Faust's H Street Flailings

[faust]

Finally got to drive the rt660s in warm weather! (70s yesterday, sunny later in the day). So much more traction available. More than I could bring myself to use consistently, looks like it might take a few sessions to really get a feel for how much grip they have. There was one sweeper (starting aroung :17 in the video) where I felt them starting to slip.

The higher speeds & increased grip seemed to want more tire pressure, I ended up back at 45 front / 36 rear. I should probably mess around with higher rear pressure next time we have a test.

There was a timing snafu in the first session, so we ended up getting a total of 5 runs. First one was slow, second was faster but with a cone, third was fastest of the day but with two cones, then hit yet another cone on my fourth... fortunately was able to pull off a clean final run, though it was 0.25 behind my 3rd. That put me in 37 out of 127 by PAX. That should improve as I learn to trust the tires.

 

[Rexracer]

Looked like a good run. That location seems to offer the opportunity to go to 3rd. From :32-:47 you were near/at redline, so could have gone to 3rd and gotten a few more mph. If its only 1-2 seconds I just hold 2nd, but if its fairly steady state I have had good results going to 3rd. The hard part is when you get to that next tight turn you have to remember your going 5-10mph faster and don't blow that corner (back up your braking zone), which is what I did at Vegas Tour day 2. Even with that snaffu, it was still 0.8xx faster (not solely that section obviously, but it didn't cost me the run).
You also are coasting into some corners (e.g. :48), thats time you could have stayed on the gas, then a dab of the brakes instead of 1-2 seconds of coasting. Overall looks like good improvement!

 

[faust]

Looked like a good run. That location seems to offer the opportunity to go to 3rd. From :32-:47 you were near/at redline, so could have gone to 3rd and gotten a few more mph. If its only 1-2 seconds I just hold 2nd, but if its fairly steady state I have had good results going to 3rd. The hard part is when you get to that next tight turn you have to remember your going 5-10mph faster and don't blow that corner (back up your braking zone), which is what I did at Vegas Tour day 2. Even with that snaffu, it was still 0.8xx faster (not solely that section obviously, but it didn't cost me the run).
You also are coasting into some corners (e.g. :48), thats time you could have stayed on the gas, then a dab of the brakes instead of 1-2 seconds of coasting. Overall looks like good improvement!

You're right about the chance to go to 3rd. Our fast FiST driver did just that, and put down a time almost 2 seconds faster. I was too chicken!

 

[Rexracer]

Ha, its a tough thing to do and make work well. Definitely try it in practice if you have opportunity. The 2 competitions this year I have tried it, I did save improve my time, but messed up the following corner (going to much faster), so it takes work/planning.

 

[faust]

We had an event at Brainerd International yesterday. It was a short, tight course, and I never really figured it out. Many of the corners were slightly off-camber, just enough to further complicate finding the right line. I think I lost a lot of time to greed, especially in the slalom at the end. The other FiST beat me by over 2 seconds. Well, I get to try again in a few weeks.

This was my first event with the rear Bilsteins installed, and I have no idea how they altered the driving dynamics (though the drive there & back was much improved). I should be able to get the fronts installed by the next event.

 

[Rexracer]

Its amazing how a change in venue really changes how a course is driven. Yes that was a tight one, but what I saw was you were driving point to point and not looking far enough ahead. You drove hard at something, just to blow past the turn in and mess up the next element. There are 2 types of AX'ers, ones that struggle to be aggressive enough, and ones that are overly aggressive. Your prior events, you were not aggressive enough, and this one you were to aggressive. Now to find balance, but above all, you have to know where you are going, by keeping your eyes up and as many elements as possible ahead of you. I normally am looking out 4 elements, then scan backward down and back up.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

We had an event at Brainerd International yesterday. It was a short, tight course, and I never really figured it out. Many of the corners were slightly off-camber, just enough to further complicate finding the right line. I think I lost a lot of time to greed, especially in the slalom at the end. The other FiST beat me by over 2 seconds. Well, I get to try again in a few weeks.

This was my first event with the rear Bilsteins installed, and I have no idea how they altered the driving dynamics (though the drive there & back was much improved). I should be able to get the fronts installed by the next event.

Where are you at here in Mn?....I see you went to BIR.

 

[faust]

Its amazing how a change in venue really changes how a course is driven. Yes that was a tight one, but what I saw was you were driving point to point and not looking far enough ahead. You drove hard at something, just to blow past the turn in and mess up the next element. There are 2 types of AX'ers, ones that struggle to be aggressive enough, and ones that are overly aggressive. Your prior events, you were not aggressive enough, and this one you were to aggressive. Now to find balance, but above all, you have to know where you are going, by keeping your eyes up and as many elements as possible ahead of you. I normally am looking out 4 elements, then scan backward down and back up.

