At the risk of being obvious…

The word faster has at least two main meanings. As autocrossers we need to keep/get them straight.

The first meaning is “at a higher speed.” So, driving 50mph is faster than 40mph. The second, more complicated meaning is “taking less time.” So, a 55 second run is faster than a 60 second run, even if the maximum speed one car reached was 50mph while the faster car only reached 40mph.

So, most of the time when an autcocrosser says “this is the faster line” she means specifically that it takes less time. Thus the name of this blog, Saving Time.

And, by the way, when an autocrosser says “this is the faster line” they may not only be referring to the actual shape of the path, but also to the braking point, the type of braking (threshold, straight-line, trail), the points of braking initiation and release, the point of increased throttle, the rate of increased throttle, the various directions, timing and rates of weight shift on and off the various corners of the car, all lumped into the concept of line and necessary to execute correctly in order to achieve the time savings promised by that line.