White95's Autocross thread

Warhorse Racing

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Solid advice! Yes, the steering issue was 100% why I never looked comfortable on the wheel. My brain kept saying 9/3 but the nag just wouldn’t turn without extra leverage.

I had to “work” the weekend after the event and I binge watched ALL of your content. Especially the video about setting up for the next element, I watched it a few times. I’m going into the next event with tackling the course on my mind more so than worrying about the car.

Edit: The glare, lol.. The screen on my GoPro stopped working so I couldn’t set the focus point and it just picked the interior up. I’ve replaced that dude and new videos will be easier to watch.
I'm glad the videos are helping. Establishing an attack strategy on your course walks is really important. The courses in your videos (like most courses) have a fun mix of fast-into-slow and slow-into-fast elements, as well as corners that require you to look/think ahead in order to find every last bit of speed. Identifying the "attack cones" and linking elements together will allow you to take advantage of your car's capability.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
 
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white95

white95

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Identifying the "attack cones" and linking elements together will allow you to take advantage of your car's capability..

This is EXACTLY what I’m going to be doing. I’ve been walking the courses to make sure I didn’t get lost, not considering how it flowed enough.

I know I was entering elements incorrectly in the past and unnecessarily scrubbing speed to exit without being sideways. You can’t put the power down if the car isn’t settled and it doesn’t matter how many suspension mods you have at that point

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I have found what pressure the tires like (27 F; 26 R) and can focus on getting faster. The excessive marks are from my spin out and are just a friendly reminder that RWD is super fun :cool:
 

Warhorse Racing

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Thank you for posting these videos! You did a nice job of chopping time off over the course of your runs. And you made adjustments after a DNF and hitting cones to finish with a clean run. Based on your build thread, you have solved the power steering issue. But I still see a lot of hand movement on the wheel. You are shifting your hands and going hand-over-hand. You are also coming back to 10 & 2, instead of 9 & 3. You're losing leverage on the wheel and making sharper (not smoother) inputs. It's hard to see from the video, but that generally means your inputs are delayed and you are turning the wheel more than you need to (which costs you time/speed). You've got fast hands that can get you out of trouble, but the solution is to not get yourself into trouble. At your next event, try to focus on keeping your hands on the wheel at 9 & 3.

The course seemed to have a lot of sweepers that would force you to look/think around corners. You were turning your head to look your way around the corner, which is good. But it looks like you could have entered a little faster and rolled back onto the throttle earlier in those elements. You have to think about the exit of the sweeper and the element after, even if you can't see them as you are entering the corner. Finding an "attack cone" inside the sweeper can provide a marker to start rolling back onto the throttle.

You did a great job of maintaining "steady-state" throttle in the slalom, but I think you could have gone faster in that element. And you could have been earlier on the cones. If the slalom leads into a fast element, try to accelerate out of the slalom as early as possible. In some cases, you can start accelerating prior to the last slalom cone.

All in all, you did a better job of linking elements together in the places where you could easily look ahead. That allowed you to attack and still be smooth. The areas with limited sightlines were the ones that had you looking at the elements right in front of you, instead of as far ahead as possible. I know you've probably seen this video, but I was dealing with a similar challenge at an event last season...


Great job! I'm looking forward to seeing your videos from the next event.
 
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white95

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Finally returned to an autocross after a forced, month long hiatus. Got up early and made my way to the event.

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Passed tech, as usual, and readied the cameras.

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This course layout was great and I looked forward to attacking it.

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I took it easy on my first run to get an idea of the course flow. This is a quick course!!


As I readied myself to begin my second pass, I slipped the car into third gear. Needless to say it terribly bogged off the line. Undeterred, I kept attacking the course to find spots to improve. That starting line mistake cost me .828s on this run.


The third, and final, run of the day showed more improvement. This time, I was able to drop 2.315s from the previous run by being aggressive.


Lunch didn’t sit well with me so I opted to call it a day. Soon after, it started to pour down rain so I dodged that bullet.

