In my opinion, the coolest thing one can do with a car is to operate it safely, responsibly, and efficiently to transport people and goods where they need to go.
The second-coolest thing is smooth and controlled oversteer (a.k.a. sliding of the rear wheels).
I think I've gotten pretty decent at the first coolest thing, so lately I've been working on learning how to do the second.
Last year's GGLC autocross at Salinas Airport
Autocross is a motorsports format where the hosts set up a course using traffic cones in a large, empty parking lot or airfield. Then, drivers drive their cars one at a time as quickly as possible through the course. Typically, each run is timed, and a penalty is assessed for any cones hit. It's a great entry to performance driving because the barrier to entry is really low.
Last year, I attended a couple of autocross events hosted by the Golden Gate Lotus Club (GGLC) at Salinas Airport. (Thanks to Alvaro for going with me, and Will for inviting us!)
The only other time I'd autocrossed before was in 2018, so I had a lot to learn. GGLC runs a great event and I really enjoyed practicing driving the Miata at the limit.
Although I got pretty comfortable braking, cornering, and accelerating hard, I had a tough time catching and correcting slides. In autocross, intentional drifting is generally frowned upon, and there are course workers standing around to reset cones. So when things got too out of hand, I defaulted to braking hard ("in a spin, both feet in"), since this is safer for the course workers than trying to countersteer and save the slide if you don't know what you're doing.
Failing to catch a slide. I correct too late and too much, and then when I lift off the throttle and brake, this causes the car to snap side to side.
The best I could do was catch small moments of oversteer like this one:
Catching a small slide.
This month's SpeedSF autocross at the Sonoma Raceway paddock
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the SpeedSF autocross event at the Sonoma Raceway paddock. Thanks to Patrick for inviting me to this event as well as the drift event earlier in the year!
SpeedSF's autocross is a lot less formal than most other autocross events. There's no timing, no penalties for hitting cones, no course workers to reset the cones, and no fixed number of runs. You get to drive the course as many times as you want, and intentional oversteer is allowed. This makes it the ideal venue for learning to get a little sideways.
My goal for the day was to get more comfortable catching oversteer and maintaining control.
At the beginning of the day, I wasn't able to catch any big slides. By the end of the day, I was able to maintain power oversteer briefly and then exit mostly smoothly, as well as intentionally use oversteer under braking to help rotate the car into corners. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm pretty proud of this progress!
The clips below focus on the two big turns which provided the best opportunities for practicing power oversteer: 1) the left hander near the beginning of the course, and 2) the right hander near the end of the course.
The clips are ordered from early in the day to later in the day, showing how I got better with more practice.
1 - Left hander
An early, failed attempt at smooth power oversteer on this turn. When the slide begins, I get scared and get off the throttle, resulting in the side-to-side snapping behavior.
The opposite problem happens here: I stay on the gas way too much and spin as a result.
Getting smoother, learning to let the wheel self-steer and be a bit looser with my hands.
This one is a pretty long and controlled slide!
By the end of the day, I'm a lot smoother than I was at the start!
2 - Right hander
Jumping back to the morning:
Early attempt. I get scared when my car starts pointing towards the cones (and the blue Ford Maverick coming the other way), so I let off the gas, which causes the snap back around to the left.
Another failed attempt. I stay on the gas a little bit longer than before, which is good, but then I get scared again, let off the gas, and hit the brakes, causing the leftwards snap again.
Here, I do a pretty good job maintaining the slide initially, but let off the gas too much on the way out, so the exit is pretty jerky.
Lots of improvement by late afternoon. I'm able to catch, maintain, and exit pretty smoothly!
Best runs of the day
I had some pretty memorable moments and clean runs in the afternoon:
Good slide through the left hander, and I manage to swing the weight through the next set of turns into the following hairpin. This wasn't all totally intentional, but it worked out! I maintain good control in the right hander too with just a little bit of power oversteer. Patrick's friend Lauren is in the passenger seat providing positive feedback.
After my first (accidental) time using weight transfer to swing into this hairpin (see clip above), I practiced more and soon got pretty comfortable using braking to intentionally achieve this rotation.
Here's a full run through the whole course. I think this is one of my overall best runs of the day in terms of oversteer control (though there's still room for improvement). Full resolution on YouTube here.
Conclusions
I'm really proud of my progress in learning to control oversteer!
I still have a lot to learn as well. I don't necessarily intend to do full-on drifting, but I do really want to continue getting better with oversteer so I can safely and comfortably drive at (and over) the limit in my future performance driving.
I really appreciate that SpeedSF is able to run events like these, and I'm looking forward to going to more of these in the future.
I'll have to decide how I want to deal with replacing tires, since I'm definitely going to need new tires during the next event and I don't have a great way to store or transport tires/wheels.
Thanks again to Patrick for inviting me out, Bobbie for introducing us, and to Patrick's friends (plus Gordon from Merced) for helping make it such a fun day.
