Quote:
Originally Posted by sperry
That NSX should have been killing you in the corners... but your wagon probably should have made up a lot of the difference on the straights. It looks like the driver was relatively conservative... which makes sense, since an NSX doesn't "sort itself out" the way a Subaru does when you exceed the limit. 
Next time you go back to Sears, try to use more of the track. Brake a little earlier in the harder braking zones (like turn 4 at the top of the hill, and the turn 7 hairpin), get the car turned earlier, so you can get down to the apexes and get on the throttle even earlier, and make sure to track all the way out. I think you'll pick up a ton of time. Dean probably has some more specific tips, if he'll bother to check in here.
Your car control looked pretty great... i.e. you seemed to be able to put it where you want to consistently, and you're catching errors really early with throttle modulation. And it's hard to tell without being able to see your hands, but you seem pretty smooth. So you've got a handle on the hard parts. Now you just need to optimize your line to keep the cornering speeds up.
I've never driven Sears in reality, but I've got like a million miles there in various sims.  In iRacing, you *have* to nail every lap, or you're seconds behind the guys that spend 6 hours a day practicing. 
iRacing Infineon Practice Battle - YouTube
On a second thought... none of the laps in that video are very clean. Ignore that. |
That was a fun battle! I think if you had some coaching regarding the best passing zones, you might have set up a little better for them and made them stick. Man, the only game I could find to prepare before I went to Sears Point was Grant Turismo 4. I hooked up my old PS2 and was floored by the crappy graphics, but it still allowed me to virtually drive the track before I actually drove it. Haha
The NSX was definitely pulling away in the "straights", at least at higher speeds when aero comes into play. I imagine we had similar power but a stock NSX weighs a little less than my wagon and definitely has better aero and handling.
Thanks for the advice. I think Dean had similar input on a video I posted from my first time at Sears Point. Yep,
here it is. Turn down your speakers before you click that link and make sure to choose HD. It was shot with my Galaxy S2 which had horrible audio recording.
I think I attribute a lot of my autocross success to my late and hard braking style, but it definitely hurts me sometimes and I blow apexes which, like you say, can really affect your times on the track. I need to try I-racing or similar at some point. Is it expensive? I feel like I just don't know where the line is sometimes. I did have an instructor during the first run my first time driving Sears and during one of the sessions the 2nd time I was there, but I need someone like Dean who is really clear about what I'm doing wrong all the time.