The Art of Gitting Gud - Or How to Reduce Understeer

In reply to Tom1200 :

You're talking about the big right hander after the hairpin? I'll try it next time. Thanks! 

In reply to hunter47 :

The right hander after the chicane (I'm assuming that's the front stretch as that is where the guy is waving the white flag).

In reply to Tom1200 :

ah, yes I refer to that as the "back stretch" since it's, well, at the back of the property lol.

So my last time I was there, I ran off road at that turn. I took it wide to do a late apex as you described, had the ass end swing out, all four wheels off course. There's also the hairpin after the esses that I took wide last time as well, and also ran off road. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I'm traumatized from going wide, haha. But I will definitely try that out next time. Slow down the entry speed into the chicane so I can set up a late apex into the straight.

In reply to hunter47 :

We are talking tenths here and you'll just have to try it and see. And yes sometimes dirt happens.

I agree that you can make up some time on the straights if you give up a bit of corner entry speed and hit a later apex. Going with a later apex should make you less likely to go off, not more likely. You are entering the corner wider, but slower and turning in later. All of which also suit an AWD car. Brake harder, trail brake as you turn in, and hammer it after you get the car to rotate. AWD cars need to be driven a bit more aggressively. Aggressive trail braking on corner entry like a FWD, aggressive throttle to keep the tail out once it starts to rotate. Don't worry about max cornering speed. You will more than make up for it down the straight. A little too slow in the corner will hurt you much less than too fast and pushing wide. You should also check into finding a way to reduce the negative camber in the rear. -1.5 degrees was way too much on the AWD's I autocrossed, they were much happier at -.5 degrees. 

hunter47 said:

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

Sure, that's perfectly reasonable. How slow is too slow, though? Is there a certain point where it would be faster to just scrub tire and push than it would be to brake hard?

in short.. not right now. a little push wouldn't be bad, but a lot of scrub is not good here. you're burning up your tires, overheating them and just burning off good rubber on top of the fact you're killing time by killing midcorner speeds this way.

brake earlier and then use maintenance throttle around the corner and open the throttle as the corner exit line opens up.

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

Duly noted, I was running different alignment specs and tires last time which probably contributed to going off. I'm still working on my trail braking, but out of the FWD and RWD cars I've owned in the past, I feel the most comfortable (and most effective) with aggressive trail braking. It's almost as if it hooks and goes. 

-1.5 is whatever it came with from factory, the VA chassis WRX doesn't have any rear camber adjustment from factory. I'm debating a set of coilovers that have adjustable camber plates, because as you can somewhat see in the timestamp, the car starts "wallowing" as I go through the esses. I not sure if it's the car pulling power for traction (even though TC was fully off), if my driving needs work, or if my suspension is just not up to par that's causing it.