spridgets
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Autocross car preparation.

To: Ajhsys@aol.com
Subject: Re: Autocross car preparation.
From: Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 10:42:06 -0700
Cc: mbelect@mindspring.com, spridgets@autox.team.net
Organization: Cisco Systems
References: <b942a85d.247412f2@aol.com>
Reply-to: Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>
Sender: owner-spridgets@autox.team.net
Ajhsys@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/18/99 7:24:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> mbelect@mindspring.com writes:
> 
>  I'm curious... how do spridgets do in the ESP/DSP class competitions?
>  How do they stack-up against the modern iron?  >>
> 
> The best thing about autocross is that it is 90% driver skill and 10% car.

Not to sound like Oscar Wilde, but that is also the *worst* thing about
autocross. :-)  At least at the beginning, when you drive the wheels off
your car and someone in the same kind of car is ten seconds faster than
you on a 40-second course.

> If you go to some driver's schools, and talk with the other, better drivers,
> you can learn a lot.  Then, when you get really good, you have a chance.

Exactly.  Even better: try to get a ride with a faster driver sometime. 
You'll see things you don't know you don't know.  In my first season, I
managed to go from dead last (as in the guy than whom all other drivers
on track that day went faster) to mid-pack by talking, reading, and
practice.  It was a long, slow, humbling experience.

After an eye-opening ride with a National-level instructor in an
autocross school put on by one of our local clubs, I started finishing
on the podium, because I saw what people who did it *right* were doing. 
It's like being a great lover: there's only so much you can learn by
practicing on your own... :-)

--Scott Fisher

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>