To be clear, I'm not the pro, my friend is. To give a bit of background: he used to pro-am rally back in the 80's and 90's, and used to go to national auto-x events, but does it only for fun locally now. He can consistently pax in the top 5 or 10 in a pretty deep region. And that's on Federals or Nexens, not RE-71s or Rivals. We have a few former national champs here, and several others who have finished in the top 3 - 5 at Nats in their classes multiple years. He also, more than anyone else I know, can hop into a car and extract close to its full potential on his first run.
I've co-driven with him several times in my car over the years, and I had him take a couple of runs this weekend at a PCA event. I think it's finally dawned on me what he does differently from me:
1) He slows early for corners and never stands on the brakes
2) He takes a wide enough arc and turns in early so that he can position for corner exit early
3) He gets very tight on the apex cone
4) He is aggressive on the throttle and stays on it starting at the apex cone. He is essentially making the straights longer. I notice that I wait until it's straighter to get on the gas, and breathe the throttle in a few spots where he stays on it. He is trusting the tires to hold where I chicken out.
Here are videos for comparison.
Event results:
http://www.peachstatepca.org/Results...oss/05-20-2018
I find it encouraging that my car can raw-time two pretty well driven 991 GT3s. Of course on a more open track, it wouldn't stand a chance.
I found it very funny that my friend kept saying how I need a bigger front sway bar during his run. I find the car plenty stiff, but he thinks I need a bigger bar, stiffer front springs, or both. I have MCS SAs with 500 F 450 R springs, and a TRD front sway.
Anyway, I hope these videos and my observations will help other 'okay' autocrossers out there attack the course better. I welcome observations and comments from other pro-level and okay autocrossers here.