Haven't autocrossed in 30 months
 

Second time out in a while.

I figured I’d post some videos of my runs get some advice and have some of the more experienced guys tell me im way too aggressive and need to work on my smoothness.

Best Rx-8 on street tires was running 63's, I’ve still got some catching up to do, he was on 255's and 17" 5zigens mind you, but my best run was 67.xxx +1, I'm on 245 PS2's with stock rims and bubbles the size of footballs from potholes caused by Katrina.

Best Run (67.xxx), wooda been better if i didn't tankslap into some cones: http://www.polakgraphics.com/images/...Good%20Run.avi
First time around I f'ed up this slalom run semi-humorous: http://www.polakgraphics.com/images/autox/OverSteer!.avi

BTW this was an awesome course, and Philly region rules!

welcome back.

missed you.. i think i need some of you stuff.

beers :beer:

WOW, had no idea that you made to Holbert Memorial on Sunday. Guess you were the other RX-8 in STU. Cones and O/C were the common theme that day due to the demanding technical elements and offset transitions. That's a pretty good time for your 2nd time out.

I'm in BS, with both dirty and raw time fit for 2nd place !@#%!^. What you gonna do...

:dunno:

ps. Corrected ranking statement since my eyes must be shot when I saw the result sheet.

Good video. I thought you did pretty well. You'll only get better with time!

i wouldn't say you're too aggressive, but we can all be more smooth. :)

:xyxwave: thinking about my runs, analyzing the course map some more, and looking at your footage, i realize i left gobs of time on the course (as usual). :wallbash: i probably could've gotten at least 2nd instead of 4th in STU.

what tire pressures are you running now? i had to spray down my ad07's for my last run. i forgot to bleed my pressures down for my 3rd run and i was slidin' all over the place. :mad: i bled them for the 4th run and i can only surmise spraying them down helped (a lot?) too.

my feedback on your good run:
1) floor it through the left-hander at the start and shift into 2nd at about (or after) the 2nd cone as you're straightening the wheel out.
2) swing wide to the left to make the right-hander through the gate an easier turn (i really wish i swung wider myself...). that turn probably could've been taken flat out. :fingersx: if you didn't mind dookie in yer shorts later...
3) trailbrake into the 1st slalom cone. you did a good job accelerating through the slalom, something i didn't do.
4) i wonder if the mini-slalom of four 3-cone elements couldn't have been taken flat out? starting a left turn early to attack the first cone set was probably key. my approach was to carry as much speed into it and brake into the 3rd slalom cone set, but that probably wasn't necessary. :dunno:
5) you braked a hair late for the right-hander and then dove in too early (hit your cone there?) for the two left-handers. i tried to make a constant radius out of the left-handers by ignoring the cones marking the first left-hander. that bit was quite tricky.
6) you scrubbed off more speed than necessary through the next right-hander.
7) you could've been closer to the cones at the sweeper turn-around. i lost a lot of time here by not looking ahead out of the sweeper to see that the exit ran wide which allowed for early throttle application into the lane change element. one day i'll look ahead enough. :spank:
8) it seemed like you took the lane-change element flat out (couldn't hear w/ wind noise) so that's good. you got a little behind in the next slalom and lost some rhythm. tons of time can be won and lost in slaloms. ask me how i know. ;)
9) after that it looked pretty good. you looked aggressive on the throttle throughout and took the last bits at speed. :rock:

the course was fantastic. it's frustrating to see how much time could have been gained in a variety of spots, but at least your video shows you where that speed was. :) i _really_ need to invest in a video camera. thanks for sharing your footage (very instructive!) and hopefully my feedback helps you get quicker off the bat at future autoxs.

jon's time of 59.233 would've been a few tenths quicker than your time of 65.591 (3) if it was clean (59.591). you're damn close to jon though and that's sayin' something. :) good job. :icon_tup:

You are right, I corrected my post about the ranking. I'm collecting a long laundry list of things NOT-TO-DO from his teaching. It's a shame that I didn't have an inside camcorder since riding with him was frea#ing scary with my knees flying everywhere.

Not to hijack the thread, but it looks like we both use stickypod for the camcorder mount. I did use tether as a required secondary attachment, which I did not see you running in the photos found elsewhere. FYI, I did it per instruction given by the Safety Steward and Solo Chief.

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data...bert_Jon_3.wmv (59.233)
http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data...rt_Steve_4.wmv (65.591 (3))

holy crap!

Did a safety steward ever look at that course or were they too busy checking cameras?

Check Jon's run at about 25-27 seconds in. WTF?!

I was thinking the same thing. Seems like there's basically no buffer between the 2 parts of the course other than a wall of cones, and it's on the outside of a pretty hard left hander. :eek:

You guys with the sharp eyes were absolutely right about the loopback with real safety concern. Here is what I found as quoted by one of three course designers:

Jon was just too fast to be able to catch up with the driver ahead of him =)
I'm sure the course designers learned the lesson, the easy way not the hard way :wallbash:

Whose Jon, and i'll like to ride with him at the next event, that run was damn good.

Doug, I may or may not be there saturday, gf wants to drag me to the aquarium and its only fair because i've draged her to car stuff 2 weekends in a row and a 3rd for rotorfest on sunday.
I'll try and figure something out, she wanted a puppy hummmmmmm (auto X budget increase)

crx how much thread is left on ur Kumho's i'd like to purchase whatevers left at the end of the season if i could get at least 4-5 events out of em the next season.

jon rush is the philly region solo2 regional exec, hotshoe, instructor, etc. ;) he co-drives CRX Millennium's rx8 in BS.

i can dig it. the magic solution of course is to get her to autox too. :) easier said than done i'm sure.

first she needs to learn to drive a stick other then my own shazzzzzzam!

this post should read....havent autocrossed in a week.. ;)
maybe post the vids you took from the south jersey event.. id like to see the roof cam in action..
if theres a person to get pointers off from.. itd be doug.. hes puttin in some competitive times with his eight..

Yar that was a bad day.

i have other thoughts on that since the allentown area is grouped up with that region and there are no more events up here anymore so... so you end up driving 2-5 hrs to get to these damn places - which might be ok for a serious competitor but not for a person like me who just wants to have 2 minutes of fun :rant:

yeah it sucked when we lost nazareth. however, corey ridgick, one of the philly region hotshoes and a national level driver, is from allentown. we may be getting some new sites for 2007 so keep your eyes peeled on phillyscca.com. :) at the very least consider coming down to warminster (next event there is 8/27) or going over to englishtown, nj (next event there is 8/19) to autox with NNJR. those are prolly the 2 closest sites to you

V710 typically lasts for more than 100 runs on RX-8 and other non-camber-challenged cars. I will give you a shout when I'm ready to embark on the path of no return -- brand new V710. Picked up my current set used in mid-year, so you can have them for the un-mounting cost when I'm done. But tires should be the least of your concerns at this point. Spend the time/money on autox school and real events for more seat time.

bxb40 and I will be running at Boeing/PA this Sunday, FYI.