[atakacs]

Ok it's like this: At my last AX I was probably 6 seconds slower than the avg for my class, ESP on what was mostly a 50-60 second course. Most cars were mid to low 50s and a Z06 even ran a 49. My best was a 60. I am literally one of the slowest drivers at the event. I'm on stock tires which I know sucks, but... even when I let a buddy drive my car, he got a better time than me the 1st time ever driving it so I know it's me, not the car. I mean... there's a guy in a lightly modified CTS-V on street tires that gets better times than me!!!

I ran a few AXs last year... 3, maybe. How can I improve or practice without spending several years doing it? We get so few runs per event and then I couldn't attend the local driver's school, and I'll miss about 4 of the AX events over the summer for work as well as the EVO school. I thought about setting up some cones in a Wal-Mart parking lot after hours but I'm sure the cops would show up in no time... so I tried something different. I got a Logitech/Momo racing wheel & pedals for the PC and a few driving games/simulators like NFS and GTR2. I'm not sure how good they are at making you a better driver... unfortunately I think they made me more cautious, not more competitive.

So what do I do? I'd like to be competitive by the end of the year and recognized as the most improved this year. Do you think there's any hope?

This post has been edited by atakacs: May 11 2007, 08:21 PM

[slowTA]

I've been autocrossing for 10 years and just started getting competitive last year or two. Mostly because I had to sit out half a season for one reason or another, so I just did it for fun knowing I would be able to devote more time to it eventually.

Have you spun the car or come close to it? I'm not saying this to be macho or anything, but sometimes people need it to loosen up and see just how far the car can go. The car might be a lot more capable than you think! I'm also not saying you should go and spin the car just for fun either.

Good luck and keep us up to date.

[DavidDymaxion]

In addition to what others have said:

See if you can get a better driver to codrive your car for a day. I did this with someone in our club, and they immediately jumped from lower 10% to mid-pack, and are now in the upper 1/3 of times. For me, I improved alot after the EVO school.

Playstation GT3 and GT4. The driver's tests I think are especially good, as well as the test tracks. I highly recommend a force feedback steering wheel.

You might not be as far behind as you might think. I assume you have a Camaro? A CTS-V has 100+ hp on you, IRS, and bigger wheels. I have found race tires to be good for as much as 5 seconds improvement on a 60 second course. It is probably worth giving everything a good wiggle, and make sure nothing is loose on the car, and having the alignment checked. Did you copy a proven ESP setup, or did you mod on your own? Suprisingly small changes to the car can make it difficult to drive well. I did an AX alignment (max neg camber), and then the front stuck, but the car oversteered (lots of air in the front tires fixed that, and I'm hoping my new strano bar is the right fix for it). I put on race tires, but the car would suddenly spin out without warning (I think it was topping or bottoming out) -- but some Strano koni shocks fixed that and the car is much gentler now.

Did you transition from a front wheel drive car? I was able to drive my FWD near its limits soon. It took me a while to learn "slow in and fast out" with my Camaro. It has taken many AXs to master the car, but boy is it rewarding to drive! I'm still learning.

This post has been edited by DavidDymaxion: May 10 2007, 05:52 AM