VetteDrmr

I would appreciate any critiques that y'all would make based on the video from our last autocross.

Here's the video of my best run of the day. This was my first time with my camera and mic, and the mounting didn't do as well as I hoped, and the mic picked up a bunch of wind noise. Hopefully both issues will be corrected for our next event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sjXLr2f_H8

I *think* I'm not being aggressive enough in the slaloms, and I may not be aggressive enough through the sequence of three boxes in mid-course.

In any case, let me know what you think.

Have a good one,
Mike

BQuicksilver

Man, that looks like a FUN!! course. You were moving.

Please lose the music, it's distracting.

I'm not an AutoX expert, but it sounds like you could have been in the throttle earlier in most sections, or rolling on before the apex cone, but the music could have drowned it out.

vms4evr

Damn Mike! I wish we had a site that big and someone would let me build a course that fast and fun! This local club I run with would call that a road course with no technical elements. Just another Corvette course... We do Miata courses and it makes me want to throw up. That's why I stopped doing it last year.

Sorry I have no critique value for you. I have to go to the track and drive a road course to go that fast and open. I'm jealous. If come down to TX on business can I get a co-drive with you on a course like that?

Graham

TommyBoy72

Yeah the music isn't so great for hearing what you are doing with the throttle but still makes for a nice video.

Between not hearing the throttle well and the fish eye, its hard to be picky IMO. If I had to pick, the first slalom was very conservative as you stated already. The second slalom type feature it seemed you were at full roll much sooner although it was a faster feature. That course would probably be illegal for SCCA here, what speeds were you hitting? That was one seriously long straight. Gotta love big sites!

I just ordered a suction mount for my MiniDV camcorder so I should be able to record my 3rd event in the Z06. I'll post that up to compare. Should be plenty to critique as it will be my first on new shocks and race tires in this car.

TedDBere

Maybe it's just me but I find "through the windshield" shots to be entertaining but not very useful in analyzing individual runs, particularly when you can't see what the driver is doing, IMHO. If you can stick the camera to the roof of the car or to the rear fenders of the car then you can tell how close you are to your apexes and can better compare runs.

One thing I think I may have picked up was in the rear sweeper. You seem to be fairly far off the inside cones. I always try to minimize distance in the sweepers. It's a common mistake for those with high HP cars to center the car in the sweeper. That's a lot of distance you are giving up by not staying tight in the sweeper, FWIW.

Fun course, very much like a national set-up.

SEA4

It's been 10+ years since I've autocrossed (going to start again this year) so I'm in no position to critique..but I do have to say, MAN, what a course.. I NEVER got to run on such a fast course up here when I was active in it years ago. It looks like you were going what, 75+ at the 1.13 mark??

Couple notes.. agree with others that the music is distracting (but cool as just a video to watch)

0.53 - Started your turn in a moment too early and had to adjust your line

1.17-18 - Seemed like you were set up a little too far to the right and had to adjust for that.. if you had come into that a few feet farther to the left it would have set you up better for the next couple left handers..

Your approach to the end box was great..don't think you could have got in there much faster


Watching this right now is getting me excited for Devens in May

VetteDrmr

To all,

Thanks for the critiques (including the music comments, as well!) I made this video first for entertainment, and used an old track from one of my daughter's high school dance team's routines. It was only later that I thought "you know, I could learn something from this."

This was the first time I'd used my camera, and I had it set up looking through the HUD, mainly to answer the perennial question "how fast do you get?" Also trying to look at the course from driver's eye perspective.

I tried to get the mic position so it wouldn't pick up too much wind noise, but was unsuccessful. Actually, the music really doesn't mask the engine noise very much (it was still a bit hot after I watched the mix); I'm going to try some new positions (this one was behind my FRC partition). Next time I'm going to try to route the mic underneath the carpet closer to the exhaust.

As far as the wide angle lens is concerned, do you think it a narrower angle would be better? I've been thinking about getting a little longer lens (they're not that expensive), but I didn't know if the loss of peripheral vision would hurt or not.

As far as the course is concerned, this was one of the more open courses the BMW group has put on. Mineral Wells is huge, but old and has a tendency to generate gravel. We sweep the course before the day's runs start, but it still gets dirty. Here's a marginal scan of the course map:

http://webpages.charter.net/VetteDrm...-07-Course.JPG

My top speed (via the DVD quality video), on this run was 78 mph right before the left bend at the top of the page. There was gravel just to the right of my line going into the bend, as I found on my next run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkVy75nDuTE

Sometimes the gravel forces you to a line other than what you'd want. That was the case between the 2nd and 3rd boxes, also. I'm not sure I remember correctly, but I think that may have also been affecting the line coming into that sharp right hander after the power run.

My thought on the final left hand sweeper was to arc out between the front and end gates to not pinch off the exit. Maybe I'm giving up more distance and time than I think.

Oh, and this *isn't* an SCCA course; they only use about 1/3rd of MW when they run out there.

Thanks again, and have a good one,
Mike

Umrswimr

Hard to tell from the video, as was mentioned before. You seemed a little timid on the first slalom and there was a spot around the 1:30 mark that the cones seemed a fair distance off the car. This is not necessarily a bad thing if the course called for it.
With the wind noise and the music, it's really hard to tell how hard you're on the throttle. Try putting a remote microphone mounted around the rear license plate area. I've heard this works well.

Looks like a fun course. Fast and not real tight- a good first course of the year. I hate it when the first event is a Miata one.

VetteDrmr

I went back and Youtubed just the video run without the cool slides and music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCU_pdCG20Y

I really appreciate y'all scrutinizing this for me; hopefully I'll be able to fix some bad habits.

Have a good one,
Mike

MazdaRob

Actually, what we do is real autocross courses that require a brake pedal We have no site that will allow that kind of speed or course darnit. It would be fun to have an event on a course that open. Hmmmm, or better yet, I could make so many tight gates that it would burn the tyres off your car in two runs

Crap, I just remembered the next event is the only one that isn't an airport, it is a slippery square about the size of a postage stamp

Nice run, I can't add much that others haven't said.

Rob

VetteDrmr

Graham,

Give me a shout if you get down this way; MW usually has events running every weekend.

Have a good one,
Mike

jtkeller

I was at this event with as well and it was a blast. The club races several times a year at this location; once last year they had spot where I could hit the top of 3rd! (stock gearing '03 z06 - about 97 mph or so).