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badass98svt

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Very cool thread. I dont know how you do it. I've attended a few auto x events with a friend and I feel like I would get lost trying to read the cones.
 
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white95

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Very cool thread. I dont know how you do it. I've attended a few auto x events with a friend and I feel like I would get lost trying to read the cones.

It frequently happens too. Once you learn which cones mean what, it makes a lot more sense. You just have to walk the course each event, try to piece it together in your mind and translate that through the steering wheel.

It’s fun, frustrating, challenging and almost always better than a great day at work.
 

Warhorse Racing

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Thanks for posting your runs! You did a great job of chopping time off on your third run. Your attack was smoother and more aggressive. And you increased your duration of acceleration in multiple areas. It looked like you could be a degree faster in the sweepers. You want the car to feel like it's right at the edge of losing grip. And I think you could have attacked the slalom a little harder. There was a stretch of offset cones where you hesitated a little on the throttle, which makes me think you might not have been looking far enough ahead in that section. Overall, the car looked really composed. I'm still seeing a lot of extra hand movement on the steering wheel. Some of those turns looked tight enough to require an adjustment, but it's always better to adjust your hands prior to the turn rather than in the middle of the turn. I'm glad to see the car back out there attacking the cones. I'm looking forward to seeing more videos!

Thank you for updating this thread. It's inspiring a lot of people.
 

Warhorse Racing

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Very cool thread. I dont know how you do it. I've attended a few auto x events with a friend and I feel like I would get lost trying to read the cones.
It gets exponentially easier to find your way through the cones at each event. I'm fortunate to get to instruct the same students over multiple events each season. Seeing how quickly they go from being lost in the sea of cones to being able to determine which 5 key cones actually matter is always fun. Course walks, instruction and ride-alongs make it even easier. I encourage you to give autocross a try; you will absolutely love it!
 
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white95

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Thanks for posting your runs! You did a great job of chopping time off on your third run. Your attack was smoother and more aggressive. And you increased your duration of acceleration in multiple areas. It looked like you could be a degree faster in the sweepers. You want the car to feel like it's right at the edge of losing grip. And I think you could have attacked the slalom a little harder. There was a stretch of offset cones where you hesitated a little on the throttle, which makes me think you might not have been looking far enough ahead in that section. Overall, the car looked really composed. I'm still seeing a lot of extra hand movement on the steering wheel. Some of those turns looked tight enough to require an adjustment, but it's always better to adjust your hands prior to the turn rather than in the middle of the turn. I'm glad to see the car back out there attacking the cones. I'm looking forward to seeing more videos!

Thank you for updating this thread. It's inspiring a lot of people.

Work interfered and I missed the second heat. I had a really good feel for that course and was going to try a right entry to that slalom next. I feel I could’ve entered with more speed because that next sweeper was WIDE. My confidence in the car is growing with each event. My next area of focus is the brakes and having a fresh alignment.

Thanks for the pointers and stay tuned.
 
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white95

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I’m returning to the autocross pad next weekend and I’m feeling confident. The car has a much better steering response, the new alignment spec seems to favor low speed turn in and I have a new set of front tires to abuse. As usual, pictures and videos will follow. This time, I’m using my phone in an OG Racing mount with the “Track Addict” app to record lap telemetry. I’m excited for that too.

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Finally (FINALLY!) getting mostly issue free runs! However, I had a DNF on my first run because I got too hot on the last slalom. Decided to go wide instead of spinning and taking the timing equipment out. (32 F/24 R cold air pressure)


My second run was better, since I finished but I found myself off throttle too much. To make things interesting, I started to left foot brake after exiting the first slalom. That seems to help. (30/25)


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My third run was a little quicker but I coned it away. Continued to left foot brake and applied more throttle almost everywhere. Car kept getting tail happy and I almost blew the entry on the final slalom. Going to make adjustments to the driver and try again! (30/25)


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The brake bias is still favoring the rear and I’m going to add a little pressure in the rear tires.
 

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