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    Autocross school

    I attended autocross school yesterday. I was tremendously fun and educational!
    We started with an excellent classroom session. It covered many things I was familiar with regarding cornering, braking, etc, but it was handy to hear it again, as there's always something new to learn, or little tips to pick up.
    Next, we got in our cars and cyled through three exercises:
    - Skid pad. Large (100' across?) and small (60' across) cone circles next to each other that allowed you to practice holding a line on either, and then transition to doing a figure 8 between them, which required adjusting your speed. First run, my instructor had me run it without any advise to see how I drove it, and I spun the car! I was running some old, cold V700s, and was being jerky with inputs, so it was driver error of course, but getting the pro backwards was something I'd never done before, glad it was on a track, it was fun! Second run, he had me hold the wheel in one spot, and use the throttle to tighten or widen the line, which was really cool to try. I realized I'd been going about running sweepers all wrong. During one of the runs, he says "hit a cone, any one, just pick one and hit it!" It was surprisingly hard to do. It made a really strong point about how hard I should be turning in and how tight my line wasn't
    - Triangle. triangular course roughly 100' on a side with corners of different angles. Great practice for picking a braking point, late apexing, tracking out, and looking ahead. Again, I need to work on turning in harder. I didn't hit a single apex cone. A buddy who is fast recently told me "Try to run over the apex cone, because this car will push wide and you'll pass it close" Good advise
    - Slalom. Wide spaced cone slalom going out, 180 sweeper, tight slalom coming back. First run, the instructors offered to drive the car to so we could see it done well. My instructor had a great run, muttering "front.. wheel.. drive.." as he pushes around the sweeper . We got 6 or 7 runs. I had a few clean runs, but never any I was really happy with. I seemed to be fighting the car too much and didn't ever get a really good rhythm going. I got some good advise, but had a tough time applying it.
    After lunch, they set up a "mini" course, which turned out to be as long as and more technical than most regular solo courses. My instructor was a fast smooth Civic driver, so he had great advise as we worked through the course. Mostly I needed to keep looking ahead. I started talking out loud about what I was trying to do, he said that he often talks his way through the course, saying things like look ahead, late apex, tighter, etc, so that's something I'm going to do now.

    Unfortunately, today's autocross was canceled for weather, because I was REALLY wanting to apply what I learned. Now I'm looking forward to the season opener in a couple weeks.

    As a side note, another driver had a 323GTX that he'd done some neat mods to. He mentioned that he's on the site occasionally.
    2003 Protege5
    1990 Protege LX (sold)
    1990 Protege DX (sold)
    1992 626 (sold)

    Common abbreviations and jargon on Club Protege: http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34116

    #2
    sounds like fun. i wish there was an auto-x school around here i could go for the weekend and pick up new techniques. how much did it cost?
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      #3
      Originally posted by deadly_sleeper View Post
      sounds like fun. i wish there was an auto-x school around here i could go for the weekend and pick up new techniques. how much did it cost?
      $60, including lunch and entry to today's autocross, which will be credited to the next one since it was cancelled. Really a great deal. There were 40+ students

      There's another beginners school in August, which i plan on attending, and an "advanced" school this summer, which I will work on qualifying for. There will be a minimum PAX score qualification to ensure that only advanced drivers attend.
      2003 Protege5
      1990 Protege LX (sold)
      1990 Protege DX (sold)
      1992 626 (sold)

      Common abbreviations and jargon on Club Protege: http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34116

      Comment


        #4
        Good times, I remember my first autocross school.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by 1967cutlass View Post
          Good times, I remember my first autocross school.
          Did you get detention?

          The bench racing afterward was great too. Much beer and BS late into the night....
          2003 Protege5
          1990 Protege LX (sold)
          1990 Protege DX (sold)
          1992 626 (sold)

          Common abbreviations and jargon on Club Protege: http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34116

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by cojsl View Post
            Did you get detention?

            The bench racing afterward was great too. Much beer and BS late into the night....
            Nah but I discovered my car's brakes were better than most of the other cars out there, at low speeds anyway.

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              #7
              That sounds great! I would love to do something like that! Sounds like a blast!

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by cat34evr View Post
                That sounds great! I would love to do something like that! Sounds like a blast!
                Here you go: http://snakeriverscca.com/home/index...id=40&Itemid=2
                April 19th, go for it, you'll love it!
                2003 Protege5
                1990 Protege LX (sold)
                1990 Protege DX (sold)
                1992 626 (sold)

                Common abbreviations and jargon on Club Protege: http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34116

                Comment


                  #9
                  wouldn't happen to know when one in oregon is would you?
                  sigpic
                  96 protege dx - gone :'(
                  94 Mustang Gt - Became one with a deer
                  02 dodge 1500 - CAI, random aftermarket exhaust
                  95 protege dx - now derivable, my new project

                  Originally posted by firelizard
                  I'm going to go take a bath in $10 bills after my mom makes me a PB&J.
                  Me: just wondering if that was a 2500 and if it was a diesel
                  Class mate 1: it wasn't mine, but i think it mighta been a 1 ton and ya it was a diesel
                  Class mate 2: no way, that truck was way to big to be a 1 ton...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by bloodyspirit058 View Post
                    wouldn't happen to know when one in oregon is would you?
                    next sunday- http://www.oregonscca.com/component/...mid,287/cid,8/
                    2003 Protege5
                    1990 Protege LX (sold)
                    1990 Protege DX (sold)
                    1992 626 (sold)

                    Common abbreviations and jargon on Club Protege: http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34116

                    Comment


                      #11
                      ya, i emailed them about that one, they never replied, i was trying to get a registration form but i couldn't attend the dinner thing were the forms were.

                      hopefully i can get a form in for the next one in may i think. I wish that first one didn't fill up so fast.

                      on a side note, does anyone know who to contact with questions for the oregon region scca? the oregonscca@ what ever email never gets responces. but thats the email address i always find...
                      sigpic
                      96 protege dx - gone :'(
                      94 Mustang Gt - Became one with a deer
                      02 dodge 1500 - CAI, random aftermarket exhaust
                      95 protege dx - now derivable, my new project

                      Originally posted by firelizard
                      I'm going to go take a bath in $10 bills after my mom makes me a PB&J.
                      Me: just wondering if that was a 2500 and if it was a diesel
                      Class mate 1: it wasn't mine, but i think it mighta been a 1 ton and ya it was a diesel
                      Class mate 2: no way, that truck was way to big to be a 1 ton...

                      Comment

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