Total SNAFU!!! Oct. 6th Autocross...

Countersteer quick!
This past Sunday was a TOTAL FAILURE.

By removing the rear swaybar, the car drove totally different from last race. And, add that to my non-adjustable lousy driving, I again never compensated until the LAST of my fun runs. Took 8 out of 9 runs, but, I finally got it to do a 29.8ish - versus the 31+ I mangled out during the real runs.

Like the last race, I managed to totally RUN OVER so many cones that gave up trying to count. You know it's bad when while I was working the fun runs, another competitor mentioned to me that, "that cream Miata's been running over the most cones....."...no $h!^^!#&..."Oh yeah...that was me."

My brother again smoked the course in his 6 running a 31.6ish for 1st place in STS. Maybe...I gotta get back into my bimmer wagon and into STS again??? In the fun runs he managed a 30 flat in the Miata while totally messing up a key turn.

Fwiw...the roadster is driving totally different now...without fear of a spin, sans rear sway, it has a very predictable trailing throttle oversteer, and, on power it doesn't slide very much and puts down the power WAY better than before. Overall, much more stable and less twitchy. Now that I think I know how to drive it, next race...it should be different...IT BETTER BE!!! Just writing this is p!$$!#& me off...



Results: http://www.sccahawaii.org/2008results/10-5-08.pdf

1st Race of the 2008-2009 SCCA Hawaii Season

Last Sunday, March 30th, was the first race of the new season.

In the Runoffs a couple of weeks ago, my brother beat me by a 1/2 second. It's getting w-o-r-s-e...I got beat by 1 second this time!!!

Like it is before every race...we both couldn't wait to get on the track again as SCCA is the only outlet to let your car really RUN. STS ran in the first heat, which is a slight disadvantage as you don't get to watch/learn from the prior heat...but whatevers...cause I walked the course lots that morning.

We knew that the course was going to be SLOW...and per the data logger IT WAS as most of the course was run in the 20 to 35mph range. Really too slow for our tastes as you didn't get any adrenaline rush that you get when you're into the 35-40mph range.

Since moving to Aloha Stadium, the courses have been MUCH slower and shorter than at HRP. Can't be helped really...unless...they double up on the track. But if they did that, every ones day would get really long since probably only one car could be on the course at the same time.

Like the prior races...I had difficulty finding the right line and pushing the car to the limit, especially in the 180 type turns. On my last run, I was going decently good, until I hit one turn where I just took a TERRIBLE line (actaully lots of people took the same crappy line as was observed when we were working the course) and I ended up going back "upstream" to make that turn and the next.

Comparing runs on my data logger, I really lost a lot of time there...but not for that mistake I probably would have run in the high 42s...but with my driving, I probably would have *!^#$% up somewhere else...

Here's my brother's fastest run (I think)...




STS Results:

Gregg Mazda 6-Wagon 42.079 PAX 28th
Steven BMW 325it 43.087 PAX 46th
Erik Subaru RS Wagon 43.995 PAX 55th
Malcolm Toyota Corolla 46.773 PAX 86th

My brohter's PAX of 28th is d@mn good with a heavy FWD wagon!!! Like always...can't wait till next race...I'm now taking tips from my brother and back to reading my racing books again: http://serikaku.blogspot.com/search?q=Shhhh...Secrets

Feb. 17th SCCA - Back In The Game...

I was taking these "focus factor" pills before last Sunday's SCCA race and...they must have helped...I finally got back to #1.


Although the day started out rainy, our class lucked out and ran in the 2nd heat, and by that time, the track was getting reasonably dry. Running in the 1st heat must have been about 2 to 4 seconds slower than in the drier conditions.

Mazda 6 Wagon - about 2/10ths behind on a ragged run.


BMW 325 Wagon - at full throttle heading towards the bottom sweeper.

Last Sunday's course was a wide open and high speed track that really favored the high powered cars. Even my car got up to about 40mph or faster at about 4 points on the track. So I would think the high powered cars got up to over 50mph!

