richardjh

Spun off this thread from something else... a pre-emptive strike to avoid being slapped by the moderators, hehe...

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How comfortable are you with downshifting the SST into 1st for auto-x? When slowing down to say 30km/h for a tight one, I have three options...

1. Boring 2nd gear style, one pedal at a time.
2. 2nd gear, left-foot-braking to keep spool up.
3. 1st gear downshift.

So far, I haven't been game to try (2), after reading of SST temperature-related woes using LFB. Plus, I suck at it.

And (3) really trusts the SST to never get itself in a muddle. Grenading a manual trans with a sloppy 2nd-to-1st is inconvenient and embarrassing. Grenading an SST would be a sob story of epic proportions...

I've stuck with (1) so far... just getting on-throttle way earlier than I used to in my old n/a car, timing it so the torque curve gets up and boogies at the right point in the tight exit...

Rich

tkromer

iTrader: (6)

I was curious about the same thing. I did 1 with a bit of 2, but wasn't man enough to go first gear and find out how it reacts

Exyia

iTrader: (6)

you guys have any course maps to be specific?

Not to be an ***, but I've never come across a corner so tight that I would run into this situation. only time I use 1st is launching off the start line

richardjh

Wow, this certainly took some dredging of old HDD areas...




I'll admit, I found what was probably the most extreme example! But I didn't want this to turn into a discussion on lines, lol.

In truth, with the above course, you'd be going so slowly at that 180* turn that a flick into 1st wouldn't be all that mechanically unsympathetic. For sake of argument, here's a more borderline case...




With a low-powered vehicle, the 180* above was fine to take nice and wide. With the RA, I'd be keen to attack that with a sharper rotation at a lower minimum speed - more point-and-squirt. 2nd to 1st downshift would be the go - at least to compare back-to-back times between that and staying in 2nd all way round.

Rich

Exyia

iTrader: (6)

it's always interesting what other regions come up with as far as auto-x courses, which is why I ask. Here's an example of one of my local houston ones

http://www.houscca.com/solo/courses/nov11.jpg

I've never come across an extreme 180 like above, guess my officials just don't think that's smart course design. Hell to be honest I don't like those course designs at all

anyway, for that 180 in the first layout, I would ignore their arrows and take it like a normal wide sweeper. Unless they have stupid rules in your area, the whole track is open to use, you just have to obey cones. The benefits of Mitsu's AWD/AWC are being able to apply more power mid turn, and apply it earlier

I would definitely take that in 2nd, just using a wider line. Taking a direct 180 would drop you too far down the rpm range - can't think of any car that would take that faster as a tight 180 honestly