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BriK · 06-13-2014

Okay, this is going to be another long one, but it's been a while, I've had another autocross event, and there are a few things worth mentioning. So once again, bear with me or choose to ignore.

Driver mods
I've been thinking about Shawn's comment about my confidence; while I did have a certain level of confidence, I got to thinking that I might be doubting myself too much and holding myself back. the mental game is something I've been focusing on the least and I think I underestimate just how much it comes into play. I've caught myself thinking "I'm okay but X person is faster and better, so I don't plan to do better than that person"-- I even said nearly that exact phrase when talking to Brandon about a new competitor in STU this year. As soon as I said it, I thought to myself I should have more confidence in myself.

There've been a couple more Friday Night Drives/ Evo Days at DCTC; I've been instructing and have helped setup the course at the last couple. Instructing has been good and I'm finding a groove of where to focus my direction, but I'm still trying to figure out the right balance of talking before, during, and after sessions, and I'm working on how to explain things, especially in situations where I need to start with the very basics.

Course setup has helped me with course walks in autocross. Things are drastically different when walking a course than when driving a car at speed, so setting up the course has given me a better sense for space, speed, etc. which, in turn, has helped me develop a better and more realistic plan during course walks.

Andy Smedegard rode along with me at the second DCTC event and, besides me absolutely destroying a few cones, his only feedback was to shift less. Being that I've only done autocross and have yet to do road courses, I can't heel-toe downshift, and I tend to think I need to downshift when I really don't. So I've added heel-toe downshifts to my "practice" on the streets-- I don't go fast or anything, I just practice looking ahead and now heel-toeing.

It's kind of a car mod, but intended to mod the driver, but I now have my complete data acquisition setup. I have a 7" Android Tablet with reasonably good specs, a 32gb microSD card with fast read rate (for HD video), a bluetooth OBD2 reader (PLX Kiwi), a bluetooth GPS device (Qstarz 10hz, which refreshes 10x faster than the tablet's internal GPS), a suction cup mount for the tablet, and the software I run is SoloStorm (www.PetrelData.com). SoloStorm is specifically designed for autocross, and it can integrate OBD2 data, GPS, and video so I can review exactly what I'm doing on course. I can review the data immediately to help me at an event, but I can also review everything later to analyze and improve my driving habits and driving style.

Here's a sample video for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PfsM9e4y68

Car mods
After the first Friday Night Drive and MOWOG 1, I noticed an intermittent clunk/ping coming from the front-passenger side. It turns out the nut on the bottom of the endlink was pushed well down the arm, so I assume there was so much pressure that it pushed or loosened the nut, and the ping was caused by the endlink sliding. I did some reading and came to conclude the clunks were the endlinks binding due to insufficient articulation. Some more reading showed adding a spacer would give a better angle for the endlink, so I just used a nut on both sides of the endlink arm-- much like the picture below but where there's a large, straight spacer, I just used a normal nut. I haven't had any more issues after two more Friday Nights Drives and a MOWOG, so it seems to have worked.

In other news, I installed new spark plugs and installed Kracka Vents I've had for quite a while now. Also, I thought my oil temp "issue" was fixed and while it's a WHOLE lot better, it's not completely back to the way it used to be. I found a product called RMI-25 which cleans the coolant system as it circulates-- it's not exclusive for doing a flush. I've been using that for a couple weeks now and it seems to be helping a bit. I'll do a flush soon to remove any gunk, and then I'm thinking I'll change the coolant mixture to run more water-- more like a 70/30 mix instead of 50/50. We'll see though.

MOWOG 3
As mentioned in my intro paragraph that you may remember reading a couple hours ago, there's an experienced driver who's a new competitor of mine in STU and this was his first event in the class. He's got a few more years of experience than I do, done many more events than I have, he's a MAC instructor, and he has a 350Z with massive 285's front and back (read: car should be very competitive). I made my goal for this event to beat him, and told myself I could do it. If he's reading this, I'm sure he's not surprised.

I had a co-driver for the first time. I've been hesitant to have one previously, partially because of my oil temp, and partially since I used to get "performance anxiety" when someone rode with me. But I figured it'd help me pick up some tips and ideas, and with data acquisition, I could do some more studying on both of our driving. Well, I need some more practice with the data acquisition since I had some trouble correctly logging and analyzing everything, but I did learn some things from the data. I liked having a co-driver and it helped more than I expected, so I'll probably do it at least once more this year.

Setup: Same as MOWOG 1, and no changes throughout the whole event.

I let my co-driver run first so I could get a look at the course, get the brakes and tires warm, etc.

