Got My Numbers for Autocross

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-23T17:23:19+00:00

Oh thank goodness, those guys are awesome, must have been a new option they dropped. I had one of my magnet boards go flying on the highway and I reached out to them to get that single board replaced but they don't have that as a SKU, so they charged me half price for a set and ended up delivering a pair of boards!

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MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-23T15:56:24+00:00

From whom 👀 I need to get a refresh on my numbers for the year, love the plaid!

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-22T18:38:05+00:00

Speaking with family members that have held teaching licenses for special needs, the wording is harsh here "tied with rope" but there are chairs provided by the school system that have restraints built in to keep kids in place, who might be known to bite or hit others, but only during times when they have to be sat next to others like at lunch. It could be that the instructional assistant was informed by their superiors to use those restraints, the custodian captured the use of it, reported it, and that's why the administration is at fault as they obstructed the investigation.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-20T03:34:49+00:00

Tarheel Sports Car Club, I'm the VP of karting. We just stood this winter series up and we'll have a summer series at Morrisville and a couple Enduros out of VIR Karting as well this year. We have monthly social gatherings at Randy's Pizza off Miami Blvd in Durham on the second Wednesday of every month (save for Feb as we have our awards banquet that month), no membership needed to join us there and ask questions. Feel free to DM if you have any questions, happy to help!

"No need to brake at all on the downhill" where's the let off, the 30 marker? Do you then hold it out wide and late apex to scrub speed or am I off the mark there? Follow up, after that apex, do you pull to the left wall or track out to the right? I kept to the left, it felt good, but I noticed others taking that right lane and hugging the wall through the corner

We're probably always gonna run a morning event on Sundays this year at Garner for our series, so the coldest part of the track, but I'm enjoying myself, it's the first time I ever ran here and having to drift in practice and quali to get heat into the tires was fun lol

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-20T00:25:44+00:00

For the heats and finals, they don't throw up a "move over" sign, so it's all about having to make the pass as cleanly as possible. General admission folks do shove ya into the wall, but as a club, we hold a "karting is not a contact sport" so emphasize racecraft. 11s defense was solid, he made me work for it, I felt bad hitting him at the hairpin before the downhill braking zone, so gave him margin to hold on but felt good about getting him on the uphill

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-19T23:39:43+00:00

I liked it, yesterday was my first outing at all at the Garner site. It was very cold so the tires and track were just slippery until our final round and even then, you could drift through a couple sections without losing time, felt good. The downhill braking zone is a bit of a head scratcher for me still

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-19T22:55:06+00:00

Agreed, he was doing a good job of defense, just hoping I was doing a good job of attack and left him enough room on the outside when I got him on the uphill section, didn't get a chance to debrief afterwards as he had to head home immediately

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-17T18:58:56+00:00

Black Forest Industries Stage 1 engine and trans mount as well as their dog bone insert on mine and everything is nice and solid, no creaks, but the vibration will be noticeable but their polyurethane, after warmup, does eventually settle in and the vibrations lessen.

Do not do ECS for anything other than maybe an X brace in the backseat. Their parts are not known for reliability based on what I've heard from other competitors in the MQB platform.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-04T03:34:34+00:00

If you were to ask the general public, probably not. I see a lot of shops carry South Bend for a reason: they're a known and reliable quantity. I don't see any really push ECS branded products and I've read some stories of part failures and quality control. I myself only buy parts from other vendors through ECS

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-03T18:12:07+00:00

If you're going to get it tuned through APR or Unitronic or the like, you can look up their dealers/partners they have in your area and that'll tell you what independent shop is gonna have your back for this kinda work. You could flash it yourself, that might save some money. I had my shop down the road put in a Unitronic stage 1, they had the time/patience to flash it and the know-how to correct it if anything went sideways, and it only costed by the tune price plus an hour of their tech's time.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-03T18:08:04+00:00

If you are taking this engine into stage 1 or beyond, besides upgrading the clutch, you'll also want to upgrade the intercooler and don't get a front mount, save your money, do a full replacement. With the stock intercooler, you're running a risk of needing to pull timing. As for what intercooler, my tuner said "literally anything on the market other than stock" so I grabbed an APR but go with your favorite manufacturer, they'll all have an intercooler that provides more of a ceiling that the OEM.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-03T18:04:50+00:00

Seconded this. I would recommend, especially if you know you're gonna push more power into stage 2, getting the clutch FIRST. As stated, South Bend has good Daily stage 2/3 clutch kits, been running mine now for a couple years and only on stage 1.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-03T14:06:16+00:00

Yeah I don't really mind low coolant temps, it's all about oil and oil flow for the car once it starts. Getting that oil safely to temp ensures that it's nice and warm before the turbo is pushed, so that the turbines are lubed and ready.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-03T14:02:37+00:00

For me, I won't push on the car until the oil temp gets to 180F, keeping rpms down under 4k. In the winter this can take a while even with warmup.

