THSCC Forums

Wouldn't be 5; I see Mitch had 7 on his 3rd run. I think the count's on 'til you're done; history would tell us that's a "useful" THSCC statistic.

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The person with too many names...
Mary E./ME/Emmie Fisher/Daniel/Daniel-Fisher
(& some others not suitable for posting!).
Help support our habits; BUY http://virginiabreeze.us !

The max that AXWare has in the drop down menu is 10, but you can manually type in a Randy Melton like 25 if you wanted to!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

Thanks Emmie/Todd. The main reason I asked was to make sure the numbers were telling us a true story.

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Rob Harvey
919-697-5485
1997 BMW M3
1992 Acura Integra (Simon)

From the viewpoint of one of the folks who records cone penalties (raw sheets), I keep on counting them through the entire run, unless/until there's a DNF. (A lot of cones were hit on DNF runs, those cones get overwritten on the raw sheets, replaced by DNFs.)

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Keith Q.
2008 Top Gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX8XuZ_DCo&NR=1

Remember that aside from my first run, I deliberately took out one cone on every run after that.

The single cone on the first triangle had "Eat Me" all over it. It cost me a lot more than two seconds to slow for the triangle, get the car through it, and accelerate out the other side. So I floored it from one slalom to the next straight through that cone as if it wasn't there. Taking out the cone reduced my time by 1-2 seconds at least, including the cone penalty.

If that was true for every car on every tire, I'd call it very bad course design. Fortunately it clearly wasn't an advantage for the majority. I do applaud the course designer for leaving out the pointer cone there (one was shown on the map), or it'd be two cones to have to replace after each of my runs, and I'm sure I would have carried an already-down pointer a lot further.

It's a shame that pointer cone didn't find its way to the last gate on that section of pavement, the one between the last slalom and the 90-degree box. I think that would have prevented a lot of DNFs.

I'm not going to say a lot about the course design. It was undoubtedly very safe, and I do vaguely remember a worse course laid out in the 80's by Triad. But even so, I do have to ask why that very first cone was so far out when the same effect of avoiding an initial spin on launch could have been achieved with about 4-6 feet less offset?

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Martyn Wheeler
AXing Kit's '05 Mazda 3, #29 HStock
(when The Gonzo Symphonic allows)

The start was set up that way for reasons other than safety. I didn't pay enough attention to see if it worked.

Would those folks that drive AWD cars please tell me how we did with the start.

I was launching at 5000 rpm and accelerating full throttle all the way to the slalom. I would've been doing the same thing with an STi. It would've been a lot faster and more entertaining, though.

Oh, and one definite strong positive -- I thought the arrangement of start, finish, and grid was an interesting idea and worked very well. I really liked that part.

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Martyn Wheeler
AXing Kit's '05 Mazda 3, #29 HStock
(when The Gonzo Symphonic allows)

Ok, i'll say it, MARCUS MUST BE CHEATING!



DAMN impressive, man, gg.

I thought that arrangement was great, too, Martyn. Only part about the entire event that I didn't like was the flow of the taxiway - with some tweaking, it could've been a lot of fun, though. I really enjoyed the trip up the runway, with all the tossing I could do there (not the best evAR, but it was fun). I just wish I'd had enough power to drift the sweeper.

And a note to all future course designers...

YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO NEUTRALIZE THE AWD LAUNCH IF THERE'S ROOM TO ACCLERATE AFTER YOUR ONE LITTLE TIGHT SHIT WIGGLE. YOU HAVE TO PUT A SERIES OF REALLY TIGHT SHITS WITHIN ABOUT 40 FT OF THE START.

I know what kind of start I'd set up if I wasn't driving an awd car, but I won't be telling any of you.

Would it be a 270?

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Shhh...

Actually, given enough space, I've been planning to set up a 180° start at some point.

Bah, you didn't need power to drift the sweeper!

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In need of car.

Apparently, there is no way to offset the all wheel drive launch. Not without making something that everyone hates.

Eric, Rick and myself all had a devil of a time figuring out how to launch an S2000. I had the launch RPM down to about 3500RPM (which is REAL low in these cars), and the moment I went to the throttle, both rear wheels lit up and I sprayed gravel everywhere. So I modulate to get the back of the car to calm down, and we're back to the "S2000 bog" as I've come to call it. The back of my car is generally very hooked up. Sanford, not so much.

Unless Eric found a way to do it (I don't think he did), there was NO WAY to launch the car and then go full throttle all the way to the slalom. Nuh-uh. It was massive wheelspin and massive oversteer and slow. Other than that? No problem...

Maybe Mitch, with that motor sitting right on top of the drive wheels, may have had better luck?

Anyway, I actually quite liked the taxiway portion of the course. It was faster than I thought it would be, and that "V" that people are talking about bypassing altogether, I can tell you...Eric was PLENTY fast through there. Just a little brush to get the nose down, and game on.

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

When I worked the start on the 4th run group I noticed a few of the AWD cars coming really close the the first pointer. Both Evo's, Kevin and the grey STi with the 90 day tags are the ones that come to mind. You guys got to it quicker than most else though. IIRC, the yellow Evo knocked it over along with a couple of others.

Was it me or was anyone else falling behind the cones on the last set of offsets right before the finish almost every time. That element snuck up quick or I just have serious a.d.d.

The funny to me is that I remembered thinking that the larger & wider cars were going to be screwed turning left though the box at the very end of the first runway.

I managed one cone all day and made it count. The very last run of the day I creamed it with a vengence! The cone marks look like strips of electrical tape.