[mjk3888]

SO IMPRESSED!!! What can’t this car do?!

You be the judge. With no prior experience before the school by the end of the day I was fastest in the class. Can't even tell you how much it was because of the car! Although I feel like I improved leaps and bounds (First lap 43.985 – Last lap 34.141) the car was the reason. Side note the 2nd and 3rd place cars had to cool their cars/brakes/tires off after the 9 instruction laps we took before taking their final 3 runs without an instructor in the car. I hot lapped the 1LE all the way through to the end. It was a 3 car rotation so I would make a run and idle for about 1 minutes before setting off again. All temps stayed in good range and I couldn’t feel if the brakes faded or the tires were getting greasy. Again SO IMPRESSED!!!!

In case you think I’m too in love with my car to find its flaws watch the video below of SCCA Champ Darren Seltzer running his two instructor laps with the car. In his own words “This car is PHENOMENAL!”

First Video is his laps the second is my best and final lap. As you can see I still could have picked up another second without much effort.

FYI
Pressures were set to 32F/30R cold before I started hot lapping at the end I believe they were 38F/35R. Traction Control and Stability Control was off all day. I never felt intimidated by the car even when I was stabbing back on throttle too fast. It would slide but was easy to catch.

EDIT:
Touring Mode Steering, and Track Mode Exhaust were selected at all times. I think touring steering is an ABSOLUTE MUST for auto x! It allows for much faster hands on tight switchbacks!

[Egon]

Originally Posted by mjk3888

SO IMPRESSED!!! What can’t this car do?!

You be the judge. With no prior experience before the school by the end of the day I was fastest in the class. Can't even tell you how much it was because of the car! Although I feel like I improved leaps and bounds (First lap 43.985 – Last lap 34.141) the car was the reason. Side note the 2nd and 3rd place cars had to cool their cars/brakes/tires off after the 9 instruction laps we took before taking their final 3 runs without an instructor in the car. I hot lapped the 1LE all the way through to the end. It was a 3 car rotation so I would make a run and idle for about 1 minutes before setting off again. All temps stayed in good range and I couldn’t feel if the brakes faded or the tires were getting greasy. Again SO IMPRESSED!!!!

In case you think I’m too in love with my car to find its flaws watch the video below of SCCA Champ Darren Seltzer running his two instructor laps with the car. In his own words “This car is PHENOMENAL!”

First Video is his laps the second is my best and final lap. As you can see I still could have picked up another second without much effort.

FYI
Pressures were set to 32F/30R cold before I started hot lapping at the end I believe they were 38F/35R. Traction Control and Stability Control was off all day. I never felt intimidated by the car even when I was stabbing back on throttle too fast. It would slide but was easy to catch.

Quotes from 2 buddies that were there, "That 2017 1LE is a sight to behold" and "That car is hooked up." Just glad you are not going to be in FS or it would make my life a LOT harder this season.

No doubt that the car is just as phenomenal as your instructor said, but don't sell yourself short on the skill that it took. The improvement in your times says a lot about how well you did, and it is likely that the car just gave you the confidence to push it farther than you thought you could. (that and a good instructor) This car is legit though, and I can't wait to see it in person when you bring it to zMax in March.

Did you go ahead and order a helmet through the school? If so how much was it this time, I know it was $100 in the past.

[mjk3888]

Originally Posted by Egon

Quotes from 2 buddies that were there, "That 2017 1LE is a sight to behold" and "That car is hooked up." Just glad you are not going to be in FS or it would make my life a LOT harder this season.

No doubt that the car is just as phenomenal as your instructor said, but don't sell yourself short on the skill that it took. The improvement in your times says a lot about how well you did, and it is likely that the car just gave you the confidence to push it farther than you thought you could. (that and a good instructor) This car is legit though, and I can't wait to see it in person when you bring it to zMax in March.

Did you go ahead and order a helmet through the school? If so how much was it this time, I know it was $100 in the past.

Car definitely inspires a lot of confidence. I was pumped to get within a couple of seconds of Darren's time!

The helmet deal wasn't ready yet, but I was told that I can purchase at the discounted rate when it is available.

I had a blast. Honestly I'm just as excited about Darren's comments on the car as I was about my personal performance. Love the "Man this car does really work" at the end of his lapping video. I also was told that I was getting a few "Wow he doesn't look like a Novice" comments. Awesome to hear! The car definitely makes me feel like a track hero!

