redrotorR1

Well, you'd have to calculate the Xbb, or the average of the averages. From that, calculate your variance and take the square root of that. Tada ... standard deviation of the results. BUT ... is that counting cones or not? What about DNF's? See where I'm going with this?

Or you could just throw it all into a JMP file and have JMP calculate all that stuff for you ..... or Excel for you MS clingers.

BTW, nice avatar.

SleepR1

76 days (during 7 years, 10-11 DEs per season) of high speed driving seat at 6 different tracks, and being a high speed drivers ed instructor myself, I do ok as an autocrosser. I'm certainly not in the hunt for FTD. I've autocrossed at least twice per year (since 1997) to meet the minimum requirement for my Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development discount This will be my first season in SM2 class, so I'll let you know how this it goes, couthardfan BTW do your J-spec twins whistle before switchover? Mine seem to...it's a high pitch whistle or whine?

Carl Byck

YOU are obsessed
I MUST FINISH MY SEVEN...
I love my SupraTT, but I love to drive my Seven. Carl

Coulthard Fan

Never heard a whistle, but I don't hear much intake noise with my PFS intake. Maybe that is it?

Back to autocrossing - does anyone left foot brake? I tried it in a racing go-kart yesterday and it felt weird... and didn't seem to have a net effect on my lap times.

88IntegraLS

Hey! You have two screen names unless there are two Carl Bycks prowling these boards.

DamonB

I have not started yet but for a turbo FD it would be a good thing. By left foot braking you can spool the turbos slightly quicker when getting on the throttle and this will always be quicker when done right. The hard part is doing it right redrotor tells me he left foots it so I am sure he will have something to say.

in2twins

in2twins(work) carl byck (home)
Learn to left foot brake, it makes all the difference autocrossing.
Carl

redrotorR1

I would venture to say that left-foot braking has easily bought me 0.5-1.0 seconds on each course that I run. Sometimes, more than that ... depending on the complexity/tightness of the course. Let's put it this way ... every fast driver in our local area left-foot brakes.

redrotorR1

I've noticed a whine of sorts. It's not noticeable with the windows up.

In go-karts, it's really helpful for keeping that little two-stroke engine revved up. If you lift on the throttle, notice how the kart falls flat on its face.

Coulthard Fan

Looks like more seat time is the only answer.

I've been real busy lately, but 2 weekends ago I did an SCCA Level 2 autocross school which was a great learning experience all around. We did something like 45 runs (most of them timed) and I made noticeable improvements over the course of the day. Primarily I learned to slow the car down a touch more before turning in as I had a tendancy to go in too hot. I focused on being smooth this time out... I'll have to learn the left foot braking some other time.

My overall view of learning AX skills was confirmed - and that is that the best way to develop is to keep going to schools. Going to an event and doing 4-6 runs just isn't enough to try different things, and having an instructor to tell you where you are screwing up/doing well helps a lot.

How I did - well, the RX7 represented at this school I got the FTD on the first segment and a close 3rd in the second segment. And I STILL felt like I was leaving time out on the course.

redrotorR1

You're going to almost always feel like you've left time on the course. That's a champions attitude. The more events that you run, the better you will get. I feel as though I've advanced a lot by going to as many events as possible. Watch/ride with as many of the fast drivers as possible. Try to stay with them. That's what always drives me.

finky

iTrader: (2)

Here is another question. I auto x'd this weekend and ran consistantly in my 5 runs (within .2 seconds). My times were mid pack. I went out for the fun runs and dropped 3 1/2 seconds on a 46 second course. How do you get your mind to do that all the time?

Cwaters

Breath. Relax. Take a second on the line to feel how tight you're gripping the wheel. White knuckles? You need to relax and concentrate. Be the cones
Remember, you're not trying to win the class. You don't need that damn trophy anyway. You just want to go faster. If you win, then woo hoo but it's not the goal, the goal is to be smooth and quick. quick and smoothsmoothandquick...
ohhmmmmmmm
Cory

redrotorR1

Also, keep in mind that times will drop as the day progresses. The surface starts to get heated up and the previous heats have left a lot of rubber on the 'track' which slightly increases traction. Your times will improve. For instance, back in days when we were able to do morning and afternoon heats, the fastest times always came in the afternoon.

And, like most people during fun runs, you don't care about hitting cones. Try and take that attitude on your actual runs. Or get one clean run in, and then go for it on your other runs. It's never going to be a perfect run .... just make slight improvements and learn from them.

rx7passion

the autocross learning curve hmm, well it would have to be between the size of your wallet and the class you run in. Ive been autocrossing for 3 years now, passed 2 years the car was getting changed so much i couldnt put together a full season for points. I believe for driving competivitley its mostly driverskill, and ive learned alot of my driving skill from go-karting amazingly. i worked at a go kart track and learned to whoop everybodys *** at it. So now that ive been in autocross with a fully setup car i can do pretty good in the porsche club events. top 3 everytime and those were in wet rainy events.
But the only way to learn and become good is doing it along time and becoming one with your car, most of the guys that consistantly win dont have 500hp and 18x10 slicks its guys with good cars that carry mommentum. once you can learn to do that well and not hit any cones buy some thick sway bars a set of konis and some hoosiers

Silver-Arrowz

The hardest learing curve is re-learning how to drive. Most of my friends we're straight liners (drag racers) and I adopted many lazy and silly little things from them.

Auto-x, the hardest lessions I found had was learning to turn late.

Left foot breaking is good because it helps with reaction times and inducing understeer if the car is oversteering.

BTW, good to see a mclarens man!

redrotorR1

Err ... turning earlier and taking wider arcs is the faster path through a course. Perhaps you're talking about late apexing?