So I've autox some now with front wheel drive and have hit a track with same car and bloody heck I'm over driving and scrubbing speed off via plowing.

It's like its second nature over driving the bloody car. I know I need to stop it but. The lines I try don't seem to be generating speed like overdriving the fwd car.

What is the proper tech for fwd? Is it really slow in and roll on the throttle more than an fbody?

Please anyone with fwd exp help out the idiot behind the wheel.

I don't know if this helps:
http://www.drivingfast.net/

It's hard to give you suggestions without knowing the make/model of the car and the basic suspension setup. I drove a '98 Neon ACR for several years in both autox and road course venues. The car handled relatively well and cornered with only modest understeer, however, the car came with Koni SAs and had oversize anti roll bars from the factory. The car always had the largest allowable tire and sticky compounds for the track.

Unless you're charging into the corners and jumping on the throttle, my guess is that a good part of your trouble is suspension/tire related. FWD with soft suspension and average oem rubber will want to understeer as that's the nature of the design. So, what are the details on the car's current configuation?

Agreed. If you are over-driving the front wheels, that's a good recipe for slow track times. You may need to get the back to working more, or more traction for the front. You can also try braking earlier so you don't depend on the front tires to brake AND turn.

I occasionally drive a craptastic FWD Isuzu in LeMons events, with stock (really) shocks and springs that fell out of our car and a BMW during suspension upgrades on those cars. The Isuzu handles pretty well, albeit it's significantly traction- and power-limited. But we can lap as fast, or faster than many Spec Miatas at MSRH, so it isn't too bad.

What's your setup, maybe we can help? But yeah, driving _harder_ isn't necessarily driving faster.

I have been driving a Focus prep for Spec Focus Class in Nasa. I personally like to trailbrake to help rotate. I also try to do a late apex so that my steering wheels are straighter when i'm on the throttle. I also try to steer as least as possible. If the car is not turning in more steering only makes it worst. Also let the car fall into place when exiting corners... It will feel like it is opening up to the outside of the corner exit by itself. If you want further explanation i can do some drawings...

Hey thanks for the driving tips, neat link.

Here is a lil more on the car. It's a VolksVagon with an automatic and a lil turbo. The car makes about 190 - 210 hp cant remember. There is enough hp to go full throttle on a turn, any where on the turn and not blow the turn (off track) if your slow enough. In short it has no power and with the automatic its hard to keep it spooled up in the power to boot.


Here's a link I dug up:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/road-cours...aching-fwd.html


My next session I'll try your suggestions transam as you described with the focus. Also I'll try to be more fluid, kind of like a momentum car but with a lot more weight.

Since you seem to be playing cat and mouse with providing info. Your best bet is seat time with an instructor in the right seat for a critique of your driving style and the capabilties of the "Volkswagen".

yeah the car is stock so I'm at a loss on an open track. In autocross the exp has been on tight small setup cones/tracks. So I tend to over drive those in the frnt wheel drive car. Even other front wheel drives, had a CRX that was stock and I really over drove that too in autox. In my Camaro I tended to over power large sweeping turns and on a road track tended to be careful (slow early brakes).

So in short the idiot behind the wheel needs lots of work.

I just cant get a grip on the frnt wheel drive thing. It doesn't compare to what you get used to to. Going from stable with power to a stock front wheel drive platform kinda makes you want to get out the paddle to help along upstream.

If you want some more examples of what i'm telling you search youtube.com for transam2k4 (which is me!) and look at some of the uploaded videos. I have videos of a friends civic (some him driving others me driving), my focus and my old sti

If you want some more examples of what i'm telling you search youtube.com for transam2k4 (which is me!) and look at some of the uploaded videos. I have videos of a friends civic (some him driving others me driving), my focus and my old sti

BTW that site was a very good read!!!