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really long, intense autocross content for new drivers

To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
Subject: really long, intense autocross content for new drivers
From: "Richard Urschel" <osp13@mybluelight.com>
Date: 14 Aug 2002 05:56:50 -0000
I sent this to the various webmasters in the Region
to do with 
whatever they want. You, too, may do the same.


What you can expect from yourself as a driver at your first autocross. 

We see too many drivers including a few women who think they are most
excellent drivers whose times end up reflecting their newness to 
autocrossing rather than their natural talent or driving skills. In other 
words, they are slow compared to experienced autocrossers in similar cars.
Sadly, they seem to have a penchant for becoming quite angry over their 
disappointing times and have a tendency to go away, often forever. 

How much do you know about driving a motor vehicle at it's limit? 

Have you read all of the books on driving? If so, good for you. You have a 
good theoretical foundation for understanding all of the various skills you 
still need to develop through experience and practice. Have you ever 
driven a car at it's limit of cornering ability on public roads? If so, you 
either scared yourself out of your wits for a few seconds or you're 
socially psychopathic. You just can't get anywhere near the limits of 
handling in a modern vehicle on the open road without seriously 
endangering yourself and everyone around you. Once you've 
learned where the 
true limits of your vehicle are, you'll realize how far away you were from
them in the past, and will never contemplate approaching them on public roads. 

Finding the limits and instantly exceeding them. 

It's relatively safe to exceed the limits of handling in an autocross, you 
might 
brake too late or too hard and slide a bit past your intended turn in point, 
you might accelerate too 
abruptly or too much coming out of a turn and cause your front tires to push 
beyond their traction limits, you might run wide in a corner and hit a cone 
or two, you might even spin. But you likely won't hurt yourself, your car, 
or anyone else the way you likely would on the open road. What you can do, and 
will likely do if you are at all aggressive is drive beyond the optimal 
grip level of your tires. Maybe when accelerating, probably when braking, 
and most certainly when going through the slower corners (see the tame 
consequences above). Your times will suffer for it, badly. 

You probably won't be exceeding the handling limits in fast corners though 
because you won't yet know how high they are, and the faster you are going,
the less tame the consequences become. Emerson Fittipaldi said most new 
race drivers go too fast in slow corners, and too slow in fast corners. It's 
definitely true of new autocrossers. Before you can produce reasonably 
quick autocross times you will need to learn where the optimal handling 
limits of your car are when accelerating braking; going into, through, and 
out of slow and fast corners; and when going through a slalom And you will 
need to drive at those limits throughout the entire run. 

Cartoon time. 

To achieve and maintain optimal tire grip, you will need to learn to be 
ultra smooth but very quick in manipulating the cars controls; when 
pushing down or lifting off the throttle, when turning or unwinding the 
steering wheel, when shifting, and when pressing on or coming off the 
brake pedal. This will take a lot of seat time (practice). On 
the open road, or even on a race track, you often have seconds to set 
up for a corner. You may start braking 100, 200, or even 300 yards before 
the corner depending how on fast you are going. In autocrossing, 
you will have zero time to set up for a corner. Even if you are on a 
very short straight stretch of the course, you will begin braking as soon 
as you stop accelerating as hard as the car can, usually in second gear. 
It typically takes 35 to 50 seconds to run an autocross course. There are 
no straight aways on which you can relax while the car is in top gear. You 
will always be busy. You may become frenetic not from panic or 
uncertainty, but because you aren't yet used to the relentless pace. 
Some hold their breath for the whole run, and some don't discover they are 
doing it for years or even decades of autocrossing. Many have shaking hands 
at the end of a run due to the intense adrenaline rush. 

So you need to learn where the limits of your car are, how to correct 
instantly when you start to exceed them, and how to be ultra smooth 
with the controls so you don't upset even slightly the suspension of 
your car which needs total composure to produce it's ultimate 
performance. And you need to learn to do it while driving in speeded up 
cartoon time. So give yourself a break. Don't expect miracles the 
first time out and you'll have a lot fun now and in the future rather 
than becoming disappointed in yourself at your first event. In time, 
maybe a season or two, you might well be turning some pretty quick 
times. Assuming you actually do have all that natural talent and 
driving skill you thought you had in the first place.

How to be smooth and fast.

Undoubtedly, you already want to know all the driving techniques 
specific to autocross, how to read the course, where the correct line 
is, and everything else you can arm yourself with for your first 
event. Well, that's a much longer subject, and we might get around to 
actually writing it for you. In the meantime, I'll give you the most 
important one which you would do well to begin practicing immediately: 
LOOK AHEAD! When you drive on the freeway you look well up the road due 
to the speed you are traveling, and to give yourself adequate time 
to react to the unexpected antics of all of those other people on the 
road who are actively doing any and everything except actual driving. 

When people begin autocrossing they tend to look at the cones. Don't do 
it! You've already trained your nervous system to drive the car exactly 
where you look, so look at the course between the cones. Your nervous 
system also knows not to run over curbs at the side of the street 
without you looking at them, so trust it not to run over the cones you 
are about to pass by. You are going to be traveling at highway speeds 
on the autocross course and you need to look ahead as you do on the 
highway to give yourself time to properly position your car for the 
next turn and the next. If you look no further ahead than the corner you 
are about to enter, you will find yourself constantly surprised by 
each of the succeeding corners which of course will all be rushing at 
you at cartoon speed. If you do look ahead, you won't be surprised unless 
it's by the facts that you really can drive between the cones without 
looking at them, and that you'll automatically drive a line faster than 
the one you thought was optimal when you walked the course looking at 
it one turn at a time.

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