I allow myself to get totally intimidated by "being on the TRACK"...never EVER dreamed I would be driving on a track-never. I need to get over that or I will never be any good.

Half of the learning process is making mistakes and learning from them. That said, with an instructor with you, cones are not needed - you make mistakes, and he teaches you why they were bad, and how to improve on it.

I've been out with cones one time, but it was for driving exercises (jamming the brakes on a hard corner while cresting a hill, inducing oversteer, stuff like that) - not while actually driving the track.

Being comfortable makes a massive difference in your learning ability.

Heh, re: cone "reference" points: sometimes those cones are just flat-out in the wrong place for everyone, or they're in the right place for someone's line, but that line is appropriate for you and your car. Also, often times halfway through the day (or your session) another driver will knock the cones over, and on a road-course it's unlikely anyone will go out there and reset them anytime soon.

Driver's Edge has been known to put them up Saturday morning and then take them down later in the weekend, too, just because you shouldn't be using them as permanent references. Sometimes I think they intentionally move them around just to screw with us :)

This is exactly what the instructors talked about when we got out of the vehicles to study one particular turn. There are some basic physics to the whole thing of course, but each car and especially each driver are going to have different lines that are ideal for them.

Would you be implying that a Caterham may not follow the line of a GT500?! Rubbish!

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.

Well, it's less about the DOT rating than it is the specific wet boiling point. The 5.1 standard has a higher minimum rating, but in practice a specific brand of DOT4 may exceed most DOT 5.1's, etc.

Silicone is completely incompatible with systems not designed for it and can't be mixed, but that's DOT5 and not relevant here.

DOT3, DOT4, and DOT5.1 are all polyethylene glycol (not silicone) and technically compatible, but DOT5.1 has different viscosity than DOT4, and most of the weekend racers are using high-end DOT4 fluids. Which DOT5.1 fluid did you use?

I'm running DOT 4 for both of mine. AP Racing fluid.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

It is fairly easy to change out, yes, assuming you have easy access to squirm under your car. It's MUCH easier with a power bleeder of some sort...

Same here. Motul 600/AP Racing 600 (same stuff different name).

I have to flush the clutch several times a year, it gets pretty nasty. Bleeding by hand is a little tricky I found, the power bleeder does a nice job.

I may be learning way more than i bargained for-

My problem with bleeding by hand was that the bleeder didn't have quite enough "meat" to get a wrench around, and ALSO get a tube onto :-/

Definitely time for me to re-do mine, however...

Spoke to hubby about mine last night. He is familiar with all the pieces parts names processes etc....he didn't act like it was a bid deal...I guess I just need to pick up some of the stuff we wil need.
Thanks again! you guys are an invaluable resource to me in this my path through racing and autocrossing a Nissan 370Z

DOT 4 was a fine fluid until I went to Laguna Seca which seems to eat brakes. I boiled the DOT 4 and the pedal went to the floor. I pumped and got a little effect and stayed on the track (till the exit). Since then it was NAPA 5.1. It was my only choice in the moment.

:hello: hi mt tam!!
Taking mine in to dealership on the 16th of august ....just in case of full failure later.

It has been foggy and wet as of late. I still manage to find myself doing about 60 MPH anyway. Too fast probobally. As we all know this car is just so easy to get going and keep the speed up.

So last night leaving my mom's place I once again had a chance to go around her perfect 180 degree turn. It is usually blocked by some idiot but last night was different. I tried to allow the car way ahead to get as far along as possible before someone came up behind me. I had my opening and at the last moment tried something new. A different turn entry by going too far left then coming back in. I did this to increase my speed. It did get my speed up nearly 5 MPH but I had changed the geometry slightly. Normally I hold the wheel and it takes me right to the proper late apex.

Everything was going along fine when I decided to look down at the speedometer. When I did this, and saw I was going faster, I suddenly clipped the curb early with my right rear wheel which threw me a tiny bit and that was that. I felt stupid and then wondered what I might have done to my wheel. When I get home I'll look.

On the way home a Subaru WRX was practically pushing me while I had a car in front of me. All at once when the car ahead went a different direction and the speed limit increased to 55 MPH. This was my chance to stop being pushed and then tried to pull that Subaru along with me. He would get lost behind me so I'd slow down and wait and try and pull him some more. Eventually I tired of him and just went home.

In the garage I checked out my wheel and found the side of the tire had a rash on it but no damage to the tire or wheel.

If you are going to drive poorly, like I did, then it is good to be lucky as well.

Glad to hear there was no real damage :tup:

I just discovered a neighbor of mine has a new Focus ST. We drove quickly until we found the slower Audi RS5 (similar to Malibu blue). This kept up a reasonable speed until the Hybrid.

I am looking forward to discovering which neighbor has the new car. I hope we can have a little fun together.

Morning Tam!! Nice stories, as always :tup:

Last night I got another shot at the perfect turn. I waited for the truck ahead to clear out while nobody came up behind me as I waited and rolled ten seconds. I just took the standard line and held the wheel. I was delivered at the end of the curve, exactly where I wanted to be. I briefly nailed it out of the turn and had such a smile on my face, I wish I had a picture.

Legal fun.

This is what driving in my area is like. I took this last night.

How kind and polite of him.

How was it you were filming?

New dash camera I bought off of Amazon for $33.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

I'm driving the Jag today and onlookers are drooling. I just had a young boy ask to take pictures and I told him, with mom's permission, to hop in and have his picture taken inside. He did. We chatted a few minutes about their recent 1969 MGB purchase and current restoration project.

Yesterday a fellow had a cherry XK140 here.

Bonus: Mom was fine as hell.

I drove Harry to work every day this week. Then he took me to the dentist today. Of course i washed him first then was able to find time to speed shine ...i wonder about animals during my commute. The deer, raccoons, possums seem to feel or sense the rumble because i don't see as many in the roadway when driving the Z versus my Civic.

Once upon a time, I installed some small dog whistle like items on my 280Z that produced a high pitch I never heard. I never ran into a deer with them but then again, without them I still don't either.

How are the choppers anyway? :D