[MatthewAMEL]

Darren was my instructor at Starting Line 5 years ago. He is the real deal. I made a note card with his tips 'eyes outside the car', etc. and put it on my visor.

Glad to hear you had a great experience. That really is a fantastic program.

[mjk3888]

Originally Posted by MatthewAMEL

Darren was my instructor at Starting Line 5 years ago. He is the real deal. I made a note card with his tips 'eyes outside the car', etc. and put it on my visor.

Glad to hear you had a great experience. That really is a fantastic program.

Yep looking far ahead is probably the hardest part. You could see I didn't shallow up the last cone because I was going cone by cone instead of looking for the exits. He is a great instructor! That's why I was thrilled to hear his excitement about the cars performance!

[Egon]

Originally Posted by MatthewAMEL

Darren was my instructor at Starting Line 5 years ago. He is the real deal. I made a note card with his tips 'eyes outside the car', etc. and put it on my visor.

Glad to hear you had a great experience. That really is a fantastic program.

It does take a while to learn to look ahead, but once you do it does make a huge difference since you aren't reacting to whats in front of you you are one element ahead of the course.

[mjk3888]

After watching the tapes last night I saw that I lost a lot of momentum in the slaloms. Compare my entry and exit speeds to Darren and you can see I let too much speed fall off. I needed to maintain a steady but higher throttle through them to not lose as much speed as I did.

Egon, when you get a chance to watch them closely let me know if any other glaring issues that stick out. I think I see most of them, but maybe you'll find something I didn't.

Also updated the first post to say that steering was always in touring mode!

[Egon]

Originally Posted by mjk3888

After watching the tapes last night I saw that I lost a lot of momentum in the slaloms. Compare my entry and exit speeds to Darren and you can see I let too much speed fall off. I needed to maintain a steady but higher throttle through them to not lose as much speed as I did.

Egon, when you get a chance to watch them closely let me know if any other glaring issues that stick out. I think I see most of them, but maybe you'll find something I didn't.

Also updated the first post to say that steering was always in touring mode!

I will be sure to take a closer look at them when I get home. I am on a laptop right now and its hard to see details. One thing to keep in mind with the slaloms goes back to looking ahead when driving so that you can position yourself correctly on exit of the previous element so you are going into the slalom at a higher speed. Most people find it easier to go in slow and build speed through the slalom, I find myself doing that quite a lot, it just takes a lot of practice. Your instructor clearly has all of that practice.

[mjk3888]

Originally Posted by Egon

I will be sure to take a closer look at them when I get home. I am on a laptop right now and its hard to see details. One thing to keep in mind with the slaloms goes back to looking ahead when driving so that you can position yourself correctly on exit of the previous element so you are going into the slalom at a higher speed. Most people find it easier to go in slow and build speed through the slalom, I find myself doing that quite a lot, it just takes a lot of practice. Your instructor clearly has all of that practice.

It takes more patience than I thought. I was pretty heavy footed a lot of the time.

[bybcous]

Can someone post a link to these videos so I can watch them please.

[mjk3888]

Originally Posted by bybcous

Can someone post a link to these videos so I can watch them please.

Search SCCA Starting Line School and filter to videos from this week.

[detltu]

Great review. Glad to see the 1LE getting such rave reviews. I did starting line last year in my ZL1 and plan on doing it again this year in the 1LE(3rd gen) if it is ready.

Highly recommend starting line to anyone even if you are not interested in autocross. It's a blast.

[mjk3888]

Originally Posted by detltu

Great review. Glad to see the 1LE getting such rave reviews. I did starting line last year in my ZL1 and plan on doing it again this year in the 1LE(3rd gen) if it is ready.

Highly recommend starting line to anyone even if you are not interested in autocross. It's a blast.

Same here! I totally recommend starting line to anyone with any interest in cars!

[JRL1LE]

[QUOTE:
Touring Mode Steering, and Track Mode Exhaust were selected at all times. I think touring steering is an ABSOLUTE MUST for auto x! It allows for much faster hands on tight switchbacks!



[/QUOTE]

I can't find it in the manual, how do you select touring mode steering when in track mode? I like the lighter touring steering feel.

Thanks, great vids and driving!