Driving Critique Request

[ffrgtm]

So I have an in car clip from an fsae run and I was hoping I could get someone with some experience here to chime in and possibly point out the mistakes made on this run. You have to play it pretty slow to see whats going on. I can see a few mistakes but don't really feel like I'm qualified enough to criticize all the errors as it's hard for me without a track map or anymore telemetry than the onscreen g counters.

I was having trouble watching in slo-mo but opened it with vlc instead and it worked great.

here is the video that I think had the most errors, there are others on that channel as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO8gdhdGMlo

[Jim Garry]

Having watched the video only a few times, and being limited by a view through a camera, it's tough to get a solid handle on things but it looks very good in places. When you get it crossed up, in some places it's tough to say for sure if it's you or the car. Could be the car is just very loose. Did someone else drive it? If so, how did their times compare to yours?

At 0:10 the car was wide. Didn't hurt too badly but could have been tighter on cones without sacrificing speed.

Wide again at 0:21 but not sure if you had to do that to be able to set up for 0:24.

At exit of 0:24 you got sideways at 0:25 when accelerating out. Lost time there. Your fault or the car's? Not sure.

Slalom was good. Close to cones.

Looked like car pushed at 0:30 and then resulted in oversteer. Did you come in too hard? But you recovered and accelerated onto the next flat out section very nicely.

Really difficult to tell but you might have been closer to cone on right at exit at 0:36. Then again, there was alot of steering lock needed for that tight turn and so maybe you needed the room to make sure your rear tire didn't hit that cone.

This might be really wrong but 1/2 second later it looks like you got a little greedy and accelerated a bit too soon as you passed the cone on the left. It caused you to accel, lift, accel. Waiting a 1/4 second or so may have allowed you to just stay in it. Not sure though.

Then real trouble kicks in. As you approach the cone on your right at about 0:41, you suddenly crank in a bunch of extra steering, getting the car sideways. That screwed things up for the next couple of turns for about 4 or 5 seconds. All the sudden steering might have been due to setting up incorrectly. Again, it's tough to tell from video.

You recovered and got on the throttle good until a big problem at 0:53. It wasn't your hands this time. Maybe you just came in too quickly or maybe the tires were going off. But the car got sideways big time, throwing you wide and preventing early throttle. That hurt.

At 0:59 you broke too late and thus got off line and got on the throttle late. That cost you both in terms of acceleration and line through the next corner which in turn led to another sideways episode nearing the finish.

That entire last section (about 10 seconds or so) was an exercise in patience and maintaining line and taking the short way through.

On the plus side, you're aggressive. It's a lot easier to slow a driver down than it is to speed him up.

Hope that helped a bit.

[ffrgtm]

Jim you are too good to me, and no it wasn't my driving. The fsae car was about 7 seconds faster than me (granted I was driving an rx8) at the same event. Our fsae team is just getting some drive days done and I've been doing a couple clinics with what I've read and what I remember from two skip barbers. I can talk the talk but not walk the walk yet... but hey those who can't ... teach!.... right? This is why I was asking for some input on this video as I'm going to try to slow mo through it during my presentation to talk about a few things.


As for your critique I was also struggling trying to figure out if some corners were missed apex's or just a compromise for the following corner. It would be so much easier to tell with a track map.


Anyways I'm just finishing the alignment on my rf90 back home and should be turning some times half way through finals week (i also need an alignment on my priorities).

Thanks again Jim,
Ben

[RDeLong]

It's definately difficult to critiqe the video but after looking at it a couple times there's a few things that begin to appear. It's hard to tell how much of it is the car and how much the driver but entering the corners looks a bit abrupt and unsettling to the car - smoother footwork, softer hands or a less twichy setup would help here. Same goes for the exit really - car steps out a lot. Makes me wonder of the rear is set too soft in bump or too stiff in rebound.

Could definately position the car better for the tighter switchbacks - getting behind early and it really catches you out by the end. Particulcarly the last section heading into the finish. Try to setup a late apex on the early turns giving you a good position for the next and you should be setup good by the last one to carry some speed exiting - carry speed forward with a delicate throttle rather than loosing time catching a drift.

Agree with comments above... agressiveness isn't lacking, just slow down your mind a touch and find a smooth rythem and line through the corners and you find more speed without getting the rear loose.

hope that helps. the loose rear is definately the biggest inefficiency from what I can tell.