Driving

Last updated: September 2025

Introduction

Assetto Corsa has become my go-to tool for practicing autocross and track craft between real events. With Apple Silicon and CodeWeavers CrossOver Gaming, it now runs surprisingly well on macOS without needing a full Windows install or a virtual machine.

TL;DR: Best day ever for me. I let ChatGPT draft this based on my notes and data for the day.

Event: Golden Gate Lotus Club Autocross — November 1, 2025
Location: Laguna Seca Lakebed, near Monterey Bay, CA
Car: 2013 Porsche 991.1 Carrera S (Bridgestone RE-71RS, 32 psi hot)
Results: Official Results 

Introduction

After clearing a lingering airbag fault on my 2013 Porsche 991.1 Carrera S, I decided it was time to explore what the ThinkDiag+ tool could really do. 

My goal: customize how the car behaves and bring a few hidden factory options to life—Sport Plus, Porsche Sport Exhaust (PSE), full-time cluster lighting, and TPMS settings for my track tires.

This project turned into a deep dive into coding, diagnostics, and a little bit of trim repair along the way. Here are my notes to help me track and log my work.

Date: August 2025

Rig: Logitech G920 • Assetto Corsa (PC) • Parallels/Windows 11 on Mac mini (M4)

TL;DR

I’m running Windows 11 under Parallels 20.x on a Mac mini M4 running MacOS 15.6.

I tried all the suggestions I could find via Google and AI clients to figure out how to get Logitech Ghub working in this scenario. No luck.

So I finally went back to something I had setup years ago; working with the Controls option in AC and that seemed to work in this limited scenario.

See the companion article on Racebox Setup.

Viewing Data

Tap the Track icon to look at data that has been collected.

Select a session to review. In this case it was the 3/16/25 Loma Prieta event. In the screenshot below, the green indicates the fastest lap.

See the companion article on Racebox Data Analysis.

RaceBox Mini Application Instructions for Autocross- Ed Fisher comes from a forum post I came across while trying to learn how to use the device. Mods by me based on v2.1.3 of the Racebox app for iOS and my particular process.

Setup the Course

I spent a lot of time in the Fall months rewatching some old videos on YouTube about slalom improvements. Given the much longer runs at Crows Landing, I was thinking that this was an area I might be able to see some time improvements. That may not have panned out, but I think I got better at understanding car positioning for back siding; understanding the entry/exit points relative to the next course obstacle and getting back to full speed in the last two cones in a slalom.

January has been nice so far. We had some rain after the big December storms and I’ve been surfing a few times per week. I’ve also been working on night lapse star trails and trying to capture meteor showers when the sky is clear with my GoPro.

Thoughts from my notes over the 2024 season.

I'm still not smooth enough with some turns. Need to watch for multiple input changes during sweeping turns. Good place to try a cue word like smooth (breathe, eyes up, increase gas, smooth turn input).

I've plateaued a lot and need to force myself to get some help from other drivers. 

Overdriving; going too hard pushes me off the line and a few times into a spin out.

AM sessions are almost always faster than PM sessions. So, what we need to dig into is how to optimize for the entire day.

I bought a kit from Isudar for about $225 back in September for my PCM 3.1 unit. There are some YouTube videos that help with installation. It's a PITA but I finally got it going. Everything works to spec and its great to have a similar experience in both our cars.

Here are my notes from that job.

For Isudar CarPlay install we will need the following tools.