Compared to my last several races, my course vision was a LOT better as I was looking way ahead on all except for one run. The problem with that run was that I got behind on one section, and once you get "behind the course," you'll never catch up!

But even if you're looking ahead, the other BIGGER key was that I picked a fast line, especially on the last run.

It seems that for my car, on this course (maybe most autox courses?) I need to take a line which really "opens up the course" and lets me exit the turns set up on the quickest straightest lines allowing full gas asap for the next section. And, in the slaloms and transitions, my brother reminded me to "attack the back" of the cones, which really keeps you ahead of the course.

Well...that's what worked last week, at least. Hopefully it works in next weeks Hawaii SCCA Championship Runoffs...

STS
Steven BMW 325it 35.609 39.002 1 35.121 34.602 34.602
Gregg Mazda 6-Wagon 35.861 35.037 35.591 34.853 34.853
Aaron Lexus IS300 DNF 35.812 35.737 38.132 1 35.737
Ryan Lexus IS300 40.269 1 37.767 36.966 38.857 1 36.966

Full Results: http://www.sccahawaii.org/2-17-08.pdf

July 7th Autocross and MaxQdata Logger

Last Sunday was the 2nd race of Oahu's 2007 Autocross season and it was a virtual Miata Lovefest - with the most Miatas I've ever seen in one place. They were so many in all classes every which way you looked!!!

(thanks jon&erin for the action pics)

And...I finally got to use my MaxQdata logger "for real"...for the first time. Although it would sometimes register 40 to 60 mph without even moving...blue tooth problems???...it pretty much ran well enough to my satisfaction. Here is the plot of my final and fastest run of the day:

If you asked me what 1 lateral G felt like before, I would have no idea...but now I know. On this right hand sweeper my brother's eunos (the small red "x") was pulling almost 1 G (0.97Gs actually) steady state at almost 33mph. According to the data, the fastest speed I hit during the run was 40mph...which is surprising cause it feels a lot faster when your actually driving. The slowest speed was 22mph at 0.93Gs at the tight right hand U-turn at the bottom of the course. One some of the transitional turns, I got up to 1.05Gs, but these are not really steady state.

At almost 1G on that first right hand sweeper, the G force actually makes shifting difficult as your totally slammed against the door the second you take your hand off the steering wheel to make the 1st to 2nd shift!!!

Since the data is only logging at 5 times per second (60 hertz?), it's pretty difficult to see differences of less than 0.2 seconds...although, larger difference are very easy to see. In this plot, I overlayed my fastest run and my slowest run and this was the difference in the end:

32.945 (the blue "x") was my fastest run, versus my slowest at 34.218 (the red "x")...as you can see, I forgot to look ahead far enough ahead on the run down to the U-turn and really "altered" my line...and ran over a cone...

At the end of the day, I also did 2 fun runs in the eunos and could not better my 32.9 run...BUT, I did accomplish something I wasn't sure I could really do...I went back down to 1st gear in the bottom U-turn using the heel-toe downshift technique. I must say that doing that stuff at race speeds is MUCH easier than trying to practice at pedestrian driving speeds...I guess the synchros just don't mesh well at non-racing speeds...

During the fun runs, I also got to run my brothers 6-wagon with the data logger. With his all-season tires and stock suspension, the most Gs I could pull were 0.75 in steady state and 0.83 in the transitions, with a top speed of 36.5mph and a low speed of 20mph.

One thing good about fun runs is it gives you more seat time...and although I couldn't improve my fastest time, my brother finally got "it" on his last fun run. What he got was the looking ahead part...and he bettered his best time by over 1 second!!! Good habits to have for the next race...

RESULTS: As far as placing goes, I got dusted again by in CSP by a good 2.5 seconds by the same M3 and a MR2 that beat me last time...Results http://www.sccahawaii.org/7-1-07.pdf I'm guessing I shouldn't feel THAT bad getting beat though... since they did have the 2nd and 3rd fastest times OVERALL!!! I'll need to track how close I can get to those guys in future races...

sent to: http://www.mycarpage.blogspot.com/