Da Groj

First event of 2019 is done and was great fun. The course was killer, with the exception of the chicago box. That was the most frustrating element I have driven. The line between not enough and too much was razor thin. There was great debate on the appropriate entry into the optional slalom, seems like it worked either way?

Lauren's car didn't go turtle up. Preston was fast. Worker station 2 got the opportunity to run a 5k. Lunch was delicious. Not a bad way to spend the last day of vacation.

JasonS wrote:Worker station 2 got the opportunity to run a 5k.

First time I actually felt the need to apologize to course workers! I thought I could make a straight line out of it on the way out, nope, never happened.

Great way to start 2019!

I was absolutely positive I'd be assigned station 2 when I showed up and heard it was the worst. Guess where I was assigned? During the run group that had 2 shutdowns no less lol. Luckily I had a great partner to split the work, and better yet you can literally walk there and back due to cars being basically sent one at a time

I really enjoyed today!

Rawkkrawler wrote:
Great way to start 2019!

Sorry about the delay in group two. My car pooped a diff gear.

Buncha whiners. That "Chicago Box" was nothing more than a 60' radius turn. Same as the turn-around. If you tried to drive the turn-around without braking, or by braking too late, you'd have equally disastrous results as you may have had trying to carry too much speed through that box.

But, thanks for coming out to play today!

Results are up, if anyone cares. http://drivefast.org/results/results-archive/

Loren wrote:Buncha whiners. That "Chicago Box" was nothing more than a 60' radius turn. Same as the turn-around. If you tried to drive the turn-around without braking, or by braking too late, you'd have equally disastrous results as you may have had trying to carry too much speed through that box.

But, thanks for coming out to play today!

Results are up, if anyone cares. http://drivefast.org/results/results-archive/

That was more of a bus stop than a Chicago box, IMHO. But the course was fun, and very hard to get through clean.

I had a good time.
Coned away my best time (again).
60 ft or not, the box was not one of our better elements lately.
Bummer about Philip and Greg.

I didn't video all of my runs, but I got a few of them. This one may actually be my fastest. I'm not sure. It probably is. Pretty good run, anyway. One of the few that I got the turn-around right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq3oFwYw1ys

And here's the one time I took the slalom the other way. It was easier to get into and drive the slalom, but put me into the box at an awful angle and made it nearly impossible to get out of! It also added distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKUX8Qk-EIs

Thank you Loren and Steve - and everyone else involved - for organizing this event. And thanks to the gentleman who hit my kill switch while I was working the course, thus preventing a rogue cooler from draining my battery.
Beautiful weather, fun course, 10 runs! This was the perfect opportunity to start learning this car and autocross with a manual.

^^^
You betcha there.

I did 4 runs in Bill's wagon, 2 in Loren's car, and then 2 more in the wagon. Always took the 3 cone slalom on the return to the left - and Loren's second video shows why. Never did get the turnaround right - it just lasted forever - I'm sure that's where I left most of my time.

Bill and I fiddled a bit with the rear suspension. After switching to the Federals, which are not as sticky as RE71s (duh), the understeer was back (the last event was just terrible). So Bill softened the front, and then we set about figuring out how much stiff the back needed to be. We got it loosened back up (a bit too much at one point), and somewhere along the way we talked about a bit more air in the front (tires seemed to roll a bit more than we'd like to see). Upcoming Open event should be interesting!

Man, those 10 runs went fast......................................

The first half I was focusing too much on whats in front of me rather than ahead. It def made me go quick but then if I was in it too quick I wouldn't have the right line to the next transition of those snake slaloms or whatever they're called. I switched to looking ahead and it was hard for me to be as quick while looking ahead instead right in front of me. I went back to the baddy habbit and just looked right in front of me and seemed to work better for me.

I never got the turn around right. I was basically braking in two places for the turn around rather than one, could be due to how I transitioned from the snake slaloms to the turn around.

Props for station 2 for picking up the same cone for 80% of the runs. The sea of cones get to ya!

p.s re71's are nice. I like the feedback way more on those compared to RS-4's. I can definitely drive them harder/quicker, I just need to man up to them though.

Really enjoyed my first time with you guys. This was my first autocross in a while, first time with this car (last was a '93 Miata), and a first time ever for my co-driver. Apologizes to those working station 2!!!

I know I was losing a lot of time at the turn around and the chicago box. I am still reflecting on how the car felt and have some ideas for next time...

Now to get my side skirt back on, make a few tweaks, and prepare for the next one.

This is what I did between runs. I had exactly enough time to check temps and pressure, as soon as I finished you can see it was time to get in the car for the next run.

https://youtu.be/GDpFUoaSPEE

Man, was it a fun day! Finally felt like I'm in the groove of trusting the car and my confidence is growing. Shame my time was over a second off my fastest run because of cones. Just gotta learn the right hand side of my car a bit better! Onto next weekend!!

Haha I hear that, smacked the right side on some cones 3 times and getting a little greedy on the Chicago box got the left front twice. It was worth it though, I've laid off the cones for a while knowing I probably left a 10th or two on the table. Nothing to lose yesterday

Fastest run, run 3. Dirty coned somewhere.

https://youtu.be/ns8vUp5ZCmg

Here's what I took away from yesterday though..

Year and a half old re71s still had a pleasantly surprising amount of grip left on them. If anything went away it was front end grip, I'm so used to fighting to keep the rear of the car in line but yesterday for the first time ever, I was trying to get the car to rotate more so that I could make it through the Chicago box without bogging down too much

Which leads me to reconfirming what I already thought about the weak spot of an ap1 s2000. In order to be a ftd contender with the prestons and Ryan's of our club again, the car will need to go on a diet or get an increase of torque. I lose so much right of the line since the car doesn't make power under 6000 rpm, and re71rs being so grippy they won't spin even if I clutch drop it at 9000rpm .. that makes it to where I just have to drive off the line, and then take 2 more big hits coming out of the turn around and in yesterday's case, the Chicago box as well.

On the positive side, I still haven't driven a car that has a better steering feel, and while its between that 6000 and 9000 rpm range, I'm sure there isn't a car going around the course quicker

My only excuse for when I'm driving Matts mazdaspeed will be the need for more seat time and possibly a nice corner balance and alignment! Okay that was a novel, I'm ready for next weekend!

Nice run, Joe!

Perfect example of just how far you had to go out between the gaps in the walls. You had to get out enough that you weren't "yanking" the car through them. Just enough to get the angle that you needed to squeak through there... but, no more than that. I think it required fast hands, and precision to really get through there quickly.

Here's my 30.190+1cone run. I felt like I never got the turn around right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFK8rs_ ... e=youtu.be

I felt like I never got the turn around right.

I found a lot of time going into the turnaround HOT. Like, way hot. Uncomfortably so. But it worked. Id say at least half a second.