Autocross is rather unique in the motorsports world, in that you can have different drivers competing in the same exact car at the same event. It’s a great test of how good of a driver you are against a real, live benchmark. Competitors can also share cars to save money, warm tires or just have fun. Co-driving an unfamiliar car can teach you a lot about the sport and how to learn a new course quickly, but it also can be a great way to take a car for a test drive before you commit your cash to a project.
We’ve been looking at getting a Miata and have been bugging a buddy of ours, Chris Harvey, about why he chose to build an MX-5 for autocross. Chris is Tire Rack’s Brand Manager for their brake and suspension programs and we have worked together on various tire, vehicle and brake tests for over a decade now, so his opinion is gold to us.
Chris packed up his MX-5 and little tire trailer and drove from Granger, Indiana to Toledo, Ohio to meet us at an SCCA autocross.
Chris offered a ride in his 2009 Mazda MX-5 Miata that he's developing with his normal co-driver, Chris Fenter, for the Sports Car Club of America’s C Street class in Solo competition. The car is in a class with mild preparation levels, but it isn’t stock. The rules allow for changes to shock absorbers, bump stops and one of the anti-roll bars. We were going to be at the same local event, which was organized by the Northwestern Ohio Region of the SCCA. It was scheduled to be on one of the best autocross sites in the country, a side pad at the Toledo Express Airport. Perfect!
Chris’ car has double adjustable shock absorbers, a larger rear anti-roll bar and an alignment that is tailored to the autocross course with maximum amounts of negative camber and zero toe front and rear. Tires in the Street category are limited to what we’d call ‘real’ tires that have UTQG treadwear ratings of at least 140 (for 2015, those limits go to 200TW). Chris has chosen the latest iteration of Hankook’s RS3 with a new compound that was just released in April—which is now called “Version 2” by tire geeks. This new tire is already rated at 200 treadwear, so it’s got some future ahead of it in this class.
These Hankook RS3 V2 tires have about 70 runs on them. They're still showing excellent tread depth and should be good for at least another 75 or so runs, if not more.
While we were at the event, we also talked with another friend of ours, Matthew Braun from Michigan. He has been an arrive-and-drive legend in the sport of autocross for years. Four out of Matthew’s five National Championships were in borrowed cars—He can just jump in and go fast. He was the perfect guy to ask advice on how to make the most of and show-up-and-go-fast scenario. Here’s what we learned.
Securing a Ride
Even if you’re not a journalist-type, finding a car to co-drive isn’t hard. Getting a ride at an autocross can be as easy as talking to a friend or it can be as complicated as a written contract and rental agreement. While we won’t go into the legal and financial end of things, we will say that you must make sure everything is clear with the car owner before you get behind the steering wheel.
Matthew Braun is an expert autocrosser and arrive-and-drive hotshoe. Photo courtesy of Shelly Monfort.
The Basics
Before you go out on to the course or track, you should have an undistracted conversation with the car owner. Ask them how they drive, what they consider the car’s weaknesses and how the launch the car and how the gearing is. Some cars will need to be shifted to third, while others can carry second through a majority of courses. Driver aids, like ABS brakes and traction control are other good points of discussion—as well as how and when to turn traction control off, if possible. If your co-driver is using data acquisition or video, ask how it works and what you need to do to help. It’s an awesome benefit to see how your runs compare on screen after all the runs are done.
After you pick their brain, pick up some tools and start helping with vehicle prep. Depending on their comfort level, changing tires can be great way to repay the chance to play with someone’s precious toy. Buying them lunch also helps. Do what you need to do to keep the car owner happy—maybe they’ll invite you back for another shot.
Changing tires on your co-driver's car is one way to help repay the favor. Make sure you ask before picking up a wrench—it's their car and they can be picky if they want to be. Photo courtesy of John Rogers.
Course Walk
Walk the course with the owner so you can see how they are expecting the car to handle. If they point out braking zones or turn-in points that seem odd to you, based upon your experience, ask their thoughts on the subject. They could give you some insight on shortcomings the car may have—like brakes that are easily locked up or sluggish turn-in response.
Practice?
At larger events, there are practice starts or "Test and Tune" courses, which are abbreviated versions of typical autocross courses. Matthew is a strong proponent of taking advantages of these if you can, "One of the first things I would suggest is if it is a National Tour event, if possible, take runs on the Friday T&T course. Even for a ProSolo, practice starts can help get you comfortable in the car and at least feel what it is like to launch, turn-in and brake at the end of the 200-foot straight. Just a little familiarity with the car goes a long way."
ProSolos offer practice starts, which can help give you a feel for an unfamiliar car. Photo courtesy of Shelly Monfort.
Unfortunately for us, there was no chance for a real practice run at this event—and we are not fans of "practicing" in uncontrolled areas or on the street—so we just hopped in and drove the car from our paddock spot to the grid area. We felt for the clutch take up and basic pedal positioning (it’s a Miata, so good is an understatement) and noticed the steering was a little heavier than other MX-5s, but no big deal.
