Fellas, I need your feedback

[crazybalhead]

On my driving.

Yes, I had on street tyres, but that still placed be FOUR SECONDS behind the fourth place in the EP class. (3rd gen, yuh MC).

Now, more experienced drivers always giving me tips and sugestions, which I gladly take.

One driver said that I go into corners with too much speed, brake too hard and lose momentum. Narend suggested I hold the speed until later at one point after a straight, which bought me more than two full seconds!!!!!

Before I switch to stickier tyres, I firmly believe there is a lot of improvement to be had with my skill level.

Suggestions anyone?

Rudman? Saltydog? Trex? DreamCarz? Ignis? Crix? Wagonboy?

*grudgingly* Razkal?

Looking forward to your rsponses.

[wagonrunner]

crazybalhead,
regretably, i didnt study your driving enough to critique it. had meh hands full. but the same habits that quicksilver, rudman, and razkal use apply.

question for you though. on the eastern end of sundays course, the long sweeping corner, how much tire squal did you hear the car make, or was it more wheelspin?

[crazybalhead]

Aha! Good good question. I geared down to first once, but found that it was faster to stay in second.

Now that being said, I was gettind wheel spin in first, but understeer in the gravel in second.

So I backed off a little in second until I built momentum on the straightaway to make up time. If I went full on, the car just started understeering. SR suggested I start using the handbrake, as I am currently driving at the limit of the tyres, and this would help step out the back of the car and turn tighter.

[wagonrunner]

[crazybalhead]

Dexing the car this year so far, I have never gotten the back to step out. It always loses traction in the gravel and understeers.

Maybe I running the street tyres too soft and they are breaking away too early?

Dunlop Sportmaxx, running 34-35PSI in front and 33 PSI in the back, cold temps.

[wagonrunner]

crazybalhead,

ok, again, let the peeps who more familiar with setting up a car like yours handle that.
but nati's ride had 42psi front, 45 psi rear, and i cant even remmber d tire size, nor brand.

[saltydog]

well a lot of things can be done to dial out the understeer. alignment and camber settings for sure will help, tyre pressures and sway bars. Now not everyone wants to alter their car for dex. I would suggest looking at alignment and camber first then the tyres.

Regarding driving style sunday's course was not really a first gear course. Brake in a straight line, carry as much speed through the corners and use progressive throttle inputs. The evo handles pretty well out the box but it can be improved.

You can always tell when you have had a good run, I had none on sunday.

[Ignorant Ignis]

are you comming out of boost? and how much boost you running? stock turbo?

[MadCrix]

crazy,

some tips

its 4 wd so the car will hook regardless if it understerring a bit, what i tend to do is enter a bit slower and when i hit the apex of teh corner i floor it and the 4wd pulls teh car out properly and goes where i point the steering.

u drove in my car with me and u see how much more i push.
i think the main problem you have is that you don't push as hard as u can. either u don;t trust your self or your car. but u see what the car can do by watching devi and jodi and me.

brake straight as u can and use teh traction control ayc and acd to pull u out of the corner.

where i point the steering, the car goes.

if i am back for bycc.. not too sure, i will take u for a spin and talk u through what i doing.
devi drives more conservative than me and ryan p. we tend to enter the corners hard as opposed to devi where its much smoother, you just need to see what works for u.

but you are on the righ track. practice practice practice. what u need to do is push harder each run and see what works and don;t work.
now me personally, i cannot drive that car on street tires and be competitive as it has no grip.

you may actually learn more by going sticky tires... just my two cents

[crazybalhead]

Ignis, the only thing modified on my car is the exhaust and the intake. Cat back. Nothing else. Stock 16-17 lbs boost. And yes i have to come out of boost on corner entries, otherwise I might end up on the fence!

Salty, I felt my last run was a good one, but it was still considerably slower than everybody elses runs.

I do not want to alter the camber and toe for dex, I have to drive the ar to work and just don't have the time to do this. hell between the last two dex's I havent even washed the car!

really appreciate the comments guys.

[crazybalhead]

Crix, when I enter the corner slower and push to get out fast the car starts understeering on the loose gravel, I feel that is where I really lose the most time. What I am comparing it to is the ignis's and the swifts that seem to be doing the same times as me, they are undoubtedly great drivers, which is what I am striving for.

[Razkal]

Coming out of boost had me loosing reallll time on Sunday...my first run was an 81.***
My car probably has as much steering lock as an evo which imo leaves alot to be desired but mine suffers with snap oversteer and my front camber was 1* positive on BOTH sides, because i didnt get the car aligned in time .

I found just letting the car's momentum take me through most of the corners helped alot, the only time i went WOT was on the big straight heading back towards the start of 2nd lap, i hit 3rd at the top (the AFR gauge was reading kinda lean when i held 2nd gear close to redline so i didnt wanna chance that parlour engine dying a most horific death at dex).
The sweeping corner at the bottom of the course to me was fastest when i clipped the inside cone of the gate (to the right) really close and braked hard in a straight line before the cone marking the start of the sweeping corner, i clipped that one pretty close to and went wide only flooring it when i was exiting the sweeping corner to make the straight, that would have worked alot better if i had more front grip, i sure anyone who saw my runs could see how much time i was losing exiting there with those front tyres screaming

[Razkal]

cbh, i dont wanna go r-compounds til i feel my driving ahs improved either man, i still have alot of suspension work to do to get the car stable and more predictable so i have a looong way to go before i even consider stickier tyres

[crazybalhead]

Anybody have results yet? That would also be instructive to compare times.

I had a cone penalty on my third run, but that run felt really fast. Dunno how it actually was though.

EP is a beyotch of a class to be in boy. But that is good, will make me a better driver.

On a more positive note, since dexing this year, I am much more confident as to the capabilities of the car.

[saltydog]

CBH i have the results but I have not put them up because we have a new person as head of publications. He is writing an artical about the event and I do not want to post the results before he is done. However your times were as follows

run 1 - 80.388
run 2 - 77.275
run 3 - 77.042 including 1 cone penalty
run 4 - 74.385 fastest time

[crazybalhead]

See what I mean (and thanks for putting up the times)

74 seconds as opposed to 70 seconds by Richard.

[Razkal]

^Lord i doh even wanna see my times, i think my fastest was like a 77.** or something...i didnt have one good run Sunday
First run i babied it, second run mih door fly open! (my fault ), third and fourth runs i did too recklessly imo, wasn't smooth at all....


Think i gonna stop taking passengers on Competition runs yes...i think way better when i can cuss like a sailor by mihself

[DEVI]

Crazy even Richard was on race tyres..... 74 secs is not bad for street tyres....i agree with crix, you're not pushing as hard as the rest of us.....suggestion ...at the nex BYCC let Ryan, Crix or me try a run in your car wth you in the Navi seat....if your not comfortable wth that idea you can sit wth one of us while we run our cars....yuh bound to pick up some tips.

[crazybalhead]

I will sit with you for sure Devi. Ryan style a lil too mad for me.

[DEVI]

^ ok cool ..... booked