2002 Tacoma for Autocross

Man, it sure looks mean especially with those meatys on there ! Inspiration for my taco for sure.

 

Old Trudy was feeling better than ever out there this weekend. The weather seemed perfect and even though the track was really open and I was hitting the rev limiter all over the place she was still turning in some really good times. I had a really good time a well with over 20 runs I was really able to get a good feel of the course and felt great whittling time off wherever I could lap after lap! There are no timing records to share since it was practice day only, but from what I saw she was definitely "in the game" just a ~couple seconds off some faster pax drivers laps I spotted.

That fiddly Gopro failed to capture any decent action sadly, but the cell phone came through with what it could video wise.. enjoy!

 

Just signed up for the next event on 1-21, sadly it does appear there is absolutely no one running in the STX class for the Tacoma to run against "head on".. so I didnt sign up for the competition Sunday and will be keeping it purely for fun going to the Test and Tune day on Saturday only. I may change my mind and go Sunday too if I am feeling up to it, this will be the last event on the calendar at the Fontana Speedway until further notice while they are remodeling the race track. I have been looking at other venues accordingly and luckily there is always something going on out in So Cal (eg 12 event days this month, most of them within an hour or so from me). The muscle car/truck event I hit in October is going on too this month, but unfortunately I had a conflict and wont make that one this time.

I recalled I finally got that OEM fipg to move forward with that short shifter install, so I plan to get that going prior to the event. Also pondering if that supercharger may be able to find its way under the hood too if I can make some time, seems since no one is in STX I may as well just get a bit more pepper under the hood and see if I can catch that national champ in the 911 GT3 once and for all!

Wonder how much weight this may add to the front though since the front end is feeling sorted fairly nicely now. It may induce some more rubbing issues to iron out as well, thinking out loud now I may be better waiting until after the next event in case I need to work out any kinks...

 

Tickets went on sale for the next Musclecar/truck event like the one hit back in last October and signed up for this one too!



They are calling it the "final race" since it is the last event on the calendar at the Fontana Speedway while they remodel the race track. This will be a 2 day event and they do 9 runs per day, no bonus or fun runs but plenty of action and yes, an actual Truck class to compete with! Take a look at the samples above though, seems you need 315's squared if you want to be equal tire wise with this group.

And believe it or not, that is a 2016 Mustang Shelby with a Ranchero 2 door wagon body (no interior but the Shelby dash and a driver seat is in there!) welded to the frame in the "Truck" class I will be trying to run against as one example of my "head to head" competition!!

Trudy likes a challenge basically... and now we have back to back autocross weekends to look forward to this month!!

 

Just finished up installing the LCE short shifter kit and new oem shifter bushings and got back from the obligatory test run. The shift throw is definitely much quicker, and the shifter itself feels much tighter with the new bushings. I used to be able to wiggle the stick around and feel quite a bit of free play, but now it's super tight in place. I noted the new bushing came up higher and had a contour that went around the pivot, where my old one did not have this and was just thin and flat, or maybe mine was just missing..

The stick sits up about an inch or so higher as well, so it is actually closer to the steering wheel which I am liking as a bonus to take less time moving my hand to the shifter too! It's so different now I actually need a bit of practice to train and get my shifts quicker with the new found tightness and short throws. Also it had actually popped out of second gear on me 2 or 3 times while autocrossing, hoping this gets rid of that issue too now that the shifter seems mounted so much tighter.

It is also raining out here in So Cal today, and I am wondering if we may get some rain when I am out on the course either this coming weekend or the next. I actually have zero experience trying to drive the truck (or anything) hard in the wet, so this would be some great learning lessons for sure!!

 

I was able to get her out and do some autocrossing yesterday. I got her all shined up the day before as I like to do this as I also go over everything like retorquing wheels, rear leafs, adjust my pressures, and looking for any issues that could pop up before I get out there. Take a gander at the old girl if you will!











Trudy is getting to the point to where she is really dialed in, not only does she ride like a dream taking me to the track she is handling better than ever as well! Feel like I am getting more comfortable with the new capabilities and found myself having a blast pushing her right to the limits and perhaps a bit beyond once or twice.. noted by some sideways action that I was able to recover from nicely instead of spinning out!!

Here are a couple videos from inside the cab, hop on in!

 

This weekend was chock full of autocross racing fun on both days at the NMCA event.

Trudy did really good and we got 3rd place out of 7 bad ass full on custom race muscle trucks! They had reset the class for the season so there was no pro class, and Trudy was tossed into a class with any "truck" out there and held her own quite nicely against trailered race only trucks with 3-4 times more power and mods! Here was a couple highlights of the action, you can spot (and hear!) some of the competition around. A lot of super sweet trucks indeed with factory drivers running all their good parts, I asked one if they were thinking of making parts for Tacoma's yet and he seemed puzzled, hehhaa!







