2002 Tacoma for Autocross

Teagan Prince? I know that kid! worked with him briefly at UMO and somehow he's related to the wife. Good run man!

 

Small world! He's a good friend of mine, helped him restore his Austin Healey. He's helped me a couple times with the Tacoma and my midget restoration.

Edit: His Fiat is awesome! I've been trying to beat it all year.

 

I clicked on this thread thinking it was a joke... Boy was I wrong. Keep up the good work!

 

Maybe not the most populated region of Tacoma World, but the Tacoma is definitely not joking around on the autocross and seems to stun most people in person as well!!

I am in for this weekend, no new mods but going to run a bit less pressure in the rear based from my wear indicators.

Also going to keep in mind the wise words from @BananaMan to carry all the speed I can through them turns!

 

Glad to surprise you! Thanks!

 

Had another super fun weekend out there melting the tires off the old Tacoma on the autocross, and took 2nd place out of 16 drivers in the Novice class!




And the obligatory list of 50 sports cars that were shredded by the pick up truck in the process:



Just another average day in Tacoma World!

 

Hell yeah! Way to go man!

 

Some more action shots of Trudy out on the course..

 

I can almost see light under that back tire!

 

Turns out Tacoma's are indeed a lot of fun.

 

Awesome. I used to autoX a while back. Skills is the most important factor. Keep it up!

 

I used to autocross my 2000. But unfortunately my local region quit doing it at the nearby airfield. It's been years. And I'd have to travel a couple hours to go to the nearest events...so not sure I'll do it much more.

I built the little 2rz with forged internals and other goodies from LCE, W58 out of a mid 80s supra, QA1s up front, rear sway bar, 4.10 gears, Detroit truetrac, turbo'd, never turned the boost up beyond about 7psi back then, currently running over 20psi. But the best bang for the buck on my truck is the front coil overs, rear sway bar, and 200 treadwear semi-slick hankook td3s that I have. They're due for a change out, but man do they make the truck turn on a dime. I started autocrossing with some shitty street tires that were on my truck when I bought it. Understeer was damn near uncontrollable if you needed to turn hard. TIRES TIRES TIRES!

Edit: I forgot about my brake upgrades too. When I finished building the engine and was making way more power I ended up smoking my brakes pretty bad one day. Turned my rotors blue, and glazed my pads. So I upgraded the fronts to Cadillac CTS V brembos, and evo 9(I think) rotors drilled and tapped to fit the stock hub. And the back is a basic rear disc conversions with monte Carlo calipers and 85 mustang svo rotors. Trucks stops on a dime now too



https://youtu.be/YM01jkvAo3g

https://youtu.be/IksCx-7XFO0

 

A long time ago I started a thread over on customtacos, which is where most of the 5lugger guys used to hang out. There's more pics and vids there as well.

https://www.customtacos.com/threads/autocrossin-tacos-vids-and-pics.166922/

 

Thanks a bunch for chiming in @Murd3rd , I spent the morning watching the vids and reading up on your experiences!

 

Coincidentally enough I was actually out on the autocross this weekend with old Trudy.. trying out some new wheels and tires to run max size for my STX class (265/35/18 Nankang CR1's on some new PF01's).

Here is Trudy on Saturday, no numbers and all dirty - ready for test runs.


And here are a couple videos my wife was kind enough to take for you all..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yPJaf4rFs41fcPWtXeYiiuOMPNK5Jzth/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yLbRoxYY-TppBFzNUPZ9kUJXUiSfhAoi/view?usp=sharing

Shined her up for the competition and pro photo shoot on Sunday:


Discussion Points for the "Taco-Cross Experts":

I have quite a bit of roll as I left my springs at a street friendly 368 lb/ft. Who knows, I may redo my drop and go lower and stiffer for the next season. I think I will upgrade my anti roll bars to the Addco's first to see how this helps too.

I am a bit uncertain on the rear anti roll bar still as I do like the rear rotating a bit for me. Can anyone chime in on the before and after on their rear roll bar specifically without any other mods at the same time perhaps?

Definitely I have came across the loss of power steering pressure at times on the course as others have mentioned. I noticed this in my truck when I have some sections that require multiple quick directional changes it just looses all its assistance for a moment and the wheel gets very heavy to turn. May have to update that fluid and give it a go it seems, but luckily this has only happened a couple times I can recall.

It was surely a whole new truck with them wheels and tires, it actually even rode nicer on the street too which I did not expect but of course welcomed! I did ok out there but I could tell I need more seat time to extract the newfound performance out of the truck!

I am really wearing out my front outside edges on my tires quickly with my setup, any tips out there to get the alignment into more aggressive specs and more even wear across the contact patch you have found?

One more question, do you guys run blocks for your drop in the rear and has this caused any issues when pushing the truck so hard? I am uncertain if Deaver can re-arch my leafs again to give more drop or if I would need to add a 1" or so block if I go lower.

 

Well, to address your block concern first- I've been running the 3 in block all season and you've seen the pictures of how hard I pushed it. No issues with them so far.

I aways have my power steering fail me in particularly tight slaloms with the rapid back and forth. I'm actually looking into a shorter ratio rack from a frs or something similar to see if that may help. (Also not have to go hand over hand around turns)

As for your alignment, the quickest solution would probably be to have your camber bolts adjusted to give a degree or two of negative camber. I'm running -3 currently, but I'm also using my Taco for the track more than anything else.

I'm wicked jealous that you get to have autocross events this late in the year! My season has been done for two months. No fixes for my truck yet since I'm still recovering from buying a house and a tundra in the span of two weeks...

 

I've ran blocks as well, ever since I've owned the truck. No issues here either. I do run a helper spring from the local auto parts store in a reverse orientation to help prevent axle wrap.

Do you not have a rear sway bar at all? I have the hellwig rear bar, and in my videos you can see the very minimal rear end roll that it allows. I love the way it handles.

I second the few degrees of camber. I think I run somewhere around 2 degrees negative myself. You also wanna run some increased caster. One of the local alignment shops where I'm at is run by guys that used to race circle tracks, so they actually dialed in what I needed and requested, no machines to tell them what to do either.

 

Last weekend I attended the awards event and actually received a 4th place trophy for the season. It seems they (scca) give out trophies based on the number of participants so the old Tacoma spanked enough sports cars to get some recognition!

Here is a video of a run from that day, I was only a second behind the new MX5 that took first so Trudy is nipping at those heels..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13WqjjNKfQPdVlA0KxdPaEDjPmhLOOari/view?usp=sharing

Next up, 2" more drop with drop spindles/rear blocks and the Supra LSD are on the way!