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SWortham
Yesterday turned out to be a great day for a practice. Weather reports claimed a 50% chance of rain, and there was some cloud cover but it never did rain and it was about 65 - 70 degrees throughout the day. I got in more runs than I can remember -- probably in the neighborhood of 15 runs. And I used 1/4 tank of gas just from autocrossing.

It was a great experience and a humbling experience. I knew I was a little rusty going in, but that's what the practice is for. My friend brought his '06 Evo MR so we had a little friendly competition amongst ourselves. I spent a good amount of the day trying to catch up to his times. I was always a little slower though and knew I needed to make up time but I lost sight of what I needed to work on.

Then I let my brother drive my car. On his very first try he beat my best time by 6 tenths and got a 33.8. He then followed up that performance with a better one and got a 33.2. I rode with him to see what he was doing and the biggest difference was his slalom speed. He was keeping it very tight and he kept his speed up throughout.

Meanwhile, my friend in his Evo had just put down his best time of the day of 33.7 seconds. So I knew what I had to do. I hopped in my car again and this time my plan was to focus on a clean line above all else and pay special attention to my slalom speed. With all this in mind I put down a clean run of 33.7 seconds -- a perfect tie with my friend's time in his Evo, but still 1/2 second behind my brother in my own car. That turned out to be my best time of the day, but I obviously have some work to do and hope to improve more at the school next week. smile.gif

Here's a video of a few of my runs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphjV9RpSRo
cobas
Oh... I hate it when that happens! I'd been driving a stickshift for several months and my best friend hopped in and drove it much better than I could. Damn it. It was also humbling to everyone at the ZoomZoom Live event where they had the Mazdaspeed6 autocross. Everyone in line arguing over who got 47 or 46.5sec and the instructor (professional racer) hops in and does 40.5 or something and just walks away. Damnit!
SWortham
Haha, yeah that's the way it goes. It's funny but I think I was just trying too hard at first. Everything I had learned about driving technique went out the window while I was basically trying to make clean runs while overdriving the car. But for my fastest run near the end of the day, I actually used much less steering and I braked earlier for each corner so I kept it pretty tight. And then the slalom speed is just sooo critical.

Near the end of the day we saw a guy in a new Z06 go out there and run over the lip of every cone through the 7 cone slalom without knocking any over. Now THAT was impressive.
silet
You've got the right attitude about it! Learn from as many people as possible. You will not believe how good you can become, when you realize there is always someone out there better than you. Oh, and keep passing along those tips tongue.gif
NY2002ElantraGT
really want to get into autocross. probably gonna try and get into it this summer! i'll be asking for advice when that time comes.... good story thouh, way to tie the evo!
SWortham
QUOTE (silet @ Mar 12 2007, 12:45 PM)
You've got the right attitude about it! Learn from as many people as possible. You will not believe how good you can become, when you realize there is always someone out there better than you. Oh, and keep passing along those tips  tongue.gif
*

It's very true. You can learn a lot from ride-alongs in others' cars. But perhaps the best thing you can do is let a good driver in your car to show you how it's done. Next I need to see if I can have the STU National champion drive my car, haha.
silet
That would be great! Give it a try!
SWortham
I'll just have to drive across the country to meet him... hmm... maybe I'll settle for a top 10 driver who's local, heheh.
Bobzilla
We have a test-n-tune on April 1st. I'm looking forward to it!
SWortham
Awesome, the test & tune we had last year was great. They setup a dedicated slalom course, a skidpad, and a mini-autox course. I actually improved through the slalom a lot that day but forgot how to be fast yesterday, lol.
Bobzilla
haha.gif

I'm just hoping to have my new tires on the car by then. I've only got like 3 weeks.
mregt02
We use the parking lot at Scotiabank place (NHL Senators' home) can't start using the lot until the post season is over................ late May possibly.
SWortham
Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphjV9RpSRo
SWortham
Well it looks like I'm going to be completely changing the suspension setup again in the Subie. I'll be getting rid of the lowering springs, and then installing the stock springs, Ohlins struts, lowering camber plates, and 24mm adjustable sway bars front & rear. It should be a softer setup than the competition is using but hopefully I can make it work for me. And with this setup my car will have even more travel than a stock STI and should handle even the worst roads with ease. It is a daily driver first and foremost, after all.
Doohickie
So I played the video for my wife and said, "See, honey, this is what I want to do with the Escort!" She was unimpressed. sleep.gif
Toecutter
Darn'it! I wish that I was living in the temperate zone, 'an don't tel me I am. It's still frozen tundra in Wisconsin. Had a nice day Tuesday at almost 70 degrees and got to ride the motorcycle to work, but it's back down to 20 and snowed again a little yesterday. I am jealous Steve.

