der Bayerische March/April 2020 - 32

out (oversteering) as you're trying to exit the corner, and you're losing time
while you wait for the car to recover, then you probably entered the corner
too hot.
* Habit 4: SMOOTH IS FAST. Jerky inputs unsettle the car's suspension and
lead to understeer or oversteer. This doesn't mean that your inputs can't be
quick; they just can't be jerky.
* Habit 5: DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT*, to the limit of grip, beyond
your comfort zone, maximizing the load on your suspension while
minimizing distance traveled. Where you can go fast, go CRAZY fast.
- *But not on public roads. Trust me.
- Corollary 5a: Remember the friction circle. If you're braking at 100% of
the tires' grip, then the tires have no grip left for turning at that moment.
Your tires' available grip is being shared between braking, turning,
and accelerating. When you're performing more than one of these
actions at the same time (braking & turning, turning & accelerating) then
remember that those actions need to share the available grip. This is why
your instructor told you to do your heaviest braking while traveling in a
straight line.
* Habit 6: TRAIL BRAKE. Approach the corner aggressively, enter the corner wide, brake moderately, ease off the brake as you begin turning. That
residual, light braking as you're turning will keep the car's weight transferred
to the front tires, helping to rotate the car. When the nose of the car is pointed where you want to go, finish lifting off the brake and smoothly get back on
the gas. The result should be that you apex within inches of the cone and exit
the corner pointed towards your next element. If you can't get within inches of
the cone, or if you're not pointed towards your next element as you exit the
corner, then you might have entered the corner too hot or too tight. Approach
aggressively, enter wide, brake, lift & turn, exit close to the cone, go!
* Tip: if your car's handling exhibits excessive body roll and/or is slow to
respond to steering inputs (and you've already done a competition alignment),
and you're in the street/stock class, then consider getting firmer dampers

(shocks & struts). See the July/August 2019 article describing Habits Three
and Four.
- If you're driving in a class that allows it, consider getting firmer springs
(these may also lower the car) and matching shocks & struts; a coilover
suspension kit includes a combined damper-and-spring setup.
* Habit 7: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Analyze how your car is
behaving at each turn and adjust accordingly. Analyze your in-car video
for the same purpose. Ask your colleagues for insights. Are you applying
each of the six habits, above, at every corner?
* Habit 8: HAVE FUN. Enjoy the entire experience, including your work
assignment. After all, if you're not having fun, then why are you here?
What's next? This article is the fifth of several entitled "The Habits of
Highly Effective Autocrossers" (with apologies to Stephen Covey). (Ok, the
series started out as "The Seven Habits...", but this article brings us up to
nine, plus numerous tips, as you saw recapped, above.) Habit number nine is
this: DON'T OVERDRIVE THE CAR.
At last spring's test 'n tune, I was driving my heart out, working the car
and the tires hard, squealing and drifting around every corner, and my times
were terrible. So I finally told myself to calm down and just focus on exiting
close to the cones, without worrying about speed. Voila, instant improvement!
A few more runs, and I had knocked two seconds off my earlier times.
What had been the issue?
I had been overdriving the car, trying too hard. Remember Habit 2:
enter wide, exit tight, close to the cone. It's hard to exit tight to the cone if
you're overdriving the car. Remember Habit 3; in slow, out fast. Sometimes
you have to slow down to be fast.
In the September/October issue of der Bayerische, the Habits article
talked about one of the classic debates in autocross, in the context of Habit
5 ("drive it like you stole it"): is the emphasis first on maximizing load
(cornering to the limit of grip) and then minimizing distance, or the other
way around? Based on that test 'n tune (and advice from drivers like Mark

(Below) Is that cone chasing me or did I overdrive that corner?

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