I'm very excited to announce the new loveofdriving YouTube channel! Since getting my GoPro last year, I've been to two autocross days (well, technically three) and two indoor karting sessions. I uploaded a little bit of each of those events on the new chanel. I also uploaded videos from the two times I did the Gotham Dream Car Sprint.
In addition to the new YouTube channel, I went back and edited the old posts here at loveofdriving.com to include the videos. You can find all posts that contain videos by clicking "Videos" on the "Posts by Label" widget on the right or by clicking here.
Enjoy!
Monday, August 22, 2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
8/14 BMWCCA Autocross
This past Sunday I went out in the blistering heat and raced in another autocross with the National Capital Chapter of the BMWCCA. It was my first (and probably only) autocross this year though, so it was certainly fun to get out and drive.
My first couple runs on track were pretty slow as I was trying to figure out the layout. I was also overly cautious I think about overcooking it and plowing into a bunch of cones through some of the really tight corners. But, I did manage to improve each run, from 55.388s on my first lap all the way down to 49.672s on my fourth and final run of the day. It was exciting to come across the line at the end and see the I had broken below 50 seconds.
This was only my second time using the GoPro for autocross, so I tried a new mounting location just behind the b-pillar at the top of the window. I also tried mounting the external mic to the rear bumper to maximize the exhaust note. I'm pretty happy with the overall result. The camera angle shows a lot of the track ahead while still catching my hands at work on the steering wheel. The audio definitely got some awesome exhaust sound but was surprisingly quiet when I wasn't at full throttle. This made for a little bit of a weird on/off effect on the audio but still worked out okay.
The worst thing about the day by far was the heat. Even though I was in the AM session, the sun and heat in that wide open parking lot was just brutal. I drove the course with the windows down and air conditioner off, but between runs I put the windows back up and blasted the a/c to try and keep cool. When I was working the flag station after driving, the cars through the slalom kept knocking over cones that I had to sprint over and replace. About halfway through that session I finally had to stop and find some shade and a Gatorade to recover.
I finished up 74th out of 93 racers on the day (30 of 93 with the PAX time adjustments). In retrospect, I wish I had pushed a lot harder in my first couple runs and I think I could have found a better time out there. It's been a while since I've had so few runs in an event, and I think I just wasn't used to how quickly you need to find pace when you only have four attempts to work with.
Despite the heat and wishing I had driven faster, it was still a fun day. They did a great job of getting people through quickly and I was out of there by 11:30. Up next is my first High Performance Driving Event where I'll get to drive my own car on an actual road course! Stay tuned!
My first couple runs on track were pretty slow as I was trying to figure out the layout. I was also overly cautious I think about overcooking it and plowing into a bunch of cones through some of the really tight corners. But, I did manage to improve each run, from 55.388s on my first lap all the way down to 49.672s on my fourth and final run of the day. It was exciting to come across the line at the end and see the I had broken below 50 seconds.
This was only my second time using the GoPro for autocross, so I tried a new mounting location just behind the b-pillar at the top of the window. I also tried mounting the external mic to the rear bumper to maximize the exhaust note. I'm pretty happy with the overall result. The camera angle shows a lot of the track ahead while still catching my hands at work on the steering wheel. The audio definitely got some awesome exhaust sound but was surprisingly quiet when I wasn't at full throttle. This made for a little bit of a weird on/off effect on the audio but still worked out okay.
The worst thing about the day by far was the heat. Even though I was in the AM session, the sun and heat in that wide open parking lot was just brutal. I drove the course with the windows down and air conditioner off, but between runs I put the windows back up and blasted the a/c to try and keep cool. When I was working the flag station after driving, the cars through the slalom kept knocking over cones that I had to sprint over and replace. About halfway through that session I finally had to stop and find some shade and a Gatorade to recover.
I finished up 74th out of 93 racers on the day (30 of 93 with the PAX time adjustments). In retrospect, I wish I had pushed a lot harder in my first couple runs and I think I could have found a better time out there. It's been a while since I've had so few runs in an event, and I think I just wasn't used to how quickly you need to find pace when you only have four attempts to work with.
Despite the heat and wishing I had driven faster, it was still a fun day. They did a great job of getting people through quickly and I was out of there by 11:30. Up next is my first High Performance Driving Event where I'll get to drive my own car on an actual road course! Stay tuned!
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
3/29 Autobahn Arrive and Drive
Tonight Greg, myself, and a new guy in our office Andy all took a quick trip to Autobahn for a couple Arrive and Drive races. They were running junior racing on Le Mans with a long wait, so we just did two races on Monaco.
