Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Autocross and Open Track Track vs. AutoX

Just something I was wondering about. I haven't autox'd and have only ran on a track once, but it seems to me that actually carving imaginary corners outlined by cones would be difficult.

Think about it this way - on a course I can see a corner coming; I can see the rumble strip and see how the corner is shaped.

In AutoX, it seems that getting the line right on a corner you have to basically dream up would be hard as Hell! I could be wrong since I've never tried it. Just seems it would be very difficult to me.

...and don't take terms like "imaginary" and "dream up" as attacks. I don't know how else to get the point across

If autocrossing was easy they'd call it road racing LOL

Actually it's not *that* hard to pick the line in autocrossing. For one thing you walk the course to familiarize yourself with it, then if necessary use your first run to really get a feel for it and memorize it. For another, you narrow your focus down to a handful or two of key cones you'll use to mark apexes and corner entry/exit and so on. All the rest are decoration and when you look at it that way it becomes a lot easier. It's hard at first until you realize that most of what you're looking at is not important and may very well be there to provide visual tricks.

But nonetheless part of the magic of autocrossing successfully is being able to pick the best line for you and your car, and the perfect line varies from car to car and driver to driver. I would have to say that aside from being car control masters the really GOOD autocrossers are more adept at finding the right line than others are.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you try to apply proper road racing line to an autocross course you may screw yourself. I've been to several road racing schools and I am at least not a total retard when it comes to picking lines but I know I've hurt myself in some autocross events by thinking like a road racer.

In road racing, the most important thing is maximizing corner exit speed. In autocrossing, that's important too, but it's also about maintaining momentum and more importantly it's more about distance covered, and distance is the enemy. So sometimes I'll find myself taking an unneccessarily wide line on an autocross course and costing myself time in the process.

MFE gave a very good explanation how to go about doing it. I think autox teaches you better throttle and brake control then road racing. It also forces you to use your eyes more effectively. You're always having to look quite aways ahead of yourself, sometimes multiple corners. A lot of road racers like to focus on one corner, then the next and don't always get the fastest line out of a series of corners. TC Kline, a very well known road racer and autoxer in BMW's was quoted as saying, "Not all good road racers make good autoxers, but all good autoxers make good road racers."

As far as the difference between an Autox line and road race line, MFE got it right too. Wide lines aren't good in most autox situations since we don't have a whole lot of straight to make up the distance traveled. An example of that is if I took a line that was twice the radius that someone else took I would have to pull 4 times the G's in that corner to make it through in the same time.