Any tips on how to improve my driving. Been doing this since 05 and feel like I'm reaching my limited.

Video and linked to result time. 95 Civic DSP. Yeah, I know 92-95 suppose to be FSP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiKWfy-Ybyw
http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Sacrame...und14.html#dsp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aV1NY4cg6k
http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/Sacrame...und15.html#dsp

 

.38 in the first one you were off on the last left hander before the quick right. The second one was better but I think you could've turned back a little sooner to hug the cone.

.16 in the second one when you made the turn into two parts by straightening out it killed the line. You probably ran too tight in the first part of the corner so focus on making corners like that one arch.

 

To me its always hard to tell anything from an autox video, and that course layout didn't help much either.

But I noticed at that last left/right jog before the finish (around 0:38 first vid, 0:35 second vid) it appeared that you might have gotten a little behind. I can't see to the left of the course to see where the inside cones are, but I'm thinking maybe you could have given it up a little bit (breathe off throttle) nearing the end of that left hand sweeper, to straighten up through that kink and get on the gas earlier to have a faster finish.

*edit* - wow Shinny beat me to it. And good point about straightening out the line. Making that into one big arc vs. tighter arc, straight, tighter arc will carry much more speed!

 

I did notice i was off at left hand turn near end. But I didn't realized the "one big arc vs. tighter arc, straight, tighter arc". Gotta remember that one.

 

How much do you all change your course from event to event?


Just thought of something around the last corner. Are you Left foot braking?

 

Course is usually reverse on sunday. No didnt left foot.

 

What gear were you in?

 

2nd the entire course.

 

The urge was there to shift huh?
I dont think I could be that patient.

 

Sometime

 

Hmm Left foot braking that last left then releasing the brakes into the quick right might allow the car to rotate in better.

 

Have you ever tried getting on a track as opposed to the parking lot?

Then go back and autox and you may see things differently. I never went back because being on a road course was just that much more fun although much more expensive.

You seem to be doing well based off the announcer announcing your time "In a Civic"

 

I been to Thunder and Infineon a few time. Once at Laguna. Haven't been to the track since 08'. If money was no issue I'll be all over it.

 

Wow, how wide are your courses?!?

 

It's hard to tell from the video, but I think you might be able to get closer to the cones. It will cut distance off of the course, which really ads up! You shouldn't be more than an inch or two off of the critical cones (the ones that "exist"). Try putting the camera on the outside of the car so you can see how close you're getting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQxtimxOu_I

 

I don't think I've ever seen a more boring course made up of 5000 cones in my life. Fire your course designer, or at least teach the designer how to setup a slalom. You seem late getting to the throttle, and line selection seems to vary greatly from one corner to the next. Shorter distance is faster in any corner greater then 90*.

 

Not necessarily... it greatly depends on the elements before and after the corner.

 

I've got hundreds of data logs that say you are wrong. I'm going to trust my DL1, sorry.

 

I would follow his advice more than anyone. Solo-x has been to Nationals now how many times?

 

Were you at Nationals this year? How did you take the 150-ish degree turn in the middle of the East course? There was a long full-throttle section afterwards, so exit speed was very important.

00:41 -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cL6J8ZSfoM

 

Ah, you're THAT Justin. Sure was, in the DSP Teg. I've no idea what the BMW's in my class were doing for top speed on that straight, but I ran out of gear (~63mph) LONG before the kink, even with a torqueless, over-weight, fwd pig. My line was tighter through that corner, but I did shift the entire corner to the left, getting on the back side of the inside pointer and getting the wheel straight early so the car would accelerate. I didn't turn out to the left on entry like you did, and I didn't let it track out as much as you did either. Of any corner on that course, that is one of the few that I felt I drove properly.

If you look at the results, my 3rd run was on track for a 60.1 (would have been 3rd quickest in class, but still well off of the pace Brian and Alex were running) before I thought it'd be a good idea to go to 3rd approaching that kink. Turns out, 3mph extra is enough extra that you no longer have a place to get the car straight and slowed down. I put the car into a massive tank slapper, collected a cone, and scrubbed .9 seconds worth of time in the process. Anyway, on that run, I slowed the car more then I had on any previous run and ran the tightest line. It gave me the best run out of the corner, averaging 2mph faster the entire way down (until I screwed up) the straight. That corner doesn't change my mind any, and I feel I would have had better times if I had run tighter in all the other turn arounds on that course.

In the ITR, it's hard to resist the temptation to run a wide line to "keep it on the cam". Every time I do run a wide line, I suck. When I resist the temptation and run tight and short distance, I'm at the pointy end of the field.

 

Actually I'm Justin's codriver, Justin (yeah, it's as confusing to us as everyone else). I posted the link to his video, since I'm still getting used to the car (coming from an STS Miata). However we took the same line around that turn. He just got on the gas earlier than me.

When you slowed down early for that turn, did it allow you to get back on the gas earlier? That's where we were gaining time.

You could be right, since we never tried a tighter line. However, I hate to generalize a specific line around a turn without taking the rest of the course into consideration. With a long enough straight after a >90deg turn, you will eventually make up the difference.

 

From one extreme to the other, I agree with comments on the OP's course. Ive never seen one so simple before. All the autocrosses I have been to (not a lot) there is slaloms, switchbacks, chicago boxes, more slaloms, and all sorts of ridiculousness

Justin, just goes to show Id be absolutely lost at Nationals. It would have taken me 2 runs easy before I could properly navigate that course.

I started out in Time Trials, and since have done some autocrossing. Apparently for most, its the other way around.

 

I'd hope it'd be less confusing for the two guys sharing the same car with the same first name!

Yes, getting slowed down early allowed me to get more of the turning done before the apex and then get on the throttle earlier.

You'd need a REALLY long straight. I've data logged .5 second differences in a single corner between tight vs. wide lines. And that was with two drivers in the same car, same day, back to back runs, running top pax times against multi-time national champs. The wider line was only worth a couple tenths of a mph, while getting slowed early, turned and on the throttle earlier was worth several mph.

I generally refrain from absolute generalizations like this as well, but when you've looked at as many DL1 runs as I have (I look at my co-drivers runs too, and you can learn a lot from someone who's even 4 seconds off your own pace) you start seeing trends. Could there be some corner out there somewhere that a wider line is faster? Sure, I guess it's possible. I can only drive so many auto crosses in a year so seeing every course is not humanly possible. I haven't seen one yet though, and I've been doing this for 10 years, 8 at the national level.

 

Data acquisition is on my long list of summer projects. Have you messed with any other products other than the DL-1? I've never been crazy about the DL-1's software, but I like the hardware better than Traqmate, etc. I'm curious if I could make the software work for me.

Sorry, kaiba... I know this is getting off topic