Mark Watson writes:
<< "Just curious,
In the optional direction slalom, what line do you feel was fastest ? >>
My car owner (Mark Searles... Turnabout IS fairplay!) and I decided to each
try it (the first slalom) differently on our first runs, and agreed that
starting the second slalom to the left of the first cone was fastest. He
reported no trouble staying inside of the first cone in the first slalom, but
I decided to try going outside anyway, because I thought the acceleration out
of the left hander before the first slalom would take you to the outside and
that it would preserve speed. I found that 1) there wasn't that much speed
to preserve, and 2) it was hard to get turn-in to the left hander between the
slaloms from outside, even in Mark's '99 Miata on street tires, which has NO
trouble turning in! On my second run I went to the left and never looked
back. Clearly the way to go.
Editorial comment: I disagree with optional direction slaloms. There were 4
different courses you could have driven on Sunday. There should be one
course for everyone. I disagree with Kevin that this is the same thing as
line selection. This sport is difficult enough to get right when we're all
going on the same side of the cones, much less to try to figure out which way
to take the slalom(s). There are also slaloms where the proper direction is
considerably less obvious than on Sunday, and that's where I differ even more
strongly.
As for shifting, we felt like there was a bog coming out of the first tight
right turn, as well as the tight left 2 corners before the finish. So, we
used 1st in both places. There was obviously more power between the tight
left and the right before the first slalom, and as we applied power going
towards the slalom. A very soft shift was required, though, to keep the rear
end from stepping out on the 1-2 shift into the first slalom. Probably
would've been less of a problem with "R" tires. The finish was obviuosly
much faster in 1st.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!
CHD
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