Dec 30th Goodbye 2017!

[Loren]

Loren and Soroya Soraya and Loren are tough competition!

Soraya earned top billing this time around.

[twistedwankel]

What is the new "play list" for not sucking?

[friskyflea]

My music was added after the fact. I don't play music when I autocross.

Well, POO... and here I thought #AXsoundtrack was trending

[Loren]

Oh, and I found a new excuse on my way home Saturday. I ran all of my runs with the AC turned on!

Why was the AC on with such a cold morning in the first place, you ask? Well, this car is really bad about fogging up the windows. Keeping the AC on dehumidifies the air and clears them.

I remembered to turn off the traction control for a change. But, forgot to turn off the AC. Did it really make a difference? Eh, maybe a little. Probably not.

[bluesight]

Oh, and I found a new excuse on my way home Saturday. I ran all of my runs with the AC turned on!

Why was the AC on with such a cold morning in the first place, you ask? Well, this car is really bad about fogging up the windows. Keeping the AC on dehumidifies the air and clears them.

I remembered to turn off the traction control for a change. But, forgot to turn off the AC. Did it really make a difference? Eh, maybe a little. Probably not.

AC counts for 1 to 2 seconds on my 3 banger...you could have broken into the 28s...fer sure...

B

[Loren]

I'll go with that. Makes me feel heroic.

[Carracer]

I'm still waiting to see video of that run Dan did in the mazda 3.

[dbeng]

I had a great time at his event. Loved the short course and somehow pulled probably my best performance ever out of the bag. Within 2 tenths of Philip and 16th overall out of over 40 competitors at a classic was pretty good going for me

I'm still waiting to see video of that run Dan did in the mazda 3.

Philip, I'd love to post the video, but it will be a while.. The whole GoPro world is new to me and I'm still figuring things out. First I found out that my PC is too outdated and won't even play 1080p video. I've never been a gamer so I am just using the on-board graphics processor - no fancy separate video card for me! Anyway, I've been thinking about upgrading for a while and this is the final straw. so I just ordered all the parts for a pretty healthy upgrade yesterday. When I get my computer up to speed, I still need to figure out what video editing software to go with (to delete the excess crap off the beginning and end of the run), create a YouTube account and figure out how to upload video to YouTube.

You know - all the stuff you just 'do' without thinking about it

At this stage it's probably quicker to bring a copy to you on a USB stick at the next event
Dan

[twistedwankel]

The whole GoPro world

A strong cell phone mount is probably the way to go now that they are breakage and water resistant? At least the battery is long life.

[dbeng]

The whole GoPro world

A strong cell phone mount is probably the way to go now that they are breakage and water resistant? At least the battery is long life.

Doug, don't tell my wife, she just have me the Go Pro for Christmas
It's not the camera that's preventing me sharing video, it's the editing and posting I need to sort out. I will get there soon.
Dan.

[jbrannon7]

The whole GoPro world

A strong cell phone mount is probably the way to go now that they are breakage and water resistant? At least the battery is long life.

Doug, don't tell my wife, she just have me the Go Pro for Christmas
It's not the camera that's preventing me sharing video, it's the editing and posting I need to sort out. I will get there soon.
Dan.

I have been using GoPro Studio, it is easy and can process batch files. the installer is called Quik, https://shop.gopro.com/softwareandapp/q ... sktop.html

[dbeng]

I'm still waiting to see video of that run Dan did in the mazda 3.

It's not the camera that's preventing me sharing video, it's the editing and posting I need to sort out. I will get there soon.
Dan.

Finally - Here it is! My rebuilt PC is fully up and running and able to process the Gopro video. YouTube channel set up and video uploaded. Let's hope this works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCXk1M8WjhQ

So now I've finally posted my first video - any pointers / feedback on the run will be welcome

[Carracer]

So now I've finally posted my first video - any pointers / feedback on the run will be welcome

Nice, you really pushed the car for each cone. You can really see just how much it lifts a wheel even in the incar shot.

One thing that a lot a people don't know about on GoPros is spot metering.
https://www.veedyou.com/gopro-spot-meter/
It really helps to get better in car shot so the outside isn't overexposed.

[Loren]

I watched it twice. Would really have to watch it a few more times to REALLY nitpick. (and that's a good thing... if you were making lots of glaring errors, I'd have seen them on the first go-through)

Two things. One is that you kinda have a "one-two" steering input in a lot of places. That's not all bad, you'll find a lot of really fast people do that to SOME extent. But, watch for it, and notice that when you're doing it, your initial input is NOT ENOUGH, and your second input is TOO MUCH. Little baby turn-in that the car just does with no complaint... followed by a too-big input that the tires scream at! Try to smooth that out. Get the intial turn-in closer to right, and then make smaller adjustments as-needed.

As far as your line goes, the only stand-out error I see (other than ploooooowing through the exit of the turn-around... which probably again comes from that one-two steering input, and "pinching off" the second half of the turn rather than trying to "constant radius" it as much as possible) is that you didn't take the exit of the last turn as wide as you could, which means you weren't driving it as fast as you could. You should have been just BARELY able to miss that cone wall on the right side coming out of the last turn.

Overall, though... not a bad run.

[dbeng]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I noticed the two step steering input too! Never noticed it in the heat of the moment. Hopefully I can use the gopro to learn and review progress to try to smooth it out.
Philip, I actually used the spotmeter in earlier runs, and remembered to turn it off for a run I recorded with the camera outside. When I moved the camera back in for the last run I had a total blank-out and couldn't figure out how to turn it back on before the grid worker called me for the run Guess I should practice running through the settings a few times to get more familiar with it before the next event.

[Rpwolf]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I noticed the two step steering input too! Never noticed it in the heat of the moment. Hopefully I can use the gopro to learn and review progress to try to smooth it out.
Philip, I actually used the spotmeter in earlier runs, and remembered to turn it off for a run I recorded with the camera outside. When I moved the camera back in for the last run I had a total blank-out and couldn't figure out how to turn it back on before the grid worker called me for the run Guess I should practice running through the settings a few times to get more familiar with it before the next event.

I'm glad I'm over the camera testing faze, my camera has the same setting and same position, and that's that. I was fussing with apps for other data but it's too distracting from actual racing. videos will do it for now, but we're you able to work with the race chrono app?

[dbeng]

I'm glad I'm over the camera testing faze, my camera has the same setting and same position, and that's that. I was fussing with apps for other data but it's too distracting from actual racing. videos will do it for now, but we're you able to work with the race chrono app?

I agree, it can get distracting trying to learn all the functions in the middle of an event with limited time between runs. But I did manage to get some data with the track addict app in semi-manual mode. I still haven't got it to work fully automatic with the wifi link to the camera but will keep trying. It seems when the wifi link is on, battery life of the phone and camera is reduced significantly, like not long enough to last for all the runs so still need to do some more testing.
When I have a chance, I will post a video from the last event, with data overlay from Track Addict.

[twistedwankel]

Dan,
You need a bigger steering wheel. Your's looks dainty. Or get smaller hands.
I have seen two multi time National Champions use the two step steering wheel thing. One is Sam Strano. I can find that video again if it will make you get a bigger steering wheel I also know of two multi national champions who drove only with their left arm. One in a Corvette and one in a Cam Arrow. Then there is Randy.

Aren't you glad you fixed the Xmas gift I recently read an exceptional story about inertia/steering thought of input and using your body to start transferring weight in a corner. But what do F1 trainers know?

I especially liked when you co-drove my vette (which few have done) drove slower than your Mazda and didn't shit yourself

(I really like all the new helicons )