In the first race, my kart felt really fast and, like last trip, my 22.240s lap was good for the #1 time of the week! It's great showing up early in the week when there aren't too many people who have posted times for the leader board yet. :-) More importantly, I was 1.004s faster than Greg and 2.501s ahead of Andy. There were nine cars out on track with a lot of varying lap times, so it was tough getting clear laps but apparently when I got some open track I made the most of it.
In the second race my kart didn't have much grip, and the traffic was even worse than the first race, with lots of caution periods for spun drivers. My 22.633s best lap was four tenths slower than my best from race 1. Greg and Andy each improved their times by about half a second. I still ended up with the best time, but the gap to Greg was down to just 0.127s.
I've been playing with time handicaps based on average historical best laps, and when you take into account the best laps from the last two Autobahn visits, Greg actually outperformed his best times by a much bigger margin than I did. The handicap adjustments puts Greg's best time of the night as 0.479s faster than mine. Of course even with that, I don't know if he'll want to keep the office trophy or if he's tired of only having it because of handicapped times. :-)
In the first race, my kart felt really fast and, like last trip, my 22.240s lap was good for the #1 time of the week! It's great showing up early in the week when there aren't too many people who have posted times for the leader board yet. :-) More importantly, I was 1.004s faster than Greg and 2.501s ahead of Andy. There were nine cars out on track with a lot of varying lap times, so it was tough getting clear laps but apparently when I got some open track I made the most of it.
In the second race my kart didn't have much grip, and the traffic was even worse than the first race, with lots of caution periods for spun drivers. My 22.633s best lap was four tenths slower than my best from race 1. Greg and Andy each improved their times by about half a second. I still ended up with the best time, but the gap to Greg was down to just 0.127s.
I've been playing with time handicaps based on average historical best laps, and when you take into account the best laps from the last two Autobahn visits, Greg actually outperformed his best times by a much bigger margin than I did. The handicap adjustments puts Greg's best time of the night as 0.479s faster than mine. Of course even with that, I don't know if he'll want to keep the office trophy or if he's tired of only having it because of handicapped times. :-)
Sunday, November 1, 2015
10/25 BMWCCA Autocross
Last Sunday I did autocross with the National Capital chapter of the BMW Car Club of America at Baysox Stadium. It had been a year since I ran with BMWCCA last, and there were certainly a few things to like compared to the PCA events at BWI.
The weather wasn't great, but I'm always happy to race in the rain and it meant that we only had about 30 racers total. This gave us a chance to do seven runs each and I was still out of there by 12:30pm. I'm sure part of that was the weather but it was also that BMWCCA does an AM and PM session instead of just taking on however-many racers happen to register and then going as late in the day as you have to go.
One of the exciting things about this event was that it was my first chance to use my new GoPro for autocross (the prior week's event being abruptly canceled before I could run). I didn't have enough time to play around with different mounting points, so I just did an interior mount from the underside of the sunroof for all of my runs. I did try playing with the different zoom levels, and it seemed like the widest angle was the best. I also tried capturing sound using an external mic mounted near the center console. It worked okay but I ended up with a lot of noise from my feet on the pedals and other things in the car creaking through sharp turns, as opposed to a great engine or exhaust note. Next time hopefully I have time for different camera angles and a better mic mounting position.
The other fun thing I got to try this time was my new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. This was my first autocross not using run-flats and they felt absolutely awesome. Granted this was a wet course so I couldn't feel the maximum grip level, but still the tires had tons of steering wheel feedback and responsiveness.
I'm not sure if it was the rain, the set of cars, or just a particularly good day of driving for me, but I actually came up with some pretty good times. I finished 16th overall and 8th in my heat when the track was wettest. With the PAX adjustments (accounting for car performance), I actually finished with the 5th best time and the 2nd best of my heat!! It was fun posting such a fast time and it was a great way to close out the season of autocross.
I could see doing fewer autocross events next year just because it's so much time on a weekend day for such little actual driving. But I'll definitely do at least an event or two and I'm already looking forward to getting out again. :-)
The weather wasn't great, but I'm always happy to race in the rain and it meant that we only had about 30 racers total. This gave us a chance to do seven runs each and I was still out of there by 12:30pm. I'm sure part of that was the weather but it was also that BMWCCA does an AM and PM session instead of just taking on however-many racers happen to register and then going as late in the day as you have to go.
One of the exciting things about this event was that it was my first chance to use my new GoPro for autocross (the prior week's event being abruptly canceled before I could run). I didn't have enough time to play around with different mounting points, so I just did an interior mount from the underside of the sunroof for all of my runs. I did try playing with the different zoom levels, and it seemed like the widest angle was the best. I also tried capturing sound using an external mic mounted near the center console. It worked okay but I ended up with a lot of noise from my feet on the pedals and other things in the car creaking through sharp turns, as opposed to a great engine or exhaust note. Next time hopefully I have time for different camera angles and a better mic mounting position.
