FAST Novice School - Digital Edition

[Loren]

I've been thinking of doing this for a while. Since we've opted not to do a "novice school" event this year, and very likely next year, but as everyone knows, we DO provide a great deal of instruction at ALL of our events, and nothing makes us happier than helping others achieve "enlightenment"... so, I thought it would be good to start a forum thread to discuss some of the "basics" of autocross driving. All of the things that we typically teach in a school, and all of the things that all of us instructor-types always tell the people that we ride with. With the new FAST Championship season starting in September, this seems like a good time to talk about driver improvement.

Let's try to keep the discussion reigned in to DRIVING concepts and not wander into concepts of car setup and such. Experienced drivers are encouraged to contribute, and less experienced drivers are encouraged to ask questions.

I'll start with a few things, I'm sure there will be a lot more that others can add. Start HERE, we cover some of the most basic things right there on our website.

Driving is Driving

Autocross comes down to two things: Reading a course to determine the proper line and then driving that line as close to the limit of your tires as possible. This is sometimes lovingly referred to in the FAST community as "push harder, suck less". If you're not reaching the limit of the tires, you need to push harder. If you're exceeding the limit of the tires, or just plain driving the wrong line, you need to suck less!

These basic elements apply not just to autocross, but also to driving a road course, and even to your daily street driving. It's all simple physics, and we can't escape the laws of physics! Learning these things will make you both a faster autocross/track driver AND a safer street driver because in any given instance, you'll be able to instantly "read" the course/track/road in front of you and just "know" what you can and can't do, thus avoiding stupid rookie mistakes that could cause you to lose control and spin/slide into a cone/wall/guardrail/another car. Also, just "knowing" where the limits of your tires are and how to stay under them makes you safer than the average driver.

Course Reading

It takes a lot of seat time to perfect it, but this is really very simple. You want to be able to look ahead (remember that phrase, you'll hear it again) and pick out how to get through whatever curve, turn or combination of turns lies ahead with the LEAST possible steering input. In the autocross environment, we typically have the luxury of looking at a course map and even walking the course repeatedly to analyze each turn and make all of these decisions before we even leave the starting line. (some of your decisions may be a little off, but you'd be surprised at how close an experienced driver can get to describing "the right line", as well as shifting and braking points, from just walking the course)

That smooth, minimal-steering-input path through the turn ahead of you begins with the concept of the "racing line", but will have to be modified depending on what is before and after that turn. Sometimes you'll have to give up the "perfect" entry or exit of one turn to make up for the turn before or after it. You'll have to decide which place to give a little bit on based on what gives the most overall benefit (or causes the least "pain"). The overall goal does not change, however. You want to get through it with the least possible steering input. Doing so will maintain maximum momentum (or if you're driving on the street, it simply loads the tires and suspension less, leaving you with a greater margin of safety) which translates into greater speed in the next straight. (on the street, it translates into you feeling satisfied that you got around that turn briskly without spilling spilling your coffee or raising the attention of your passengers... remember, it's not about G's, it's about smoothness!)

Understand that you will NEVER be "fast" as a driver if you do not master this skill. You have to be able to pick out the racing line and confidently drive it. No amount of mashing the throttle is going to make up for shortcomings here. (a hard concept for some "fast car" guys to grasp... momentum is important regardless of how many ponies you have under the hood) Oh, sure, you might be faster than SOMEBODY... but you will not be anywhere near as fast as the experienced driver who gets in YOUR car, drives the proper line (that you didn't), and drives consistently at precisely 93% (where you were varying between 38% and 112%).

You can and should practice this skill EVERYWHERE. You don't have to drive FAST to practice this concept, and you don't have to leave your lane on the road to do it! Just envision your lane as "the course" and try to smoothly drive "the racing line" within it. You'll soon realize that your driving will become smoother. You'll notice that you're turning the wheel a lot less. Ultimately, you'll probably find that you can take most turns faster, but with NO additional drama compared to your old street habits. The more you practice it, the more "the racing line" gets into your head, and eventually, you simply don't THINK about it any more, you just DO it. That's when you'll start to be a seriously fast driver. When you don't have to THINK about the line, it's just there before you, you'll have more mental energy to think about important things like exactly what your tires and suspension are doing, how to chain together complex course elements, why your passenger stopped screaming, what's for lunch etc. Try it!

