I was also running 2.3-2.4's, on street tires, also a little below vtec (and my vtec's at 4500 rpm....)

 

Also take in mind, the quickest 60' for the event was only a 1.78 in an AWD SM car. That's about .15 slower than they do on average on flat, grippier surfaces. That said, I was in the 2.1's as a second driver, but only 2.2's as the first.

 

Yeah, I was reviewing the results last night -- specifically the 60' times. I then peeked at one of your videos Jon. I learned a lot from that. I will be incorporating the (ironically already set) launch limiter on my car for use at future events. I have never used it, but think it can help me. The difference between our 60' times is too much time to leave on the table. My VTEC is at 4,000 and I will plan on using that for launch. I was launching at the pro like I normally do (down near 2,500) except that it obviously wasn't a rolling start and was uphill. I typically don't like launching my S hard since I can feel that it is not as strong as other cars, but when the first five spots are within half a second, and I am leaving 0.2 on the table barely stating in third place, it's time to back stock parts just in case, but to launch right.

Thanks for the good launching Jon and allowing me to find (yet another) area for improvement during all autocrosses.

And Mike, my fastest everything was when the tires were warmed up, and I was a single driver, but my 60' times were still out in left field compared to Jon's.

 

When you launch like I did, that's actually the easiest I think on everything other than your tires. Unless you're starting the same way you would on the street (like 1500 RPM or something), launching at higher RPM but not enough to break the tires loose, you abuse your clutch and diff more than just going to enough RPM to barely break the tires loose and dropping the clutch. At least that makes sense to me.

If the course is designed well, and it's not a prosolo, then you don't usually gain much by launching. What I've been trying to do is start like I would on the street at local autocrosses, until my last or second to last run, when I launch if I feel there's anything to be gained by it. Sometimes it kinks you right away and it's not even worth doing it at all.

Glad you could learn something from my bounce-tastic videos . I've got a gopro arriving tomorrow in time for dover sunday.

 

Dover will be wet. I was trying to get Brian and some others to just go since racing in the rain is racing, but they are saying no. I have been giving people the launch advice that you gave me, since that is what seems to be the prevailing advice from the top drivers. I was just taking the street start rather than the spin the wheels start. That will change though. It is not uncommon for my first run to be the fastest, so I gotta make every run count.

I want a gopro too after looking at Nick and Justin's videos.

They don't have realtime playback though, right? I like to review my videos at the event.

 

http://gopro.com/hd-hero-accessories/lcd-bacpac/

 

So are you coming to Dover? Simmons and I are designing the course. It may not be wet, we'll see.

Yeah they don't have realtime playback but you can get the lcd thing. I think I'm going to pass on the LCD. For big events I'll probably bring a cheap laptop to stick the card into to watch. Smaller events I'll watch it later.

 

I want to get the LCD. Gotta get the GoPro first. Thanks Rad.

Re: Dover. Gonna see how much work I get done between now and then. Will also pay attention to the weather. Will be a last moment thing either way. Only 2 hours from here. Brain really wanted to compete against me to get a benchmark before heading to local STR battle.

 

Check out the Creative Labs Vado HD. The picture its awesome (better than gopro video I've seen), is easy to use, and inexpensive.

 

Actually, go-pro's do have realtime playback. There are 2 mic jack outputs on the side of the camera . One outputs a conventional "red white yellow" analog video/ audio cable. The other outputs a component "green blue red" video. So if you have an analog input device like a portable tv or something like that, you can watch the videos.