1st run-- I'm not used to changing drivers and everything so I was a bit frantic before my first run, so I didn't spray the tires (to cool them down and avoid them getting greasy) or check pressures, so the tire pressures were probably very high and made the car really loose. The back sweeper at DCTC had a fairly big kink in the middle that I struggled with all day-- you pretty much had to brake while turning, but I ended up braking too hard, I plowed into a a couple cones and had a big slow-down as I corrected. Still, I was pleased with how I did for my first run since I'm usually really, really slow but I was fairly fast this time. 62.3 +2 cones

2nd run-- I rode with my co-driver again, I knew some places to clean up, especially the back sweeper, and some places I could be more aggressive. I focused on braking less into the kink and it went better but not great; room to improve next time. 61.3 no cones.

3rd run-- Rode with my co-driver on his third run and he had a re-run, so I'd had 6 looks at the course by my third run. I had even more places to clean up and I was focusing on the kink/ back sweeper, carrying more speed through the transition, and going faster through the slaloms while keeping a smooth rhythm. 60.3 + 1 cone, though I swear I didn't hit one and I have no idea where I did.

At the end of morning runs, I was in the middle of 11 cars in STU because I was resting on my clean 61.3.

4th run-- I looked at data during my break and didn't learn a ton, but I did notice my co-driver was getting better starts than I was which was translating to 0.5 second or so. Overall, the run went okay but I got behind in the big concrete slalom and had to do a big brake check towards the end, and I knew a couple more places to clean up and find more time. 60.2 clean.

5th run-- I rode with my co-driver before my last run and noticed some places where I thought the car would slide but instead it just hunkered down and gripped. So, more than usual, I had a very specific plan in my head for the entire course, instead of just thinking about cleaning up a section here or there. Without getting into too much detail (who me?) I had spots to brake less, spots to just lift instead of brake, and spots to apply more throttle and do so earlier. I also thought about HOW I'd be braking-- hard, hard, hard at first (where I needed to) with a smooth but fast transition back to throttle. As you can see, the general theme of my plan was to stay smooth but go faster and trust/ understand that the car will grip. I followed my plan very well which resulted in a clean 59.6 and, like the last event, I pounded my helmet and did some self-congratulating screams.

I ended up accomplishing my goal and doing pretty well overall. I beat my target competitor (my 59.6 was faster than any of his times, not taking cones into account), I took third in STU behind a co-driven M3 (which may be my new target), and my time was good for 25th fastest Raw time and 35th fastest Index time out of 147 drivers. Beyond how I compared to others, I feel like I made important steps in my mental game, gaining confidence in myself and my control of the car, but also gaining a ton of confidence in the car itself. I'm very pleased with my progress and look forward to even more.

