This resonates for me in the opposite direction you mention, meaning after racing the open wheel cars for 11 years I went down to Sebring and raced in the MX-5 Pro Cup undercard race at the 12 hour race week, having virtually no time racing an MX-5. I've driven them on track during schools doing lead follows but have never raced in one.
Boy was it humbling. My downfall was downshifting from 5th to 4th into turns 1 and 17 and going from 4th to 3rd in turns 10, 13 and 16. The open wheel cars sequential shifter eliminates incorrect gear selection. For uplifts no clutch is required and minimal clutch usage on downshifts. The MX-5 having 6 forward gears and a loosely defined shift gate has many options other than the one you want and requires a clutch pedal all the way to the floor on both up and downshifts. It was difficult to focus on keeping the car balanced and on target when you're worried about being in the proper gear, and that's where I found myself more often than I'd care to admit.
Had a comedic battle with a Playboy Cup participant who was having even more trouble than I was. During a close battle he missed an upshift coming out of 13 and I drove around him and then I missed a downshift coming out of 16 and he drove back around me. We exchanged this comedy of errors at different corners for several laps before he buggered his gear box and wound up stuck trundling around in 4th gear.
Over the course of the week I got somewhat better at it, but in the heat of battle bad habits made it hard to remember to get that clutch all the way to the floor and be patient moving the shift lever into the next slot. It's been a long time since I've felt that incompetent in a race car.
The BFG R-1 tires had lots of grip but allowed very little slip angle. They were great until you exceeded their happy place and then you were massively scrubbing speed. With no skill set managing the car or tires it was an uphill battle pretty much all the time.
The cure for most of these ills is seat time. The Skip Barber and Smarty Cam folks were still working out the Smarty Cams data connection for the MX-5 so video with data was not available. When it is drivers will be able to sit down with testers and quickly evaluate exactly where and how they are doing well and where improvements can be made.
Suspect it would take a couple more race weekends for me to learn and adjust to the cars as I know the likes of Chris Brassard, Jim Craige Brian Hixon and many others have done it. Everyone has their own learning curve. The MX-5's are fun but I've never felt the pull to change over and still don't. My hats off to those who have made the switch quickly.
Ultimately it's sorting out the differences of the cars and adjusting your driving style and habits to them in ways you can quantify. I was so worried about shifting that I had little capacity left for car balance and tire management. More seat time would help but I'm happy to go back to the open wheel cars.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GEORGE
So Yesterday Chris Brassard was in my office and we got to talking about his racing a Mazda Mx5 last year and then after so many races in a street car, he jumped into an R/T and said Whoah!
The seat is uncomfortable
The view is different
The inputs to the driver are totally different. And confusing.
How can drivers switch from one type of car to another and get up to speed quickly. Or, for that matter, never get up to speed.
Thought for this day
George
|