I've been autocrossing for less than 2 years, I have
10 events under my belt so I'm a real newbie. I
started out with a Lexus SC300 (manual) which was my
first car with a stick (for 10 years I'd driven autos
until I was "educated" by my friend and his 3rd gen
RX-7). (I think) The Lex was a great car to get
started with. Sure it was porky but for what it was,
it was fairly neutral and it didn't bite you too bad
when ya screwed up.
I sold the Lex and bought a WRX in June (hey, I
figured it wouldn't be long before I needed to renew
my SCCA membership) as it's a lot more practical for a
cycling, skiing, autocrosser!!! The Lex was a RWD car
and the "standard" rules seemed to apply. Be smooth,
blah blah blah, tire screeching means your scrubbing
speed in the corners, etc. I always found that the
slowest feeling run always ended up being my fastest.
The same was true with the WRX on Sundays round, my
fastest time (55.901) felt the slowest. Here's where
I'm getting a little confused, the driving styles
between the two cars seems to be completely opposite
and the "rules" that people were teaching me don't
seem to apply anymore. If you're smooth with the WRX
it seems like you'll never get a good run. The car
likes reward what in the Lex would have been very
sloppy driving such as abrupt steering input in
slaloms and wide open throttle through sweepers (the
Lex would have gone in circles). The WRX on the other
hand seems to LOVE this. My slowest run on Sunday
(56.969) was smooth, no tire screeching (like I would
have driven the Lex). On my fastest run I went with
some suggestions from other Subaru drivers, put the
car sideways on the sweepers and opened the throttle
up all the way. I was actually embarrassed by all the
tire screeching I was doing but it was my fastest run
of the day (and like a good run in the Lex it felt the
slowest... although the grin factor was MUCH higher
:-D ).
Obviously I'm comparing two VERY different animals
here. I'm a little worried that I might start
devoloping bad habits with this car that my be faster
now, but ultimately slower in the long run. I wish I
had some good specific questions to ask but I don't.
So, I'd love to hear from people (especially the old
timers and those who have some flavor of AWD car)
about strategies for driving this car. It's a blast to
drive and it clearly has TONS of potential with a good
driver behind the wheel. If it matters my goals are to
get a podium spot in DS-N this year and move on to DS
in the slush series (so I can get my posterior handed
to me). I'm not planning on any mods aside from race
rubber when I get out of novice (there's plenty of
good competition in stock and... cycling and skiing
are already big enough money pits). Stock should be
plenty entertaining for me. If I've learned anything
so far about autocross it's that it's 90% driver and
10% car.
Okay, thanks for reading, Joe
And... see ya at autocross shcool (if my check makes
it in time).
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