I guess I thought the double clutch method was for more of a turbo spool thing.

 

On my car I know I can downshift from 2nd to 1st with a blip of the throttle. I know WRXs cannot do it.

I'm going to try to practice left foot braking because you can balance the car (on understeer/oversteer) better with it and make transitions from brake to gas to brake faster and smoother too.

 

I know nothing about autoX :snoopy: but I downshift from 2nd to 1st all the time with heel & toe + double clutching & rev. matching in my 4-cyl. Accord. I do it at every stop sign for practice and it has greatly improved my technique. Similarly, when I get to a red light, I use heel & toe, double clutching & rev. matching for the 4-3 and 3-2 downshifts. In the videos I've seen, professional drivers rarely skip gears while downshifting, probably in order not to break the rythm. They complete multiple heel-toes in a little over a second and I try to emulate that. Naively, I thought those skills would be an asset when I start autoXing.

I've done a lot of left-foot braking on the xbox :thumbup: but not yet on a 3-pedal car. :chuckles:

 

You don't need to double shift most Hondas. That's just wasting time especially when you are racing.

 

Hmmmm

ok well I don't want to break or bend the rules here, but do you think it would be ok if I got some grip tape and applied it to the pedals myself? It's just that heel toe is so much fun, and in the winter my feet keep sliping off the pedals. I don't want to be kicked out of the stock class though. Hmm.

 

I'm pretty sure locally your region wouldn't care if you had pedals or not. You would have to ask the Autocross Chief or other people in your class. Personally pedals and heel/toe is not going to make you win. Getting seat time will.

 

true very true. I just want that seat time in my stock class haha. THanks for your help, it's been very helpful. Well it has. Thanks!

 

I've got a coupon for a $49 alignment and am ready to use it to go change my toe in situation to 0 toe since CivicSIRacer recommended that as a
way to cure to understeer. Since I'm already at 0 toe upfront, it seems I only have to align the rear wheels. Will a minor adjustment from 1/16-inch toe in to 0 toe be enough to make a difference?

CivicSIRacer, would you please explain how running 40PSI upfront and 45PSI in the rear would help with understeer? Is it because the rear tires, being overinflated, would have less grip? I'm currently running 42/36 front/rear and I thought that would be near optimal since the car is FWD.

 

Actually to correct something to go from 1/16 to 0 you are NOT going to see a HUGE difference. Save your coupon. You gotta do something more drastic like 1/8" toe out on the rear WHICH IS UNSAFE TO DRIVE FOR DAILY CONDITIONS!

To bias air pressure like I stated you want the front tires to grip more than the rear to get ride of understeer. Remember understeer is the front tires breaking away before the rear tires do. Oversteer is the reverse.

Different tires have different break-away characteristics. Some work better at higher air pressures and some low. For instance drag tires work better with low tires pressures (usually around 15-20psi), but running those pressures when you autocross and you are going to have problems.

I recommend sticking with the pressures you have now, unless you want to kiss a guard rail or spin out with just lifting off your gas. Use the low/high when autocrossing only since it will be in a controlled environment and in safer conditions.

With 40f/45r you are basically making the rear tires break away before the fronts do, but for the typical novice driver (yes this means you) it will break away VERY quickly to the point of almost snap oversteer. When you run 45f/40r the car will still oversteer but in most cases easier to control AND recover from.

By the way to recover from oversteer I hope you know what to do, right? You turn the wheel where you want to go and add more throttle. This will put more weight on the rear tires to keep it planted.

 

CivivSiRacer, Thanks a lot! To recover from oversteer the 1-2 times it happened to me, I tried the "correction - pause - recovery" mentioned in racing books. Yet, it's hard to think about a 3 step maneuver when you're panicking because you're about to hit a tree. Your way to explain it is easier to remember ...