An excellent question. I'll answer it in two (possibly more) ways.
The "hardest" autox skill to learn is without a doubt left foot braking. It
just requires hours of practice, and development of muscles and dexterity that
you have no use for outside of racing (and even then it's debatable how useful
it is). Rob Luis left foot broke my Integra at my first autocross school...
I've been a believer ever since. Learn driving an automatic on the street,
then progress to a three pedal machine, then try it autocrossing. I'm still
not great at it, but damn did it work well at the first SFR rallycross!!!
The skill that takes the longest time to perfect, yet gives the most reward?
Maximazing (or exceeding in a manner that improves time) the traction of the
car in all directions. Read that again. This mainly applies in my case to
getting the most forward direction out of the tires... in my understeering
Integra that meant not overpowering the front wheels when they were trying to
turn as well (power-on understeer), and on my kart it means not overpowering
the rear tires when coming out of a slow tight corner. However, it also means
getting the most out of the lateral capabilities in long sweepers... that's
taking the right line, and being smooth. It also means getting the most out of
the traction under braking. As Kevin talks about, weight transfer is a key
ingredient to consider here as well. ABS or not, there is a limit your tires
can do (independent of available braking force) that you need to get as close
to as possible.
As for your braking problems, at the school two years ago they did a braking
square exercise... that's the best way to learn. Braking in a straight line
teaches you nothing about loading the outside front tire (or unloading the
inside rear). It also teaches you nothing about trail braking.
I'll put in the obligatory plug for Geez here. It will quickly give you
numbers about just how hard you are braking. You can do a baseline straight
stop to find your maximum possible braking g's, then try to approach that in a
competition environment.
--Darren
p.s. Katie's comment about looking ahead is also a good one! I was in a rut
big time and not walking the course for two events drastically improved my
driving.
Joe Ciarcia <veloimpreza@yahoo.com> wrote ..
> I'm sure this thread title will attract some colorful
> responses from this oh so serious crowd <hehe>.
> Seriously though, what do you think is the hardest
> skill to master in autox?
>
> After reading a post on the i-club board I realized
> that the thing I have the most difficulty with is
> braking. When I think about it, just about every
> mistake that I've been making is related to braking. I
> think I'm choosing okay lines, at least I'm not making
> any HUGE mistakes about the line I'd ***LIKE*** to
> take. Proper braking seems to be an elusive skill for
> me though.
>
> How does one practice braking? Seems like a silly
> question but seriously, how do I get better at it? I
> seem to be in a rut. It would seem as if most people
> brake to late, or brake to early however I don't seem
> to discriminate between the two (maybe I lean a little
> be towards braking too early which probably makes some
> sense for my experience level). This past event I
> experienced "HOLY CRAP, I didn't know my car could
> stop that fast" and... "ummm... yeah, I'm off course
> because I really wanted to do a donut, yeah that's
> it".
>
> Cheers Joe
>
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