Damn, is autocrossing fun. At any rate, yesterday was another ASCC Autocross event. I had an okay day. We only received four runs. By the third run, I was getting the hang of the three sweepers. On the fourth run, Emily's affinity for eating orange cones reared itself; and I plugged two cones early on. Because I was under the assumption that we were running 5 times, I went down to about "90% driving level" and worked on my line through the remainder of the course. After the run, I was told it was to be my last. D'oh!
Here's a rough sketch of the course.
So, you would launch and full throttle through the first slightly bending course deviation. Touch the brakes right before the first 2-cone slalom. The front end would weight, and a quick turn left and right, back on the gas full, and then begin setting up for the sweeper. On my third run through, I went in to that first 180° sweeper fast. As I made my way through the sweeper, Emily's understeering was leading her at the final outside edge of the cone. I pushed on the throttle a little more, and she suddenly hit grip and it swung the nose in towards the box. It was a fun little maneuver. The box, itself, was not as bad as it looked. Coming out of the sweeper, you touch on the brake and take it like a 2-cone slalom. I had been dreading that portion during the pre-run walk-through's, but it was not too bad. After exiting the garage, it was back on WOT taking 2nd gear dangerously close to redline. A touch on the brakes and begin turning in way earlier than your brain would prefer to navigate the 3 cone slalom. Exiting the slalom, you get back on the gas partially and move around the second sweeper. There was a lot of cars up on 3 wheels or burning inside tires through that one including Chip's V6 Dodge Shadow (his Civic had a run-in with a deer), which would end up laying down a slight fog over that section of the track.
Exiting the second sweeper, you had to touch on the brake a little for the next turn that transitioned you to the other side of the track (it does not look that way in the mock-up bitmap I did, though). You're back on full throttle and understeering through the next turn to set you up for the slalom (unless you are a Corvetter, Lotus, F-Body or other RWD car -- in that case, you are fighting excessive, but very cool looking, oversteer). Another quick slalom followed by a sweeper; a hard 90 degree turn, and a final slalom took you to the finishing portion. It was this last little bit that was the most pain. The track there was slippery and, it being the finish line, always urged you into digging too deep into the gas. Everytime I went through that (except for my more lazy 4th run), I had to wrestle the wheel back and forth as the car exhibited an exuberant amount of no-traction/grip/no-traction/grip conditions. It was a lot of fun except for the fact that I nicked a cone my third run through, which would have left me, otherwise, with a fairly repsectable time and clean run... stupid cones.
Scott, you should have been there.
| J$ |
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