Solo / Autocross school and Test & Tune April 5th.

[MattR]

See you soon man.

[Highdesertsuby]

Hey guys...went to my first autoX event today (sunday). Only got to stay for about an hour or so, but I really enjoyed it. My wife even thought is was cool. She stayed in the car (too windy) and cheered on every Subaru she saw. Do you know if the guy that drives the blue RS with EXTRA wide wheels and flares drives out there every weekend? It instantly became my favorate car (besides the blue old-school 510). We'll definitly be coming out to more of these races. BTW, Nick, was good seeing you again.

[Nick Koan]

Good to see you again too David. The two brothers are from the bay area and this is the first time they've shown up in two years or so. But, they are planning on coming out at the next one I think, and they grabbed a schedule and told me they were going to try to make as many as possible.

Also, D, I beat your karty kart time raw! 54.9 baby!

[Joeyy]

Originally Posted by Nick Koan

Also, D, I beat your karty kart time raw! 54.9 baby!

Ok, it's "ON" Mr. Nick!.. With some jetting, a new plug and a change to my air intake you'll not beat my raw time again...

[Dean]

Well, I can't thank the SECCS crew enough again...

Mike busted ass all weekend in timing and scoring and driving around town looking for parts for dealing with the hated system.

Nick and Kevin manning Registration basically all day.

And everyone else who shagged cones and instructed at the school, threw and setup cones each morning, stacked and loaded them into the trailer, etc.

Thank you all.

[cody]

Thanks everyone. That was a super fun weekend!

[JonnydaJibba]

Man it was cold out there. I got lost on my last run around the middle of the course, but at least I wasn't the only one. I had a good time.

[cody]

Yah the hairpins confused the hell out of me on Sunday.

[Nick Koan]

You want to talk about confusing? Try coaching a new driver through that course. She only got really lost once, but there were plenty of times when I had to point left or right (and with everything being so tight it was actually kinda hard for me to pull back my thinking and only look at the corner right in front of me to coach her through it).

[JonnydaJibba]

When I was working in the afternoon, I watched a couple people completely botch their runs by skipping the second hairpin and going right to the chicane. People that had done 2 runs already even! 'Twas teh funnay.

[Dean]

The DNFs in the afternoon were very interesting from a course design perspective. They far outweighed those in the morning, and there were far more novices in the morning which one would think should have weighted DNFs much more in those groups.

I have a theory. Walking during the lunch break was hampered by the wind. It is very hard to focus on your line and more importantly your visual cues when you are leaning into the wind and shielding your face and eyes from the onslaught.

In addition, the morning group was spread over an hour + vs. 1/2 an hour for the afternoon which makes the course more congested with walkers further reducing visibility and visual cues.

In hindsight, I probably should have made that chicane more visually clear. It was not an issue Saturday, and I did make changes related to that area and the change in direction, but I did not actually put a wall in place to prevent the incorrect line as I had done elsewhere.

As you may know, I am not a big fan of walls of cones, and I was had to use far more than I usually do this weekend due to the close proximity of sections of the course.

I was very happy with how the "open" crossover worked with very minimal cones. I personally find the classic "+" (plus shape) of cone walls for crossovers visually cluttered and often distracting from elements before and after in both directions. The crossover slalom from the second to last event last year was another example of my attempt to find alternatives.

For those of you who dislike slaloms, I apologize. I find them one of the most challenging of Solo elements and I like to be challenged. I only think I nailed it once and that was a run I made a mistake in the aforementioned chicane. I was so late on my third run that I over rotated and hit the gate after the slalom with my rear bumper. Somebody thought it might actually have been with my exhaust tip.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Dean

I was very happy with how the "open" crossover worked with very minimal cones. I personally find the classic "+" (plus shape) of cone walls for crossovers visually cluttered and often distracting from elements before and after in both directions.

I agree 100% with this. If we ever run another suzuka style course we should try leaving the crossover completely empty.

[Kevin M]

I like single cone crossovers. Mostly because it will require zero effort on my part to make another one.

[MPREZIV]

All of the elements on the course this weekend worked VERY well for me! It was a good course to "knock off the rust" (as has been said already). It had a good combination of elements, to really test the car's setup, and get our minds back in the game, so to speak. I as well, enjoyed the challenging slalom, and the speed carried into it REALLY made it an effort to get behind that first cone and down to the proper speed.

I say "Good job Dean!"

[A1337STI]

Yeah the course rocked. I love cross overs, great minimal usage of cones on the cross over too!! You see cross overs a lot more in rallyx, actually you Almost always see at least 1, sometimes 3 or more . but we dirt addicts are weird..

I never even walked the course but rode with Dean , and the novices i brought so i think that worked better than actually walking the course. (and no wind to deal with, plus seeing the course at speed and from a car seat)

I loved how a few of braking zones were the type that requires you to stand on the brake pedal, with both feet! 2 foot braking, is that a named technique yet?

[wrxkidid]

You guys are making me miss my car and ability to AutoX :sadpanda:

[MattR]

Yeah, it's been a while since I heated up my brakes that much on an auto-x course, haha. I liked the course a lot.