The Racing Line

At it's most basic, what you're trying to learn to "read" is variations of the "classic racing line". Using the classic racing line, each turn has 3 primary parts. It is best visualized in a simple 90-degree turn.

TURN IN - You'll want to "set up" for the turn by placing the car as far to the OUTSIDE of the turn as the course allows (within reason... sometimes more space than you need will be available). So, if it's a turn to the right, you'll want to get all the way to the left to set up. If at all possible, if braking is required, you'll want to do almost all of your braking (and downshifting) while you're still going straight BEFORE you turn in. For a true 90-degree turn, the turn in point is actually quite a bit later than you might think.

APEX - Every turn has an apex, or geometric center. Guess what? We usually don't want to be there. What we do, especially for a basic 90, is "late apex". This means that the point on the inside of the turn that we want to be closest to is a bit AFTER the true apex of the turn. We do this because it allows us to do just a little bit more of the turning earlier in the turn, so that we can start reducing our steering input before we even get to the true apex and GET BACK ON THE THROTTLE as early as possible.

TRACK OUT - This is the part that a lot of people overlook. They want to just hook their turn and stay tight. You might sort of "feel" like you're fast doing it this way because you feel more G force and you turned the wheel more. But, it's not fast. As you turn in for the turn and you're looking PAST the apex of the turn, you need to be looking at how much space you have on the outside of the turn to drive to. When you get on the throttle early as mentioned above, this is where you're going to GO with it. If you try to stay tight, you won't be able to effectively accelerate much. (and if you CAN drive a tight exit and still accelerate out... it simply means that you didn't ENTER the turn fast enough and you're leaving a bunch of potential momentum out there) You want to "blend" from turning (doing most of it BEFORE the apex) to accelerating down the straight. Targeting a track out point to drive to is how you do that.

WHAT IF YOU BOTCH IT? Here's the important thing, especially on a race track or the street. (at an autocross, if you blow it, you're usually just going to hit some cones) What happens if you miss your turn-in or your apex? Usually the same result, you run out of track! If you turn in too late, unless you happen to also be going way too slowly, you're either going to try to turn too much to make up for it, inducing understeer and sliding off to the outside, or you're going to lock up the brakes trying to scrub off some speed as you enter the turn... again sliding off to the outside, or you're going to keep the car under control and turn as much as you can... but probably still go off the outside. What if you turned in too early and are headed toward an early apex? It's really not much different. You've just given yourself a lot less room to actually make the turn. If you're going slowly enough, or if you realize your mistake early enough and can BRAKE STRAIGHT to get rid of some speed, you might still make the turn (slowly). But, it's quite likely that you'll do one of the things mentioned above and slide off the outside of the turn. Just remember the fundamentals, the car is NOT going to effectively brake while you've got the wheel cranked into the turn. And it's not going to TURN effectively if you've already either turned too sharply or braked so hard that the front tires are no longer gripping! Maintain control of the front tires! If they're sliding, recover by reducing steering angle and/or brake/throttle inputs. You've already asked the front tires to do too much, don't make it worse by adding more steering angle or more brake or more throttle! Back off, let the tires grab again, and then ease back into trying to turn or brake (whichever makes the most sense at that moment).

This is why its so important to learn to identify and drive the racing line consistently. When you're on the racing line, you can go FAST. When you get just a little bit off of the racing line and try to go that same speed through the same turn with the same cones/curbs/grass/whatever defining the limits of the turn... it's gonna get ugly. Likewise, if you try to go that fast without even knowing where or what the racing line is... forget it!

Here's a little blast from the past that I just found in the archives from I believe the second SunRiders autocross school in 2004:


And be sure to read and heed this:
Andy Hollis' Top 10 Zen Autocross Driving Tips
(Andy Hollis is a multi-time National Champion autocrosser and does a lot of high-level instructing, as well.)

--------
Okay, that should be a good starter. Who's got more to add?

[Ben]

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/driving-tip ... steer.html
This has really helped me understand understeer and why it happens, although it is a Subaru forum I don't think the information is entirely specific to Subarus and should help anyone with a car that understeers.

