[Non-MQB] [Autocross] Points Event #4 with TSCC: July 2023
Not MQB related - but it’s still driving so why not?
Today was fun hopping into an unfamiliar car at an auto-x for the first time in 5 years, and still being able to put a second on the owner. In 2017-2018 I drove a different car at every single autocross event which definitely helped me to get better as a driver overall, forcing me to adapt to whatever the heck I was hopping into.
While I didn't record my fastest (50.099, and my only run with no passenger), but this was my fastest w/ passenger vs the car's owner's fastest run (which also happened to have a passenger). This was good for 3rd out of 9 in the ST class.
If you’re reading this and you’re new to autocross (or not): One of the best things you can do to develop a car and your own driving is to have a co-driver. I’ve had it go both ways for me, sometimes I’m the one learning things, sometimes it’s the car’s owner (or whoever is co-driving my car).
We weren’t really planning on tuning the car, but after a few runs were done in Gordon’s Miata, we consistently had the back end stepping out way too easily on-throttle. I suggested we try softening the rear dampers (Ohlins in this case) by 2 clicks, and sure enough the car went from having to tip-toe getting on throttle, to being able to lay into it a lot faster and sooner.
Even though we weren’t running any real data aside from simple GoPro video, I was able to provide some info to Gordon to focus on next time. Most of what I gained on him was the first ~20 seconds of the course. If you listen to the exhaust notes with head phones individually, you can hear me get on the throttle a lot sooner around the 14 second mark. We were pretty even overall through the back half of the course - I hesitated and almost went on the wrong side of one of the slalom cones which hurt me a bit and he gained some ground back.
Gordon was about 1 car length behind me at the 43 second mark, and from there to the finish I may have gotten on the throttle a TINY bit earlier, or was just feeding more overall on average, but that turned into about 2 car lengths lead passing the last pointer cone leading to the finish.
Obviously being able to look at throttle traces would be helpful, but even basic analytics can be done if you have 2 drivers, a simple camera, and some time to process the videos after an event to try and learn from the best of both drivers.
