THSCC Forums

Miles asked for a lesson in driving in the dirt, I may be able to provide a few pointers:

The main thing is it's OK (nay, encouraged! ) to get sideways in rallycross. The thing that makes sideways slow in autocross is that the slip angles increase, so does the braking force. By the time you get even moderately sideways on asphalt, most engines are not able to overcome that and you end up slowing down. On dirt and/or grass the braking forces are not so great, so you can run a lot bigger slip angles before you're outbraking your engine power.

The ideal approach to a turn is to put the car into a sideways drift before the apex, so you are under full power as you pass it. Unless it's a hairpin or really long turn, it's fun to initially pitch the car to the angle of the corner exit, so all your turning is done before you even get to the apex.

Sliding sideways provides better braking than even threshold braking does, so when you get the hang of it you can come in hotter than you'd think possible, throw it sideways, and still make the corner. But if you get too sideways it's easy to kill too much speed and end up bogging on corner exit.

If you find yourself off-line and some shrubbery or little trees are in your way, run them over! This is rallycross, folks, get in the spirit! Just stay out of the property owner's garden and you'll be fine...

Hope that helps!
Carl

Continuing on the shrubbery...


Drive where the grip is. Just keep in mind that this may be far, far from the autocross line. If you're walking the course, and part of the course is sticking to your shoes... It's going to be muddy and lines are going to get interesting.

Anders

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Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio

I won't be driving the Talon at this event. I plan on getting a V6 late model Mustang (rental) and see how it goes. Having almost never driven a RWD car in a competative event, this should be interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing just how much fun this can be!

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

As long as the car remains on relatively smooth dirt I don't think its an issue, but I keep thinking of videos I've seen where someone goes off on a road course and winds up rolling just because they were sideways in the grass. I guess the speeds at which rallycrosses are run pretty much makes this a moot point or should I pucker when I sail off sideways into the rough?

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Alan C.

The surface is pretty uniform, so there's not going to be any big transition to upset the car. I think it's the combination of high speeds and short, stiff sidewalls that might cause race cars to dig into the soft ground, and our speeds are going to be a lot lower than that...

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Don't worry, Alan. You won't be sailing off into the rough; the course is the rough.

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The person with too many names...
Mary E./ME/Emmie Fisher/Daniel/Daniel-Fisher
(& some others not suitable for posting!).
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so you're saying that in rally drifting, you turn b4 you turn, drifitng the car, and putting full power down at the apex and carry more speed to the exit? what about front wheel drive? i know that with the sentra, drifting it, i can keep the back end bhind me by putting power to the front wheels, and control the drift, and sometimes on dirt and rainy auto-x's,
drifting it can sometimes give me a better exit speed.

curious...

petey "blonde like solberg" guthrie

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hey yall,watch this...