I know how you feel.


You will get over this feeling with more track time.

RE cones at the track: I read all about "Thunderhill speedway". Certain permanent cones were discussed. When I got there no cones were present. I just had to deal with it. I looked for black rubber apexes.

I'm glad for you all and your shared experiences here. Please keep coming back.

- Tam

Continuing on the subject of reference points: another thing to watch out for is long-distance ones. You'll hear people point out references like "line up your braking [or turn in] so that you're facing this radio tower in the distance" or whatever. Those references sort-of help in a psychological sense, but at those distances they can look "lined up" from a wide variety of angles, so they're not necessarily very accurate!

Glad I'm not the only one who feels that way...

ok guys.
need some help.
I want to prepare mentally for saturday. The club I belong to added an event so I am autocrossing.
need a mantra to remind myself that "this is NOT A BIG DEAL, just drive the effing car."

LOL!

:driving: :happydance:

Put some 11s down and remember how awesome this car is to drive :icon17:

Don't worry about times or anything. For now just go have fun. You seem to be getting seat time pretty regularly, so you'll get better and more comfortable naturally over time. At a certain point you will be much more comfortable and start thinking about times and more technical aspects of driving. Ride along with better drivers and have them ride along with you to get some additional insight and perspective.

:tup: thanks Jar! I AM planning on having the experienced driver thing again. the last time I didn't and I think it showed in my times (which really sucked)
just not having fun right now :( feel sooooo stressed over it.

Probably the most important technical-ish thing to keep in mind is to be smooth, and to try to wrap your head around what people really mean when they tell you to be smooth with your inputs. It doesn't mean you have to move the pedals or steering wheel at snail speed. You can make very *fast* movements, but they have to be *smooth* at the same time. Fast means you get your wheel/pedal from position A to B in X milliseconds total. Smooth means you did that with a gentle acceleration to the movement of your hand/foot rather than a stabby or snappy motion, but still got there in time. Think in terms of nearly-constant, or gradually accelerating speed of your foot/hand through the movement, rather than "reach point B as fast as possible and then have to pull your muscles the other way to stop the movement".

When your inputs are smooth the car doesn't get upset or unsettled, and as you get comfortable with smooth you'll find yourself reading car feedback during the movement and finding the endpoint of the movement more precisely based on traction/sway feedback.

Don't worry about lap times, just focus on being calm and in control, and reading the car's feedback and being smooth. The rest will come naturally.

Relax. wstar is correct about smooth. You can practice a bit on the roads where you live, without being crazy. You live out in the country. Just apply the power smoothly, and quickly before you hit the speed limit. Brake in a straight line, and accelerate, then try it again when the opportunity presents itself.

When I drive these days, my eyes are always looking for apex's. I need to tell myself not to turn in too soon.

:iagree: Right on.

:icon18: lol on apexes. Me too. If i over think it though i screw it up. Get too busy trying to figure it out and visualize it that i am through the curve and onwards...before i realize wth i have done. :p.

Going to try being hyper aware of heartbeat and breathing-practicing slowing them down ....conciously slowing them and feeling it.

Ran practice slaloms about 10 x ...felt like clutch spring gave out (?)
Had to push clutch pedal practically all the way to the floor to make it work. Used my toe to physically "pop" the pedal up to normal location ....

Let the car sit and cool off-checked the fluids-remainder of day it was ok.

Wha?!?!

You need to flush your clutch fluid and replace with better quality stuff. You cooked it. Probably needs bleeding by now, anyway.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

I replaced my fluid with the DOT 5.1. The old fluid looked burnt. This was around 10K miles. I should do it again soon.

Thx guys...did some thread searching and discovered lots of information.
Not the first time this has happened so i prob do need to change it. Should have thought about this sooner. Ugh.

Easy to change and bleed in your opinions?
Is DOT 5.1 the same as Motul that everybody talks about?! And do you guys have strong opinions on it?

Are you sure DOT5.1 fluid is a good idea? Most run a good DOT4 like Motul RBF600 or Castrol SRF. I know 5.1 is technically 4-compatible (unlike 5.0), but I think it's also significantly different in viscosity and chemical composition from DOT4.

It is silicone based and not DOT 4 compatible. I am using DOT 5.1 as my brake fluid too. It all needed to be flushed first.

I would happily use DOT 4. Most importantly change the fluid, even with DOT 3.

I boiled my DOT 4 at Laguna Seca, so on to 5.1.

You will never boil DOT 4 at auto cross.