Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Autocross - slowing down to go faster
On June 2, I attend a SCCA autocross school in Candlestick. Here's a list of stuff I got out of the class.
1. Slow in; fast out
2. Look ahead
3. Go too fast to learn the limits of the car before worrying about items 1 and 2.
On June 2, I went to an autocross event at Candlestick Park, which was the same course I help layout for the class the day before, but running backwards. Running backwards, you end up carrying much more speed into the technical sections. I ran hot into all the turns and got a good feel for the car's limits.
One June 11, I had my car aligned at Roger Craus Racing. The front wheels got max negative camber(-.9) and max positive caster with no toe. The rear tires got -1.5 camber and no toe.
I had a family issue on the 14th and skipped out on track school at Thunderhill. They were easy to deal with and rescheduled me for the next class in August.
On June 17, I went to an autocross event at the Marina airport. The modified class cars were much louder than previous events, so I guess the noise restrictions here are more lax than the SF and Oakland sites. I felt pretty comfortable with my car's limits so I decided to slow things down. I got to the event early and didn't realize that the run group for ES was in the afternoon. I wasn't going to wait around all morning, so I register myself as FUN meaning just fun runs. This actually gave me more seat time as I was able to sign up for 2 driving sessions in the morning and 2 work groups. If I stuck around, I could have ran another group too. Way cool and had I known this, I would have ran as FUN at the previous events.
I was still running a bit hot into the turns after a straight in my early runs. I remember heard clunking sounds, probably from the front cam bolts which I need to check. I gradually slowed down more for the turns and my times got better. I was 10% slower than the top guys in E stock who were running R compounds. I was about 1 second slower than the guys in E stock running street tires.
Places for improvement.
1. Turn earlier in slaloms and offset gates until I start to knock over cones
2. Try more racing lines before straights to see if the extra speed gain can offset the extra distance traveled
3. Slow down more for turns and get on the accelerator sooner
4. Get a front sway bar?
Here's a video of my best run at Marina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQmLb9XOs8Q
1. Slow in; fast out
2. Look ahead
3. Go too fast to learn the limits of the car before worrying about items 1 and 2.
On June 2, I went to an autocross event at Candlestick Park, which was the same course I help layout for the class the day before, but running backwards. Running backwards, you end up carrying much more speed into the technical sections. I ran hot into all the turns and got a good feel for the car's limits.
One June 11, I had my car aligned at Roger Craus Racing. The front wheels got max negative camber(-.9) and max positive caster with no toe. The rear tires got -1.5 camber and no toe.
I had a family issue on the 14th and skipped out on track school at Thunderhill. They were easy to deal with and rescheduled me for the next class in August.
On June 17, I went to an autocross event at the Marina airport. The modified class cars were much louder than previous events, so I guess the noise restrictions here are more lax than the SF and Oakland sites. I felt pretty comfortable with my car's limits so I decided to slow things down. I got to the event early and didn't realize that the run group for ES was in the afternoon. I wasn't going to wait around all morning, so I register myself as FUN meaning just fun runs. This actually gave me more seat time as I was able to sign up for 2 driving sessions in the morning and 2 work groups. If I stuck around, I could have ran another group too. Way cool and had I known this, I would have ran as FUN at the previous events.
I was still running a bit hot into the turns after a straight in my early runs. I remember heard clunking sounds, probably from the front cam bolts which I need to check. I gradually slowed down more for the turns and my times got better. I was 10% slower than the top guys in E stock who were running R compounds. I was about 1 second slower than the guys in E stock running street tires.
Places for improvement.
1. Turn earlier in slaloms and offset gates until I start to knock over cones
2. Try more racing lines before straights to see if the extra speed gain can offset the extra distance traveled
3. Slow down more for turns and get on the accelerator sooner
4. Get a front sway bar?
Here's a video of my best run at Marina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQmLb9XOs8Q