[JonnydaJibba]

Originally Posted by A1337STI

Yeah the course rocked. I love cross overs, great minimal usage of cones on the cross over too!! You see cross overs a lot more in rallyx, actually you Almost always see at least 1, sometimes 3 or more . but we dirt addicts are weird..

I never even walked the course but rode with Dean , and the novices i brought so i think that worked better than actually walking the course. (and no wind to deal with, plus seeing the course at speed and from a car seat)

I loved how a few of braking zones were the type that requires you to stand on the brake pedal, with both feet! 2 foot braking, is that a named technique yet?

Your first or second run you almost went through the cones at the back of the first hairpin (well second I guess, the one after the cross over). I think that time you were two foot braking.

[A1337STI]

That's where i realized i needed the 2nd foot on the pedal. I greatly over estimated how late i could brake + cold pads = scare the Crud off a few cones!

[Dean]

I will now dispense with some old guy wisdom... As it says in my sig on RenoSCCA Forums...

Brake early, you can always brake less. if you brake late, you can't brake MORE!

I've now heard a number of people talking about how hard they had to brake or how they blew past their turn in points.

This is one of the hardest things to learn about performance driving. Brake early! Remember that turns leading onto straights are the most important on any course. if you are off line in that corner because you braked too late, you just blew that speed all the way down the straight.

Timing your braking to be as late as possible is almost impossible. Yo will overshoot more often than not and the time lost in the corner and subsequent straight will more than make up for that gain.

Also, if you didn't brake enough with your brakes, you end up doing it with your turning. Tires using 100% of their friction and a bit more to turn and scrub speed can't be used to add speed.

It is the whole classic problem of carrying to much speed in the corner, whether due to insufficient braking, early throttle application or both.

Sunday's course had no less than 5 places where to some extent braking early so you could put the car in the right place outweighed any gains by carrying speed a bit further. Can you describe them all?

This is one of the key things you need to think about while walking or riding. Not specific braking points, but where do you need to give up current speed for future speed gains. And while you are driving, keep reminding yourself to brake early, hit your late apexes so you can get on the gas harder earlier.

Also, braking early lets you get your foot back on the throttle. Not floored, but enough to get the differentials differentiating, distributing torque and permitting you to steer with your right foot, not the wheel. To paraphrase Derek Daly, "controlling the car completely with the throttle"

[van]

I'm relieved to see I wasn't the only one having a little trouble with that part of the course. I thought my brain was getting a little worn out.

[A1337STI]

5?
I know 4 of em.
1) After the first big carousel there was section you could flat foot, going into a 90 degree left maybe four car lengths then a 90 degree right.
2) Hair Pin #1
3) hair pin #2
4) Final slalom

what was the 5th big breaking section?

[Dean]

I did not say big [fixed]braking section. And depending on how you took the corner before the slalom, braking, much less early may not have been required, so you have only 3 of the ones I was thinking of.

[van]

Originally Posted by Dean

Sunday's course had no less than 5 places where to some extent braking early so you could put the car in the right place outweighed any gains by carrying speed a bit further. Can you describe them all?

+ the big left after the last (?)chicane
before the turn into the slalom?
and maybe into the first big turn after the start?

[Dean]

My question was slightly rhetorical. In that if you couldn't name them all quickly yourself, my point was made. These are the sorts of things you need to think about while walking as well as when thinking about what you need to change between runs. Don't just walk for the scenery. Look where you need to be looking when you drive it and most importantly, make a plan on how you are going to drive it. You will change the plan between runs, but if you don't have a plan to start with, you don't have a basis for any changes.

And your mileage may very in different cars, but not likely.

1. The increasing radius sweeper at the start effectively ends when you are just past parallel to the taxiway. breaking early into the 225 degree turn after it that leading back into the crossover so you could clip the first two of the 3 inside cones with pointers before tracking out to the 45* wall on the left side was key to getting back on the gas early.

2. Basically the same thing as you got parallel to the taxiway again after the crossover. Giving up speed in that left hander so you could get the car left before the long straight back to the first 180 was probably the most important turn on the course. If you did it right, you were turned right and on the floor unwinding the wheel at least a car length before the "pivot" cone. (And if you did the chicane right, it should have stayed floored until you got to)

3. The first 180. If you waited to long to brake and were more than a couple feet from each of the inside cones in the 180, you were just giving away tenths, and again, you couldn't get back on the gas. Again, you should have been unwinding and floored before the second inside cone.

4. The second "180". It was actually a slightly increasing radius 210 ending in the Chicago box. Again, you had to slow down to get near both inside cones and then a slight unwinding of the wheel to backside the first cone in the Chicago box and actually be turning right already when you got to it again foot to the floor.

5. The left after the Chicago box. Getting right before it and dropping just enough speed there was key to making it through it with the least steering input and the most throttle to setup a nice arc just missing the two outside cones while using all the space between them and setting up for the next arc tight to the cones of the sweeper and into the back side of the first slalom cone. Little if any braking was required for the slalom if you ran the right arc through the corner before it.

It was alse sort of a trick question. there are very few if any circumstances where braking late and possibly missing the line through the next corner is better than braking early. Those were my only 5 braking points.

Wanting to be faster next run is not a plan! Making specific changes to an existing plan for attacking specific elements in the course is! Executing the plan is another story. [/Old Man Soap Box Mode]