Building Autocross skills

I have been auto-crossing casually for the last 2 years and lately I am trying to focus a bit more and be a better driver. What are some of the better ways my fellow GRM readers have found to build up their autoX skills. Being a GRM reader I am of course looking for the best bank/buck.

How use full is collecting telemetry ? How much more is gained by videotaping runs?

For those of you who have gone through driving schools (like the evolution driving school) how much of a difference did it make? Were the big money schools night and day better than the local autoX schools a local club may put on annually?

I've been both student and instructor for local autocross schools, and they frequently represent a great bang for the buck; we had about 8 runs for $60 IIRC.

If your region does them, test and tune events are great. Since it's not a competitive event and runs are practically unlimited, getting one of the "fast guys" to ride along shouldn't be hard. Local test and tunes are $25, so if you're looking for lots of autocross seat time, they're tops on my list.

I had a terrific experience with the Evolution school. It's typically a little pricier than a local school, but working with national-championship talent is pretty nice. The exercises they use have been developed over time and really emphasize the lessons. Unless you're a rank novice, I feel the lessons gained from the Evolution school are worth every penny. (See the "Higher Learning" article from the November issue for all the details on our trip to the school.)

Telemetry is great—as long as you're willing to spend the time to interpret the data afterward. It can also be hard to get enough data from a single autocross event (say 4 competition runs) to really analyze. To really see where your driving technique could improve, you'd want to compare your best run against a faster driver's best run, so the logistics can be a pain while collecting all the data.

Don't discount a good book, either. Clicky here...

Evolution School

Once you've done one of those, do another in a year or two

In between, autocross as much as humanly possible. Look for other regions and clubs outside your "home turf". We're lucky to have three other regions' events within driving distance, and the real hard core among us are driving nearly every weekend during the summer...

Seat time, seat time, seat time. Simply attend as many autocrosses as humanly possible. Don't forget to ride with people, though get rides in "slow" cars with fast times. Watch their lines, listen to the smoothness.

P71 speaks the truth. Seat time is best. Get rides with people who have similar cars. If you drive a FWD car, a ride with someone in a RWD car is fun, but not as useful as riding with someone with the same/similar car.

Most SCCA regions host an auto-x driving school in the spring. Chicago Region's is a 2 day event- day one is learning, day two is competition. My skills drastically improved from that event.

The best advice my instructor gave me was to try to break the car (because it won't happen), 'if you aren't on the brake, you are on the gas- no coasting', and to stop worrying about cones. Work on time first, then work on clean runs.

Work on looking ahead- way ahead. Its hard to do but gets easier over time. The last thing that helps me, personally, is to spin the car at least once. If you have never spun the car, it is difficult to tell where the spin threshold is.

Final note- if it felt in control, you weren't going fast enough.

"listen to the smoothness."

agreed. SMOOTH is FAST

seat time, seat time, seat time. Video your runs for critiques from others. Let more experienced drivers ride with you, and ride with them. Evolution school. seat time. get the book "secrets of solo" by Henry Watts. Skip telemetry for now...it will confuse more than it will help.

Like someone said sometimes your local region will host a novice autocross school. Great way to get your feet wet with schooling. Second option would be Evolution School Phase I and II.

Next would be like someone said attending as many events as you can. From 2000-2005 I attended 30-40 autocrosses each year, totalling 150-200 autocrosses. More than most people attend in 10 years :)

Thats pretty much what I am already doing, I have been to 3-4 autocrosses a month for the last 3-4 months or so. I attend every local autocross school I can get into (2 so far).

I was looking at the evolution driving schools website. They look pretty awesome but they don't seem to have any love for the west coast.

Anyone know a similar school thats not so far away?

How many of you videotape your runs? do you find it to be helpfull?

I believe BMW CCA runs autocross schools at Marina Airport, just outside of Monterey. I think there are other outfits that run schools there, but I couldn't give you a list off the top of my head.

How persnikitey is the BMW club? I have attended one or two events in the LPR PCA (Porsche Club of America) by invitation of an aquantance and have had a great time. But it quickly became apparent that I would be expected to own a porshe if I were to continue to show up. Is the BMW club like that?

I have hear that the lotus Club is open to anyone, and I know that the 510 club is open to anyone, but I don't know anything about the BMW club.

Lotus Club is open to anyone. I am actually a member of the GGLC, because they run so many great events.

