limits.

Jae

 

As he said.. you can beat the bejeezus out of it, or you can run nice and smooth and you won't do any damage but wear out your tires. brakes usually aren't an issue at Auto X, but tires can go pretty quick. Expect them to last about a year if you run a full season of events (one every 3-4 weeks)

 

Yeah, tires and brake pads are pretty much the only items that get abused at all. I'm getting well over a year of use on street tires. Can't speak to race rubber life though. Because you usually only shift once and usually get a rolling start the trans isn't pushed hard like dragstrips do.

 

Rolling start? at the events in OK, they put the timing lights about 15 ft in front of the "start line", so you gotta burn through first to get a decent time. The first few events, they had it about 60 ft down, so it wasn't bad.. after that, I realizes why everyone else was beating their clutches at the start.. I did a dragstrip launch and improved my time by over a second! DOH!

 

True. Good thing about brakes is u rarely overheat them...just don't set the parking brake as you're waiting for your next run.

And tires...much easier on tires than road course. Definitely go out there, find a veteran and have him ride along (if they allow). Register as a newbie, get the walk through, and a coach. Good luck!
Jae

 

I send that....Besides the car had a rev limiter and it will back you off automatically...but you should have shifted by then if your a 5spd. Since I'm an auto I forget to shift to 2nd sometimes cause I really don't expect to get through some turn very fast, but it happens and the car let me know to back off.

Just go out and enjoy yourself...I promise your more than likely to get hooked.

 

I wouldn't really worry about hurting the car. Most of the time you only have to shift once at the start.

About warping the rotors. The front rotors on the 4th & 5th gen maxima are under sized and tend to warp prematurely. Mine {stock rotors on a 99SE} warped @ ~28,000 I had them turned and they warped again at 36k. ~37k I upgraded to power stop slotted rottors and I haven't had a problem since I currently have ~82k. I'd suggest upgrading the rotors to power slot or brembo as one of the first upgrade done. My friend has a 01 SE that his wife drives, with ~36 and his front rotors are warped.

Stock Maxima Brakes =

 

I can't imagine cooking the brakes in autox. Of the ones I've been to, they don't last longer than 5min...longest one I've been to is 3.5min and I heard of one really technical (slow!) one that took 4min.

Jae

 

I did driving school yesterday and did about 20 runs... my tires lost like 10-20% tread in the front they're just SP5000 not even performance rubber but its so fun I'll be doing it again

 

Where are you running at where yo get 3.5 - 5 min runs? The longest course I've been on take ~1min to run through.

 

shortest run was 45sec by the pros.
I went to the San Diego ones, at Qualcomm. And I heard the ones at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles had the long ones.
Jae

 

Yeah! The longest I have seen as about 70seconds. WOW! 4minutes

 

My inner rotors & hubs get to about 300-400deg on warm days after a 60 sec single run.