Picking up a new autocross car tomorrow

JG -- Saw your post on the facespaces due to others commenting. (*friend request sent)

Since I jumped into the class this year (coming from an STC Civic...yikes) and my perspective is fresh, I'll reply to your question here. This is what helped me get "up to speed" this year...quicker than most expected me to:

1) Kart. A lot. It will help with the transition from sitting above the cones to sitting on the ground. Also FM cars handle like big karts. Except without the nanny throttle cut when you brake.

2) Send your left foot to college. It needs to be smart, since you HAVE to brake with it (see also #1). Learn to mix throttle and brake to help rotate the car. The Darren already advised about trailbraking. He wasn't kidding.

3) Develop your course learning if you need to. This is a skill that helped me tremendously, since I tend to memorize distances and such for courses. Everyone says "just look ahead"... yeah right. I for one can't look far enough ahead in this car. Course memorization is key to help you react before your brain realizes you need to (again, DS and the Hollis is right, duh). If you can't drive it in your head before you actually drive it, you might be in trouble. It took me about 4 or 5 events for things to start to really "slow down" in the car.

4) Make the car reliable. Really. My car broke 3 times this year at big events (partly due to it sitting idle for 7 years), and I was constantly worrying about reliability. Get it reliable and just focus on driving. Lean on Greg and Darren to help since they are close.

5) GoPro mounted to the roll hoop, send videos to Darren and have him help you with driving tips. I did this a couple times and he was more than willing to crush my ego with excellent tips.

Look forward to seeing you in the National FM grid in 2015... HAVE FUN!

--Will Lahee Mowtini Red Devil #193

Keeping F500 or converting to F600? F600 really intrigues me.

rickybobby wrote: JG -- Saw your post on the facespaces due to others commenting. (*friend request sent) Since I jumped into the class this year (coming from an STC Civic...yikes) and my perspective is fresh, I'll reply to your question here. This is what helped me get "up to speed" this year...quicker than most expected me to: 1) Kart. A lot. It will help with the transition from sitting above the cones to sitting on the ground. Also FM cars handle like big karts. Except without the nanny throttle cut when you brake. 2) Send your left foot to college. It needs to be smart, since you HAVE to brake with it (see also #1). Learn to mix throttle and brake to help rotate the car. The Darren already advised about trailbraking. He wasn't kidding. 3) Develop your course learning if you need to. This is a skill that helped me tremendously, since I tend to memorize distances and such for courses. Everyone says "just look ahead"... yeah right. I for one can't look far enough ahead in this car. Course memorization is key to help you react before your brain realizes you need to (again, DS and the Hollis is right, duh). If you can't drive it in your head before you actually drive it, you might be in trouble. It took me about 4 or 5 events for things to start to really "slow down" in the car. 4) Make the car reliable. Really. My car broke 3 times this year at big events (partly due to it sitting idle for 7 years), and I was constantly worrying about reliability. Get it reliable and just focus on driving. Lean on Greg and Darren to help since they are close. 5) GoPro mounted to the roll hoop, send videos to Darren and have him help you with driving tips. I did this a couple times and he was more than willing to crush my ego with excellent tips. Look forward to seeing you in the National FM grid in 2015... HAVE FUN! --Will Lahee Mowtini Red Devil #193

Well, after my first event I'll have to say I'm hooked. I used to do a LOT of left foot braking when I was autocrossing primarily FWD cars, so it's no a skill that was foreign to me. What's amazing is how much you use the brakes to control the attitude of the F500 car. The only thing I can compare it to is riding a MX bike. The fast way around (for the tighter stuff, anyway) seems to be to trail brake DEEP into corners and kind of toss it in back first. Then roll back into the gas early to get the clutch engaged and just motor out. On those few times I accidentally did it right it felt very cool.

And here's some video from my mod car debut. Runner up FTD to another FMod car. This is the second fastest run. I managed to shave another half second off, but forgot to hit record.

https://vimeo.com/107414917

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

Now do that again on a course with some turns.

(don't mind me - I'm just jealous...)

JG my friend put me in his F500 because he said the driving style fit me to a tee, I trail the brakes religiously due to my motorcycle racing background. I'll pass on my whooping 8 runs of experience.......one thing I noticed or rather heard in the video was the throttle, it sounded like you were completely off the gas in spots. It took be about half a run to figure out that much like a bike preloading the throttle to wind up the chassis seemed to help, read getting the clutch engaged ever so slightly planted the rear. When the car started to reeeeally rotate having the throttle already on meant the instant you let off the brakes the back was planted and you'd get instant forward bite. It also seemed like this resulted in less oppossite lcok. By my last couple of runs I was using classic rally LFB in places, if the car started understeering I'd simply give the brake a quick squeeze without ever getting out of the throttle. Now as for F500 being a blast, I autocrossed my D-Sports Racer a couple of times but never got jazzed about autocrossing it, one run in my friends car F500 and I started shopping for one. The cars are so much fun and being a guy who road raced a 125cc two stroke GP bike the F500 has a similar vibe. My first event with my Novakar is in a few weeks. I recommend everyone try one of these cars at least once, they are huge fun and fast.

         Tom

That thing sounds like the world's angriest leaf blower! Fun!