Anyway, our driver's school on April 28th, and the first event is the 29th. I'm going to the driver's school. It will be good to get a litle seat time before Event #1, but more importantly, I am looking forward to some constructive criticism. I think that the dirver's school will be very helpful. Have you (anyone) ever attended one, what are your thoughts.

Good luck this season!
SWortham
Actually yes I've been to one autox school last year and it was through the SCCA, and I'm signed up to go to another one tomorrow. At least here locally, the SCCA school event starts out in the classroom where they go over the rules, basic driving technique, basic car setup, etc. Then they'll divide everyone into groups for the driving. Everyone has a chance to drive with an instructor in the passenger seat.

At least in my case I only got a small amount of critiquing from my instructor. And he only rode with me for 2 runs since he had to help other people. The most important things he told me were to be smoother with my steering and throttle but brake harder, but it wasn't as in-depth as I had hoped. We got a ton of runs that day. So it's a great opportunity to get in some seat time if nothing else. Some of the drivers that will show up to these things are actually very experienced and are just there for the practice, essentially. So you might ask if you can ride with them. It's usually a pretty relaxed environment so you can use the whole day to practice and learn from others.

If you want a more structured and detailed schooling I hear that the Evolution Driving School is one of the best. I'm hoping to attend one some day but it looks like they might not have a local one this year.
SWortham
QUOTE (Doohickie @ Mar 16 2007, 05:27 PM)
So I played the video for my wife and said, "See, honey, this is what I want to do with the Escort!"  She was unimpressed.   sleep.gif
*

It's funny how differently some people react to this sport. My Mom wants nothing to do with it and hasn't gone to an event even to watch. The fact that we race on Sundays may have something to do with that. But then my friend's girlfriend went with us to the practice and now she wants to learn how to drive a manual and race with the rest of us.

The school on Saturday and the race on Sunday were good by the way. There were a bunch of brand new people at the school so they had a good introduction and were pretty well prepared for the race the following day.

The school was very helpful for me again this year. My instructor was very detailed in telling me what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong which all helped me for the race. He told me to look ahead even further than I was, and to be smoother and tighter to the cones. He told me at one point that I was steering by throttle which is a very good thing. I was also pleased with my performance through the slalom and I think I'm improving there again.

In the race I got 5th in STU out of 8 drivers. It's such a competitive class. There are still a few things I can do to my car to be faster. I think a good seat and harness will help so I won't be expending energy holding myself in place and I can better focus on the driving. But I mostly just need to get better as a driver to catch up.

My brother took a picture of my car as I was going through the slalom and you can see how my rear tire is just about to run over the base of a cone. In the following picture that cone is still standing, so it looks like I'm touching the cones as ten-time Nationals winner Tommy Saunders tells us to do. smile.gif
Bobzilla
I told my father what I was doing this year and I saw the sparkle in his eye. I have a feeling he's gonna want to drive my car at one of the events!

Oh. . .and 13 days to our first test-n-tune!!!!! Woo HOO!!!
SWortham
QUOTE (Bobzilla @ Mar 19 2007, 01:25 PM)
I told my father what I was doing this year and I saw the sparkle in his eye.  I have a feeling he's gonna want to drive my car at one of the events!

Oh. . .and 13 days to our first test-n-tune!!!!!  Woo HOO!!!
*

That's what my Dad does. He drives my brother's Mazda 6s at every event. Actually for this weekend they each drove a Mazda 6 rental car while his was in the shop. ohmy.gif biggrin.gif
SWortham
Here are a couple pics of my car from a really good photographer who was out there on race day...


SWortham
Just realized I forgot to post this picture from before the practice wearing my new helmet...

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