claudermilk
Senior Member
I ran the All American Sunday autocross this weekend at the Goodguys Del Mar show. I went in not taking it seriously as I expected to be non-competitive based on past experience here & my general lack of competitiveness so far in the car. I got a big surprise.
As usual, they had the course crammed into a postage-stamp-sized lot where it's more of a gymkhana than autocross. The surface looked like I remembered--very rubbered in and I assumed good & slick. I don't know if it was just new tires, or if the conditions were better, but grip seemed a lot better this time. IIRC I was still on the stock 255-40/19 P-Zeroes last time & now was on the 285-35/19 Pole Position S-04s now. It could also be the work on the driver mod has had some positive effect.
They have the course set up with 4 main lanes you zigzag through with a sweeper to connect the ends to make your 2 laps. Within those lanes, they have room to throw obstacles. In this case, there was a mini-Chicago box right after the start and small slaloms on the last two. You exit the course by skipping the last slalom to an outer finish straight with a full-stop finish.
In any case, I went in to the first run basically with the goal of getting around the course without murdering half the cones like I started last time. I succeeded at that. I also found that dialing the aggression way back helped me manage flinging the car around better. I learned last time that those uber-tight hairpins around a single apex cone require slowing way down, cranking the wheel over, then pitch the back end out. Once I started paying attention, it seemed besides me, it was only the "pro" class drivers doing that. What I didn't know was that first run put me in 2nd for non-pro, non-truck.
The second run I just concentrated on getting some more speed--on throttle earlier & getting a higher cruise speed through the slaloms and the sweeper. I also worked on getting on the throttle until I had to feather it to maintain traction on the straight sections available. Braking into the hairpins really got into the brake dive behavior of the stock suspension, but getting into the ABS meant I was working them hard enough. It almost felt like I overslowed, but that allowed me to get the nose turning & prepped for blipping the throttle to break the rear loose & pivot the car. This needed to be done three times per lap & it felt the best I've ever done trying this. The brakes on the car are so good, even after driving through the finish lights, I stopped well short of the stop line--I watched a lot of cars just barely make the stop. This on pads & fluid that have a track day on them.
After finishing I got my surprise. I head the announcer getting all excited about my time & saying I was in the lead.
At that point, I paid more attention to the cars I was sure were in direct competition. I was hearing on-off throttle in the slaloms & sweeper, and nobody throwing the rear around in the haripins (they were all stuck in terminal understeer like I did before). The competition was several other S197 cars including a couple of GT500s, a Hertz Penske, and a Shelby GT350. Most importantly to beat was the current-gen Camaro SS, Challenger 392, and a couple of Chargers. There was also a Caterham 7 & Ariel Atom that should have pwned all of use big boats, but they needed driver mods badly; the Caterham sounded like the driver barely got into WOT at all.
When I was going through the awards ceremony line, there was a Capt. Buzkill, Debbie Downer making a jealous, snarky comment about showing up on Sunday to win since it was easier? Pardon me? I didn't see you out there, so suck it.
So, requisite photos & video.
Parked in the "Winner's Circle" area prior to the trophy presentation. Said trophy. And the time slip (I especially like the "From 1st" line).
First the in-car views (playing with 2 cameras finally & the side view was spit-balled for aim), then an external view of the run. This was the only run I got video, but that's ok as it's the important one.
After reviewing the side camera, I am extremely pleased with my car placement. I thought I was leaving a ton of room to the cones, but to me it looks like for the most part the car was perfectly placed. Yay, I'm learning the corners of the car!
Oh, and since I can use these now:
Now to go run with SCCA again & bring me back to Earth...
As usual, they had the course crammed into a postage-stamp-sized lot where it's more of a gymkhana than autocross. The surface looked like I remembered--very rubbered in and I assumed good & slick. I don't know if it was just new tires, or if the conditions were better, but grip seemed a lot better this time. IIRC I was still on the stock 255-40/19 P-Zeroes last time & now was on the 285-35/19 Pole Position S-04s now. It could also be the work on the driver mod has had some positive effect.
They have the course set up with 4 main lanes you zigzag through with a sweeper to connect the ends to make your 2 laps. Within those lanes, they have room to throw obstacles. In this case, there was a mini-Chicago box right after the start and small slaloms on the last two. You exit the course by skipping the last slalom to an outer finish straight with a full-stop finish.
In any case, I went in to the first run basically with the goal of getting around the course without murdering half the cones like I started last time. I succeeded at that. I also found that dialing the aggression way back helped me manage flinging the car around better. I learned last time that those uber-tight hairpins around a single apex cone require slowing way down, cranking the wheel over, then pitch the back end out. Once I started paying attention, it seemed besides me, it was only the "pro" class drivers doing that. What I didn't know was that first run put me in 2nd for non-pro, non-truck.
The second run I just concentrated on getting some more speed--on throttle earlier & getting a higher cruise speed through the slaloms and the sweeper. I also worked on getting on the throttle until I had to feather it to maintain traction on the straight sections available. Braking into the hairpins really got into the brake dive behavior of the stock suspension, but getting into the ABS meant I was working them hard enough. It almost felt like I overslowed, but that allowed me to get the nose turning & prepped for blipping the throttle to break the rear loose & pivot the car. This needed to be done three times per lap & it felt the best I've ever done trying this. The brakes on the car are so good, even after driving through the finish lights, I stopped well short of the stop line--I watched a lot of cars just barely make the stop. This on pads & fluid that have a track day on them.
After finishing I got my surprise. I head the announcer getting all excited about my time & saying I was in the lead.
At that point, I paid more attention to the cars I was sure were in direct competition. I was hearing on-off throttle in the slaloms & sweeper, and nobody throwing the rear around in the haripins (they were all stuck in terminal understeer like I did before). The competition was several other S197 cars including a couple of GT500s, a Hertz Penske, and a Shelby GT350. Most importantly to beat was the current-gen Camaro SS, Challenger 392, and a couple of Chargers. There was also a Caterham 7 & Ariel Atom that should have pwned all of use big boats, but they needed driver mods badly; the Caterham sounded like the driver barely got into WOT at all.When I was going through the awards ceremony line, there was a Capt. Buzkill, Debbie Downer making a jealous, snarky comment about showing up on Sunday to win since it was easier? Pardon me? I didn't see you out there, so suck it.
So, requisite photos & video.
Parked in the "Winner's Circle" area prior to the trophy presentation. Said trophy. And the time slip (I especially like the "From 1st" line).
First the in-car views (playing with 2 cameras finally & the side view was spit-balled for aim), then an external view of the run. This was the only run I got video, but that's ok as it's the important one.
After reviewing the side camera, I am extremely pleased with my car placement. I thought I was leaving a ton of room to the cones, but to me it looks like for the most part the car was perfectly placed. Yay, I'm learning the corners of the car!
Oh, and since I can use these now:
Now to go run with SCCA again & bring me back to Earth...