That's definitely how it felt!

Your advice matches what I'm hearing from our local fast guys. Now I just need to learn how to do it...

 

[faust]

Where are you at here in Mn?....I see you went to BIR.

Yep, I'm in the cities. The drive up to BIR wasn't bad, but summer traffic was in effect on the way back.

 

[Jabbit]

What camera/software is that?

 

[faust]

What camera/software is that?

An old GoPro (3 I think), and Solostorm.

 

[faust]

Had my first event with Bilsteins installed on all corners. Wish I could do a back-to-back test, because I'm not actually sure how differently the car drives with them. It certainly isn't any worse, and the day-to-day experience is improved. The RT660s are feeling more familiar, I think I'm learning how far I can trust them to grip.

It was an interesting course. Started out with a 360 loop. Later on in the course there was a transition from being on the rev limiter to a relatively tight 7 cone slalom -- never quite got the right speed / angle to enter that element appropriately.

The website our club uses for live timing was down, so I'm not quite sure how well I did. Assuming neither of us hit cones, my best lap was a 73.33, vs. a 71.5 for our fast FiST guy. The fastest raw times were in the high 60s. We did see a few snapshots of the internal timing system, and from those it looked like I came in 13 of 29 in our PAX index class, 24th of 100+ overall by PAX, which I believe would make it my best finish to date.

 

[Rexracer]

That is a tough course, and you were using all the track. You were late turning in on the 1st cone of the slalom, you need to be more aggressive to backside that first cone as it sets up the rest of the course. Last year we got to do a slalom challenge, tons of runs through 2 differently spaced slaloms (90ft out, 70ft back). I learned a tone with all the practice I got doing it. You should suggest something like this to your club.
Sept 2020 Cone Challenge - YouTube

 

[faust]

That is a tough course, and you were using all the track. You were late turning in on the 1st cone of the slalom, you need to be more aggressive to backside that first cone as it sets up the rest of the course. Last year we got to do a slalom challenge, tons of runs through 2 differently spaced slaloms (90ft out, 70ft back). I learned a tone with all the practice I got doing it. You should suggest something like this to your club.
Sept 2020 Cone Challenge - YouTube

huh, looks like you're right, I just didn't start turning the wheel in time for the first slalom cone.

Someone in the club actually suggested something like that with the slaloms, but there wasn't much enthusiasm for it. We do usually get a few different slaloms to look at in test and tune events, good reminder to sign up for another one of those.

 

[Rexracer]

huh, looks like you're right, I just didn't start turning the wheel in time for the first slalom cone.

Someone in the club actually suggested something like that with the slaloms, but there wasn't much enthusiasm for it. We do usually get a few different slaloms to look at in test and tune events, good reminder to sign up for another one of those.

Yeah getting the 1st cone wrong mess's up the rest of the sequence.


And I too was against doing this cone thing, I thought it would be boring, but they did a autocross relay race before the cone challenge, and a day racing is betting then sitting at home doing nothing. But I cant believe how valuable the experience was, I really learned a ton about doing the slalom way better. It really is a valuable experience to just practice this over and over.

 

[faust]

For some reason finding myself thinking about trying to sign up for nats this afternoon. I'm not fast enough to be particularly competitive, but it sounds fun.

 

[faust]

Actually, nah. Got some more info about the value of being there a day early, and looked some more at how far off the pace I'd likely be, and not feeling it this year.

Goal for next year.

 

[Rexracer]

Actually, nah. Got some more info about the value of being there a day early, and looked some more at how far off the pace I'd likely be, and not feeling it this year.

Goal for next year.

Well if you treat each event as a learning thing, not winning is ok, and you can be in a better position once you fee like you are on pace.

Have you done a Tour race yet? That is a good introduction. My first one last year was nearly overwhelming, but then 2nd one in Vegas this year was way easier, and able to focus on the driving way more instead of the event itself.

After 2 hours we already have 28 signed up for HS!!!

 

[faust]

Well if you treat each event as a learning thing, not winning is ok, and you can be in a better position once you fee like you are on pace.

Have you done a Tour race yet? That is a good introduction. My first one last year was nearly overwhelming, but then 2nd one in Vegas this year was way easier, and able to focus on the driving way more instead of the event itself.

After 2 hours we already have 28 signed up for HS!!!

No, I actually hadn't looked at Tour events. Checking out locations, the ones in Lincoln are actually the shortest drive for me. Not a bad idea for next year.

 

[Rexracer]

Not sure if this is normal, but this time they had 2 separate events. So in 4 days you can get 2 full events in!