First half -- Instructing anyone tried to stay in first gear in an S2000 for any amount of runs would scramble my brains. 8000-9000 rpms may sound like music briefly, but is irritating for sustained periods.

Second half -- my student, no matter how often I said "brake" or politely you will want to brake right up here.......didn't. It was painful what he did to the tires on his Genesis.

 

Yeah, I usually try a few times in a few different ways to get through to a student. But if they're not interested in listening, then I try and swap students. Maybe the next instructor can get through to them. At the very least, it shares the pain so that one instructor doesn't burn out talking to a stump.

If a student is particularly difficult to work with, they seem to get left with some of our less talented instructors....

 

You'd figure I could communicate to him since I'm good friends with the Polish Mafia. I started wondering if I needed to say "de-cel", "slow", etc. I should have know when no one could understand at driver's intro what he was saying and then suggested I instruct him since I'm a RWD driver, I was about to be screwed. He did improve 12 seconds on a 60 second course though.

 

for autocross, i've always found better control with 2nd gear. sure, it sounds cool in 1st, but ultimately too on/off, with nothing in between as far as power delivery is concerned.

darcy

 

This all makes sense. The instructors I had are very talented and are national level drivers. The better of the two advised to stay in first all the way thru... As advised by the EM, the instructors switched for the second session so I'm certain it wasn't because I wasn't listning or that they were "talking to a stump."

I feel I'm a good listener and I try my best to learn all I can while implementing what is suggested of me. Both instructors said they have never driven an s2000 on course before so, is it possible that this is why I was asked me to stay in first?

Is it also possible that this 1st gear timing/shifting in an AP1 is far more ambiguous and that there is no real answer depending on the course, experience, and driving style?

Although I'm a novice, I feel that understanding the course is equally important as understanding the car. This thread is focused more on understanding the car as its constant. The courses are always changing. Perhaps sitting with/instructions from an experienced s2000 driver would be far more beneficial and get me to my goals of understanding the car.

 

I am telling you that the dinky novice course will not be representative of the first event and that first gear won't get you very far on a normal sized course.

 

So did you shift?

 

Whats first gear? I forgot all about that gear when I switched to an AP2! Even today's race where my max speed was 53 mph and the slowest speed was 28 mph I still never thought about going to first. I think 28mph puts me at about 4200rpm in second gear. Not exactly in the meat of the powerband but it's nice having my vtec set at around 4K.

Video from todays tight and small ass course. The car was fuel starving at half of a tank and I had no access to fuel inbetween runs. Cost me a couple tenths for sure!
https://vimeo.com/93912863



as for the ap1 and downshifting, my rule was always "if you slow down to 30mph a downshift in the ap1 may be faster", you have to think about:
- it takes a .10 of a second to downshift
-you have to have smooth throttle application to not light up the tires
-you have to be smooth and the car feel stable in first so you can stay on line and drive the course correctly
- and it takes another .10 of a second to upshift

*risk of messing the shift up and losing time*

with that said:
-If you light up the tires you wasted the gain in acceleration ability of first gear over second
-if the speed doesn't drop down low enough into first gears power band (IE-30mph) the loss of .2 seconds worth shifting vs gain in acceleration quickly becomes obsolete
-If you cant keep the car calm and settled in first then the car isn't going to hold as high of a G load.
- staying on line and carrying as much speed as possible is more important then simply accelerating fast. We dont own corvette, this isn't point and shoot.
**messing up a shift kills the run**

So it comes down to weighting your options, an slow 30-32 mph corners can benefit from a down shift if done correctly. Higher speeds it may not be worth the risk. The easy answer is to switch to an AP2 and just put it in second and drive!

 

Certainly did.

Thanks for the breakdown! When it comes to these things - I'm not as analystical as I thought. LOL! But, I want to make it an effort to be more analytical.

 

Just a recap of my weekend where I attended my first 2 Autocross events. In short, I love this car, autocross is fun, instructors are super helpful, and I know I can be faster.

First thing first - I've learned that I may need to be more analytical with course walks. I got 5 or more course walks in for both events and I'm walking it the way I would drive it. I'm starting to think I should try to determine braking points, areas where I can go faster, and areas where I should be patient while walking the course. Afterwards, I sit in my car, I close my eyes, envision the course, and pretend I'm actually driving on course - shifting, gas, and all.

So, to answer myself from the first post, 1st gear is awesome, but I need to be in 2nd gear. In 1st gear, I'm fighting with the car AND reacting to the course (at the Novice school). Going into 2nd at the Novice School may have helped me be smoother all around and look ahead more, but, I wouldn't have learned how twitchy the car/1st gear was.

When in 2nd, my throttle and steering inputs are smooth and I'm focused on the course. Rather than reacting to the course, I can "look ahead" in the course and focus on setting up for the next element. Once I'm in 2nd gear, I don't downshift to 1st (it seems to me this thread somehow started moving that way).

These are just things I learned over the weekend. I can only hope that I will continue to learn more about the sport, my car, as well as myself with each event. Of course, special thanks to the instructors as well for all of their answers, input, and honesty.

Being in the 5th spot out of the 27 novice drivers the first day and 4th in the second day means I have way more to improve on, but, for my first event I'm somewhat happy-ish. I'm just still bitter about spinning out right before the exit during a run that FELT to me was my fastest and smoothest.

Of course..when we did fun runs, I ran 2 seconds faster than my fastest during normal competition. Then when I tried to replicate what I just did...I spun out. LOL!

Total spinouts over the weekend - 3. Nothing to be proud of, but nothing to be embarassaed about either.

The club has a practice event in two weeks so I'm signed up and looking forward to that!