Quickest Way to Autocross

[IsheeM]

For some of you more experienced autocrossers, would you say the fastest way around the course is with oversteer through the corners. I saw many of the fast teams during the endurance exhibiting extreme oversteer thru the corners. I was wondering if this was designed into the car or if they just couldnt keep the wheels planted.
Thanks

[IsheeM]

For some of you more experienced autocrossers, would you say the fastest way around the course is with oversteer through the corners. I saw many of the fast teams during the endurance exhibiting extreme oversteer thru the corners. I was wondering if this was designed into the car or if they just couldnt keep the wheels planted.
Thanks

[Denny Trimble]

If you're always "catching" the car or making corrections, it slows you down. Plus, it's better to go .5 seconds a lap slower than to hit a cone every 3 laps, so I'd say balance is pretty important.

Some of the tighter corners can benefit from a little bit of "throwing the car", but only if intended by the driver. And with a balanced car, you can do that.

[UTA racer rikki]

A famous quote to drive by,

"If you're not slightly out of control, you aren't going fast enough."
- Mario Andretti

Good drivers will always drive a car in and out of its limits. In some cases, a car that looks like it is oversteering out of a corner is edging over the limit but is still in complete driver control. To echo Denny, with a balanced car, you can do that.

[Charlie]

If you're going sideways, you aren't going forward.

But it sure is fun.

I tend to drive tail-happy, but its more the throttle than anything. Our car has planty of torque, and that makes it easy to throttle steer-if you need to. You shouldn't have to if you are driving properly.

In my opinion, no, you don't want a car that oversteers. But an understeering car is death in FSAE.

[rotor]

smooth is always faster, but as has been said a good driver will always have the car on and over the limit, the trick is to make it look like your in control..

Mark Hester
Chief Engineer
RMIT

"its good to be single"

[J. Schmidt]

While watching the endurance event I saw that many teams were taking corners wrong. Learn to trail brake and how to compromise the required corners. A good racing school will benifit your lap times more than increased horsepower, not too expensive either if you can strike a deal

[Charlie]

FSAE isn't like road racing. There are so many corners and they come so fast, that its extremely difficult to follow 'textbook' racing lines.

I know if you can do that you'll be faster, but in my experience, drivers that are simply aggresive in these cars are much faster than those trying too hard to do the proper racing line.

This of course applies to our amatuer drivers

[Denny Trimble]

Yeah, riding along with one of our local autocross pros a few years ago, I learned that the road racing line is not the autocross line. There isn't enough time to get the car wide enough at the entry of some corners, so sometimes the fast line is tight on corner entry.

But that's the fun of autocross - a different course and challenge every weekend