06-13-2014	#9
BriK Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Woodbury Drives: GG IX MR SE Posts: 183	Re: BriK’s Driver Mods and Car Mods Okay, this is going to be another long one, but it's been a while, I've had another autocross event, and there are a few things worth mentioning. So once again, bear with me or choose to ignore. Driver mods I've been thinking about Shawn's comment about my confidence; while I did have a certain level of confidence, I got to thinking that I might be doubting myself too much and holding myself back. the mental game is something I've been focusing on the least and I think I underestimate just how much it comes into play. I've caught myself thinking "I'm okay but X person is faster and better, so I don't plan to do better than that person"-- I even said nearly that exact phrase when talking to Brandon about a new competitor in STU this year. As soon as I said it, I thought to myself I should have more confidence in myself. There've been a couple more Friday Night Drives/ Evo Days at DCTC; I've been instructing and have helped setup the course at the last couple. Instructing has been good and I'm finding a groove of where to focus my direction, but I'm still trying to figure out the right balance of talking before, during, and after sessions, and I'm working on how to explain things, especially in situations where I need to start with the very basics. Course setup has helped me with course walks in autocross. Things are drastically different when walking a course than when driving a car at speed, so setting up the course has given me a better sense for space, speed, etc. which, in turn, has helped me develop a better and more realistic plan during course walks. Andy Smedegard rode along with me at the second DCTC event and, besides me absolutely destroying a few cones, his only feedback was to shift less. Being that I've only done autocross and have yet to do road courses, I can't heel-toe downshift, and I tend to think I need to downshift when I really don't. So I've added heel-toe downshifts to my "practice" on the streets-- I don't go fast or anything, I just practice looking ahead and now heel-toeing. It's kind of a car mod, but intended to mod the driver, but I now have my complete data acquisition setup. I have a 7" Android Tablet with reasonably good specs, a 32gb microSD card with fast read rate (for HD video), a bluetooth OBD2 reader (PLX Kiwi), a bluetooth GPS device (Qstarz 10hz, which refreshes 10x faster than the tablet's internal GPS), a suction cup mount for the tablet, and the software I run is SoloStorm (www.PetrelData.com). SoloStorm is specifically designed for autocross, and it can integrate OBD2 data, GPS, and video so I can review exactly what I'm doing on course. I can review the data immediately to help me at an event, but I can also review everything later to analyze and improve my driving habits and driving style. Here's a sample video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PfsM9e4y68 Car mods After the first Friday Night Drive and MOWOG 1, I noticed an intermittent clunk/ping coming from the front-passenger side. It turns out the nut on the bottom of the endlink was pushed well down the arm, so I assume there was so much pressure that it pushed or loosened the nut, and the ping was caused by the endlink sliding. I did some reading and came to conclude the clunks were the endlinks binding due to insufficient articulation. Some more reading showed adding a spacer would give a better angle for the endlink, so I just used a nut on both sides of the endlink arm-- much like the picture below but where there's a large, straight spacer, I just used a normal nut. I haven't had any more issues after two more Friday Nights Drives and a MOWOG, so it seems to have worked. In other news, I installed new spark plugs and installed Kracka Vents I've had for quite a while now. Also, I thought my oil temp "issue" was fixed and while it's a WHOLE lot better, it's not completely back to the way it used to be. I found a product called RMI-25 which cleans the coolant system as it circulates-- it's not exclusive for doing a flush. I've been using that for a couple weeks now and it seems to be helping a bit. I'll do a flush soon to remove any gunk, and then I'm thinking I'll change the coolant mixture to run more water-- more like a 70/30 mix instead of 50/50. We'll see though. MOWOG 3 As mentioned in my intro paragraph that you may remember reading a couple hours ago, there's an experienced driver who's a new competitor of mine in STU and this was his first event in the class. He's got a few more years of experience than I do, done many more events than I have, he's a MAC instructor, and he has a 350Z with massive 285's front and back (read: car should be very competitive). I made my goal for this event to beat him, and told myself I could do it. If he's reading this, I'm sure he's not surprised. I had a co-driver for the first time. I've been hesitant to have one previously, partially because of my oil temp, and partially since I used to get "performance anxiety" when someone rode with me. But I figured it'd help me pick up some tips and ideas, and with data acquisition, I could do some more studying on both of our driving. Well, I need some more practice with the data acquisition since I had some trouble correctly logging and analyzing everything, but I did learn some things from the data. I liked having a co-driver and it helped more than I expected, so I'll probably do it at least once more this year. Setup: Same as MOWOG 1, and no changes throughout the whole event. I let my co-driver run first so I could get a look at the course, get the brakes and tires warm, etc. 1st run-- I'm not used to changing drivers and everything so I was a bit frantic before my first run, so I didn't spray the tires (to cool them down and avoid them getting greasy) or check pressures, so the tire pressures were probably very high and made the car really loose. The back sweeper at DCTC had a fairly big kink in the middle that I struggled with all day-- you pretty much had to brake while turning, but I ended up braking too hard, I plowed into a a couple cones and had a big slow-down as I corrected. Still, I was pleased with how I did for my first run since I'm usually really, really slow but I was fairly fast this time. 62.3 +2 cones 2nd run-- I rode with my co-driver again, I knew some places to clean up, especially the back sweeper, and some places I could be more aggressive. I focused on braking less into the kink and it went better but not great; room to improve next time. 61.3 no cones. 3rd run-- Rode with my co-driver on his third run and he had a re-run, so I'd had 6 looks at the course by my third run. I had even more places to clean up and I was focusing on the kink/ back sweeper, carrying more speed through the transition, and going faster through the slaloms while keeping a smooth rhythm. 60.3 + 1 cone, though I swear I didn't hit one and I have no idea where I did. At the end of morning runs, I was in the middle of 11 cars in STU because I was resting on my clean 61.3. 4th run-- I looked at data during my break and didn't learn a ton, but I did notice my co-driver was getting better starts than I was which was translating to 0.5 second or so. Overall, the run went okay but I got behind in the big concrete slalom and had to do a big brake check towards the end, and I knew a couple more places to clean up and find more time. 60.2 clean. 5th run-- I rode with my co-driver before my last run and noticed some places where I thought the car would slide but instead it just hunkered down and gripped. So, more than usual, I had a very specific plan in my head for the entire course, instead of just thinking about cleaning up a section here or there. Without getting into too much detail (who me?) I had spots to brake less, spots to just lift instead of brake, and spots to apply more throttle and do so earlier. I also thought about HOW I'd be braking-- hard, hard, hard at first (where I needed to) with a smooth but fast transition back to throttle. As you can see, the general theme of my plan was to stay smooth but go faster and trust/ understand that the car will grip. I followed my plan very well which resulted in a clean 59.6 and, like the last event, I pounded my helmet and did some self-congratulating screams. I ended up accomplishing my goal and doing pretty well overall. I beat my target competitor (my 59.6 was faster than any of his times, not taking cones into account), I took third in STU behind a co-driven M3 (which may be my new target), and my time was good for 25th fastest Raw time and 35th fastest Index time out of 147 drivers. Beyond how I compared to others, I feel like I made important steps in my mental game, gaining confidence in myself and my control of the car, but also gaining a ton of confidence in the car itself. I'm very pleased with my progress and look forward to even more. __________________ Brian K. Last edited by BriK; 06-13-2014 at 05:09 PM..