I'll give you the "ahas" that I gleaned from pro instruction at my last
autox practice (8 runs).
1. Straighten out the course with your driving. IOW, try to make every
curve into a straight.
2. Smooth doesn't count for anything. He told me some of the very best
autoxers are choppy as hell.
3. "Looking ahead" doesn't mean "x car lengths" -- it means at the start
line, actually visually *find* the *next* "event", such as (in my case) the
gate after a slalom. Then as you go through the course, and keep doing
that, none of "events" will be a surprise.
4. Point and squirt: hell bent for leather to the corner, brake at the
absolute last possible moment (when it seeems too late!), get through the
corner, then slam the gas pedal to the floor.
These are not my words of wisdom, they're his. Using them I shaved 10
seconds off my times within just a run or two, and got within 10-15 seconds
of the SS cars's times, too -- on street tires.
Hope that helps. :]
Richard Nichols
rnichol1@san.rr.com
San Diego, California, USA
1986 SVO 1C -- now prepping for CP
1972 Ford Pinto Sedan 3J - Original Owner/Restored
On display at the San Diego Automotive Museum
12 June 1999 through 31 January 2000
-----Original Message-----
From: Mari Clements <mlc4@psu.edu>
To: autox@autox.team.net <autox@autox.team.net>
Date: Monday, June 07, 1999 2:48 PM
Subject: a question
>Every so often, someone (usually a new team.netter) expresses
>disappointment that there's not much discussion on team.net about actual
>driving (as opposed to rules debates). Today, I got an idea about why that
>might be. I have a driving question to ask, and I almost didn't ask it,
>because I was thinking that a) everyone will think I'm an idiot, b) this
>has probably been discussed before I joined the net, c) they'll take my
>National Tour trophy away and kick me out of the Harrisburg Pro if I ask
>this, and d) won't all the good drivers out there who have ever told me
>anything (including the McKamey instructors I've had) be disappointed when
>they hear me ask this question. But after checking the team.net archives &
>spending some frustrating time trying to follow links that didn't work on
>the Physics of Racing and not being able to get my version of Adobe Acrobat
>to decode the unzipped files, I decided that it's o.k. if you think I'm an
>idiot because someone might actually be able to answer this question for
>me--and if all else fails, I'll just try drag racing (hey, I've got good
>reaction times).
>
>HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT LINE TO DRIVE?
>
>As anyone who has ever walked a course with me can attest, looking ahead
>does not get me to the place I should be walking/driving--I can have the
>course memorized, know exactly where the next turn is and what it leads
>into and still have *no* clue where I should be/how it should be set
>up/whatever. Maybe all other autocrossers are spatial-genius-types, but
>I'm clearly not (yesterday someone told me I was "pinching off corners" and
>I was too embarrassed to tell him that I had *no* idea what he meant).
>
>So, any great "ah-hah" experiences or breakthroughs? Rules? Suggestions?
>Thoughts? Things I can try with Hot Wheels cars?
>
>mlc
>Mari L. Clements
>Department of Psychology
>Penn State University
>442 Moore and 160 University Support Building 1
>University Park, PA 16802-1012
>(814)863-5664; fax (814)863-7002
>http://www.personal.psu.edu/mlc4
>
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