The Real Truth About Understeer

What exactly is understeer? In purely technical terms, it's a lack of front tire grip. But what does that actually mean? What causes it? How can you get rid of it mid-corner? How can you avoid it altogether? And most importantly, why is it actually MORE dangerous than oversteer?

First, let's understand exactly what understeer means. When you enter a corner and the car begins to "push" toward the outside of the turn, you're experiencing understeer. You've dialed in the correct amount of steering input (turned the wheel the correct amount) but the car is turning less than it should.

REASONS FOR UNDERSTEER

So, why does this happen? This happens because your rear tires have more grip than your front tires. When you begin to turn, instead of the front tires gripping on the road, they slide. This can happen for one of three basic reasons:

1) You've entered a corner too fast (surprisingly, this isn't usually the problem!)
2) You're trying to turn too much (you've actually asked the tires to do more than you need them to do)
3) Your brake and/or throttle inputs haven't loaded the front suspension properly (this is your problem, 95% of the time)

Let's discuss #3 first, as this is the most common cause of understeer. To understand load transfer, also commonly (and incorrectly) referred to as weight transfer, perform this simple exercise:

Place your hand face-down on the table/desk in front of you. Slide it forward on the table. Your hand slides easily because you have very little load forcing it on the table. Now stand up, and lean on your hand. While leaning on your hand, try to slide it forward. It doesn't slide. This is because you have a lot of load on your hand. The same exact thing is constantly happening with your tires. When you have load on your tires, they grip. When you don't, they slide.

Simply put, when you accelerate, load is transfered rearward. When you decelerate, load is transfered forward. Deceleration doesn't necessarily mean braking, as coasting or even easing off the throttle will cause the vehicle to slow down (decelerate). This is even more dramatic when driving up hill, as the slightest decrease in throttle input causes the car to decelerate significantly.

BRAKE RELEASE

So, we know that understeer is caused by a lack of front grip, and we know that we can increase front grip by transferring load to the front of the car. So as long as we decelerate before every corner, we'll never understeer ever again! Right? Well, it's not quite that easy.

The way in which we brake and accelerate, or more importantly, the way in which we release the brakes and roll on the throttle, determines how the load is transfered, how much load is transfered, and most importantly, how much load actually STAYS in the front of the car.

If we brake very hard, a lot of load is sent to the front. However, if we abruptly lift off the brakes and get back on to the throttle, all of that load goes right back to the rear. In fact, when you're accelerating hard, the front tires have so little load that they're barely making contact with the ground. Just think about how well your car would steer if you were doing a wheelie through the turn.

So, how can we accelerate through a corner and still maintain a healthy amount of front load and grip? The answer is proper brake release, followed by sensitive throttle input. Ideally, a passenger should not be able to tell when you've gotten off the brakes and on to the gas.

To do this, you need to revise your braking strategy. Braking "late" or "diving" in to corners and getting on the power early may seem like the fastest way around the track, but this usually slows people down. There is a way to brake late and get on to the throttle sooner, but it can't happen until you've mastered proper brake release.

To start out, brake 10-20% earlier than you normally would. Try to get all of your braking done well before the corner. At this point, you should feel like you broke too early. You have a quarter to half a second of time, which feels like an eternity, in which you don't need to be slowing down anymore, but you don't need to be turning yet. During this "dead space" you focus on one thing, and one thing only: brake release. This is your time to gradually release the brakes and begin to turn in. As you get comfortable with this, you can begin braking where you normally did before, combining this smooth brake release with your turn-in, often referred to as "trail braking." You then need to follow this up with an equally smooth and gradual application of throttle. Smashing on the gas at this point will ruin all of the work you've done up this point with your brake release.

If done correctly, one of two things will happen depending on a variety of factors:

1) The car will be perfectly neutral through the turn and will turn exactly the same amount as you turn the steering wheel.
2) The car will oversteer slightly, turning more than you turn the steering wheel.

No explanation is needed for #1. You're good to go. Congratulations, for the first time ever, your Subaru isn't fighting you through a turn.

