AutoX and our diffs...

[arkarsk]

My brother is a big autocrosser with his... neon. Since i've bought the zx2, he's been nudging me to get on the track with him. The car has fairly high KM's (190,000km) but has been well maintained. I'm just worried that I'll end up wrecking my daily driver from the stresses of autox. Should I worry about wrecking the differential? I know it's a common problem and would rather just not risk it.

To put it more clearly: Should I autox my high mileage daily driver, or is the risk of the diff dying large enough to be worrying?

[capitalcrew]

Take it out and have fun, just don't launch stupidly or anything. You will break shit though. It's racing.. lol

[Manbearpig]

Your diff will be fine. Thats one of the last parts you will need to worry about.

Your engine will be in high revs most of the 60 or so seconds a run...can you engine handle that?

Your brakes will be used...alot and hard. Are they working well?

Your tires make a huge difference...are you on $35/tire walmart specials or did you research them before you bought?

Hows your clutch? High revs + bad clutch = broken clutch.

Besides that stuff as long as your wheel bearings arn't shot...go have fun!

[zxtwou2]

your diff is only in trouble if you make hard wheel spinning launches all the time.

autoXing is actually fairly easy on your car. make sure you have really good tires (140-200 treadwear...nice and soft) and good brake pads/rotors. most of autoXing is the driver, then the tires, then the suspension. there's a reason 90 hp civics can do better than a vette.

[arkarsk]

Your diff will be fine. Thats one of the last parts you will need to worry about.

Your engine will be in high revs most of the 60 or so seconds a run...can you engine handle that?

Your brakes will be used...alot and hard. Are they working well?

Your tires make a huge difference...are you on $35/tire walmart specials or did you research them before you bought?

Hows your clutch? High revs + bad clutch = broken clutch.

Besides that stuff as long as your wheel bearings arn't shot...go have fun!


Engine runs like a top, I redline it every now and again, it's pretty stable.


Replaced front rotors + pads 2000km ago. Pads are kind of cheapo though. Replaced drum pads and leaking wheel cylinder. In retrospect I should have replaced the drums themselves as I believe theyre either very close or have exceeded the max width.


Tires are crappy. I'm on goodyear all seasons in the front with about 80% thread, and a different set of different good year all seasons in the back with about 30% thread. Don't have the money to get new tires really :(


Clutch feels good, but this is my first MTX car so I wouldn't know what a bad one feels like haha. It's not slipping or anything, shifting goes smoothly.


Just concerned about racing a 200,000km car, though it is in pretty good condition.

[Rev]

well, just try it. take it easy at first and if the tranny is still int the car, go faster lol . Auto-X isn't as hard on the car as many people beleive. HPDE(practically road racing) is way harder on the car than auto-x. The last Porsche club event i did cost me two struts(worn out anyways) and i decimated my tires.

[Manbearpig]

Your allseasons will really hold you back but since its your first one try it out and see if it is really something you want to get into. To be competitive you will need to spend some $$ on some good summer performance tires.

[arkarsk]

Will definitely hit the track then :)

Thanks guys