Braun has encountered this a lot, "Many times, my first experience behind the wheel in a car is when I drive it from grid to the starting line for the first run of the event. So then you need to count on experience from other similar cars you may have driven in the past on what to generally expect." Sometimes cars that should feel identical have their own, unique personalities.
First Run
Matthew’s advice for the first run is to approach it the same way for an unfamiliar car as you would one you’ve driven before. That is, to make sure you don’t miss any braking zones and be aware that braking too late will cost you way more time than braking too early. After all, if you brake a little earlier, you can get back on the gas a touch earlier as well, so it doesn’t hurt your final time as much.
The key to the first run in an unfamiliar car is to try to be a little conservative on corner entry—but you need to carry enough speed so that you learn the limits of the car. Photo courtesy of John Rogers.
Braun adds, "My first runs tend to be a little conservative in some places, but I can miss a couple high-speed sections by not being familiar with the car. It usually takes me one run to get familiar with the car, under driving some parts and over driving other parts. The key to learning on that first run is to not WAY under drive or WAY over drive the car, but to be somewhat close to the car's capabilities, otherwise you can't really learn much."
Chris and our first runs went pretty smoothly. We laid down a high 56-second run, while Chris’ first was a 56 flat. Like Matthew, we tried to be conservative on braking points, but also worked to hustle the car through offset sections as quickly as possible on the first run. We weren’t quite used to the timing required to stay ahead of the steering on the slalom sections, but the run was in the ballpark and we were happy with our runs. They put Chris in first and we were third out of 10 competitors in the class.
Second Run
A good strategy for the second run is to push the car harder into the braking zones and slow down less in the slaloms and offsets. That’s our typical, generic plan for second runs at many events, but learning a new car's optimal cadence through the cones can make that difficult to achieve. Matthew concurs, "With the second run, I can usually put in a pretty quick time... I step it up in the braking zones, and can attack the high speed transitions with more confidence in what the car will do."
Matthew likes to use the second run to push a little harder into the braking zones as well as trying to carry more speed in fast offset sections. Photo courtesy of Shelly Monfort.
Our execution of the plan wasn’t bad—we dropped .35 seconds, but clearly got behind in the highest speed section of the course. Our braking zones were much tighter, but the fact that we tried to flat-foot it through the slaloms while we were still out of step with the steering wheel probably cost us .4 or .5 in lost time. Chris dropped a touch under .2 seconds, so we were a little closer to the pointy end of the pack, but still had some time to make up.
Third Run
By the start of the third runs, we had been in the car for a total of 113 seconds of track time. We knew approximately where our turn-in points were for each of the course's corners and about where we needed to brake, but there was still the matter of how much speed could be carried through the wiggles, offsets and slaloms are where the real time can be made or lost.
Video helps us analyze our runs after the fact. We could see, for example, where Per bobbled a bit on the first long slalom.
Matthew advises, "By the final run, it is time to hit all your marks and put in your best. You need to be fast and clean, with no hit pylons. If you misjudge something, like a turn-in point, don't hope you are going to miss the cone, make the correction necessary to not hit the cone!"
We charged out of the gate pretty hard, eager to make up some time on our co-driver. He’s our bud, but that’s irrelevant when the stopwatch is running. The first slalom came up a bit quicker than we expected and we got behind as we approached the second offset in the line of cones. That resulting lift off the throttle and a slight drag on the brakes cost us about three tenths relative to Chris.
Our last run was pretty strong in the faster sections, where we got the correct cadence through the offsets.
Approaching the following corner, we may have been a little chastened by our mid-slalom bobble, as we dropped a bit too much speed for the next tight left. We lost another .3 there as we slowed down too much. We powered through the final high-speed offsets of the course. We made up a touch of time here, but then lost another .2 in the final grinding turn through the finish lights.
The bottom section of this Race Technology data acquisition screen grab shows the delta time trace—that is, where during the run that Per went slower than Chris. There were some distinct bobbles that made the difference.
Chris had the class covered, so his final run was a victory lap. He found another .2 to leave us a total of .8 seconds behind for the day. The MX-5 isn’t thought of as the top car for the class, which is typically considered to be the FRS/BRZ or 370Z, but he’s clearly built a winner out of the inexpensive roadster.
The third run for Chris was a bit of a victory lap, as he knew had the class covered before the starter waved the green flag.
The final run wasn’t as fast as we hoped as we struggled to put everything we learned together into one, clean run. That said, we got a lot out of the co-drive. Our base of autocross experience is pretty strong, but learning a car in a matter of seconds takes a fairly stout leap of faith that it will stick to the corners when push comes to shove.
So the next time you are offered a co-drive and share a car with a friend, take it! It can help your driving as you jump beyond your normal comfort levels and try something new. Invariably, you’ll take the knowledge gained back to your own car and you will be faster at the next event.
You can see videos of our final runs here:
Per's Runs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOz2utmvVec&wide#t=1m40
Chris' Runs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1RlyQrVM9g&wide#t=30s
Special thanks to Per Schroeder and MotoIQ. You can find the original article published here.
