THSCC Forums

I was trying out my pimpy new camera mount today -- my first real fabrication project with the welder. Video has lots of wind, rock, and vibration noise but the image is good. Occasionally you can hear the exhaust tone and get an idea of when I'm on the gas.

Morning course second run, which I think was a 52.5+2 (fastest clean time was the first run at 53.0 which I didn't record):

Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3679020608
Downloadable: http://www.nogumracing.com/whitney/2007 ... S_c1r2.MPG

Afternoon course third run FTC2 at 49.432. You get to listen to some of my unsolicited advice at the end to Keith about what I learned on that run

Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6722567536
Downloadable: http://www.nogumracing.com/whitney/2007 ... S_c2r3.MPG

Here's the mount. Don't laugh at my welds, I'm a novice. I made it yesterday, it cost about $3 in materials (not including the IO Port mount which I had laying around). Mounts to the stock "Oh Shit" handle threaded holes. Camera is a 3 year old Sony DSC-W1 in 640x480 movie mode:

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Nice setup! Since you don't really need those handles, that's a perfect place for it. Will watch the videos later.

cool idea Mike. are you going to pad the areas behind the head rests?

on a tangent subject, after watching your videos i feel better about my runs. the amount of steering inputs and counter steering corrections were less than mine but at least i see i wasn't flailing around needlessly.

OK, a bit OT here- but WTF is wrong with my computer??????

I have been unable to view any quicktime videos for the past week or so- I get the "Q" logo with a question mark in the center when trying to view anything in QT (like Mike's videos). I went to the Quicktime help section but it was no help- I even downloaded the latest software version (even after it said I already had the latest version) and when I was done, it's still the same.

Anyone?




Oh yeah, I'm running Windows XP, and I *USED* to be able to run QT videos with no problems. Have not added any new hardware or software- or made any changes to the system (that I'm aware of).

Those aren't QT videos. You have a virus called "Apple Computer Software" on your system. Download the videos, then find them on your drive, and right click on one. Select "Open With" then click "Choose program". Pick Windows Media Player and choose "always open with this program".

Even better yet, install Zoom player and do the above. Zoom is a really feature-packed lightweight program that doesn't try to sell you crap all the time like the Win/Apple capitalist-ware. If you're not using iTunes, uninstall Quicktime. (iTunes requires it I believe).

Even better yet, just watch them on the Google Video link I added earlier this morning!

_________________
Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Thanks Mike.

I uninstalled QT and all the Apple-update related programs, as well as I-Tunes (how the hell did that get installed?????). Now the video works perfectly, as it used to (and as it should).




I hate those damn auto-installing programs- almost as much as I hate not knowing more about computers. Makes me feel like most people must when they take their car in to the dealer to be serviced and they just glaze over when the service advisor talks to them about brake calipers and muffler bearings........


Bret.

Just watched your videos - you were wagging the tail waaaaay too much, and appeared to early-apex several key turns & had to correct a lot. Too much steering input, too. Your advice to Keith was correct, though.

Try using the brake pedal & gas pedal (lifting & tapping) along with the steering wheel unless it's a long or very tight turn and you have to use more extended steering wheel. As a general rule, the steering wheel in a Subaru shouldn't go more than 90° from center unless it's a turnaround. If it does, you're probably doing something wrong. Maybe you're still trying to drive a BMW?

But yeah, trying to go reallyreallyfast is usually slower than driving neatly and smoothly. The less you slide the car around, the less space your car occupies between the cones and the more room you have to work with, so you can be on the throttle longer. If that even makes any sense.

Looked like a fun pair of courses (afternoon looked better).

Which reminds me - did you ever tighten up that brake pedal? If not, you really, really need to. It will make the car a lot easier to control if you can just give it a little tap when you need to.

Ya know, up until my last run of the day, I would have totally agreed with you. Compared to my first 2 afternoon runs, my last run was wild and wooly. It was also my fastest. I have no idea what it looked like from outside the car but I'm not sure I was ever going straight other than at the start.

