Jason went to Driving School. :) [LONG]

[16V JASON <jason@scirocco.org>]

Hey gang!
	A local sports car club sponsors Autocrosses every other weekend about an
hour from here.  I went to one of the events last year, but didn't race in
it- I'm a big ol' chicken shit, and I didn't wanna go out there and make a
fool outta myself.  

	I found out last weekend that there would be an AutoX driving school on
Sunday, so I cancelled all the plans I had for this weekend, and went.
Daun Yeagley was thinking about coming down for the event, but didn't, and
I'm sure he's kicking himself.  My friend Scott (a pic of his 16v Jetta is
on my website) came up (about 3 hour drive for him) and we went to the school.

	Let me say, it was AWESOME.  And I'm glad I did the school before I ever
went out on the track at a real event, cause I downright SUCKED on my first
run!  They divided the crowd into 2 groups: Front Wheel Drive, and Rear
Wheel Drive.  Lucky for us front drivers, there were 9 of us and 40 of
them. :)  Of course, a few rwd cars snuck into our group, but we were still
a lot smaller, and got a lot more per-capita track time.

	We started out in the slalom course.  It was very straightforward- you
launch, slalom around 5 cones, make a hairpin U-turn, and then slalom
around 5 more.  Sheeya, easier said than done. Your first run, you can do
it one of two ways: You can do it like Scott: Launch like a bat outta hell,
and complete the course in 0.004seconds.  Upon his return to the start
gate, his instructor promptly got out of his car shaking and nauseous...
refusing to ride with him again. :)  I should add at this point that Scott
is a great driver, and his 1 1/2" lowered Jetta with Eibachs and Bilstiens,
and 15" Bridgestone Potenze RE71s handles like it's on rails.  He's done
more than a few BMW-CCA rading schools, and has had loads of track time on
Summit Point, etc.  He knows what he's doing.


	Then, there's me.  I was shaking fairy at the wheel. :)  I am SO nervous,
that I wind up taking the slalom slower than my grandmother would have, and
STILL managing to knock down 3 of the 5 cones on the way down. :) LOL Talk
about a performance.  The return run was much better, but the instructor
actually almost started to yell at me when we were done. :) 

	Of course, my second run was better, and by the third run, I was allowed
to go without an instructor, and wasn't knocking any cones down.  I was
told later on by an instructor from the other team that he stopped his
students from running for a minute so they could all watch me, as I
executed a perfect slalom every time.  Of course, I still think he was
lying to me, and that he made them watch me so they could all laugh if I
did another run like I did the 1st time. :)

	The Scirocco behaved great through the slalom.  With the upper stress bar,
I didn't hear a creak or rattle from the interior, and didn't feel any
flame flex.  The Jamex airbox sounded incredible as redline neared (I had
the windows down to enjoy the 60'F sun, and the sunroof open cause my
helmet didn't fit inside the car. :)  I have H&R Lowering springs and Boge
TurboGas shocks, and I'm running all-season Bridgestone Potenza RE930s in
the stock size, so we're not talking serious handing upgrades... and yet
the car did great.  It was very balanced through the slalom, with
surprisingly little body roll (according to all the spectators).  Everyone
said the tail looked *really* twitchy, but it didn't feel bad at all to me.
 In fact, I tried to left-foot brake around the hairpin, and *still*
couldn't rotate the back-- something that I'm sure could be addressed with
tire pressure changes (I ran 42 front, 36 back (which was probably too
much).  They all wore great, though.)


	Next, we switched with the rear-wheel guys, to the insane part.  You
started with a full throttle launch (duh).  The course started straight,
and then as you approached redline in 1st, you were treated to a sharp left
kink and then a late apex long, gradual right, cresting a bit of a hill to
about 5000 in 2nd.  Then, it got nuts: a 45' left, followed by a 45' right
and a 90' left.  Wow, talk about upsetting the chassis. :)  That turned
into a long sweeping left back up the hill, at which point you filtered
into a skidpad-type circle.  You had to go totally around the circle--
actually, more like 400 degrees, and then veer off to the right at the
exit.  Can you say UNDERSTEER? :)

	The first 2 times I ran, (with the instructor), I went slightly off course
because there were a few times where it's hard to see the cones coming up
because you're about a crest a hill... that, and the fact that it's tough
to see what the hell you're doing in the first place when you're in a sea
of cones. (By the way, for those wondering, no, there are no flat parking
lots in western Pennsylvania... this is as flat as they get.)

	I got to run this part of the course 5 times total; 3 with an instructor,
and 2 solo.  On the 3rd run, I had a GREAT instructor- (the first 2 times I
had an asshole from hell)- he talked to me the whole time saying "YEAH!
GREAT! or WATCH THAT CONE or GO WIDE" and stuff like that-- it was a great
help.  He said on the next run that he wanted me to be faster, so he was
like "Keep you foot on the floor until you crest that hill before the sharp
left-right-left thing, and threshold brake until you get to the turn"... 

I was like "Yeah, but I'll spin out-- it's off camber, and I know my tail
gets loose under braking"..

He was like "Have you lost control yet today?" I proudly announced "No". 

