Drill Station 1 : Constant Slalom

Walkthrough

From the start gate, accelerate full throttle along a line that will set you up for turning in at cone 1.
The pointer cone by cone 1 says that you must always travel to the left (right on the way back) of cone 1, so that's the way you go. Make sure you've looked at the end of the slalom at this point to see which side of the last cone you'll need to be on as you come back to the finish - there's only one way that'll get you there properly.
Depending on your car, you may still be accelerating as you turn in to the right at cone 1. Sometimes I was accelerating, sometimes not - depending on how good of a launch I got out of the gate.
The general rhythm you want on the constant slalom is to be going fast enough that you're only turning as you go around the cones and you're simply maintaining speed between the cones. You have to make adjustments based on track surfaces, puddles, overcooking the turn-in at cone 1, etc. However the lines represent what you want to shoot for. I was comfortably able to maintain 40-45mph through this particular slalom, as seen in my in-car video footage (I was definitely NOT looking at my speedo while slaloming :-)
At cone 5, things get interesting - you have to figure out how to turn your car around so you can head back through the slalom. I initially tried going clockwise around cone 6 as that made the outbound turn around cone 5 easier, but as one of the instructors pointed out, that's probably not the fastest way. From corner prioritization point of view, the turn around cone 6 is gonna be slow, any way you take it, so it should be the lowest priority. By going counter-clockwise around cone 6, you set the car up MUCH better for the re-entry into the slalom at cone 5, so that seems to be the better path. It felt faster, too.
If you're convinced that going CCW around cone 6 is the way to go, then you have to scrub off speed to make it around cone 5. You probably need to start braking midway between cones 4 and 5, as shown in the diagram. You can trail-brake around cone 5 if it helps - sometimes that'll help the rear of the car get around the corner better.
After you're at pointed toward cone 6, then you can accelerate toward it, and depending on how your low- end torque is (the previous turn will be SHARP), you may need to brake before you turn left to go around cone 6.
Go as close to cone 6 as you can without giving up too much speed. Your car's turning radius will be a factor here. Mine has a large turning radius, so I chose to go a little wider around cone 6 in an effort to keep my speed up.
On the yellow part of the curve around cone 6, and even into some of the green part, you may experience some "plowing" (understeer), or at least I did. When this happened to me, I was able to turn the steering wheel back to the right slightly and ease up on the throttle a bit, and that stopped the plowing.
Now you want to set up for the re-entry into the slalom. Do whatever braking is necessary so that as you turn left at cone 5, you're close to the speed you want to maintain through the slalom. I had issues with this as I usually slowed too much on my entry at 5 and didn't get into my slalom rhythm until between cones 4 and 3.
Traverse the slalom, using your throttle to maintain speed as you turn.
As you round the back side of cone 2, you should be able to start accelerating as you unwind the steering wheel. You can take a course that brings you closer to the front side of cone 1 than you normally would, since you don't have to go back to the left after cone 1.
As you approach the exit gate, gauge your available traction and cornering ability. I was usually hitting 55mph+ by the time I shut her down. Since I was cruising out of the slalom, I had to remember to stay on the throttle until I had completed the turn at the exit gate, lest I induce a spin by a forward transfer of weight due to braking.

Video and Pictures

s1.gif (18KB) Drill Station Map (details)	ErikSlalom1-InCar.jpg (20KB) ErikSlalom1-InCar.mpg (11.5MB) Erik running the slalom - video from inside the car. This was a pretty good run, IMHO - there was still room for improvement on the turnaround, but I think I did the rest of it pretty well.	BrianSlalom1.jpg (26KB) BrianSlalom1.mpg (10.3MB) Brian running the slalom and smearing a cone... part of the sequence that earned him (temporarily) the title of "Coninator". You can see the effects of Brian's RSR springs as there is much less body roll in the turnaround than with others' cars.
DanSlalom1.jpg (22KB) DanSlalom1.mpg (20.2MB) Dan running the slalom really well. He's got a bit of body roll from the stock suspension, and you can hear him lose traction after the turnaround due to his car being FWD and there being lots of water on the track.	ErikSlalom1.jpg (25KB) ErikSlalom1.mpg (18.4MB) Erik running the slalom - a decent run, but there was room for improvement in the initial entry and the turnaround. Also check out the difference between the thumbnail pictures of my car and Dan's car - we're going about the same speed at that part of the course. That's swaybars, baby! And he has a lighter car, too!

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Last Modified Fri May 23 2003 19:46:42 PDT