THSCC Forums

OK, first thing I should say is this. Walter Houston should design EVERY course we do at Greenville. Seriously. He didn't try to get clever, he didn't use every cone in the trailer, and the course absolutely rocked. It had rythm, speed, selection of line, and the fast drivers were rewarded justly. Best autocross course I've been on in recent memory.

This was of course my first time in the AS S2000 as a "Complete" package. Proper alignment, custom valved KONI shocks, and impossibly wide Hoosier A6s. In the morning, I was honestly overwhelmed. The car is just *so* fast. It turns in yesterday and transitions on a moment's notice. As I thought I would, I pretty radically underestimated what it would do.

Aaron Buckley, who has become a horse of a driver over the years, offered to ride with me first afternoon run and offered both some excellent pointers, and an affirmation that I basically just needed more loud pedal. Over the course of the day, I dropped 2.5 seconds. I'm learning, I'm remembering.

And A Stock is shaping up to be exactly what I'd hoped it would be - a throwdown. I did a 43.0xx as my best, and last, run. If memory serves, that would have had me in the trophies in a lot of the SP classes. In A Stock? Yeah...try 4th out of 5. Had Donnie not run in X class, 5th out of 6. I'm going to have to start bringing it in a pretty big way. And it's all on me, not the car - just the way I wanted it.

Very cool event everyone. I was already pretty psyched to be back autocrossing, and now, I'm even more so. Can't wait for the Evo school and the May event, neither can come too soon.

_________________
Karl S.
2014 Baby, 2014 House, 2013 Ford Focus ST, 2013 BMW 328i, 1994 Mercedes E320
(Insert passive aggressive signature line here)

I couldn't agree more! That was the best use of space I've ever seen. Awesome job Walter!

I still can't put my finger on it but I love that site for some reason.

Jim

It was a very nice course. Quite simple, nothing fancy, and quite easy both visually and to commit to memory. The part I was most impressed by was it totally changed my concept of what the Greenville site could offer in way of course varability. Kudos to the event chairs!

I also loved the course design. I wasn't fast, but I had a lot of fun! This was my first time to Greenville, and I like how easy it is to get to from Raleigh.

Also, thanks to all the folks who let me ride with them in the morning. You rock! I got a better feel for the course at speed and had the chance to feel how different cars set up for elements differently. Thanks!

_________________
~ RallyX VP 2009 ~
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'92 Prelude
'76 Celica

Entry fee to THSCC Greenville event………..$20
Repair lower control arm for Mini………………….$600
An insurance agent that lends you HIS Mini…………………..Priceless!!!!

Let me just say, there are insurance agents…and there are FULL SERVICE INSURANCE AGENTS! When your insurance agent lends you his car ‘cause you broke yours, (again), THAT’S FULL SERVICE!!!
Thanks, Cline. I owe you one. Next event you should drive the green machine, just to feel the R compounds and the HS power. Also, thanks to all who offered their cars to us today. What a great club!

Thanks to Michael and Walter for a great course. I never heard anything but praise all day. Greenville is one of my favorite sites and even being slow, and in a borrowed car, it still remains so. Going there in April rather than July is a big plus. Thanks to all who made it happen.

_________________
SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

The course was Escheresque. It looked like it would be kind of slow, but once you got out there, HELLO rev limiter. I liked it a bunch, that Walter.

As an added plus I finally took a step in the direction of figuring what would cause some quickening and found a use for the center pedal.

_________________
RedLanternRacing, builders of the fastest cars in last place.
Success is not an option.
1981 Scirocco, "Vera"

Great Course!!!! This is the kind of site and basic course approach that got me hooked on autocrossing . . . in about 1975 after having a tough time on confusing courses for a few years before that.

FYI everytime I hit the rev limiter at the far end the speed was "adequate". You probably don't want to know what the speed was . . . (It was less than 70 mph).

Too bad I'm too out of practice to have shown what the car is really capable of . . .

_________________
Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Kudos to the course designer(s) today, and whoever was in charge of bringing the weather!

_________________
In need of car.

That would be me, all me, your welcome.

Seriously, if I only get to do one event this year, I'm glad it was this one!

I didn't see anything that went on behind the scenes, but from my spectator point of view, it was a perfect event!

And I should've mentioned, good job to all of the guys/gals doing the work to make these events happen!

_________________
In need of car.

Here is a video of my last run of the afternoon.

I was trying to make sure I got the steering wheel in the picture and I wound up with a rather limited (read: crappy) view of the course. Google video also managed to make the video a lot more grainy but you can still make out what is going on.

I've never actually seen myself drive and it was definitely strange. The first thing that jumped out at me was how boring it looked! I guess the drama and, more importantly, the screaming is really just in my head while driving. I'm glad I could finally clear that up once and for all.

One semi-cool part that stood out was entering the center optional pivot section. The CRX is *very* tail-happy anytime you are not on the gas leading to some interesting moments under braking unless the car is going dead-straight. The video shows me stabbing the gas in the middle of my braking zone to keep the car pointing the right direction. I didn't even realize I did that! Funky. You'll hear me blip the throttle again right after that as I try to get the car into 1st gear.

I have a feeling a "left-foot braker" could have done that faster than I did but I have no idea how they would then get the car into 1st. Any LFB'ers care to comment?

The other thing that jumped out at me was how much time the car spends spinning its inside wheel during a run. You can hear the engine note change when it finally totally hooks up and that isn't very often. I need to figure out a better way to get that under control. It will be interesting to see how much (if?) the wheel spin shows up on the data logger in the form of reduced acceleration.

Jim

Kudos to, Walter and Mike for the teriffic course design, Les and Dustin for their adjustments to the teriffic course design. That was a great day of auto-xing. Double thanks to Walter for loaning me his car, who said old guys don't have courage. As it has been said many times before, this is a great club, glad to be a part of it.

_________________
2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

Jim,

In regard to the inside tire spinning: I watched a lot of "light smoke" from your inside front tire out of every tight corner while working station 7 in the first heat.

Regarding tail happy under braking, you should have seen a lot of my entries into the sweeper at the far end. Whee.

I'll bet we both had a lot fun even though we were at opposite ends of the "g's" scale.

Dick

_________________
Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Jim,

Nice slow inputs with the steering, that was textbook - great job! When I use to video my runs I would always watch my hands, instead of the course, the first time I looked at the tape. You can pretty much tell by just watching steering inputs, without even looking at the course, whether or not it was a good run. Donnie's fast run from Greensboro, that he posted, a few weeks ago was very similiar. Using video to compare co-drivers steering inputs is an awesome learning tool.

Eric

Obviously from the results I had a good day, but considering I've never been to Greenville, I am surprised about the previous years comments about the grip level. On my first run I expected to be skating all over the place, but the car gripped really well. Maybe it was the course design or the site is 'coming to us'

As for the course, it was by far the best design for the size I've seen. For me to get limiter in 2nd gear on that size lot (64 mph in the RX-8 ) and not have it be just a straight away, really shows how well it was setup. Very nice job Walter & Michael. Even if I had coned away everything, I still would have felt that the course was challenging, yet had a great flow.

I think the biggest kicker was the onsite 'cafe'. The food was good, it was air conditioned and you had a course view while eating... How can you go wrong there? - AB

_________________
'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S