Hey guys, I could use a little spectator advice. I was lucky enough to get 10 runs in on Sunday, I could never get the car (Ws6 Trans AM ... AKA Damn Pontiac) faster than a 51.30 with most of my times in within a second of that. For those of you that saw me run it, can you lend a little critisim? The car was on the edge of traction the whole time, Am I overdriving the car? should I slow it down just a tick and try and make it stick better? I'm on street tires, but they are Kuhmo MX's and should be fairly ok. Are my lines way off? Braking too late, too early? With 10 runs, I'm sure somebody noticed something. Please Help... or am I being too critical, is that all that particular car on street tires can do? FWIW, Tony ran a 49.8 in his Camaro in all out ESP Trim.

 

Was Tony on r-comps? If so a second or so slower isn't that bad of a deal especially if you're new, you just need to tweak your runs a little.

Missed the last one but just remember 'slow in, fast out.'

You are faster when you're not sliding everywhere.
You are faster when your inputs are smooth.

jump on autocross.us and see if anyone who's more experienced wants to drive your car while you ride. Usually they just ask you help out during setup and it'll scare the shit out of you.

hopefully my car will be back up for the next, i'm really pissed to be missing all of the events this season.

 

Yeah, Tony was on Hankook R-comps with a full spring/shock bar package installed. I'm Stock w/street tires

 

Dude how did you get 10 runs????

As far as times.... the course Sunday would reward the correct line and punish the incorrect line severly... That being said did you do the Novice walk through? I went over where you could get suckered in to turning in too early or waiting too late. It also takes time in the seat. Switching to R comps early will lower your times but hide bad habits that you will have to correct to be quick on your MX's. Plus they cost a S-ton more. Don't get discouraged it was a course that was easy to do with out cones but daring one to do fast. It takes time...

 

Yeah, I did the walk through and followed your advice, well at least as far as I could get the car to follow it... The biggest problem I had was the last lefthand switch back into the slalom, the car just would not turn and the front skipped out under me almost every time. The last several runs I was able to handle the two sweepers with ease, but the car was on the verge of lateral grip the whole time. 2nd heat, 4 runs plus a timer malfunction rerun, 3rd heat, fun runs only cause I pulled my son out of his spot for "teenage rule violations" and I got a re run on that too for a worker in the course.

 

You need to brake in a straight line if you are getting chatter you are trying to turn and brake at the same time. You can only get the tires to do one or the other when you are braking that hard. The line was to hang to the right next to the wall of cones, brake straight, as you are coming off the brakes start your turn in (late apex) getting that correct was big gains!!!

 

the car ha got to much power. and u need new rear shocks

 

The course was fun, i wish i had a few more runs, i know i could've improved.

I wanted to walk the course with you but i had to tweak a few things on the car and i was first heat AM :\

I ended up with a 47.7 in the miata, I felt my line was pretty good but i lost time in that turn around and at the start shifting to 2nd toearly...but my clutch is on its last leg.

 

On that last turn I was trying to hold that line to right and the late apex, I guess I was just carrying too much speed into the turn causing the car to push out, on one of my red flag runs, I finished out the course with a moderate but brisk pace, and hit that perfect and the car stuck and held the line, even at a slower pace, I felt I was much faster through that section.

 

ive heard that alot and its true.