Autocross

Pylon Place – August 2019

A few “Quick Thoughts“…from 40 years of competitive driving!

August 5th  marks 40 years since my first AutoX. CVR was at Package Machine in East Longmeadow Mass. The club president (Frank C.) had his beautiful silver 930 Turbo freshly back from some customized work by Stoddard’s in Ohio and was about to make another attempt to de-thrown the fast guys. Ed T. in his dialed-in 356 Super 90 and Tom T. in his impressively agile, Concours condition sand beige ’67 short wheelbase 912, were both used to these attempts and were ready to hold off the world reigning supercar of the day with their vintage rides.

How “70’s”! Future AutoX VP in the pits at The Glen

The course was narrow and serpentined around the concrete light poles on the side of the small manufacturing company. It was a string of slaloms and offset gates with a first gear turn-around at the far end passing barely far enough away from the large yellow payloader near the back exit gate of the fenced-in lot.

I distinctly recall wondering if my 912E would even fit between the tall traffic pylons. Frank had the same question. The AutoX Chair assured us that they were at least 7 feet apart, so the Turbo would “easily” fit. It was clear that the older more agile cars had this as their main defense. I figured if the Turbo could fit then so could I and was confident in my car placement skills honed by years of already driving the line since age 16. Agility and narrowness took the day and the fast guys retained their title. The Turbo gave them a great chase and was awesome to see this amazing car being pushed…wow!

The 912E staged at the Package Machine AutoX, ready to chase the hot 914 2.0 in front of me!

My first even earned me 90.964 points, which is to say that I was 90.964% of the fastest time that day. Said differently, in 40 years of very actively working on my driving skills I’m “only” 9% faster! I obviously enjoyed that day since in those 40 years I have been the AutoX Chair or co-Chair for over half of that time. CVR AutoX remains my driving passion… one minute at a time.

Here are some lessons learned over those 40 years of DE, AutoX and various other competitive driving events, and how those are applied to make today’s CVR AutoX events the place for “Better Driving…Faster!”:

  • Narrow AutoX “gates” are no fun and force everyone to drive virtually the identical line. AutoX’s should make you think about the line. That’s a foundational skill and a challenge, and that becomes a wonderful reward when you execute it well. “Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds”.  CVR courses have a large spacing of cones and thus a wide choice of lines. Very fun and even wide Turbo’s can fit!
  • Just because you have space doesn’t mean it’s quick to use it! CVR courses purposely give you too much room. This forces you to learn the right trade-off of carrying more speed or cutting down the distance to be quick.
  • “The Line is King!” Think to the movie The Lyon King to remember this just before you launch a run. If you are carrying so much speed that it sacrifices the idea line you wanted, chances are that the run will be slower. Connecting corners with a premeditated plan (line of choice) is an art that takes practice and feedback.
  • What feels fast is not always. A clock is the ultimate unbiased judge. Sliding, smoothness, more brakes, deeper into a corner braking, better out of a corner accelerating, reducing the distance or carrying more speed, are just a few of the balanced choices that benefit from such instant feedback. After years of calibration it becomes clearer and more instinctual, but can never be taken for granted.   
  • Learning a new course each event forces you to actually look ahead, and not just convince yourself that you must be looking ahead. Human instinct is to look too closely at the one cone (or corner) that’s next, and not to the horizon. If you find you are getting lost on a course, that is almost always proof that you are not actually looking ahead. Look at the whole picture. Practice on the street!        
  • Economy of movement means you are not confusing your poor car’s suspension and tires. Sawing at the wheel, stabbing the brakes, mashing the throttle may seem fast but the clock almost always tells otherwise. Practice on the street!
  • Smoothness doesn’t mean slowness. Be violently smooth. Aggressively calm. From inside the car, you may appear like a crazy person, but your car should be calm and poised as a result.
  • Calibrate your car placement to repeatedly be within 1-2 inches. Practice on the street. Use a rain-soaked road with no traffic to look at your tire prints in the mirror. Place your tires up to (but not over) the lines. Flick right-left in your lane and see if you retain that calibration under pressure. Please be an adult when practicing this and at or below the speed limit. Don’t do this with other traffic or pedestrians nearby and never to the limit of adhesion.
  • Challenge your notions. Hang out with “the fast guys/Gals” and listen to “new” ideas. Could you really win the next F1 race if you were given the chance in the Mercedes or Ferrari? Or instead, do you think you could refine your driving skills and want to get better?
  • Do it! You can only theorize about driving skills so much. Until you actually drive at the limit with feedback (a clock, a lap time, an instructor), you tend to be satisfied with how brilliant you are and how fast you “could be”.
  • Drive slow enough to remember what you did on every corner. Unless you can process everything you just did, how can your next lap be better? Have confidence that as you work on your driving skills, your times will indeed steadily fall. When you get stuck at a plateau, challenge your notions of those skills to find a beak-through.  

Don’t just think about it…join us at the next CVR AutoX August 10th at Lime Rock Park Paddock B then Sept 7th also at Lime Rock. The best $40 investment in motorsport! Click the link to the CVR AutoX web page and you can even pre-drive the course!

Better Driving…Faster!

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