Before last weekend’s autocross I got a stronger aluminum bar for my camcorder mount to prevent the bobblehead effect as seen in my MOT Video. It made a huge improvement and now the camera movement is only due to the seats flexing. So I took it for the ultimate test: the autocross course.
For those of you who aren’t quite sure what autocross is, this will show you. It is my last 3 of 8 runs on Saturday’s autocross with the Boston BMW CCA at Devens airfield in Ayer, MA.
Keep an eye on the instruments too, such as the speedo and especially my MotorMate G-Whiz which may give you an idea of how hard I am cornering. The camera will flex up and down for hard braking and accelleration too. Of course it still doesn’t reflect the real fun of whipping around a course–for that you’ll just have to try it yourself some time!
Download the video here. It is an H267-encoded .mp4, and you will probably need QuickTime 7 to play it. 20 MB, about 6min.
Josh,
I am using Quicktime Player v.6.5.2 on a Windows XP SP2 platform and the player encounters an error when trying to play your MP4.
“Couldn’t open the file 050716autox.mp4 becaause an unknown error occurred. The number of the error is: -8971.”
Ruh Ro!
Theo
Comment by Theo — July 20, 2005 @ 11:18 am
Woah, cool!
It looks like you’ve got the wheel turned almost completely to the lock to the right in one of the first few corners, and then you’re going into a hard left. Is the car totally pushing at that point, or do you still have some control?
Do you do the entire thing in 2nd gear? Do ’05 owners (with the gearing changes) also only use 2nd gear on that course, or are they shifting more?
Max speed of about 50mph?
Comment by blalor — July 20, 2005 @ 11:41 am
Hrm; looks like the comment feed isn’t spitting out any actual items. Maybe because you haven’t approved these comments (I’m guessing)?
Comment by blalor — July 20, 2005 @ 11:51 am
From what I could see (and this was the great thing about taking the video as I certainly have no opportunity to concentrate on speed while driving), I hit 60mph on that back straight. I’m sure I could have braked a little later and get more speed if I was thinking. Keep in mind courses change each time, but top speeds rarely hit 70 or so for a few seconds.
Yes…the video clearly shows my mistakes, I should not have had the wheel locked there and I was clearly pushing; in the morning I almost hit those as I not only had the wheel locked but the foot on the gas as well and that means no traction at all.
Theo: You need to upgrade to QuickTime 7
Blalor: It is listing the comments, you may just need to hit reload to refresh your browser’s cache of the page. I don’t approve comments, I use the simple color thing to prevent spambots instead so they are immediately posted.
Comment by Josh Wardell — July 20, 2005 @ 1:02 pm
Actually, I was referring to the comments RSS feed, which is continuing to not show any comments. 🙂 I can see ’em on the page just fine.
Are you still using the Yokohama tires?
I’m doing a Phil Wicks driving school this weekend near Chicago, which I’m pretty jazzed about, except for my stock all-season runflats. The car’s still way more capable than I, however…
Comment by blalor — July 20, 2005 @ 1:24 pm
Josh,
QT7 did the trick.
I notices you got classed in CS. You and I have similar cars and I got classed in DS. Was it the point for all the JCW stuff?
Theo
Comment by Theo — July 21, 2005 @ 2:18 pm