1985 Monte Carlo SS known as Barney

[SSLance]

I've found with the street tires we run, it's better to not ever induce slippage. It seems that once they start sliding, you are waiting for them to grip before you go fast again. Other tires and other surfaces are different I'm certain.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by SSLance

I've found with the street tires we run, it's better to not ever induce slippage. It seems that once they start sliding, you are waiting for them to grip before you go fast again. Other tires and other surfaces are different I'm certain.

Oh --- trust me --- I was laughing when I was posting that..... It wouldn't be very controllable and would most likely just end up flipping cones all over the place - but damn it would be fun!!! LOL

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Man I had the same thought- that's a wicked turn there. Do you have a specific driving philosophy for that Lance? Looked like you went a little wide then nice and smooth around in a large arc.

I wondered about hugging that pivot cone a little closer too with some harder braking and tighter turn in but maybe that throws off the balance when you transition from brake to throttle? And of course the risk of braking loose and sliding the rear comes into play. When I lived back east my first ride in a P-T car on an autocross was with Eric Wracker in his Duster. That was his philosophy,. slide the butt around. Man! That was some fun rides, he drove like a maniac and I was ear to ear grins!

Thanks for sharing, that was neat to watch.

[SSLance]

The philosophy is...get around it as fast as you can! In whatever manner works for you.

This was taken during a shootout run where hitting a cone would have been deadly, so I was a bit more careful about allowing room around them. On faster runs I was tighter to the cones on left during entry and tighter to the inside pin cone. Being a bit wider on this turn got the front tires out into the marbles, which made it push just a bit, which ended up making the turn even wider. This run was about a half second off my fastest time of the weekend and I could have very well lost it all in just that turn.

[z28cp]

I have found that 'playing it safe' usually just ends up losing time. If your previous runs thru there were clean, just keep doing the same thing. Changing your approach will usually just cost you time.

Have faith that you will continue to do it cleanly!

[SSLance]

I'd venture a guess that about a third of my total runs that weekend had at least one cone. A course design like this kind of makes that inevitable I believe.

My fastest time of the weekend (47.638) had a tickled cone that negated it. My cleanest fast time was a 47.909. My first shootout run was a 48.2xx but had a cone. Thankfully ( ) I got a rerun on it due to a timing computer error and ran another low 48.xxx but still wasn't fast enough to advance.

The whole shootout format takes everything up another notch over a normal autocross and I'm still pretty new to it. It is interesting to watch those that are very good at it in how they are maybe a bit cautious on their first few runs then let it all hang out when it gets down to the final 4. It is not uncommon for even them to hit a cone and take themselves out.

What makes this even more difficult than say an SCCA challenge is the competitor that gets to go second...knows if the car they are running against hit a cone or not before they run because there is only one car on the course at a time.

[SSLance]

Well, that didn't go as planned...

This happened as I was trying to back it off the trailer to race this morning.



Clutch master cylinder failed as I was letting the clutch out to help it down the ramps.



While I'm bummed I didn't get to race today, I'm happy that I don't have to pull the transmission out to fix it.

[glassman]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Sometimes we talk about "rotation" --- or --- getting the arse end around..... In drift school (DirtFish) we simply apply a bit of Hoon handle and around she comes..... LOL

I wonder - if a guy was so inclined - if that 180 could be done with another technique - "a pendulum turn" in conjunction with late braking - and then a bit O'Throttle and get 'er to come 'round..... But oh boy --- if ya mess it up it's going to be costly points wise. LOL

Fun in the dirt and gravel when nobody is counting.....

I've seen people do it here at the Pleasanton GG auto-x events, granted, they are not loosing traction (much), looks good and seems to work.

the Cones are tightly packed, i equate to jogging in a closet. But it beats mowing the lawn....

[SSLance]

This is supposed to be fun right?

[SSLance]