{"id":44146,"date":"2023-06-13T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=44146"},"modified":"2024-03-23T08:19:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T15:19:01","slug":"q-how-can-i-become-a-faster-autocross-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-how-can-i-become-a-faster-autocross-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: How can I become a faster autocross driver?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Q<\/strong>: \u201cI have a dumb question: <\/em>What tips do you have to help me become a quicker autocross driver?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Wow, \u201cquicker autocross driver\u201d is a huge topic! I\u2019m trying to think of the top 3 things\u2026 and here\u2019s my first crack at them:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Attack. Sure, smooth is fast\u2026 until it\u2019s too smooth. Autocross rewards attacking the course more so than driving a road course. Because the turns are usually fairly tight, you need to make the car change directions quickly. If you\u2019re too smooth, and especially if you brake even a tiny bit early, you don\u2019t have enough load on the front tires, and you can\u2019t rotate the car enough. So, try attacking corners more by braking late, trail into the apex, and make the car rotate. Of course, you can go too far with this advice (and I\u2019m giving you advice without any knowledge of how you\u2019re driving now – you could already be attacking the corners\u2026), and if you load the front tires too much, you could just get too much understeer. So, find the right balance, but don\u2019t be afraid to attack a bit more.<\/li>\n
  2. Visually, focus on the gap between the cones. Because you\u2019re human (see, there I go again making assumptions – you might not be human!), your eyes are attracted to objects, especially bright orange ones. And where you visually focus, you go. Practice focusing on the \u201cnothing\u201d in between cones, and visualize the line through the cones without actually looking at them.<\/li>\n
  3. Mentally prepare so you know exactly where the course goes. After you\u2019ve walked the course, and especially after you\u2019ve driven it once or twice, take some quiet time to mentally rehearse where you want the car placed, the line, and how you\u2019re going to drive each turn. Even watching other cars\/drivers will help you fine-tune your mental movie of the course. Even the smallest of gaps in your mind about where the course goes and how you want to drive it will slow you down.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Bonus round\u2026 Quick hands. Yes, it\u2019s still important to build up cornering grip with the tires, but if you turn the steering wheel too slow, you\u2019re not attacking the course.<\/p>\n

    Extra bonus round\u2026 Have fun!!<\/p>\n

    P.S. \u2013 That was not a dumb question.<\/p>\n

    P.S.S. \u2013 If you want more advice, I did write a book all about autocrossing \u2013 Winning Autocross Techniques<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Q: \u201cI have a dumb question: What tips do you have to help me become a quicker autocross driver?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44149,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44146\/revisions\/44149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}