On that run, I was determined to stay off the brakes and pitched it sideways into every turn to scrub speed. Somewhere in the resulting big slide I would floor it and hope (pray?) to come out the other side. I had what felt like a terrible line down the hill on the back side of the course and was wagging the car all over the place. I was fully expecting to come across the finish line a full 2 seconds slower than my previous runs and I was shocked when it was my fastest. I really don't get it.

It makes me wonder if on that surface, a slightly different technique is required to go fast compared with our other sites? Does Oakland Acres require an adjustment in technique to get the most out of the car compared with Clayton/Four Oaks?

Slightly confused,

Jim

Talking with Charlie, I'd have to agree with you too. I was driving all "Four Oaks" trying to keep it neat and tidy. Charlie threw the bitch in there and hoped he came out alive.

Charlie owned me and if would keep off the damn cones would have been in the wood I think.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

OK Ryan, that's not exactly how I would have phrased it:

But as far as large wheel movements, the only place I had the wheel turned anywhere near 90 degrees was when I got a little crossed up in the bottom land with the large offsets. Mostly it was turn a little, lift a little and modulate the throttle to manage the amount of push.
The afternoon was much more fun due to the off camber drift down the hill. I love off camber turns (like turn 7 at Roebling Road).
In the morning I was lifting a little too much and getting more rotation than expected, and there was not as much understeer as anticipated, so the inside cones got a little too close.
Charlie Guthrie

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

Dang, I think I used the entire rack from lock to lock several times per lap. In the CRX, that would be over 1400 degrees. I know there were a couple of times where I wasn't entirely sure which direction the front wheels were pointing after furiously sawing at the wheel.

Jim

Oakland Acres drives the same as any other rallyx course, just has a lot more grip in some places - and you get even closer to tarmac (autox) technique the more grip you get. So you go from a little drift to very little drift or even no drift at all.

When I was talking about Mike's videos, I was talking Subaru technique, though. Playing around with fwd, I use some handbrake to help turn the car in some places & just keep one hand on the steering wheel. I keep thinking about trying out a fwd car at a rallyx to see what the fast way to drive it really is, but it's hard to drive something that slow when I have what I have in my garage.

I may be under estimating how much steering input I used, but when the car is really loose it doesn't take much to induce oversteer. I like corses better that have the turns close together like the afternoon course so that the car is always in a turn so that throttle does more of the steering than the wheel. I seem to have more trouble making the transitions from mostly straight to turning (especially if it involves braking....I HATE braking ).

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

It probably wasn't as sideways as you think it was. I keep the car in a very slight drift between the cones so that it's easier to change direction - you just have to time that change in direction right, so that it flows from turn to turn instead of getting choppy and requiring too much correction. Think of it this way... the front of the car goes as straight through the cones as possible, while the rear of the car swings to the side just enough to miss the cones &/or set the front of the car up to hit its next mark. Any more than that, and I think you're just being inefficient and losing momentum. Usually when you're giving the steering wheel big inputs, you're waiting to get on the gas, which is bad. I guess if you can stay on the gas and drag the rear tires sideways to slow the car down enough to keep it under control so that you're not making major corrections and losing time, that's what you should do. Think you can drive it like that every run and not end up hitting 10 cones, though? If so, good for you. Knowing Feinberg, he probably can.

I think I might try some crazy-ass driving at the next few rallyxes to see if I can make it work. My fastest times in the past have all been when I've just been really focused on driving clean, close to the cones & with a very small amount of drift, except where I needed to pitch it through a tightening sweeper or something to rotate it and line up the exit. If I found myself giving it too much steering wheel, I'd always back off the gas &/or tap the brake pedal and open the wheel, then continue after I had smoothed out.

Back to Oakland Acres, at the national challenge last year, I just remembered that several people came up to me to find out why my times were so fast when I looked so slow around the course, compared to the other guys who were just a little slower but looked like they were really hauling ass. I told them something like it was because being just barely under control is faster than being slightly out of control.