OVERSTEER AND "ZERO-STEER"

Next, we have situation #2. This is a GOOD situation to be in, do not be afraid! Clearly, hell has frozen over, as your Subaru is oversteering. How could this have happened? The answer is you've successfully trail braked to the point that you actually have so much front grip that your car is able to turn more than you asked of it. Depending on how quickly you recognize this behavior, you may be able to experience something we call "zero-steer."

As soon as the oversteer initiates, you can roll on the power. If you're quick enough, you'll barely need to correct your steering input (counter-steer) as your throttle input will send load to the rear, reducing front grip. This reduction of front grip stops the oversteer, and you may end up with "zero-steer" where the steering wheel is in the dead center position and the car is turning around the corner almost by itself. At this point, you're simply steering with the gas pedal. More gas steers towards the outside of the turn, less gas steers towards the inside of the turn, and maintaining throttle keeps you on your current path. This is not only the fastest way around the corner, it's also the easiest on your tires. Unfortunately, even for the best of drivers, it's not something you'll experience every corner, but it's sure nice when you do.

Now, assuming you're not quite quick enough and you catch the oversteer a little late, you'll need to make a slight counter-steer correction. This is extremely fast, and extremely minor. We're not drifting, we're not going around the corner with the steering wheel turned in the opposite direction. Simply reduce your steering input (or even temporarily steer in the opposite direction for a split second) and slowly get on to power. Things will quickly sort themselves out and you'll be going around the turn with very neutral handling. Continue rolling on the power, but don't accelerate too much! You'll just end up with understeer again.

As you unwind the wheel and start exiting the corner, you can accelerate more and more. When the wheel is almost straight, you can fully accelerate. It is for this reason that we want to get the car rotated early. The more turning we do at the beginning of the corner, the less we have to do at the end, which means we spend more time on the gas, and less time steering.

I THINK THAT MIGHT BE A BIT BEYOND MY SKILL LEVEL

If this oversteer / zero-steer situation has you scared, or you don't feel that you will be able to recognize the oversteer soon enough, there is absolutely no reason that you ever need to be in this situation. The only way for this to happen is by trail braking too much. This means your brake release continued too far in to the beginning of the corner.

To assure that this doesn't happen to you, simply finish your brake release in a straight line, and start your sensitive application of throttle at turn-in. As you get more and more comfortable, you can try trail braking a little at a time. Do your brake release 1% in to the corner, then 2%, then 5%, etc. Eventually, as you get more confident, you'll find yourself trail braking the first 10% of most corners. Please, PLEASE, keep in mind that "trail braking" is NOT actual braking. This is simply combining your brake release with your turn-in. If you're actually doing any kind of real STOPPING during your turn-in, you are asking for trouble!

THAT'S GREAT AND ALL, BUT I SCREWED UP AND THE CAR IS UNDERSTEERING AS USUAL. NOW WHAT?

When you can't prevent understeer, you can eliminate it mid-corner. Doing so properly is essential, as improperly dealing with understeer is the most dangerous thing you can do, and is responsible for most accidents at the track. "But I thought understeer was safe!?" Well, it's not.

THE MOST COMMON, YET COMPLETELY UNKOWN MISTAKE WITH UNDERSTEER

Before we can talk about eliminating understeer mid-corner, we first need to understand the common mistake that most people make to get them in to really bad situations in the first place. This problem is turning the wheel MORE once the car has started to understeer.

When you think about it, it makes sense. If you want the car to turn more, you turn the wheel more, right? Wrong. What?! If you've asked your tires to turn a certain amount, and they can't, how is asking them to turn even more going to help anything?

An example of this would be in a gym. A man is bench-pressing 200 pounds. He almost has the barbell all the way up, but he's struggling. Then his friend comes over and adds another 20 pounds of weight to his barbell. In this situation, there is no way that the man will be able to lift the 220 pounds, instead, he'll probably drop the weight on top of himself. This is no different with your car, all that will happen is it will understeer more and start to drive completely off the road.

GOT IT. SO NOW WHAT?

So, your car is starting to understeer in a corner. You catch yourself right before you instinctively add more steering. Now instead of having a serious understeer problem, you have options:

1) Reduce your steering input (turn less)
2) Reduce your throttle input (decelerate)

The first option is important to consider. Many times, maintaining your current speed with just a little less steering input is all that is needed to reduce your understeer. If doing so will still allow you to make the corner, you're golden. If it's clear that you're going to drive off the road at your current radius, you move to option #2.

