TDE at ECR, day 2 / wrap-up

[decibel45]

I've come to the conclusion that pushing a car to it's limits on a track requires a certain amount of faith. Not faith in God (though that might not hurt), but faith in the car, and faith that the car will actually take care of tracking the correct line without you actively watching it. The more you're looking ahead, the less you can directly see

Comments

[nugget]

Monica will be at the autocross national tour in Fort Worth on May 3 and 4. I wonder if I should caravan up with her but do MSR instead. :)

[decibel45]

I saw some video of MSR this weekend... that track looks to be a blast.

Registration's still open... :>

[equiraptor]

At the autocross yesterday, I rode with someone who had an FI Miata (I'm not sure if it was turbo or supercharger - I wasn't paying attention to that and didn't really care). He was posting pretty slow times, even in the dry, and I know his car was capable of more. Before he went out on his last run, the one I rode with him on, I told him, "Trust the car. It's a Miata. It can do it, trust in it." He said, "It's not very much Miata anymore." And that's why he's not able to get the times he should. He doesn't trust the car.

the lesson I'd finally learned at TWS was that if the back of the NSX starts stepping out, you give it throttle.This is something they had to convince me to try at the track. The way my brain deals with it is definitely different at the track than at autocross. To my brain, at autocrosses, slightly more throttle straightens and slightly less throttle sharpens the curve. At the track, slightly more throttle stabilizes the car and slightly less destabilizes it. It's odd how that difference in how I think of it really

[decibel45]

Keep in mind that there's definitely a difference between doing something at 20-30MPH and doing it at 60-80MPH. Sharpening the curve happens because you have de-stabilized the car... the difference is that it's way easier to control that at autox speeds than at track speeds.

[equiraptor]

20-30mph? Wow, your car sucks at autocross more than I thought. I'm comparing the 50+mph sweepers in autocross to the 60-70mph turns at the track. The difference in my mind has more to do with finding the line relative to the available markers and the flexibility or lack thereof of the line.

[decibel45]

Ok, maybe 50 is closer to right; at least it was at the driveway event. But I've also run courses where I'd never really need 2nd until the very end.

Or maybe I just haven't been pushing the hard nearly hard enough at autocross, either...