[·clyde·]

Yesterday at FedEx was not quite what I expected. The course was long and had a great flow. I don't know what it was, but my tires felt very greasy. My pressures were in the range that I normally run (41/38 cold with air temp about 90, not the hottest or coldest of teh summer).

I could slide the front (big suprise) and rear (wow!) at will. I was having a blast steering with the throttle. For the first time in the dry I found myself in a power oversteer situation and felt the fronts starting to dig and pull me along.

There was an extended switchback section that was a real lesson in trail braking rotation. I was amazed. For the first time I felt like I could rotate the car to whatever direction I wanted whenever I wanted.

I know that I wasn't fast yesterday (another big suprise) but I had a lot more fun on my runs than at any other autocross this year. I kept thinking, "This is not the fast way around, but it sure as hell is the fun way!" as slid around the course.

I don't think that it was just me. There were a lot more spins than usual, and a lot people were getting out shape that usually don't.

On the downside, the spins (and timing errors) added up and they ran very late. My heat was supposed to start at 1:30 and the first car didn't move until a few minutes after 3.

 

[Nick325xiT 5spd]

Nice.
It was probably the oil they put down the night before.

 

[·clyde·]

Nice.
It was probably the oil they put down the night before.

My first thought was the game on Saturday...then I remembered that the Redskins had played in Florida Saturday. Maybe I was so offline that I was on everyone else's marbles? Or maybe the pavement temp + tire temp + air pressure, etc all conspired to give me a great time? I don't know.

 

[CD-55]

On the downside, the spins (and timing errors) added up and they ran very late. My heat was supposed to start at 1:30 and the first car didn't move until a few minutes after 3.

That really bites!!!

 

[Nick325xiT 5spd]

Re: Re: scca autox at fedex yesterday

That really bites!!!

It seems the problem was really a lack of bite.

 

[·clyde·]

Re: Re: scca autox at fedex yesterday

That really bites!!!

It could have been worse...the clouds were blocking the sun about half the time and it never got *that* hot. I got there at 11, afternoon tech was supposed to start at 11:30, but the first heat hadn't even finished yet. There were a bunch of karts in the first heat, and they can't run with cars on the course. Karts were turning 80+ second times compared to ~60seconds for the rest of that heat. There were *lots* of reruns due to timing errors (which also would cause everything to come to a stop) and red flags from spins. The upside to that was that I got a fifth run because my first run was clocked at 124 seconds when it should have been ~79 seconds.

Results were just posted. I took last place in DS again (10th out of 10). PAX, I was 12th out of 34 (Novice) and 124th out of 172 (overall). In percentage, I improved by a couple points against Woody, Brian and the other faster DS drivers versus the last dry pavement FedEx event.

Thinking about it a little...I know that I lost a lot of time by sliding around more than I had to. Had I tried (and succeeded) to keep within my traction limits (and taken a couple sections properly that I had trouble figuring out), I probably could have shaved two seconds or more. Take another two (maybe?) off if I had real tires and that would put me solidly mid pack (although still quite a ways behind the front runners). I guess that I've got nothing to complain about. Also, after one of my runs (not my fastest) I thought I heard the announcer say my time, "and two tomatoes." I thought "tomatoes" meant cones, but they don't show up on the results sheet. Does anyone have any ideas what else that might mean?

 

[CD-55]

Clyde,

Maybe your tires are toast? you know like the compound is shot. no more stickyness?

 

[Guest]

Clyde,

Maybe your tires are toast? you know like the compound is shot. no more stickyness?

Man, Hunter, that's a *****in' Buick.

Have you thought about autox-ing it?

 

[CD-55]

Man, Hunter, that's a *****in' Buick.

Have you thought about autox-ing it?

At low speed this thing really hauls!! The torque is amazing and 1st gear goes up to about 45 MPH. Maybe if we compress the springs down to the bottom we would have something here:angel:

Really... I think it would beat a 330 in a race from 0 to 20 MPH.

 

[·clyde·]

Clyde,

Maybe your tires are toast? you know like the compound is shot. no more stickyness?

Very possible. The feel was distinctly different than any of the other event. The other thing that I've been thinking is that I've had some kind of breakthrough in understanding what my tires are telling me. In some ways, the way I was flicking the car around (and I'm using "flick" in the motorcycle sense) just beyond the tires' limits reminded me of when I was learning to play guitar. I'd go weeks or months without feeling like I was improving, and then all of the sudden something would click and I'd improve a whole lot almost overnight. My times Sunday were a very slight improvement (which are in line with what I was trending), but what I was doing should have made me slower.

 

[·clyde·]

Really... I think it would beat a 330 in a race from 0 to 20 MPH.

Very low end grunt might be the one thing that never bothered me about the Buick (shudder) that's sitting in front of my house.

Of course, the fact that it squats down so much in back makes it feel like it's taking off quicker than it actually is.