Option #2 has to be dealt with very carefully. As we know, decelerating will send load to the front, increasing front grip. This is a good thing, but too much, too quickly, will cause oversteer. For this reason, you need to be very gradual and sensitive. Lift slowly off the gas. With 10% less throttle will you make the corner? 20%? 30%? Are things really bad? Maybe you need to let off completely, or even brake. That's OK, as long as you do it gradually and smoothly. If you simply lift off the gas and step on the brake you will cause oversteer that is so quick and so violent, you will spin, and exit the track sideways or backwards, guaranteed.

SO UNDERSTEER IS DANGEROUS, AND OVERSTEER ISN'T? THAT SEEMS PRETTY BACKWARDS

Oversteer can be dangerous, but unlike understeer, there are two major kinds of oversteer. There's controllable oversteer, and uncontrollable oversteer. The oversteer you'll experience from trail braking for example, is easily controllable because it's gradual and you're expecting it.

Another kind of equally controllable oversteer is power-on oversteer. This is possibly the easiest kind of oversteer to correct. You got on the gas too hard, too soon, and the rear tires are spinning? Let off. Your problem is gone. The only way to spin out or crash as the result of power-on oversteer is to try to be a drifting, power-sliding, hero that doesn't want to lose a few tenths of a second letting off the gas and regaining traction. As soon as you feel that you've induced that kind of oversteer, lift your right foot and it goes away. That's all there is to it.

SNAP-OVERSTEER

Now, uncontrollable oversteer almost always comes after bad understeer and is commonly referred to as snap-oversteer. This happens when you improperly deal with understeer, and this is usually what people think about when they hear the word "oversteer." It's scary, and it's usually the only kind of oversteer that most drivers experience.

We'll take a typical understeer example. You've failed to properly load your front suspension and/or you're just entering a corner way too fast. The car begins to understeer. Because you haven't read this post, you turn the wheel more to try to make the car turn more. Now you realize that the car is almost certainly going to go off the track and you're running out of road. The outside of the corner is getting closer and closer. You panic and lift off the gas completely and suddenly, maybe even brake. In a split second you go from having excess steering input with no front grip, to excess steering input with an abundance of front grip. What happens? The car turns like you want it to, and then it keeps turning REALLY fast. You try to react by counter-steering, but by this point, it's already too late. In fact, it was already too late when you lifted 2 seconds ago. You're sideways, then you're backwards, and now you're spinning.

What should you do? Well, if you haven't already, you should be hard on the brakes. In fact, as soon as you went more than about 45 degrees sideways you should have been hard on the brakes. But what do most people do? They don't even get on the brakes until they're going backwards, and even then, sometimes they still don't brake. The net result is going off the track sideways or backwards, which can result in rolling the car or hitting a wall. All of which could have been avoided at that very moment you turned the steering wheel more.

That is truth about understeer.

[Loren]

That looks pretty well-written, Ben, and does apply to any car. Here's a biggie from that:

Before we can talk about eliminating understeer mid-corner, we first need to understand the common mistake that most people make to get them in to really bad situations in the first place. This problem is turning the wheel MORE once the car has started to understeer.

This is probably one of the most common newb mistakes combined with too much throttle.

"I told the car to turn, it didn't turn, so I'm going to tell it to turn EVEN MORE!"
"I mashed the gas and the car didn't pull out of this turn, so I'm going to mash the gas HARDER!"
"I hit the brakes as I entered this turn, but the car isn't slowing down, so I'm going to BRAKE HARDER while I continue TURNING THE WHEEL MORE because the car is also not turning!"

Gotta get past all of those instinctive habits and "own" your front tires. Respect that they have finite grip and that YOU have control of it.

[Loren]

Where's all the experienced drivers with their words of wisdom?

[jbrannon7]

Where's all the experienced drivers with their words of wisdom?

There is so much good info in this thread already. But here is a series of videos that have great information if you are willing to pay attention. It is very dated but all the theories are backed up with timed results.

Here is a link to the first in the series.

Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRhTUf9iaG4

[Loren]

Okay, referencing other data is good, but let's TALK about some of it.