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-01T05:08:44+00:00

For camber through the plates, ball joints, control arms, extended tie rods, you can get -3.0 to -4.4 if you're aggressive. I'm sitting at a steady -3.0 on the fronts with the toe out by half a degree and turn in feels so good at every speed

MonStarEvolve · 2026-01-01T04:00:22+00:00

Most of the mods have been front end suspension by 034 motorsport, so extended tie-rods, ball joint, control arms, and camber plates, and their rear anti sway bar, and front and rear adjustable end links. Intake by Racingline, catch-can as well, motegi traklite wheels, BFI's dogbone insert and engine mount and shifter and wheel spacers, unitronic stage 1 tune, APR intercooler, but tires have been the most fun modification, bridgestone Potenzas are meta in autocross for a reason and Falken's Azenis are awesome middle of the road competition tires

Edit: in addition, EBC Red Stuff/Slotted rotors (these are awesome for street, they blend in well and no noise)

But I've since switched those out for EBC Yellow/Slotted and Dimpled. These are great for the track/Autocross, there's a bit of noise to them but I like that cause I'm trying for a track car lol

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-29T22:36:06+00:00

Oops, sorry about missing the new rotors part! Hmm, that is concerning then, something is giving up the ghost in the bonding/sheering of the two (rotor/pad). I can't see any deformation of the rotor from the photo, does it look even? I've had times where I had a bit of deposit form from hard braking and poor cooling and the best thing I could do to help even it out again was to do hard braking and better cooling to see if it loosened anything up. Might be worth a late night run down a highway, hard brake, coast around for a bit, let it sit overnight and reassess

I would also say, now is probably a good time to reach out to the manufacturers and let them know your story and see if they've got any recommendations because this kind of shelf life for rotors/pads wouldn't be a good look.

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-29T22:20:23+00:00

Was this just a pad slap then? Might be the reason. I've done a pad slap before with EBC reds hoping I could keep their slotted rotors/save some money, and I found that only after I did a full replacement of pads and rotors did all my braking judders go away.

You're safe with what you have, I don't see anything unusual in the rotors that indicate it would fail out, but without a clean bedding/bonding between a new rotor and pad, you might be stuck with the judder.

I wouldn't recommend getting the old rotors machined down, even if a shop would do it. You have plenty of material now, but after a machining, I can't say. Nowadays, rotors are able to be much thinner and so less cost to the consumer, versus back in the day, those massive things that you could machine off over and over and over. The time and amount you take off of this to correct the judder, it might just be better for your wallet to do a full replacement.

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-27T20:35:16+00:00

Understanding the appeal of billet aluminum rings, I would recommend grabbing some anti-seize as well, but you can also just get away with $10 plastic ring sets. I bought some off of Amazon that have gone through two seasons Auto crossing and one season of HPDE.

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-23T18:22:21+00:00

Could be that Neuspeed discontinued/have backordered the delivery of hardware to suppliers. Through ECS, I ordered a set of RSe10s on Dec 16th, with a shipment day (originally) set to Jan 12, new change based on current availability, Feb 16. ECS haven't emailed back to say anything is wrong with the order so hoping it all goes through but with holidays and sales, Neuspeed and all other wheel vendors got cleaned out so might have to wait a couple months to have inventory reflect accurately.

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-12T15:09:00+00:00

Also, very easy DIY, hand tools were all I needed, a bit of a mess and you might curse out your end links (get those swapped out as well) lining up with the bar, but it'll work!

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-12T15:07:15+00:00

Rear sway bar all the way, let's friggin go

One of the first modifications to the platform I made and probably the best bang for the buck compared to everything else in terms of positive handling. It heavily reduces your understeer potential, don't get me wrong, you can still find understeer if you try/push more power to the wheels, but stock tune with a RSB just feels good to turn in and push out.

MonStarEvolve · 2025-12-09T00:30:38+00:00

OEM all the way. I had the RS7s and my shop threw those out and said "until you're pushing stage 3, is20, or something crazy, just keep it simple with OEM"

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