New To Auto X

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GlassHeadlights

West West Yall
I had my first ever Auto-X event Feb/10/13 and actually ran a great time!

Run times in order:

63.706 64.642 62.461 62.501 61.005 60.768 60.909+1 (+1 = hit a cone)

My goal was to beat this loud mouth with a '95 GSR but he ran a 58.101 :mad: but oh well I had a blast! Here is a video of the guy I wanted to beat and you can see my car roll over the finish line right at the beginning. You can also get a feel for the course lay out.

57.9 with a cone! - YouTube

My main issues I had were tire spin on corner exit (no LSD) and the rear end would slide out on slalom. I was running Nexen N2000 tires which in my opinion are pretty lame for auto x, next event I will run my Dunlop Direzza Z1's but they are badly worn.

I also had some pretty severe body roll, my suspension consists of:

-KYB AGX shocks set on the highest level

-Tein S-Tech springs (the most basic progressive springs :yuk: )

-Integra GSR 24mm front sway bar

-ASR 24mm rear brace/bar
 
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to cure tire spin on corner exit, use less throttle until your wheels are straight. tire spin is not moving you any faster.

and as for the spin outs, use a little less rear air pressure or less twitchy movements.
 
More throttle control noted. I could probably learn to be less twitchy as well. I also have trouble choosing gears, I tend to drop it into 1st for hairpins but then that's where my tire spin comes from. They change the course every event so maybe I'll do better next time, with a video hopefully
 
A 60 when ftd is 56 is damn respectable for your first time out.

A couple pointers:
you hands suck. especially your right hand, it's doing all kinds of double inverted crap. lol try to keep your hands where they belong.
watch this guys hands vs what you're doing. just a random vid i happened to find and its pretty bad ass to boot :D
Jeff Kiesel SCCA autocross in car video 3/1/09 El Toro - YouTube

but his hands STAY on the wheel where they belong. That's a big part of car control. Don't let it slide unless you're coming back from full opposite lock and never EVER put your hand in the middle of the spokes like that. It's a good way to lose that arm!

1st gear- meh. it's almost never worth it. by the time you get it into the gate without grinding it, and the spin you're getting from it, it's probably faster to just keep it in 2nd.
with one exception going to 3rd, the whole course can be done in 2nd gear it looks like.

trail brake on these "1st gear" corners. after braking hard with the right foot, swap feet and brake with the left foot lightly and move the right back to the throttle 40% ish. This will add some rotation to the car while keeping load on the engine and thus power to pull you out of the corner. left foot braking is tricky so practice. its touchy when you're not used to it.

its hard to tell your braking from the vid, but it looks like you're coasting too much. rarely do you want to be coasting. you are either on it, on it partial, or on the brake.

slow in, fast out.
a lot of these gates you're coming in to hot and thus are slow to exit because you're off line. don't be afraid to brake sooner. you want to be done braking as much as possible before you even turn the wheel.

you should have dropped back to 2nd gear at the end of the front straight. you bogged too low in 3rd for the first section of corners and lost a lot of time there.

look ahead and plan your route. you want to be 3 gates up at all times so you're setting your line up not for the one you're in, but for the ones coming up.
 
Yeah that was my buddies integra video for reference. He's using a B16B trans so maybe he has to use his 3rd gear, I was in 2nd.

My hands are always spread apart, not anything like his, I think I understand that part. And the trail braking is interesting, if I'm confident in it I'll try it the next event. In my runs I do believe I avoided coasting but thats noted.
 
Dude! I'm super excited for me. Autocrossing is a blast! Brian, those are some great pointers. @Op, if you have the opporruniwto ride along with an instructor next time, do it. Its extremely beneficial. Welcome to the club man. Check out my one video on YouTube search Chadh90. My times were only about 2 seconds off of a fast guy driving a speed 3. No nationals champ or anything but definitely a capable driver!
 
I believe I can ride along but it will cost me in run times. And I just checked out your vid, looks like a nice spread out course where you can really pick up speed!

By thee way thanks all for the advice!
 
Just had my second event on March 3rd. The beginning of the day had a couple car problems, and even more driver problems lol.

I spun my car twice, once in the stop box because this track lay out had a high speed corner into an immediate stop = unstable car = DNF cause I took out a bunch of cones... only did that once. Second spin was accelerating on a corner right out of starting grid so that was probably cold tires but still driver fault.

I had a good long talk with a driver instructor and my second half of the day went way better. I was told not to trail brake since im such a beginner and there's lots to it.

There's a two day novice driver training course I may take if money and time permits, I'll be working out of town soon. I also may rebuild my old CRX for the next auto-x event cause they were getting the best times of the day.

-Brad
 
:thumbsup:


i remember sliding to a stop at one event with a similar high speed finish to hairpin exit setup... had 3 cones laying down under the front of my car... friends were screaming back up slowly... so i did... and managed to get them all standing back up in their boxes... no penalty :D :woo:
 
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ahaha no effin way!! The lap before that spin I came into the stop box with all four locked up at like a 15 degree angle and managed to not hit any cones but thats just baller :D
 
lol i remember that. the cone was teeter-totting on the bumper. lol

came damn close to taking out the timer too. an expensive mistake!
 
autox was a good time before the politics got in the way... and they lost the lot :(
 
things at CART have changed, and for the better. might be time to get yourselves new helmets and join the fun. they have a number of lots and events now. young blood on the board.

and you can hit up mohegan for some sovereign autox action :)
 
stupid rule. limerock doesn't even require a helmet at ALL for their autox events this year.
 
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