For instance, this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMhr6mI ... 0B&index=9

Apparently, I drive like Dick Turner. In a tight hairpin turn, I always try to focus on getting a proper late-apex on the exit of the turn for maximum acceleration. It's the classic "Slow in, fast out".

[jbrannon7]

Yes, that is a good one, I used to make the pin the center of the turn, or look at what followed the pin and see where the best exit was. But then I saw this and after following his advice and late apexing the pin cone I got faster. Another good one is the study of launches. So many people just spin their tires.

Another good one is 7, cornering. This past weekend I saw many people early apex the turns at the end of the fast section, either hitting the wall cones or having to really slow down to make the turn. Of course it's hard to late apex a corner if you are not looking ahead.

Okay, referencing other data is good, but let's TALK about some of it.

For instance, this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMhr6mI ... 0B&index=9

Apparently, I drive like Dick Turner. In a tight hairpin turn, I always try to focus on getting a proper late-apex on the exit of the turn for maximum acceleration. It's the classic "Slow in, fast out".

[Loren]

Okay, here's a brief tip that might make sense to some of you. I think it's a little on the advanced side, but nobody's talking about anything else, and it's the first thing that came to mind. It's sort of one of those "zen" things that you'll either grasp or you won't. But, if you do grasp it, it can make you a smoother/faster/safer driver.

What it comes down to is this: "Own the weight transfer." (btw, this is one of the reasons why experienced motorcycle racers make great autocrossers, they totally get this)

Some of you may have heard me say things like "drive the car, don't let the car drive you"... this sort of jives with that.

Think about a basic turn and how you turn in, apex, track out... getting on the gas as early and smoothly as you can just before the apex. Now, a lot of people have the habit of just letting go of the wheel and letting it self-center in a lot of turns. Another issue to consider is the health of your shocks... if they're shot and not controlling the natural bouncing tendency of your springs, learning this is just that much more important. What you WANT to do on the exit of the turn is to "steer out" just like you "steered in". You want to control the rebound of the suspension coming out of the turn with your steering input. Don't let it "bounce" out of the turn, but smoothly control the exit of the turn.

Of course, you want to try to do the same thing on corner entry... but I think it's the exit that more people have problems with.

On corner entry, you ideally want to begin turning in while the nose of the car is still down from braking (weight transferred to the front where you need it) and be easing off of the brakes as you transition into turning. Then ease back onto the gas as you near the apex feeding more gas as you unwind the wheel... all the while "feeling" what the suspension is doing and orchestrating your inputs (particularly steering) to control the rebound of the suspension.

Like I said, you'll either "get it" or you won't. If you're not sure you get it, think about it the next time you go around about a 45-mph sweeping turn. Feel what it feels like when you're "fast" with the steering input, going from turning to not-turning quickly... you'll induce a rocking motion in the suspension (in most cars... the softer the suspension and/or the worse the shocks, the more it's going to rock). Then try the same turn again, but smooth your inputs so that you're controlling the rebound of the suspension... no rocking.

If you happen to have a well set-up autocross car with stiff shocks and/or springs and/or swaybars, you might be saying "oh, my car doesn't do that, I don't need to worry about it." Wrong. Even if you don't feel it, being sloppy with your steering inputs does affect what the suspension is doing and more importantly what the TIRES are doing. "Owning the weight transfer", is just one step towards "owning the contact patch"!

If you're "shock-loading" the tires when you don't need to be, you're probably 1) going to spin while not going as fast as you could be, and 2) not going as fast as you could be. Say you're driving at 90%, but your jerky/excessive steering inputs are shock-loading the tires to 110% here and there. You're not going as fast as you could be, AND you're more likely to spin. If you smooth yourself out and take control of what the car is actually doing... then you can drive at 95-98% consistently and be considerably faster.

Smooth is fast.

[d4rizob]

Thanks for all the great info here

[Loren]

Good to know someone is reading it.

[Loren]

Here's a little something that I haven't heard anyone talk about in a LONG time. I first read it somewhere around 1996, and I need to make time to read it again.

It's a ground-level introduction to racing from the perspective of a physicist, but mostly written in terms that a less-studied person can understand. If you're just getting started (or even if you're not) and trying to wrap your head around what's actually happening while you're driving, you need to read this! It's similar to a lot of the "how to" racing books out there, but unlike most of them, it starts with a more blank slate and doesn't just give you the "how to", but a pretty in-depth discussion of "why to". And did I mention that it's free?

