GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Yup. not a big fan of the street racing stories which some just seem... well unreal lol. With the mods on my Vibe so far I decided at last to try autocross and wow was it fun. Racing around a narrow path in a sea of orange cones is cool. Hope was out in her LGT on sunday but unfortunatly for the moment I only have pics of my saturday runs as my friend JC took them while I drove. It was a pretty good sized course with the Vettes running average 46-41 second times. Lots of Subarus and they were consistant with 45-40 second times. My lone Vibe ran 48 seconds on day one and 46 secodns on day 2. With my intake, exhaust, rims, strut bar and TIEN springs she handled very well. I know I could have gotten 45-43 second runs had I installed the unichip but that has not been reprogrammed yet. I gotta send that in... Couple of STis ran saturday, an Evo ran sunday. There was even a Lotus out there running 39 second times but a camero broke his time with 38 seconds but it was +1 for hitting a cone so he tied with the Lotus. Anyway enough talk for now... heres the pics with more to follow. Perhaps even some video if we can ever figure out how to upload it...Here is before hand. The Del Sol was running 42 second times on sunday, very smooth.Staging up waiting for the flag.This one is through the slalam... and no I didn't hit the cone.Back in line.Taking a break between runs.The next two pics are of 1 of 2 corners that I actually needed to tap the brakes and slow down. The rest was all throttle baby My friend Derek's 2006 STi. He was getting 40 second runs by the time he learned the course.The Lotus... nuff said. This car is one fast (removed) mofo.Me again...More to come later when we get sunday uploaded with pics of myself and the wife driving. Plus my friend has pics on his camera I need to get a hold of.

Link with more pics as they become uploaded.http://smg.photobucket.com/alb...2006/

Man, looks ike fun! Wish I would have had the opportunity to do something like that before I bagged the Vibe! Would have been a lot of fun!

it was a lot of fun! it seems like you're going so much faster in the car, but then looking at vids later.... my first run was super slow (obviously i wanted to learn the course). didn't end as well as i'd hoped, but from 57 s to 47.1 sec (timed). then ran a few fun runs (after the actual timed events) and hit 2 46.2 runs. given another day, or a few more runs, pretty confident i'd have been in the 44's. i added my pics to the album, but sorry, my pics are resized, so they are much smaller.

man that does look fun maybe before i go get my new tires ill try and do that.

That looks like fun. but the best was the view of the mountains.

gee what crappy scenery!

well we didn't have any beer out there lol.

So how did the Vibe handle with the S-Techs??I've allways wanted to try autocross but was afraid the S-Techs would cause some scrapping or maybe blow a strut or two (removed)...What do you think? Also, when you're driving, is the course fairly clear as far as which direction you are going?

It can be a sea of cones if your not paying attention. This course was layed out very well and pretty easy to figure out. I walked it a couple times first, picked out some lines I wanted to try. My worst time on sunday was like my best time on saturday and sunday I tried different lines exiting and entering certain corners. The Vibe handles like a dream. No suspension issues at all. Very little body roll that I could feel. Tires squealed a little in the slalam but thats to be expected. I need to try some tire adjustments as far as tire pressure. I stayed in second gear with only light taps on the brake through two of the many corners. I shifted into first at the end of the last slalam and was back in second by the time I hit the ending timers.Over all the Vibe handled VERY well. I was impressed.

That looks like it was a fun-o-rama.I wouldn't have done well because I would be distracted by the beautiful scenery.

when you get going the only thing you see is corner after the one your approaching. Thats how it was for me. But I see this scenery every day lol.

Man, I wish we had stuff around where I live. The only thing we have here is mud/dirt races, which can be cool to watch. Where I live if it's not a truck, not to many people care.

yes, when you are driving, all you are doing is concentrating on where you need to go, what's up ahead and how to set your car up for the best results. i really wish i'd been there on saturday to have more experience with the course, try out new approaches to launching as well as gearing, etc. but that's what this weekend was for: to get some experience and a taste of the sport, see if you want to do it again. next sunday is another event, but don't think i can do it as the following sunday is track day and we really need to get our butts into the church. lol. so we'll see.... i may have the itch to do it still. and phil did great! he bested my times by a second and still beat me on the fun runs by about 1 tenth of a second. the vibe handled (from a spectator view) extremely well, hardly any body roll like many of the other cars. everyone was asking what kind of car it was and what color as they were suprised that it could move as quickly and easily through the course.

hey hope, that picture of you in front of your car... you kinda look like toad from super mario bros.!!!

Quote, originally posted by Mrizzle05 »hey hope, that picture of you in front of your car... you kinda look like toad from super mario bros.!!! oh that so deserves a beat down! you know you will have retaliation for that comment! mwu haa haaa!

Oh yeah, I forgot I don't have a manual trans....you think it would destroy my transmition to be jetting around an dbraking like that?

i have an auto too. it makes it easier actually. then you don't have to concentrate on the shifting. however, the shifting can be fun too. oh well... we kinda get hosed on the launching, so that's the downside.

Looks like a lot of fun! Nice scenery and I like how you were able to get some of those pictures from above looking down. It's cool seeing the Vibe in action.

That looks awesome....I think we should all Road Trip to Mavrik's....who's in?

Quote, originally posted by Mrizzle05 »hey hope, that picture of you in front of your car... you kinda look like toad from super mario bros.!!! ha ha! kind of makes you want to throw a banana peel on the track and fire off a turtle shell!

The (removed) on that Vette is sexy next to your subby.

The vettes were pretty fast and cone hungry. They held up well to considering the 29 car Vette ran every run because the driver's changed out.And I doubt an automatic would have any problems really. I was the only Vibe out there but there were a few automatic vehicles.

yep. the porsche club is having a solo II event this sunday at one of the high schools. i'll be doing that one too, but i think Phil's gonna sit out on this one. the courses are a little shorter and more twisty turny, not so much a road course like the nice one last weekend. the vibe would do extremely well on a course like this because it's a heck of a lot more agile than my subie. but i want to try a few things to see if i can improve.

I like road course more then short twisty driving in a circle course.

and that's why you're not doing this weekend and i am. that's fine.

Of the two Tein spring options, what would you recommend? H or S-Tech?

Well I have no experience on H but I ran on S and they were very good, hardly any body roll.

if you're gonna drop it, go LOW! just do it! it's not that much of a ride heighth and looks sooo much better! LGT also has S-Techs... go low!

Yeah I agree with Hope...go as low as you can. There's no use spending a ton of money on a small drop. Makes minimal visual difference in my opinion. The S-Techs are PERFECT.

i had the TRD springs on the vibe gt, they were great for handling, but could have been a little lower. even stock, my LGT sat LOWER than the lowered VGT and about the same as phil's S-Tech'd vibe. now, with the S-techs on the LGT, it looks SLAMMED! it's pretty low.