That's correct.

 

Trunk - spare cover, spare tire, tool kit. The regular stuff.

 

My crappy runs from today for anyones viewing pleaser...
http://vimeo.com/27990404
http://vimeo.com/27991715

even on the new settings I cant settle down the rear. I think I'm going to try to drop the rear for the next race. If that doesn't help I'm getting the spc ball joints for the rear so I can fix his camber and toe issue.

 

looks like your on bumpstops. Are you running any? Seems you are also very aggressive with the throttle.

 

not running any bump stops but I have put zipties on the shafts. I'll check them tomarrow and see if they are bottoming out. Yes I'm ashamed to say that I am overly agressive with the throttle but everytime I try to back it down a notch or two I run slower times. I'm wanting to full throttle ahead as soon as I feel the car is sticking and pointed in the direction I want to go, but as you pointed out the car being on the edge of grip and me putting the foot down in my little 2.0L it's enough to upsettng the tires. Which gets me into trouble pretty easily. It didn't help any the car was on a off camber hill though.

Marc tells me all the time that if I would ease on the throttle I'd be faster but it's hard to tell myself to do that once I'm actually driving.

Thanks for the tip, Ill report back tomarrow afternoon after I get up.

 

Bam!!! I could not agree more. And, from what I know, he seems to be a pretty credible/competent S2000 driver too. It would be nicer if I could see more of you driving vs. the course in the video. Ha!! (internal joke)

 

Yeah, it's important to build this in instinctually when you're out on course. With experience, you'll learn to be more calm and approach driving more from a scientific/analytical point of view as opposed to pure balls to the wall agression. Don't get me wrong, autocross does require an unusually aggressive style to be fast (much different technique than carting or conventional high speed circuit driving) but it's important to beat in to your brain what proper driving technique is. Generally speaking, as applied to the throttle application, don't begin to feed in throttle in a sweeper until you know you can commit to not backing off it, but never just go right to 100%. The key is to unwind the wheel in unison with fast, but gradually increasing throttle application. You need to load the rear of the car before you can ask for it to grip. I highly recomend a driving simulator like Iracing to practice this, even Gran Turismo 5 is a great bet for good, conventional driving technique practice. Still, the hardest thing to do, and the part of the corner that seperates the best from the rest is corner entry under braking, specifically, the ability of the driver to enter the corner on the brakes and slowly bleed of brake as the driver gradually feeds in steering input. This is what guys talk about when they say "my driving style doesn't match the car etc." It's typically what the driver does with the brakes and steering at corner entry that dictates how the feel the balance of the car is - and what a driver will adjust settings on his car to compensate for. If you're aware of this and can assess what you're doing out there, you'll make big gains. There are also some great videos to watch out there that will help.

Nick

 

Could not agree more.

If anyone has the opportunity to take an Evolution driving school with Tom Kotzian as the instructor I highly recommend it. He is the best at totally smooth integrated driving and actually teaching it. The transition of braking, steering, throttle is so integrated and smooth his driving feels slow, but his success obviously has been otherwise.

Of course I highly recommend taking Evolution driving school regardless of instructor as the best investment you can make at about $250 per class. Depending on your experience/success, you'll likely gain way more than you will with a $1,000 exhaust.

 

Quality instruction definitely helps. I had a chance to get an hour of instruction from Pat Washburn at a local Test and Tune yesterday. Made a big difference in my times, now I just have to remember to implement his instructions moving forward.

 

"Stay tight Tom, tighter. GET TIGHT TOM! TIGHTER!

This is going to be ugly, get ready!"

He was my most memorable instructor. It was hilarious when he was talking trash for the Challenge school. The things Tom can get away with while it is wet is inspiring. All the things you cited add up to a perceptively slow run with a very deceptive time at the end.

I have pages of notes that I read periodically, jotted from the minds of Brian Peters, Tom Kotzian, Jinx Jordan, and Andy Hollis. They have provided a foundation that I've been able to build upon over the years. I use the verbalization with new drivers to demonstrate key things to look at while driving. Not an event goes by that I don't think about something I picked up at the Evolution school.

On somewhat of a tangent, but somewhat related note: my codriver and I took my STR S2000 out for 8 runs each in the morning of a local event, then his STU STI for 8 runs each in the evening. I'm happy to say that my large compression/rebound compensations are no longer necessary now that I've switched from my worn Hankooks to my worn Dunlops. The 200+ run Hankooks, nearly to the wear bars, were causing some undesired tendencies at the last event. Those tendencies were not present on the Dunlops. I think the Dunlops have a few fewer runs, most of them at lower ambient temperatures, but they have worn much more evenly. Where the Hankooks wore the outer shoulders (regardless of camber), the Dunlops wore the insides. At 95*F ambient, the Dunlops never exceeded 140*F pyro.

We had the short course down once we switched to the STI. Each of our first runs raw-timed the S2000. After one run the Dunlops were past 130*F pyro. I can't expect my undermodified S2000 to keep up with the fully prepared STI on a dusty lot, but it hurts to see how easily we can raw-time ourselves with the STI. I think a diff will help the S2000 since the time difference appears to be with how early the STI can get on the gas.