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Re: really long, intense autocross content for new drivers

To: Richard Urschel <osp13@mybluelight.com>, ba-autox@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: really long, intense autocross content for new drivers
From: "Donald R McKenna" <donbarbmckenna@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 09:07:57 -0700
Rich,

Compliments to you, for putting in the effort to produce a very thoughtful
and useful piece. 

        Don
----------
>From: "Richard Urschel" <osp13@mybluelight.com>
>To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
>Subject: really long, intense autocross content for new drivers
>Date: Tue, Aug 13, 2002, 10:56 PM
>

>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.
>
>Sign up for Internet Service under $10 dollars a month, at 
>http://isp.BlueLight.com

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