It rained for the afternoon session so no one was able to set faster times, but this was really fun since I have never done any events in the wet before! This became more about fun and learning how the vehicle drives on the cold wet stuff, it was a total blast!

My first wet run I went in a bit too hot into the first sweeper and the rear came around pretty quick on me, but I was able to recover fairly quick and kept on going.



The power steering still lost pressure a couple times in the hard tight slalom, I am getting kind of used to it now so its not too worrisome but this does slow down the input quite a bit when I need it most.. You really have to wrangle the wheel and there a ton of steering to do overall in this little truck, but I suppose that adds to the fun in a sense!

 

When those shifter bushings inevitably wear out, look at the ones offered by Marlin Crawler. They are made of a better material and do not wear-out as easy as the stockers do. Best upgrade for shifting feel as well.

https://www.marlincrawler.com/transmission/shifter-parts/heavy-duty-seats

https://www.marlincrawler.com/transmission/shifter-parts/heavy-duty-sockets

 

I'm starting a big project since I'm taking time off from trying to make every autocross event for the next few months. I'm tackling the rear suspension. Kiss these leaf springs goodbye, time to go full-bore into a triangulated 4-link setup and coil-overs. The guy I bought the truck from had that notch put in and the shock bridge, so it gives me a good starting point for the coil-over location. I got the gas tank removed yesterday, and got the forwardmost center gas tank strap/pin bracket cut off and painted. I'm also going to fully box the rear part of the frame as well as mount a fuel cell behind the rear axle. The idea is for it to be just barely sunk into the bed so it's not exposed under the roll pan.



The last pic is after I pressure-washed everything off and removed the gas tank, but before I removed the rear sway-bar. That will be reinstalled after the 4-link is done, but something different has to be done since the leafs aren't gunna be there anymore.

 

I'm excited to see this since I aim to four link my 2nd gen for the same reason eventually. I've had a couple people bring up the idea of doing an IRS swap, and I'm still tickling that idea as well.

 

I'm thinking about starting a new thread instead of continuing to high-jack @2Runner 's post about his own auto-x adventures.

 

Fair, I need to do the same some day

 

Those videos are awesome! Nice recovery on the slide. Any plans to try and solve the power steering loss?

 

I've thought about that route as well. Would give way more adjustability in the end. But if the mustang guys can make cornering carving machines with a live axle and a 3 link, no reason we can't do it in a similar fashion. lol

 

Thanks @Murd3rd , these look like they may be trying out in the near future since they are so cheap..

Anything to make the truck feel better for so cheap and easy to install is quite intriguing in my book!

Any tips on sorting out the power steering pressure drop in the hard slaloms based on your experience?!

Forgot to mention I had a sway bar mount loose one bolt and the bracket came loose and was scraping the ground a couple times. I was able to make a trackside repair since I lucked out and had an extra bolt in my kit and was strong enough to bend the bracket back inline so I could mount it back to the frame. You can barely see it hanging down under the truck on the day one fastest run video as I cam into the finish. Too bad I had done my runs for the day already with a loose sway bar, but we still did ok!!

I was trying to find some time on my second run of the day and hit some hard bumps as I came on the gas coming out of the final turn, this sent Trudy into a 180 thorugh the finish line without hitting any cones.. the crowd went wild for that run!!

 

Not as far as I know. I'm thinking a big cooler and maybe more fluid will help. I've been dealing with that issue for a really long time now. Kinda learned to drive "around it"

 

Thanks a bunch, glad there are a few folks in the known universe that enjoy this stuff as I do!!

I changed up the fluid a while back and this helped with the power steering, was thinking maybe to try another fluid and have heard maybe a cooler could help. I'd like to get some real world feedback from anyone that has actually experienced and resolved this to help guide my next steps!

 

One thing I have looked into since I don't daily my truck anymore is putting a ratio quickener in the truck. Less turns lock to lock, as well as a bigger cooler and fresh fluid. I also need a new rack and pump because it's all leaking

 

It's been on my list of things to do for a while. But I have this issue where I have way too many projects and get squirreled easily into multiple different directions on different hobbies(toys). If I do it before you, I'll def post up about it. Guys have been auto-crossing these trucks for a while and no one seems to have put any serious effort into solving this problem yet. A manual rack could be the answer...

 

I can't speak for the first gen, but everything I've read regarding heavier vehicles with front weight bias like the Tacoma say that a manual rack will be worse for autocross. Maybe for road course or circle track it's a good answer, but the rapid back and forth and tight maneuvers that we deal with in autocross make it a bad idea for a manual rack.