What is you ideal Autocross Test & Tune?

So, I have a rather unique situation that is going to result in private access to a 50 acre asphalt pad for two days, one in June and one in August.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to utilize this space to get the maximum benefit for the four or five autocross cars and eight to ten autocrossers we'll have there.

So far, what I've come up with is the following:

We'll divide the day into two "sessions". In the first session, we'll set up two skidpads (one 200' and one... smaller, maybe 150', maybe both the same size to allow more testing). We'll use those to confirm tire pressures, etc. See this link for method.

We'll also set up two slaloms, one 9 cones, 30' apart, and the other 6 cones 45' apart. We'll have accurate timing for at least one slalom, maybe both. I'm working on devising a way to make the slalom entry repeatable/consistent (long acceleration zone, followed by a 90º turn with lots of cones so there is little choice of line... I'm thinking this will be easier on the cars - no hard launch - but consistent entry speeds).

I'm hoping that we can use the skidpad to determine tire pressures and allow drivers to practice balancing the car with the throttle (inducing and correcting oversteer, etc). The slalom will help with determining sway bar settings and to improve driver ability with slaloms.

The second session, in the afternoon, we'll set up a 40ish second course, and we'll take runs and make tweaks to see what the changes are. After that, we'll modify the course to run in reverse and have an mini autocross, three runs each to see who's the best! If there's time, and it's possible, I also want to water soak the course so we can practice driving in the wet and to determine the changeover point from our wet tires to dry tires.

What are your thoughts, am I wasting our time with the morning session? Would just have two "course" sessions be better? I feel like this is a pretty great opportunity and I want to be scientific about it, not just burning up tires and time. Any suggestions? Are there other "test modes" we should do?

Argh, silly typos in the title! New macbook keyboard is little weird...

I think your morning session would probably more useful than the afternoon. I would really like an opportunity like that. There are too many variables in a course to accurately test. Will anyof the cars have data acquisition? You could probably learn a lot just from the circles. I would rather do more circle and slalom testing and less course since there are lots of opportunities to run a course at other autox's

Thinking back to my motorcycle training class days what about a couple cone boxes of different radius corners. Like being able to practice a short loop of 2 different hairpins or different radius corners. One of the big things that helped when riding dirt bikes etc was repetition. And the downside to most autocross is you get only one rep then wait etc

mw wrote: I think your morning session would probably more useful than the afternoon. I would really like an opportunity like that. There are too many variables in a course to accurately test. Will anyof the cars have data acquisition? You could probably learn a lot just from the circles. I would rather do more circle and slalom testing and less course since there are lots of opportunities to run a course at other autox's

Generally my thoughts mirror yours, and thankfully you're confirming them. I just started thinking, am I wasting our time?

We will have data acquisition; at least Solo Storm but we also have MAXQ for the prepared cars. I've found that numbers are much more beneficial than "feel" and even just timing... but I'm an engineer. At college they break your will until you only trust numbers.

Agree. It is much better to be able to maximize your various settings and to try different ones. Something not easily done at an autocross.