He looked at me with his head cocked and a half grin and said "Well, then
you're not going fast enough," and got out of the car.  I couldn't help but
 laugh, but I liked what I heard. :)


	Of couuuuurse, I follow his instruction, but I was right... come up to the
top of the hill, slam the pedal, and lose it-- I mean, I didn't spin out,
but by the time I was done correcting, I was off the course anyways. :)
But it was fun!

	So, after the runs, we broke for lunch, and then lined up for the timed
runs.  We each got 2 timed runs.  This sucked because they didn't really
give us enough time for lunch-- but naturally didn't bother telling us
this-- so we ran to McDonalds, and by the time we got back, the
walk-through was over and people were already on the track. :(  Helpful
hint: You *WANT* to be there for the walk-through.
	
	No major harm done, though, since the final track was essentially the
slaloms plus the track that was set up before.  Scott and I were last in
line, so we got to see everyone else's scores.  By the time Scott went, the
FTD was a 50.5XX in seriously prepped Neon.  There were a few 51s, a few
52s, but most of the guys (and girls) were around the 55 mark.  There was
one 69s run from an older guy in a Chevette with snow tires. That was cute. :)

	So Scott goes in his typical bat-out-of-hell style, and comes back with a
53.4XX, and I was like "holy shit, here's where I get a 71 second run."
Knowing that Scott's a better driver than me, and that his car probably
pulls 0.05g higher grip than mine does (if not more), I expected to be in
mid-to-upper 50s.

	I pull a perfect run, hitting no cones, and not getting confused at all on
the tough parts, and pull in with a 53.775, like 0.3s behind Scott!! I was
shocked to hell! Of course, I can't take *all* the credit, the car has a
lot to do with it, but it was a true surprise (I assumed he said 63, but I
wasn't sure, so I ran over to the timing truck and asked, and the guy was
like "Yeah, it was 53, that was a great run!"  I love encouragement!!)


	Anyways, on to the second run.  Scott pulls out and takes that first
slalom so fast I would have put $100 on it that he was gonna spin out.  His
Jetta *never* rolls, and yet this time, it looked like his side mirrors
were gonna smack the pavement.  I wish I could have been in the car
watching him flick his 6" diameter Nardi/Fittipaldi wheel.... I'm sure his
hands would have been a blur.  Anyways, he loses it a bit coming into the
skidpad, but never strayed from his line, and pulled in a 52.270!  1.2
seconds better than his first run!
	
	Of course, I'm thinking "Sure, now I'll get the 75-second run..." I pull
out, and breeze through the slalom, over the crest of the hill, and through
that left-right-left so fucking fast that I don't even remember doing it...
and then I'm coming back up the hill to enter the skidpad, but I misjudged
where the gate was entering the circle cause you can't see it until you
crest the hill.  No matter, I made it through the gate without clipping a
cone, and plowed around the skidpad (you should have heard my tires around
that thing.. next time it's summer compound) and full throttle out through
the gate.  My time? 52.480, even though I screwed up entering the skidpad.
This time, I was less than 0.2s behind Scott, and I cleaned up my score by
almost 1.3seconds...

	So, all in all, I was really happy with how my car did, and how Scott and
I did.  After our runs, we did Cone Duty so the instuctors could run the
course.  It really shocked us that the same guys who were instructing us
were turning in 55 and 56 second times in their cars...  One instructor got
47.XXX in his Neon., one guy got 48s in his *seriously* race prepped Honda
CRX, and another got 51s in his M3.  Amazing, that, that our little
10-year-old 123-hp VWs were almost as fast around the track as an M3, and
faster than every single Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, and Porsche there
(although i think there was one 944 Turbo that got a 51-something.)..  It
says a lot for VWs... especially cause neither of us are running any
serious mods.  I wonder what would have happened if I had some real tires
on the car...

	During one of the PA Operator's bouts of verbal diarreah, he said that
going from an all season to a R-compound race tire would shave about 2
seconds off of most Novice's times on a track like that one.  Shave 2
seconds off my time, and I would have been at the 50.5 second mark-- and on
par with the two fastest Neons there (they all had R1s on), and just about
all of the non-race prepped but sticky-tired instructors' cars.  Now that's
*really* cool. :)

	I think it goes without saying that I'm going to do this again.  :)  The
next race, I think I'll get a rental car, though... so I can concentrate
more on learning to do a better job finding a good line (and knowing where
the hell I'm going) rather than worrying about killing my car. :)
Seriously, though, for those of you considering auto-crossing your cars,
it's not really hard on your car at all.  Sure, you launch pretty hard, but
then you're in 2nd for the whole time (there was one point on the track
where I downshifted back into 2nd--with the appropriate double-clutch--
because it was pointing up a hill and it was a long stretch, and Scott's
car didn't sound to enthusiastic doing it in 2nd) but really, it's not
stuff that I haven't done on the street. :)  The worst part is sitting and
idling for up to like 40 mins between runs... but my oil never got hotter
than 110'C, and the cooling fan was on low the whole time, so the needle
stayed pegged in the center of the gauge... so it wasn't bad at all!

	Lesson learned? GO FOR IT!  Go auto-cross your car and have a blast!  

		Jason






----------
jason@scirocco.org
1987 Scirocco 16v
60,000 original miles.
<http://members.aol.com/rocco16v>http://members.aol.com/rocco16v  

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