I'll warn you that it does go off on a tangent talking about writing a computer simulation, you can ignore those parts, and even blow past most of the formulae and math that are included... just try to read and understand the concepts and conclusions.

Here ya go:
Brian Beckman's "Physics of Racing" Series

[twistedwankel]

Here's my #1 rule:

I personally have never raced my daily driver (beater) in any fashion. I have always had a "dedicated" fun car(s) which is normally reserved for good weather, backup, racing and weekends. It sits in a garage when I'm not having fun with it. The insurance is cheap, the tires are always fresh with no UV degradation, brakes work, the alignment is where they set it, the oil is always clean, it is always driven far/fast and long enough to remove all the moisture from the driveline and it is always ultra low miles even when driven hundreds of miles to events. AND I've never bought one new as 3 years old is 1/2 price and loaded with equipment. That is how I raced the same two low dollar cars sucessfully for 12 years. After I souped them up and started breaking things I had to buy a pickup and a trailer. That's when you can use more radical alignments/don't have to change tires twice a day, never mess with them AND win more frequently just showing up and driving.

**I have had the wife and 4 teenage drivers learn autocrossing in the car they drive normally in an all day/weekend driver's school. None of them presently could give a flying leap about autocrossing but they all are still alive having avoided possibly really bad accidents with their permanent knowledge of their car's true ability. 3 of them ride motorcycles but that is yet another story.

[Loren]

From the intro to this thread:
"Let's try to keep the discussion reigned in to DRIVING concepts and not wander into concepts of car setup and such. Experienced drivers are encouraged to contribute, and less experienced drivers are encouraged to ask questions."

So, Doug... let's take the car out of the equation. (whether it's daily driven or not)

When you're co-driving with someone. Competing in the same car. What skills are you using to beat them??? Surely you've learned a thing or two over the years.

[twistedwankel]

#1 Rule for being competitive at this sport.

a.Keep a clear Organic Computer (brain). I used to use Autocross as that "moment of Zen" for stress relief when nothing else in the world mattered for that "minute". I am convinced one can actually control (slow) time and beat anyone if you master that all important mental focus. Thus the "flux capacitor" in Shamu.

b.Walk the course alone once you are sure of it's directions getting necessary guidance ONLY. The "social" walkers will kill your concentration. Walk it where you'll drive it.

c.Know the course to the point you can close your eyes and see it in your head before you drive it. I used to make reference maps when none existed but FAST gives us a scale coloured one so there is really no excuse for getting "lost".

d.I never try to determine my shift or braking points in advance. If necessary I'll short shift into 2nd when the car is straight the first time thru. Many times my first run will be my fastest of the first 3 because I'm much more focused on the course looking farther ahead under controlled speed. NOT overdriving.

e.I learned to left foot brake (due to pinched nerve requiring an automatic) to make acceleration/stopping seamless and never upsetting the car's suspension. All cars have twice the HP in brakes as engine so I don't use brakes much for other than touchup.

f.Your car goes where you look. Take a motorcycle training course some time even if you never buy one.

g.Out psyche your opponent. You cannot believe how just "getting in the other guys head" can change the day's outcome.

[Loren]

That is solidly good stuff, Doug!

Who else has some secrets to share?

[EvolutionAutocrosser]

Hey, everyone. My name is Jeremy, I have the youtube channel "EvolutionAutocrosser" where I, and my co-driver Kent, put up some go-pro videos of us racing my 2005 Mitsubishi Evolution around various events. This is my first post on this forum.

I also put up the Dick Turner Autocross videos which are pretty rare and somewhat hard to find. After searching high and low, I finally came across a very old VHS of it which I converted to digital format to preserve and post for all to enjoy. I've noticed a few of them linked in some of the posts above and am glad to see someone is watching them.

Here is a link to the entire Dick Turner Autocross series so you can watch all 11 clips -- http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF4CA924A08F7A40B

I've also started working on a new video series called "Learning to Autocross Faster" with episode 1 located here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkijzcoGktQ I hope you like it and find it helpful.

