I used to autocross quite a bit before getting sucked into the swirling vortex of road racing - I still autocross from time-to-time, depending on my schedule and what POS is running at the time. The last time I went, the MR2 was acting up and a sympathetic friend loaned me his Cobra replica - it was tough (especially since he's 6'2" and I'm 5'7" and the damn seat wasn't adjustable) but I forced myself to drive the car.
>From a butt-in-the-seat perspective, autocross doesn't offer much but it >forces the driver to learn car control and make it instinctual. In other >words, instead of analysing the situation and making a decision, in autocross, >"Just do it". The frustration is when you're in the car for X runs, each >lasting under a minute. It's certainly tough to learn the course, develop and >improve you're skills in that short time-span. What gets folks addicted is that they can attend an autocross in their street car with no mods - in fact, the best car for an autocross is a car with no mods. That's b/c the entire premise of the competition is about car control - tyre-smoking powerslides and boot-leg 180s are cool to watch but they're slow, slow, slow compared to a car that's on the ragged limits of adhesion. Perhaps what's most amusing is to see a fire-breathing Z06 that's turning roughly equal times to a base-model MINI - it's not that the Z06 couldn't eat up and spit out the MINI on a road course but in the confines of an autocross, the cars are surprisingly equal. All that having been said, I don't know that I could dedicate a day or a weekend to an autocross anymore - I dedicate a weekend to racing but I'm on-track for about an hour to 90 minutes (total time over the weekend) which appeals more to my "time value". Matthew >________________________________ > From: Les Noriel <[email protected]> >To: Volkswagen a2 16v discussion list <[email protected]> >Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 11:47 PM >Subject: Re: [a2-16v-list] auto-x yesterday > >Glad to hear you did it! I've always wanted to try that. > >I recently attended the A & B courses at the Jim Hall Kart Racing School. >I'm hooked. What I think I learned is how much I didn't know. I used to >believe I was a pretty good driver until I got on the track with real >racers. > >Although I understood the basics going into the courses, Trail braking was >probably the strangest thing for me to comprehend. I'm not sure I got it >entirely correct but trying to employ the technique after several hours on >the track dropped 3-4 seconds off my lap times. > >I've never tried Autocross as a driver--only as a spectator. I'm sure I'll >be looking for the local meet as soon as my 16V is roadworthy. > >-Les > >On 12/11/11 11:13 AM, "Chad Rebuck" <[email protected]> wrote: > >>I took the jetta to an autox yesterday which was my second or third >>time at such an event (the first was likely in 2006). It was decent >>fun, but for a total of 6 minutes of driving I just can't see how >>people get so dedicated to it. I may be biased because I kept missing >>the 4th slalom of the course and treating it as one big wall so I >>received 5 "did not finish" runs and only a single clean one. The >>entire course is limited to 2nd gear, so once yet get the speed up >>just leave it in 2nd and ignore it. I didn't hit a cone all day so I >>must not have been aggressive enough out there. >> >>There was one thing I managed to break during this 6 minutes of >>driving... the fuel sender or gauge quit on me. >> >>I also think I have to get used to using the peloquin diff to pull the >>car around some corners. It still seemed to want to understeer a >>bunch at the longest 180 degree portion of the track, but I wasn't >>trying to drive it any different than I was used to with the open >>diff. >> >>I think I'll skip autox for a while anyway, unless some friends drag >>me out there to hang out some day. I'm looking to book a day at >>Sebring in the next couple months so I can get speed, big corners, and >>lots of driving time in during the day. >>_______________________________________________ >>a2-16v-list mailing list >>[email protected] >>http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list > > >_______________________________________________ >a2-16v-list mailing list >[email protected] >http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list > > > _______________________________________________ a2-16v-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.a2-16v.com/mailman/listinfo/a2-16v-list