The other fun thing I got to try this time was my new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. This was my first autocross not using run-flats and they felt absolutely awesome. Granted this was a wet course so I couldn't feel the maximum grip level, but still the tires had tons of steering wheel feedback and responsiveness.
I'm not sure if it was the rain, the set of cars, or just a particularly good day of driving for me, but I actually came up with some pretty good times. I finished 16th overall and 8th in my heat when the track was wettest. With the PAX adjustments (accounting for car performance), I actually finished with the 5th best time and the 2nd best of my heat!! It was fun posting such a fast time and it was a great way to close out the season of autocross.
I could see doing fewer autocross events next year just because it's so much time on a weekend day for such little actual driving. But I'll definitely do at least an event or two and I'm already looking forward to getting out again. :-)
Thursday, October 22, 2015
10/17 PCA Autocross
The last Chesapeake Porsche Club autocross of the year ended up being a very memorable one - but for very much the wrong reason.
The day started off well, with a big crowd of 60 drivers and a nice collection of cars - a Lotus Elise, two Vipers, an NSX, and of course all the Porsches. With so many drivers, we split up into three groups, with me working the track during the first heat and driving during the third heat. Working the flag station was pretty uneventful. I was able to pick up on where the drivers were having trouble with the track which I figured would help when it was my turn to drive.
During the second heat I was getting my GoPro ready for my turn in the third heat when I heard a crunch out on track. I looked up to see a Porsche Cayman stopped out at the corner of the lot. My immediate thought was that he hit the curb out there, but there were car parts strewn around him and it was obvious that he had hit the concrete base of the light post. I didn't see it happen, but apparently he started fishtailing and, instead of jumping on the brakes to stop the car, continued to try to correct the spin as he careened into the light pole. The whole side of his car was wrecked and three airbags deployed.
It was clearly an expensive wreck, but it was really fortunate that nobody was hurt. Not only was the driver in danger (a couple feet to the left and he would have slammed into the concrete head-on), but that pole was also the flag station for the course workers so there were two people standing right there when it happened. In fact, that was the very pole that I was standing next to while working the course myself during the first heat.
Once the autocross chairs saw the extent of the damage, they called an end to the event for the day. The had to call a tow truck to remove the car, plus I think they had to take some measurements and pictures to document that the track setup itself wasn't a contributing factor to the accident.
The whole thing was a big reminder to everyone of what the risks are for something even as relatively controlled and safe as autocross is supposed to be. You have to be aware of where the dangerous obstacles are and make sure you aren't pushing the car in any kind of risky way when there's a danger of breaking the car or getting yourself or others hurt. It was disappointing to spend so much of the day on the event and never get to drive, but the important thing was that nobody was hurt. Hopefully the whole thing gets resolved as well as possible for the driver and the club.
The day started off well, with a big crowd of 60 drivers and a nice collection of cars - a Lotus Elise, two Vipers, an NSX, and of course all the Porsches. With so many drivers, we split up into three groups, with me working the track during the first heat and driving during the third heat. Working the flag station was pretty uneventful. I was able to pick up on where the drivers were having trouble with the track which I figured would help when it was my turn to drive.
During the second heat I was getting my GoPro ready for my turn in the third heat when I heard a crunch out on track. I looked up to see a Porsche Cayman stopped out at the corner of the lot. My immediate thought was that he hit the curb out there, but there were car parts strewn around him and it was obvious that he had hit the concrete base of the light post. I didn't see it happen, but apparently he started fishtailing and, instead of jumping on the brakes to stop the car, continued to try to correct the spin as he careened into the light pole. The whole side of his car was wrecked and three airbags deployed.
It was clearly an expensive wreck, but it was really fortunate that nobody was hurt. Not only was the driver in danger (a couple feet to the left and he would have slammed into the concrete head-on), but that pole was also the flag station for the course workers so there were two people standing right there when it happened. In fact, that was the very pole that I was standing next to while working the course myself during the first heat.
Once the autocross chairs saw the extent of the damage, they called an end to the event for the day. The had to call a tow truck to remove the car, plus I think they had to take some measurements and pictures to document that the track setup itself wasn't a contributing factor to the accident.
The whole thing was a big reminder to everyone of what the risks are for something even as relatively controlled and safe as autocross is supposed to be. You have to be aware of where the dangerous obstacles are and make sure you aren't pushing the car in any kind of risky way when there's a danger of breaking the car or getting yourself or others hurt. It was disappointing to spend so much of the day on the event and never get to drive, but the important thing was that nobody was hurt. Hopefully the whole thing gets resolved as well as possible for the driver and the club.
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