Slalom Time
 

What's your thoughts on the best way to take a slalom? Come in fast and cruise through, or entrance slow and gradual accleration? I've heard it's a tenth of a second for every foot out from the cones...is this true in Autocross?

My best times have been put on when I come in to the slaloms at a constant speed and maintain it through out.

Edit: Spelling.

I think popular wisdom is "look at the course map." The speed you want to carry through a slalom will vary with the type of slalom.

If it is a decerasing slalom (cones get closer) - you should gradually ease off of the power. The key is **smoooooth*** and avoiding the brakes. Brakes = cones.

If it is an increasing slalom (I hate typing that word) - you should enter with less speed and gradually roll onto the power. Again, the key will be smooth and to know what comes at the end of the slalom (straight segment, tight turn, etc.). That will dictate how much risk adding power is worth. Personally, in my autox days, I found that repeated transition set my poorly prepared car off enough that just maintaining throttle was a chore. ;)

If it is a constant slalom, keep consistent throttle input.

Of course, with any slalom, the most important thing is vision and timing. Keep your eyes up and don't get behind. Unfortunately, I don't have as much autox experience with the 240 as some, so I never perfected the art. I'm sure others will have some specific tips.

Excellent points Hippo! Thank you! My first auto-x in 2 years is tomorrow, so hopefully I can remember your tips tomorrow! key word is "hopefully" lol

Last weekend I was actually working by a slalom section and was able see how different cars took the slalom. It seemed like the more heavier cars (F-Bodies, Mustangs, Corvairs, etc.) were accelerating hard before they got to the slalom, braking a little, and coasting through them with only minimal throttle. The lighter cars that were there (SE-R, FC3S, Integra) showed a general pattern of not accelerating as much as the heavier cars, but the light cars went through the slalom at probably 50-60% throttle. This is only what I personally saw. I went through the slalom accelerating a bit and keeping my RPMs up so I could have more power exiting into the next section.

Here are some hardcore slalom videos from the autox yesterday (sunday) in Columbus, IN. First vid is of me, seconds one is my friend with an FCTII.
vid 1
vid 2
They make take a while to load because they are on the school's server, but they work.
edit: damn, I have hella body roll, I think I need to stop turning so rigidly.

I dl'ed them at about 230k/sec! :D

You looked pretty good, but it seemed that you could have kept your driver's side closer to the cones. Your passenger's side looked perfect, but you had to jerk a bit to stay close to the cones w/ your driver's side. Unfortunately I didn't make it to my auto-x yesterday (damn oversleeping), so I don't have any vids or pics of my inexperience :(

I'd agree with Hipposleek in stating that it depends upon the slalom. At our first event last week, the slalom was an increasing one, and it seemed that pretty much everyone, me included, was accelerating through it, then braking hard upon exit of the last gate before the next left-hander. And when I say it was fast, a guy in a '99 SS camaro was hitting 60-65 coming out of the last gate.

Also, I've noticed that I can cut the cones MUCH closer than I visualized initially in a slalom. Every run, I turned in closer than the last to the point that I thought I was taking out cones, but I didn't pick up a single cone all day, so turn in early and close, and if you pick up a cone, just remeber what made you do it next lap!

-ben

PS: Lauren, I may be coming down to your region, (NEOKLA, right?) for one of the June events. We only auto-x once a month in our region, (Ozarks Mountain region,) and it's not enough for me! Any other 240 drivers auto-x down there?

That would be awesome!! There is at least one other one--she drives an S14 and she is excellent! She's shown me capabilities of the car that I can't even dream of reaching this season (I have only 3 races under my tires so far--and 2 of them were the season before last). I don't know if any other 240's have come into the region yet (I missed the first two events because it was too freaking cold--OK, the first one was too cold, this last one I overslept.....:mad: )

Lemme know when you want to come down! You can view the schedule at: NEOkla SCCA Schedule
Where are you driving from?

I'll be coming down from Springfield, MO. How do your courses usually run? Are they fairly open, or more low-speed, tight type of corners?

Regards,

Ben

It depends on who sets it up and where the event is being held. We are splitting our events between two places, and the June/July/August/September events are being held at a small airbase--so probably a little more open, with some good tight corners and some nice slaloms. We get EXCELLENT turnouts, considering this is Oklahoma, the land of Nascar-lovers!! The last two events last year had over 140 entries (of course you have those who run 2 classes, but we still had at least 90 cars).

But they design the courses so it benefits the larger higher-horsepower cars like Vettes/F-bodies with some straightaways and loose corners, and smaller lower-horsepower cars with tight corners and excellent slaloms. So, neither type really has an advantage over the others.