Any rallycrossers go to rally school?

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Saying Joe's is on a hill might be the understatement of the year. The one corner if you stand at the edge of the grass on the inside of the corner you're about at eye level with the bases of the cones on the course about 20ft away. Last event the start was flat out all the way up hill and even without lifting, just momentum lost from climbing the hill, we were losing enough speed to justify downshifting to first gear, then not needing to brake for the hairpin-ish turn at the top of the hill. The fun part about opies was that that big downhill terminated in a pond so there was a lot of motivation to not miss the braking point at the end.

This is probably somewhat venue dependant, but my experience has been that, at least in stock classes, a lot of speed comes just from being willing to throw nearly all mechanical sympathy out the window and just let the car eat. You can have all the driving skill in the world but if you're afraid of breaking the car you're going to be slow. (Of course the trick is staying just on the happy side of the "breaking the car" line). I think that's a lot of why I'm a mediocre autocrosser but a pretty good rallycrosser. Relevant to that, the sound of Subaru rear tires bashing into the strut tower structure isn't nearly as disconcerting from inside the car as it is from outside.

In reply to dps214 :

I put new KYBs all around which actually raised my Subaru a bit and prevented suspension crash.  The originals did almost nothing.  I suppose they kept the springs and suspension bits in the right place, but damping they did not.

In reply to dps214 :

....yeah.  Miles' 2.5i was not encumbered by oil in the rear shocks.  It bounced severely.  This seemed to actually make the car faster.

I live in the land of runway courses for autocross and rallycross.  Slowing down from 50+ to 20 for turnarounds happens at every event.

The one place where I want to left food brake in a RWD car is when a FWD driver designs the course and puts curves into all the acceleration zones.  I have to back out of the gas when the front starts washing out.  A touch of brakes to tuck in the outside front tire could let me stay on the gas a little more.  I am not sure if it would be faster but I have a lot of time to think while I understeer around the course.

In reply to ojannen :

I have left foot braked twice in a rear driver.  At least the way I did it, it opened the front up when I was too tight/starting to spin and was going to nose into a cone.

The first odd thing was, I didn't think about it, i just did it, and it worked.  Tap the brake, front tires wash out, car avoids cone.  The second odd thing is, I have no idea how I physically DID it, there is very little room for size 12 flippers in the footwell of the car and my right heel normally sits under the brake pedal, and I can't articulate my ankles enough to move past it...

I think the Neon was faster with blown rear struts.  It would sort of just hop up and pivot around on the front wheels.  It never felt as scary as it wound up looking from the exterior, though.

I do a LOT of left-foot braking in the Neon.  Being stupidly-over-powered front-wheel drive is a little different, though.  I've got the brake booster disconnected to make it a little easier to modulate the pressure.  It allows me to get the rear to start to slide a little bit, shed some speed, probably transfer some weight, keep the boost in double digits, and then I point the front paddlewheels in the direction I want to end up and just let it drag the car around.  If I learned how to drive, I could probably be a bit faster without having to resort to that kind of abuse.  That method does help me stay out of too much trouble with my "throw-it-into-the-corner-and-hope-we-come-out-okay" driving style.

This is really making me jones for a rallycross though.  Not quite enough to drive all the way to DC or TVR, but close....

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I left foot brake in sim racing while wearing socks.  I have never been successful wearing shoes in a real car.  Every once in a while in the real car, my left foot starts going for the brakes during a big sweeper and I have to decide if I want to ruin the run or not.  I have size 15 feet and catching the clutch pedal is a real problem. 

Hmm, I think a lot of the comments about not left foot braking are intriguing. I did rallycross in 4 or 6 states from St Paul Minnesota to Homestead, Florida. I found each amazingly different soil compositions were usually handled by my Yokohama Iceguard tired but for two events I put my all season tires back on after the first runs to deal with the soil.

Some required left foot braking to keep my boost up for the straight section afterward, otherwise I would bog down and had to downshift.

I remember one course required me to heel toe downshift through a right left combination to have any chance for accelerating out the left into a long right where I transitioned into slight counter steer then breath on the brakes with my left foot to get the rear to rotate into a kink back left. All that may have been resolved by having the right tires, but I had never been to that state before for a rallyx. 

Some courses I found even engine braking and a normal right foot braking pressure and applying a lot of ice racing experience enough to do well because the surface and tire combination wouldn't allow for any more force before locking up or sliding wide. 

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ojannen said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I left foot brake in sim racing while wearing socks.  I have never been successful wearing shoes in a real car.  Every once in a while in the real car, my left foot starts going for the brakes during a big sweeper and I have to decide if I want to ruin the run or not.  I have size 15 feet and catching the clutch pedal is a real problem. 

Special pedals should be made for you