Porsche Club AutoX - Saturday, May 31st

Great day for autocross. The car performed flawlessly.

There will be an announcement forthcoming from Colby shortly.

 

ok.. did some fiddling with my videos. the crappy camera put out some baaad quality HERE is that one. It is one of Al's decent runs.

Here is my first run.. i went for a swim... (from the phone's point of view that can be seen in the first video). Then Al's First run and that is followed by a good clean run Here that Al did. My run looked similar.. but a bit slower...

Great day, great weather. Wanted to see more Fieros out. Some of the gang there showed some real enthusiasm toward the Fiero. 

It did well and looked great out there!

Gary

Hmm, I can do a little better:



And a picture of the times is here.

I ended up having a short nap when I got home. After that day, and beating Patrick in his own car, I think I earned it. 

It was a good event, and not just because I annihilated Patrick's best time. The course was fun, the car worked well, and the weather was just right. Every run I was able to figure out a few places to improve and by the end I was driving it pretty quick. Patrick's car handled really well, and it may even inspire me to make a few changes to my own car.

I took a couple of pictures:





I took videos of all my runs, except for my quickest. I did still get some pretty interesting videos. I think my favorite is this comparison between my 6th run and my 8th (run 7 was my quickest). My 8th run was looking like it might have been even quicker, but I messed up near the end. You can see, though, how much time I manage to shave off in one section.

Videos:

Run 4 - Run 6 - Run 8 - Run 6 v. 8

Great job Patrick! that is better. Sorry for the camera placement. i needed to have it out of the way and low enough to be press against the dash to minimize vibration. i love the laugh. it demonstrates the fun atmosphere that we had. Luckily i was not the only one to hit that puddle

Fantastic event! I loved the course because it was an
excellent car control course that tested both the driver
and the car. A little tire pressure tweaking over a few
runs helped to reduce the oversteering tendency of the
914. It sure will be nice to replace those rock hard, 7-
yr old tires on it. I'll need to do some more 60-ft
drifts first.
Gary, did that run get recorded?

Colby drove Patrick's car EXCELLENTLY! Colby asked me to
ride with him right after lunch and I could only offer a
couple suggestions because he was doing an excellent job.
...and it showed. I do believe, and Colby can correct me
if I'm wrong, but Colby, didn't you ANNIHILATE Patrick's
time?

Sorry Patrick.

In all fairness though, Colby did drive very well. The
part just before the lake, Colby drove that way better
than I did. He nailed it. Through the little box, got
the car rotated and flew through the gate. It was
awesome!

Patrick, about your video.....yes, I was cringing.     
Just kidding. But yes, you could definitely smooth
things out. You were also very late on the slalom. On
the gas a bit late in the sweeper after the slalom (needs
slight line correction). The high speed sweeping turn
from the paddock heading out to the lake could have been
a bit smoother and faster. From the lake, around the
sweeper and back through the spaghetti could have been
smoother, and therefore faster too.

Many times, in linked turns such as the spaghetti, you
want to move the steering wheel as little as possible.
When you combine this with going as fast as the tires
will allow, you will have a fast time. Contrast that to
a sharper turn and the "speed limit" of that turn you
just did will be slower than a shallower turn where you
don't turn the steering wheel as much. So when you turn
the wheel less, you will have a higher "speed limit" for
that turn and will therefore have a higher exit speed
onto the little straight between turns. That's why
looking ahead is so important - it's key to seeing the
gentle arc you must form by turning earlier so you can do
that section at a higher speed.

fwiw, my best time of 54.2 was done by two key things:
First, I finally did the end sweeper after the slalom
properly so I had a high exit speed out of the sweeper.
This was plainly obvious when I nailed the rev limiter
(bap, bap, bap) for the first time on the following
straight. Taking advantage of the higher speed on a bit
of a gamble, I delayed braking a touch and trailbraked
into the long right hand turn to carry as much speed as
possible. The car slid a bit but I managed to stay on
top of it and carried that extra speed through the
sweeping right turn. The run after wasn't quite as
elegant, hence the 60 foot drift.

It was a great day!

No problem, Patrick. For me, and I suspect others, even
if I read 15 books on the subject and had private
coaching for a season, sometimes the things I've
mentioned above take a while to sink in. I don't know
what it is, but for me, it just takes time for the
academic knowledge of driving to get to my hands and
feet. Once it does, it really sticks though. I proved I
can't drive perfectly when I want, but I know what I'm
trying to achieve. It can be frustrating at times, but
when it works the way I want and I actually DRIVE the way
I'd like, it's awesome. Wish it happened more often.   


All of you should be commended on getting your car
running so well. You guys did a great job. Colby
was very impressed with how it drove and now he's
thinking about tweaking his car. Watch out!   

AllanJ wrote: All of you should be commended on getting your car running so well. You guys did a great job. Colby was very impressed with how it drove and now he's thinking about tweaking his car. Watch out!

What I really enjoy about autocrossing (in addition to flying around the track) is that although we're all very competitive, we're also keen on helping each other out. No one is trying to be a big shot. We're all improving, we're all having fun. And that's what it's all about.

 

Slack Master B! ...needs to stop slacking.

I'll be in Oregon for several days just before the 14th
autocross so I won't be able to make it. Wifey wants to
spend time with me. Silly girl.

I dropped by Gary's work this morning to talk further
about something he said to me the day before about his
driving experience with the 914. Upon further reflection,
he was probably over-slowing his car coming into a turn
and then getting on the gas mid-turn. This caused an
understeer condition.

Contrast that to my style with his car and I'll brake
later and trailbrake into the turn, causing a mild
oversteer condition. To solve that I need to apply more
gas to get the weight transfer to the rear to get more
grip. All the while trying to balance the car through the
turn.

In the morning of the event when talking to Gary, he said
he was suffering from the same oversteer condition I was,
so we were playing with the tire pressures to give the
rear more grip. Thinking about it now, that
communication breakdown and resulting tire pressure
fiddling would have helped me but hurt Gary given his
conservative driving style. Oops!

Hopefully the course on the 14th is more open than the
usual JIBC course. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you
guys!