Walking the course if you're driving a kart might even be a waste of time
cept to let you know approximately where the course goes. The point of view
at walking height is a totally different perspective than sitting in a kart.
What was clear at walking height just might disappear from the kart seat. :)
--Pat K
----------
>From: "Darren Madams" <darren@madams.com>
>To: Joe Ciarcia <veloimpreza@yahoo.com>
>Cc: ba-autox@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: The hardest autox skill?
>Date: Tue, Dec 10, 2002, 5:19 PM
>
> 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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>>
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