A quick search revealed that the GGLC and CalUFO (the 510 club) both host Auto-X schools occasionally. But I couldn't find info on when their next would be.

I don't really know how open the BMW club is. They don't organize as many events as other clubs around here. I don't recall seeing anything on their registration for auto-x school, saying that you needed to be a club member. But it's been a while since I've looked.

My quick google of "Marina Autocross School" didn't return anything on upcoming events, only calendar entries for past ones. But most organizations listed didn't have any details for the 2009 calendars yet. And that includes the GGLC, whose 2008 calendar was very complete.

There will probably be more info in January.

The BMW club is open to anyone. I have taught at their school along with the GGLC school at Marina. I ran the San Francisco SCCA autox school in 2006 and 2007. That event has normally happend at Candlestick or the Oakland Collusium. I handed it off to another member for 2008 an 2009. It focused primarlity on begining to intermediate students.

The number one thing I correct on ALL students....Look farther ahead.

Every turn has three parts, most people call them "turn-in", "apex" & "track-out". The problem with using those names is that is what the car is doing, not what you should be thinking at those points.

Let’s try calling them by what you should be thinking....

1) “When do I brake?” - As you approach a turn the action is to brake. You should be thinking “When do I brake?”.

2) “When do I turn?” - As soon as you touched the brakes your eyes should start looking for the Apex thinking “When do I turn?” but do NOT turn the wheel until you can see the proper line/path. When you see it, make a committed turn-in (no hesitation).

3) “When do I accelerate?” – As soon as you start turning into the corner your eyes should scan out to the exit of the corner. As you approach the apex your eyes are looking for the point at which you can start pressing the gas thinking "when do I accelerate?". The straighter the steering wheel the more gas you can apply. You can NOT apply power until you start to straighten the wheel.

4) Repeat steps 1-3 until the course is finished.

.02 Alan

I was at the SCCA's 2008 event. It was a pretty good event. There was Lots of seat time but that was my first event at candlestick, the gravel there was tremendous! It was more like a ralleyX than an autoX!

The difficulty with practicing autocross is getting seat time. A test and tune or school will be hugely helpful simply because you will get more seat time (in addition to any instruction). If you can find a test and tune, offer to hire a local hotshoe for $100 to teach you for the day. Many (but not all) good drivers can help you. If that seems expensive, you'll get at least ten autocrosses worth of learning done in one day. Also, as a professional coach, I charge $400 a day and I'm not expensive so $100 is cheap instruction. Point is, you'll learn far faster with someone to observe and correct what you are doing wrong, and reinforce what you're doing right.

Tiger Woods didn't teach himself to golf, either. Hire a coach.

David

I got into road racing by autocrossing (over 30 years ago), and there is one interesting difference (lots actually, but this one stood out to me).

With road racing, the proper line is important. With autocross, the proper line may be slower than the shortest distance. For example, a long second gear 180 degree turn might be quicker when hugging the inside than sweeping in and taking the apex "correctly". That's because hugging the turn is a shorter distance. This is especially true in shorter parking lot events. I'm not sure that there's any hard and fast rule on when to take the turn "properly" and when to shoot for the shortest distance, but you should experiment and see what works for you.

aeronca65t said: I'm not sure that there's any hard and fast rule on when to take the turn "properly" and when to shoot for the shortest distance, but you should experiment and see what works for you.

Sure there is, you take the tighter line when its faster....

I don't autocross, at least not yet, anyway, but I have found spending time at an indoor karting facility has helped my footwork a bunch. The karts at the local tracks are very sensitive to crappy footwork. The don't like being tossed around and manhandled. Transitioning from full throttle onto the brakes and then back onto the gas is the only way to make up time when you only have 1 gear. I have learned how to keep the kart balanced and not overdrive it. It helps me in everything else I sit in. Smooth, smooth, smooth is the key to lower times.

I do enjoy hitting the local kart track though though the karts have so little power you usually take the track flat out except for one or two corners...

If you do not see many Evo schools it's because it's the end of the year. Many regions are quieting down.

I noticed, this is going to be first weekend in quite a while that for which I don't have an autoX...

It makes me feel empty inside....

But a lot of the local clubs don not yet have their schedules posted, I have heard that there may be some issues with the marina site, since the airport manager just quit and no one has been hired in to take his place yet.

The SFR SCCA seems to be very slow about posting next years schedule, and they canceled the last round of the slush series.

Does your post indicate that the EVo school is not strictly an east coast / midwest thing?