Originally Posted by
vbspec
I really have to disagree about the brakes and suspension idea. If you can lock up you tires your brakes are good enough. And as far as suspension goes Ed Raymundo drives a stock 1.6 Miata R and puts almost everyone to shame. AutoX is a game of .10's of seconds. Its more about learning when to brake, turn and accelerate, as well as how much to brake, turn and accelerate with the car you have. Yes better tire will drop your times but its just a way to cover for the drivers miss inputs. Stay on shitty tires for a few events and then switch to a better street tire than after a year or two think about the next step. Just get out to as many events as you can and talk with the faster guys, ask questions about tire pressures, and setup. And spend time walking the course with those same faster guys if you can, or if the club has a Novice walk thru do it!!! It will help.
Oh yeah and have fun..
Suspension and brakes are probably the most important things you can do to a car. Just because your locking up your brakes doesn't mean your braking system is good. You do not want to lock up the brakes because that could cause you to spin. You want to be able to brake late without locking up the brakes. There are also things like brake fade you have to consider.
As far as suspension you don't want to have a super soft setup because that will cause you to have a lot of excessive body roll which will make you spin and not be able to control your car as easy as if your car was stiff. When you have body roll all of the momentum will want to keep moving forward/to the outside when you are trying to turn. This also takes a lot of weight off your inside wheels which will make sticking to the ground a lot harder. A low tight suspension setup will help keep the body roll down or it will completely eliminate it. It will provide a low center of gravity and will keep the weight of the car from shifting around.
With all that said it definitely is very important to have good driving skills and I'm sure there are people out there who can take a completely stock car and do amazing but you can only push it so far in a stock car.