worldsaway

I'm wondering how well C4's do in A stock SCCA? I did my first event yesterday and I was one of the few vettes. The fast cars were miatas or honda s2000. Is the auto or 6sp more competitive? That was my first time at an autocross, but I think I'm hooked! I'm wondering whether my lower mileage 95 LT1 6speed that is a sort-of daily driver, or my 87 auto I could make a dedicated track car. All thoughts, suggestions, mods I should consider would be appreciated. Ed

StealthLT4

I just started AutoXing my '96 last season, and there's only one mod I recommend: seat time. Your C4 will probably not be extremely competitive in A-stock, but I don't AutoX to win, I just do it for fun. Regardless of what your goals are, your Vette is much faster than you are, so mod #1 should be yourself

bse53

I asked the same question recently.

Search- "C4-still a viable autox option"

It will be interesting this year in the club I race with. They combine SS and AS into a single class using PAX time. There are three new C5Z06 cars and a Lotus that was broken last year in the class, plus a few other cars. These four cars will all be dual driven.
These are good drivers in these cars. I think it will come down to the driver and car prep.
I don't expect to win, but being in the middle of the pack I'll be competing with will be a victory as far as I'm concerned.

Brian

worldsaway

I drove the 6sp car and it was obvious that I had alot more power than I needed, but I'm wondering which car works better, man or auto?

ZOOMiata

I autoxed m C4 last year alongside my NA Miata. I'm always faster in my Miata. But I never finished a run in the C4 and felt like I had been slow. Rather, I usually had a giant grin on my face. Power oversteer is addictive.

bse53

Here is a thread that discusses the best C4 for autocross. It's a couple of years old, since the S2000 appears to be the up and coming car in AS. I would prefer to drive the 6 spd, but folks have won with automatics.

http://sccaforums.com/forums/thread/198969.aspx

The consensus on this thread, the best C4's for AS:
1986 Automatic
1989 6 spd
1993 6 spd.

Probably more important is the suspension, Z51 or Z07. Since you can't change the springs in stock classes this will determine a lot of the handling of the car.
In stock class you are allowed to change the front anti-sway bar, the schocks and the tires.
The club I run with the Miata MS-R often has the fast PAX time of day and isn't much slower than the Z06. But they don't race in the same class.

If you look at the results at Nationals, I think the top C4 finished 8th. Are the days of the C4 over nationally? Probably, since it is a 15 year old car. But it's a blast to drive, and locally can still do well.

When I bought mine last year, I really wanted a C5-- but to be competitive in the class meant spending an additional $10K, which I wasn't willing to do for a hobby.

The car was very competitive-- and as can't be stressed enough, the driver makes most of the difference. One of the better drivers drove my car at one of the events, finished a second faster than me and won the class for the day-- having never driven the car before. (He was between cars, and ended up buying a '04 Z06 CE which he will race this year!)

The styling of the car has grown on me, and while I'll probably own a C5Z06 in the future, I'm pretty happy with the performance of the C4 (Though that extra 100 HP is pretty compelling).

For the money, probably nothing will beat a Miata. They are excellent sports cars, but I grew up with a V8, and nothing quite matches the sound and feel.

Brian

VetteDrmr

For a newbie, I vote for the manual, because you can basically launch, shift into 2nd, and stay there for the rest of your run. Autos tend to upshift when you come off the throttle, then downshift at some point when you get back on the throttle coming out of a corner.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

greendot

I have a stock 86 auto, and modified 85 and 89 cars both iwth automatics. I don't have these shifting issues. I run in either 1st or 2nd gear and very rarely an unwanted shift.

Also, my stock 86 Z51 auto was consistently faster than my stock 94 Z07 4 speed car, although today the 16" tires available are not quite up to the 17's (Hoosier, the only thing I run because they are the best)

bse53

That was one of the reasons I looked for a newer C4-- tire choices are pretty limited with 16" rims.

Brian

BrianCunningham

They still do get

A local C4 owner show up for her 1st nationals and got a trophy.

Not bad for a 20yr old car

TPIJay

For the last 2 years I have been Autocrossing my 86 Auto Z-51 and have found it to be pretty competetive on the short more technical courses and a little bit of an underdog on the larger courses. I ran both Kumho's and Hoosiers and swear by the Hoosiers. I just purchased an 89 Z-51 6pd at the tail end of last year but have only been in a couple of events with it. It feels faster off the corners in second gear than the 86 auto does but on some corners and especially the really tight corners it is nice to have the auto to down shift with. I noticed that put me ahead pretty good over the 6pd cars on the corners that were too fast to downshift but slow enough it would make it a dog on the exit.

IMO I would run them both to see which one feels more to your liking. Everyone has their own driving style and preferences. What suspensin packages do you have? If the 87 has the Z-51 I'd start there. Hoosier makes the 275 in 16's and I have had very good results with them. Plus the auto will be a good car to cut your teeth on not having to deal with shifting. Launch hard, find a good spot to shift and leave it in second. I've never had a problem with it shifting on it's own. Good luck and enjoy