I planned to have at least 2 or 3 more episodes by now but I've not been able to get back out on the course in a few months. Perhaps next month I can start cranking out some more autocross how-to videos.

---

So with that here is my #1 tip to help you go faster. You hear it all the time. It's one of the first things they tell you and you've heard it a 100 times -- but maybe you forget to do it or maybe you don't know why you're supposed to or how to..

I'm talking about looking ahead

But so what? How does it help and why? Well, first off, when you look ahead you don't have to worry so much about memorizing every little chicane and nook and offset and pinched turn and cone on the entire course. You will see it coming and you will be able to know what's coming.

Knowing what's coming is the absolute key to going faster because you will know where to place the car, when to start braking, and when to start turning and how much. If you don't look ahead, you might not remember that the turn you just went wide into was a decreasing radius turn -- and you just got pinched off. If you were looking ahead in to the next turn and beyond -- you would be able to see that you needed to brake earlier to stay tigher on the entrance of the turn. Then you would be perfectly lined up to track all the way out at the exit under full acceleration.

As it is now, because you didn't look ahead, you now need to slow down and turn sharper and slower and you can't get on the throttle until near the exit of the turn. As a result, you've lost close to 2 whole seconds on that one turn. Why? Because you didn't look ahead!!!!

How do I know this, I've done it plenty of times. Then one day I woke up and realized.. OH.. This is what they mean by look ahead. Once I started doing that I found I was able to go 2 to 3 seconds faster on the same course because I was lined up soooo much better for every turn.

Bottom line - there are a lot of things you can do to go faster but having the best line and best braking points are critical and generally ONLY be achieved if you're looking ahead. So keep those heads up and look at the next turn's exit and the turn after that and you will be amazed and how much better you can set up and exit the turns.

Jeremy

[Loren]

Welcome to the forum, Jeremy! Will we see you at our events, or are you located elsewhere?

Absolutely agree about looking ahead! I've taken to appending it to "look ahead, think ahead". They go hand in hand. Drivers need to not just LOOK ahead, but project their brain out ahead of where they are and always know where they're going and what they're doing NEXT.

[EvolutionAutocrosser]

Welcome to the forum, Jeremy! Will we see you at our events, or are you located elsewhere?

I'd love to come do an event in Florida. But I'm outside Dallas, Texas. Might be a bit of a drive but who knows - maybe some day.

Absolutely agree about looking ahead! I've taken to appending it to "look ahead, think ahead". They go hand in hand. Drivers need to not just LOOK ahead, but project their brain out ahead of where they are and always know where they're going and what they're doing NEXT.

This has been the biggest thing that helped me drive faster. That and SLOW DOWN for the dang turns -- and back side the slalom cones!

[Loren]

So, we just did an Enduro event.

Did anybody learn anything?

[Loren]

Did anybody learn anything?

Okay, so nobody learned anything at the Enduro.

Let's talk about hand position a little bit. We always say that "home position" should be 10 & 2 or 9 & 3, somewhere in that vicinity. And most of us will tell you to try to avoid getting your arms "all crossed up" because you have less fine control when your arms are at strange angles. And we talk about "shuffle steer" and "hand-over-hand" and all of our personal preferences of which to use, or which to use when. And I've found that it's REALLY hard to explain this topic. There are habits that we all have, bad habits that we can overcome (like grabbing the inside of the steering wheel, resting a hand on the shifter, etc), and new habits that we can teach ourselves... but it's difficult to explain exactly what we do, when and exactly HOW.

Here's a video from a few months ago that I was just looking at. I happened to notice that it's a pretty good example of what *I* think of as good hand position. Hence this discussion.

I'll leave it to the viewer to try to figure out exactly where I'm "hand-over-handing" the wheel, and where I'm "shuffle steering"... but one thing you should pick up right away: My hands are almost always at about 10 and 2 in the middle of a turn. And you'll notice that my "top" hand only crosses the centerline of the wheel about twice in this entire run. I'm not about to say that what I do is the ONLY way to do it... but it does work very well for me. (and, honestly, my "don't get crossed up" habit comes from about 8 years of daily driving Miatas without power steering... you learn to "maintain leverage" on the steering wheel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0GA7QlUj70