Last weekend I drove the S2000 in my first AutoX (after 2 years of owning it).

Being a novice driver, I think its a testament to the car that I could get times that weren't completely embarassing

I did spin the car when I lifted the throttle in a turn (ack) and it cost me about 15 seconds off my best time. My lines were horrible, but somehow the car compensated. I would cut turns close and sharp vs carving out a smooth line, which cost me much time, but I was surprised at how forgiving the S2000 was. I've heard a lot about it being hard to drive in autoX and I think I might add that its not hard to drive, but probably more difficult to master. It makes it easy to drive incorrectly and still get relatively decent times. Now I can just focus on throttle control and my lines and I think my times will improve immensely at the next one.

I tried to remember the advice I had read here- which typically was, brake late and hard. And that worked great, but I tended to rely on hard braking to get around curves vs late apexing or apexing at all!

Another note- I launched around 5400-6000 RPM's. The video tape shows that I initially get wheel spin and then engine bog. It also shows me shifting to 2nd way too early. Another S2000 was launching at around 7200 RPM's and its launches were smoother and he got better times. After the event I did notice a difference in the clutch. The clutch feels smoother now- but I know that this really means wear. Before the clutch was catchy and jerky. Now I can feather the clutch much easier. I'm not sure if thats a good thing though :-) I guess I just have to accept that the clutch will need to be replaced at some future date if I continue to drive in AutoX. I had trouble side-stepping the clutch- my shoes caught on the rubber nubs and I could slip my foot off, so I was dumping the clutch instead.

I finished 17 out of 25 in the Novice group, and 4th out of 6 BS Novices. Another novice S2000 driver, and the only other one there finished 7th out of 25 and 1st among the BS Novices. My best time was 3 seconds behind the lead novice, and 2 seconds behind the other S2000, and 7 seconds behind the non-novice BS leader.

I've read most of the AutoX articles here- does anyone have any custom tips?

Byron

 

Fun isn't it??? Now you need to take it to a road course, then you'll never go back to auto-x!!!!