clyde
05-08-2004, 10:27 PM
An update to this thread (http://forums.bimmerevolution.com/viewtopic.php?t=1994).
Today was my second autocross in the Rotary Powered M3 Slayer with the R comps and the first with the R comps since the alignment. I ran the tires at much higher pressures than last time (55 vs 42 cold) and had front rebound set to full stiff. Turn in was a lot sharper than last time...very close to what I originally expected from the Hoosiers. Overall, the car feels very neutral. [cue foreshadowing music] If anything, it's a little prone to oversteer. [/music] Understeer is a tool available to driver, but only when asking for it. Compared to the cars I've driven in the past, the throttle steering capability and feedback is just mindblowing. The car just feels really good. It's clearly faster than I am, which is good because it leaves me with no excuses for why I am slow in my class other than I am in need of driver improvement. (Although the WDCR-SCCA's computer thinks I am a novice...and a very fast one at that.)
Moving along...I made a lot of mistakes today. It was a very long and very fast course. I am learning how much more grip the Hoosiers have than street tires but I am still not coming close to getting everything out of them. I have a nasty habit of lifting where I don't need to and braking earlier and harder than I need to (although that is certainly better than braking too little, too late). I also think that my line choices could use a lot of work...I think I may be thinking too much in terms of classic road racing lines too often. :dunno:
Anyway, I was doing okay today, holding my own through the first two runs. However, by the end of the second run, two of the three other fast BS guys had reruns coming to them. I made some noticeable errors early on my third run and was fortunate enough to happen upon a slalom gate missing a cone (with courseworker, cone in hand, off to the side). I stopped and was waved on with a rerun in my future. On my fourth run, I made more of a conscious effort to not lift in about half a dozen places but still lifted in three or four of them. I also entered one turn too hot and pushed a little and got a little too sideways in another. Both of those cost me time, but I chopped off 8/10 of a second from my best time with that run (51.4 vs 52.2). Some of the gain had to have been due to warmer tires, but I'm pretty sure that not lifting in the places I didn't lift played a big part of it as well.
So, on my rerun, I made more of an effort to not lift in those same places, plus two more and was doing damn well at it...until...I spun near the end of the course. Up to that point, I was turning my best run of the day. I felt like I was right on the edge through a lot of it (some of it due to not lifting in those choice spots) but I had it buttoned down. Then, coming out of a not too sharp downhill right that (I think) changed to uphill just around the apex that to a short slalom, the rear got away from me. I was looking at the end of the slalom and thinking about the left that followed it when I realized that the rear had stepped out more than I was happy with. I think I lifted, which of course, made it worse and it rapidly reached the point that it was no longer worth trying to save (if I even could have without initiating a tank slapper). So, clutch in and brakes on, I was a passenger for a brief trip. I didn't stall, so I finished my run with thoughts of what could have been.
My best guess is that I would have done a low 50.xxx possibly even breaking into the 49.xxx if I hadn't looped it...and I'm sure that the car still had more to give to a better driver. I don't think that I would have beaten John V's blazing 49.6, but I wouldn't have been trailing by so much (nearly two seconds :cry: ) OTOH, it looks like I did better compared to a number of other people today than I have in the past. Maybe I am getting better :dunno:
This car is fast. Wish I was too. :angel:
Today was my second autocross in the Rotary Powered M3 Slayer with the R comps and the first with the R comps since the alignment. I ran the tires at much higher pressures than last time (55 vs 42 cold) and had front rebound set to full stiff. Turn in was a lot sharper than last time...very close to what I originally expected from the Hoosiers. Overall, the car feels very neutral. [cue foreshadowing music] If anything, it's a little prone to oversteer. [/music] Understeer is a tool available to driver, but only when asking for it. Compared to the cars I've driven in the past, the throttle steering capability and feedback is just mindblowing. The car just feels really good. It's clearly faster than I am, which is good because it leaves me with no excuses for why I am slow in my class other than I am in need of driver improvement. (Although the WDCR-SCCA's computer thinks I am a novice...and a very fast one at that.)
Moving along...I made a lot of mistakes today. It was a very long and very fast course. I am learning how much more grip the Hoosiers have than street tires but I am still not coming close to getting everything out of them. I have a nasty habit of lifting where I don't need to and braking earlier and harder than I need to (although that is certainly better than braking too little, too late). I also think that my line choices could use a lot of work...I think I may be thinking too much in terms of classic road racing lines too often. :dunno:
Anyway, I was doing okay today, holding my own through the first two runs. However, by the end of the second run, two of the three other fast BS guys had reruns coming to them. I made some noticeable errors early on my third run and was fortunate enough to happen upon a slalom gate missing a cone (with courseworker, cone in hand, off to the side). I stopped and was waved on with a rerun in my future. On my fourth run, I made more of a conscious effort to not lift in about half a dozen places but still lifted in three or four of them. I also entered one turn too hot and pushed a little and got a little too sideways in another. Both of those cost me time, but I chopped off 8/10 of a second from my best time with that run (51.4 vs 52.2). Some of the gain had to have been due to warmer tires, but I'm pretty sure that not lifting in the places I didn't lift played a big part of it as well.
So, on my rerun, I made more of an effort to not lift in those same places, plus two more and was doing damn well at it...until...I spun near the end of the course. Up to that point, I was turning my best run of the day. I felt like I was right on the edge through a lot of it (some of it due to not lifting in those choice spots) but I had it buttoned down. Then, coming out of a not too sharp downhill right that (I think) changed to uphill just around the apex that to a short slalom, the rear got away from me. I was looking at the end of the slalom and thinking about the left that followed it when I realized that the rear had stepped out more than I was happy with. I think I lifted, which of course, made it worse and it rapidly reached the point that it was no longer worth trying to save (if I even could have without initiating a tank slapper). So, clutch in and brakes on, I was a passenger for a brief trip. I didn't stall, so I finished my run with thoughts of what could have been.
My best guess is that I would have done a low 50.xxx possibly even breaking into the 49.xxx if I hadn't looped it...and I'm sure that the car still had more to give to a better driver. I don't think that I would have beaten John V's blazing 49.6, but I wouldn't have been trailing by so much (nearly two seconds :cry: ) OTOH, it looks like I did better compared to a number of other people today than I have in the past. Maybe I am getting better :dunno:
This car is fast. Wish I was too. :angel: