THSCC Forums

Ohhhh snap

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

That's why I say it wasn't for everyone (an understatement). Some people could get through there with barely a flick. I practically had to come to a stop. Eating the cone let me full throttle that big ol' 'Merkin V8 from one slalom to the next. Having seen the possibility on the walk-through, I drove the V on the first run and tried to analyse that element while I was driving it -- that said "Eat Me" and my subsequent run times bore that out.

Taking the cone saved me at least 3 seconds raw, which subtracting the cone penalty is still a big win, and that's being conservative. For the bracket run, since absolute times didn't matter, I decided to save the workers and drive the V. I underestimated how much it would cost me, and was over 4 seconds slower than my guess at dial-in (yes, it was a bad run, but not 4 seconds bad).

My situation this year is weird. The taxman ate my tire budget several times over, so I'm running on my daily driver Avon Tech M550 M+S all-season tyres. At the same time, the suspension is set up for rcomps with a massively stiff front end and a soft rear. There really is no traction or balance. I practically had to stop for the V to get the car through it: even managing weight transfer to get it to turn achieved nothing in that element.

I'm still trying to get the best I can out of the car. I don't want my skills to atrophy because next year (or sooner, I hope) I'll be back on real tyres and bothering to look at my overall PAX again. I drive every event for the best times I can get, painfully embarrassing as they are in absolute terms. And on this course, with zero front traction and plenty of power and a soft rear, I found it was faster to eat the cone so I did.

(BTW, I would really like it if one of the club hot-shoes would take my car through a fun-run sometime so I can see what more I might be doing to compensate.)

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

I'm not going to argue with you Martyn but I think you may be overestimating how much time that "V" really cost you despite tires/setup/etc.

A quick glance at some of my video from the course shows that it takes roughly 4 seconds to get from slalom to slalom including the "V". David's video backs that up almost exactly (we really need to do a side-by-side video sometime David!)

I'm not familiar enough with your car to know its acceleration rate but I'm guessing it's probably a bit better than mine. I haven't had a chance to look at the data from the event yet but I should be able to estimate how long that section would take if I straight-lined the "V" which should give you a good indication of how long it takes in your car.

From there, I should be able to come up with a reasonable guess as to how much time that "V" really added. I'm thinking the worst case "guesstimate" scenario would be coming to a complete stop in the "V" and then accelerating to the next slalom in 2nd gear. We shall see...

Jim

Come on, Jim. How many people at a typical autocross wouldn't crush you in a drag race at just about any distance?


--Donnie

Hey now, we all know it's not the size of your motor but the loco in your motion. Errr, or something like that.

Besides, I see 3 Miatas in the results that I could pull at least a 1/2-a-car length on in the 1/4 mile. That has me besting more than 2% of the cars at the event so I have no idea what you are talking about.

Jim

Hit me up at the next event and we'll see what we can find out with that big iron. - AB

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

He is a really crappy video from my worst run (lost all the others).

Long Links Stink

Its seems my addition of a funny song has degraded the quality, but if you were there, you should get a chuckle.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

That was great! What was the stuff dangling at the end? Looked like bicycle handlebar tape

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~ RallyX VP 2009 ~
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'92 Prelude
'76 Celica

Scott posted


Did I miss them somewhere?

Hey, I have fond memories of that "funny song"! It topped the charts my senior year in college, and the UNC band played it a lot during our 11-1 football season.

Generally, I'd rather hear the engine and tire noise rather than music. Let's me know when you fliched

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Art McDonald
Premier Amateur #518
2008 Dishman Cup
Pivot Cone Snob

Rodney is a waxer (but in a good way)

I haven't had much time to look at the data but doing some preliminary quickie calculations yielded the following results:

Distance between slaloms: 303 feet
Actual course time for that distance: 4.6 seconds

The distance between slaloms surrounding the "V" is really just the distance between the virtual markers I placed across the data. It should be accurate within a few feet and is certainly close enough for our purposes. The first marker was placed right at the main acceleration zone coming out of the first slalom while the second marker was placed just before the braking zone before the second slalom.

Assuming an average 2nd gear acceleration rate of 0.22 g's (which is very close based on the data for my car), I could cover the same distance in ~4.1 seconds. In reality, it would take a hair longer than that due to the fact that I would be arriving at the same point on the course but with a much higher speed. I would have to brake earlier entering the slalom so a fraction of that distance covered would suddenly become a braking zone.

After all that, it looks like it took roughly 0.5 seconds to navigate the "V" in my car. I had to drop ~10mph to make it through there and if I get a chance, I'll try to estimate how much of a mph drop is required to raise the "V" navigation time to a full 2 seconds.

Regardless, I would be surprised if my car could gain 1.5 seconds in just the "V" on any other car at the event. Rob's formula scooter could, perhaps.

Jim

That would be fascinating. Hard numbers are indisputable. It's stuff like this that can cause me to say, "Whoa! I was wrong!"

I love being proved wrong. I learn all sorts of useful things from it.

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