2002 Tacoma for Autocross

Well I must admit I had way more fun than I had envisioned,

Who would have thought an old Tacoma with some nice tires could smoke Lamborghini's, Vette's, Porsche's, Mustangs, Camaros, and even a Miata on the autocross for the very first time in any kind of automotive event?!!

They ended up tossing me in a time only class since I didnt know what to sign up for, but I would say old Trudy and myself did alright for our maiden voyage:



We did a couple "fun runs" afterwards and I was able to knock off a few more seconds a was into the 73.5~ per lap by the end of day. I surely learned a lot and got better at driving my truck in the process.

I think I may have to give this another go, what a blast indeed!!

I have some videos and I will try to get them up on here soon to share the magic of Tacoma high performance with the "world"!

Thanks again fellow Tacoma enthusiasts, turns out you dont need a Lamborghini after all to have FUN.

 

Really glad to hear you had a good time! I look forwards to seeing your videos, did you get any funny comments/looks for running a Tacoma at an autocross?

 

When I first showed up for "race day" in the Tacoma the tech's and organizers were stunned at the sight and broke out the measuring tapes to ensure it wasnt a rollover risk. "Wait up, you are racing THIS today, is it even lowered, etc?!" I didnt even get a chance to do a course walk through while they measured the track width versus the height and found old Trudy was a bit higher than the SCCA guidelines. Since these were "guidelines" they all met and discussed and came to the decision that very little of the Tacoma's weight was up top being the small roof on the cab combined with my tires they felt it would break loose before flipping. They ultimately asked me if I felt safe and I responded "oh yeah, she's a beast!"

The Tacoma being the only truck in attendance got quite a few comments of how it looked then how good it was running out there after some folks saw it in action.. Most of them were centered around the Tacoma beating the 2020 Lamborghini out there which was super funny stuff for sure that of course I was eating up and feeling more confident with every joke about selling Lambo's to get a Tacoma!! The announcer even commented around the old Tacoma "not being the norm" and "that seems like a decent time.. for a Tacoma!"

Overall the Tacoma actually made the event more fun being a total underdog that no one expected anything from but actually turned out to exceed expectations.

Lining up at the grid my wife was looking around and even realized the types of vehicles that were there were nothing like our old pick up truck... she noted the sea of Porsche's, Vettes, and other sports cars surrounding our little "work truck". The Lambo can be seen below behind the mid engine Vette.


Trudy lining up for her maiden run, I had not even walked the darn course so I learned on my timed runs.


The Tacoma was not without faults.. We all know the Optima battery just doesnt fit the oem holder very well. My mounting spacers failed and I lost one during the fierce action, and I had to use a handy dandy covid mask to shim it back into place!

 

This is bad ass!! Is the race up on the web to watch yet ?

 

Good for you!

I'm assuming the others listed with you were a novice grouping. Vehicle wise all of those should have be punting the Tacoma out of the park.

So, you are living proof that while the vehicle and how it's prepped are important, the nut behind the wheel matters. A lot.

I understand your emotions. I enjoyed (with modesty of course) being the chubby old man with the under powered Miata handing the kids with their high powered rides their butt on a platter.

Quiet hands, look ahead, tires that grip.

 

I will be getting some videos uploaded still, will be sharing here once done.

 

The "time only" seemed like a hodge podge group of vets and noobs, the guy who won was not novice and is actually ranked #15 overall. There was a "novice class" which I believe my times would have put me towards the top. I was instructed by the event coordinators to enter this class until I graduate, so this may be the class I opt for next time around.

 

Cool. If you decide to pursue more, don't even worry about tires and things yet. If you can learn to drive smooth / quick on regular tires, when you go sticky you'll really jump ahead. Go sticky too early and you may mask driving flaws.

I would recommend you look into a SoloII driving school in the near future. I used EVO, but I'm sure there are other good ones out there. You'll learn lots, practice lots and lots, and if you are lucky, some hot shoe instructor will drive your ride and show you what it's capable of w/o even having sat in it before. Pretty amazing actually. They are not cheap schools, but worth the $ if you enjoy the sport.

If nothing else, both the sport and especially the school will make you a better/safer driver on the street.

BTW, an eventual 'cheap trick' for you would be to run a much shorter, but wider and sticker rear tire, even if just for events. This will up your effective final gear ratio a couple of notches, put you lower to the ground and offer more grip.

 

I am curious, how was the shifting? Did you find yourself hunting between first and second a lot?

 

The course seemed to be a bit more on the higher speed side than I would have figured going in. I was able to even hit 3rd gear at a point in a straight before the slalom once, but I found just leaving it in second the whole time gave me a bit smoother run and quicker time.

Finally was able to clear enough space on my cloud to get a video up, check it out here all!

 

nice! sweet truck too

 

Here is a video from inside the cab to get a closer look at the action and course!

Skip to 2:15 to see the run begin..

 

I'm guessing that's a pretty good time for a Tacoma!

 

I saw some great driving there, nice job!

It's hard to say, but please some constructive criticism from an arm chair quarterback:

• you might have done the whole course in 2nd gear,
• hush hush on talking to the course Marshall - all about the business,
• some clutch slipping from 1st to 2nd,
• some late braking into the zigzags,
• 3rd gear shift probably unnecessary through the zigzags (these engines love the high RPMs),
• some more clutch slipping and too late braking,
• wider turns with sharper drop-in for some of the corners,
• hold throttle and sharper (late) braking,
• quicker throttle/brake transitioning to keep the vehicle in-check, and make the apex,
• more full throttle (pedal to the metal) on the straights,
• rear swaybar, tuned shocks, and performance brakes would have helped a lot. If you don't have them, I'd get steel braided break lines too!

Keep up the good work!

 

BTW, there's some big discussion about counter steering vs corner speed, but I'm a big fan of counter steering (dropping in) to set the apex. Also, trail braking on some of those decreasing turn transitions to set up the apex. Again, take it with a grain of salt coming from a arm chair perspective. You did awesome and glad you had fun! (not to mention beating a Lambo )

 

You are right on, I only tried 3rd gear at one point but found to be smoother quicker staying in second. Guess the video I put up was just my second run, and I had never even walked the course...

Good tips all around here too, just seems I would need practice to learn the truck and course better and apply these!

I did not know about the no-talking rule... maybe I broke the ice but he ended up talking to me on some follow up runs telling me I was "doing pretty good in that thing"!

 

So today I did a couple more mods to hopefully cinch up the poorly fitting Optima battery in an autocross proof fashion. First I glued some rubber from a tool drawer liner under the spacer to help prevent sliding.


Then I tucked in more of the rubber inside and outside my previously built yellow spacer to fill the gaps better and allow me to crank it in tighter.


Then tucked more rubber all folded up underneath the other side and cranked it all down to get it to where I could not budge it even trying forcefully.


Let's hope this works out, I think I may be hitting the next event coming up in a few weeks!

 

hopefully it works out, looks sturdy. mines hanging on by hopes and dreams! need to do something about it soon.

 

Awesome! Glad you're digging the new adventure. Any plans to lower Trudy an inch or so to appease the tech officials?

 

Indeed this was super fun, I haven't signed up for the next event yet but thinking I will as soon as I can confirm I will be free that weekend.

I dont think I am going to go lower.. my drop is custom made coils and de-arched oem springs so fairly expensive to do over again, although I can recoup some costs perhaps selling what I have... hmmm!