I'm afraid of killing cones...
 

My second AutoX is this weekend... The biggest flaw I had in last times session was swinging too wide around cones... I guess I'm afraid of hitting them and/or coming close to them... What can I do to get over this or drive differently?:confused:

Mikey

Run over a whole bunch of them just for fun? :lol:

I need to push things harder too. I actually wish I cone'd more in practice. It would make me feel more like I was eeking out every last bit of time I was capable of.

Hit them!
 

Try and hit key cones. Don't try and run them over with the middle of your bumper but try and 'brush' the cone with your the front (or preferably) rear tire. You will be surprised by how often you don't hit the cone. In general most people are a lot farther away from the cones than they think, especially on the passenger side of the car. If you can, do an AutoX school where you get lots of seat time and repetition on features. This will give you the chance to really find the 'size' of your car and how close you can get to the cones. You can hit the cones without the mental part of the time penalty. In the mean time, if you have a local event, I'd get your first run in clean and on the 2nd, 3rd... runs, try and hit key cones. It's very difficult for a driver to know how close they are to the cones with everything else going on in a 40-70 second course. Take a passenger along and ask them to pay attention to how close you are to the cones and fill you in after the run.

Exactly. My friends were messing with me... "Mikey wouldn't touch a cone with an 8 foot pole." :sly:

I have the new swaybar on this week too so we'll see how that helps, last time I had some understeer issues to say the least...:lol::lol:

Mikey

Strange... I had the exact opposite problem when I started autocrossing. On slaloms, I'd almost always take out one cone with the passenger's side back tire.

After having a whole bunch of clean days autocrossing, my last event I had two runs with a cone on each. We had a new to me "feature" on the course design - it was either called a clamshell or scallop - basically a Chicago box, but curved on the outside instead of box-shaped. I knew that there were only three cones to think about (first and last on the outside, and the inside one) and the rest were all there to distract me, just like a Chicago box, but it still messed me up. :lol:

I'm far from the fastest guy in the world, but I have been autocrossing for the better part of a decade and have instructed at novice schools many times, and all that good stuff. So I'm not a newbie or totally slow.

But, what I do know is that you will never be fast until your are driving right on top of the cones - at least the cones that you should be on top of. As you progress as a driver, you're going to find yourself naturally getting closer to the cones. So don't worry about it right now. As you figure out how to go faster, you're going to have to get closer to them.

If you want to know what "close" means, here's a pic of me from a year or so back...

http://forum.mnautox.com/forums/imag...ine=1117471420

Although I don't think I can get that close EVERY time :lol:

What he said. :thumbsup: I run really close to the cones too. Moving any further over just adds time to your run unless the best line through the elements dictates it.

Yes, this was a clean run.

Scott
90SM

To cone or not to cone.
 

Cones are not land mines- so don't think of them as anything other than part of the autocross course which serve as markers which set the limits of where you can go.

If you drive slowly and very close to the cones you won't be fast.
If you drive really fast and hit over a bunch cones you won't be fast (and legal).

To be fast at autocross you have to learn where the ends of your tires are beneath your MINI and make yourself travel as fast as you can in as straight a line (most of the time) as possible getting very close to the cones but not so close as to push one out of the chalked box it rests in.

So I'd recommend-
1. Study the course really really well so that you know it inside and out from memory. Walk it a bunch of times, draw it out with notations on how to drive it based on your expectations, watch other good drivers on the course and adjust your ideas.
2. Go fast but be smooth at all times. A little faster each time until you feel you can go all out at every moment on the course- literally flat out full throttle as much as possible and if needed full on brakes but always without upsetting the balance of your car.
3. Study the right line to take and avoid making wider than needed turns through every slalom or tight element.
4. Learn that you probably will never win your class by running over a bunch of cones all the time and that if you make a gallant effort to miss a cone you are about to collide with you will loose greater than 2 seconds for your troubles.
5. Have fun and give yourself a couple of seasons to learn and improve.

At auto-x school, the instructors told us to try and drive over the cones with the back tires. When I would wait for the front tires to clear the pylon then turn in to drive over the pylon with the rear tires, I would land up missing the pylon but being very, very close. Maybe if you're worried about cone rash, you could do what a couple of guys up here do, they put painters tape on areas of their car which may hit pylons then after the event just peal it off.

When i first got the car i was Sooooo paranoid about hitting cones, one time i'm coming to a part of the course too hot, end up wide and i'm heading Right for one, i Stop within inches of it, with another driver in the car i'm asking " Do you think i can miss it" Ahhhhhhhhhhhh ! I run's it over !
The next time i go wild and mow down like 10 in a bus-stop - but i got it out of my system.....

Don't hit em on purpose but try harder !

If your instructors were endorsing that kind of driving, it sounds like they were doing you a disservice :sly: by asking you to be "late" in the slalom (I'll assume you're talking slalom here). To drive slalom and other "transitional" elements, you want to be turning well before you get to the cone you're turning around.

It's true that you want your rear wheel to be close to the cone (ie hit the cone with the rear wheel), but waiting until the front wheels are past the cone to turn the steering wheel is probably making you like 50 feet LATE in the slalom. Look at Scott's picture there, he was turning well before he got to that cone.

By turning before you get to the cone, you end up taking a wider arc and can go faster.

It can't have been too bad of advice because I'm consistently in the top 10 overall and have several first in class, and am faster in the slalom than ANY other car (confirmed with a radar gun). I looked at some video of my runs today and it looks like I am turning before I get to the cone, but it's still because I'm trying to run over the cone with the back tire. Anyways, ChilicooperS, here is a video of my first run and watch carefully as I punt 3 cones at high speed. On a black car, there was only minor scuffing that buffed out completely.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v7..._mini_1-2-.flv

Best advice I got was an observation from a coach/passenger. "This ain't no Sunday drive"

You'll never know how close you can get until you get close enough... :)

Seriously, now I can tell when I clip one and when I just put a tire on the shoulder of one... Practice makes perfect!

running close to the cones adds excitement too, pick a line that allows you to comfortably be as close as possible in your walkthrough and try our hardest to do it when you drive :)

thats not to shabby ^__-

And remember - cutting it that close may or may not be the fastest way around the course. All depends on the course design... :)

But, that's a learned skill that comes with practice and seat time - reading the course and figuring out where ya should be...

Never be afraid of killing cones: they're already dead.

Eddie Savage
SCCA New England Solo2 Novice Chief
Well-know cone scuffer :thumbsup: