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
|