Thoughts on the First Optima DriveAutoX Event

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Update by Ed Higginbotham to the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 project car
Apr 10, 2018

JG spent this past weekend in Concord, North Carolina, at the inaugural Optima DriveAutoX event with our project Corvette Z06. It was cold and wet on Saturday, but it was a testament to the event organization that everyone still had a great time. Sunday saw some slightly better weather—remember, this is a two-day autocross event.

How did we do? The car was amazing. Considering it literally got a completely new suspension—thanks in part to AMT Motorsport—three days before the event, it had no right working as well as it did. We were ninth fastest in the entire field in the rain and tenth overall in the dry. We were seventh in our class, and our class was by far the deepest.

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Comments
stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
4/10/18 10:36 a.m.

Corvettes definitely were the car of choice, but some of the other hardware was cool. Old stuff, new stuff, electric stuff, but no Porches...

Also, wide tires and wet asphalt made for some interesting runs on Saturday.

klodkrawler05
klodkrawler05 Reader
4/10/18 10:39 a.m.

Glad to hear you had a good time! (not that I expected less from the Optima/FM3 crew) 

I'm eagerly looking forward to the Grissom and Gateway events!

MazdaFace
MazdaFace HalfDork
4/10/18 10:43 a.m.

looked super fun. Can't wait to go to the one in mineral wells

mw
mw Dork
4/10/18 3:56 p.m.

I’m signed up for the one at Grissom. I’m really looking forward to it. Buying some 200tw tires just for it. 

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
4/10/18 8:34 p.m.

I cannot overstate what an awesome event Jimi, Brian, Grady, Sandy and the gang put on. Just top notch organization and and fun all the way around. 

Here's some fun math


$120

16+ runs

NO COURSE WORK

Ice Cream Truck

Jaynen
Jaynen UltraDork
4/10/18 10:19 p.m.

16 runs and no course work, if that Ice Cream Truck was a Taco Truck I'd be super stoked :)

deaconblue
deaconblue New Reader
4/11/18 9:02 a.m.

Can't wait to hear all the feed back on the ATM hardware and the RideTech TQ coil over conversion.  How easy was it to dial-in the shocks?  You guy put the ATM motor mounts in as well, correct?  Wasn't sure even after watching the GRMS Live! last week.  What about the transmission mount?  The C5 OEM design is pretty piss poor design from an engineering stand point - it allows the transmission moves around a LOT and would benefit from something like the Afe/pfadt or the similar Hoosier mount.

http://store.afecontrol.com/afe-control-pfadt-series-transmission-mount-chevrolet-corvette-c5-97-04-orange/

http://shop.hoosierpe.com/C5-Corvette-Torque-Limiting-Mount-10D-20016-DK.htm

BTW, what shifter do you have in that Z06?

CyberEric
CyberEric Reader
4/11/18 9:23 a.m.

Are they going to run one of these on the West Coast?

Gearheadotaku
Gearheadotaku GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
4/11/18 11:17 a.m.

How many cars were competing overall?

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
4/11/18 11:21 a.m.
Gearheadotaku said:

How many cars were competing overall?

I would guesstimate 60 cars were in attendance on Saturday.

There were several cars with multiple drivers.

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