Just for fun, lets start an info thread on driving tips when it comes to road racing, drag racing, whatever. It's Thanksgiving today so lets work on a fun sharing topic.

I'll start with one of the best tips for percision cornering.
Always pull the steering wheel into the direction of the turn, never push it. You will find this give much more driver control and smoothness through a corner.

 

smoother is faster.
if you feel that you just went "fast" around that last curve, chances are, you were actually slower overall...

while its kinda extreme, think of it like this.. you have a soda balanced on the passenger seat.. you want to take the line thru the corners that will try to tilt the soda the least.. doing so, you can push the car faster, as you arnt trying to turn as hard....



i suck at explaining that. lol. perhaps i should wait until after i get some sleep.. lmao.

 

Never drive fast down a residential street for any reason- You are just pissing someone off. It is unnecessary and dangerous, and whether you believe it or not, you will be older someday and a homeowner and you too we frown on such rudeness and disregard of others enviroment (children, property, care of backing out of their driveway safely, etc) Please always have respect for other peoples streets and do your fast driving out of neighborhoods and private residents. It may not be right to drive fast at all, but we are car enthusiest and have cravings, do whats best if you are going to drive fast and do it on more rural areas.

It is called common respect for others- learn it and live it. You don't think it'll happen to you, but think about how many people you may know that have had an incident of some type in their neighborhood from someone racing down their street.
----------------------------------------------------

Never hard downshift just entering or into a corner, drive the car into it engage in gear still and downshift on exit. Its better to lag a car though a corner than to unload and then downshift skid into a turn. You will be smoother and the car will actually settle quicker allowing for a faster exit.

 

try and develop a two foot technique in drivng around hard sweepers. Instead of one foot gas to brake, brake to gas.

I will give three different ways I will enter corners based on the braking severity and the degree of the corner and competition on your butt. 2 different techniques based on stress and/or driver fatigue level.

1)What I will do in a moderate speed straight into turns (say 70-80mph to 35mph corners like a cutback or chicane) is to lift the throttle a second or two before braking to settle the suspension alittle then come down on the binders. This gives the weight transfer a second to settle and will put less strain on the car and brakes. makes for more even braking and better control. This is a relaxed, sacve the car , nobody on my but mode. I use my throttle foot over onto the brake pedal and then when itnto braking I twofoot the brake pedal and switch feet. by the end of slowing I am now back onto the gas pedal with the gas foot and easing into the throotle slightly leveling the transition to exit before the brake foot is actualy entirely released pressure.

2) Is a full trailbraking. The left foot never leaves the brake pedal area unless for shifting. The right foot never touches the brake pedal unless the brake foot has to go to the clutch ( in most cases, this should not happen if gearing is correct for that track or corner.) when slowing from the same senerio as ex 1, come down hard on the brake pedal as you are similtaniously SLOWLY lifting your right foot off the throttle. as the car settles, you then go into the exit phase of ex 1 working both pedals through the corner until you have apexed, then its steadily lifting the brake as you go into more throttle exiting. Jumping on the throttle will lunge the frontend and then the bobble back down will unload the *** end. never stop the gas of a high HP car. this is the more strees entrance when entering a corner at the deepest position is required due to someone on you butt.

 

When the *** end of the car is out (powering out of a corner, like a sprint car) you are in fact loosing time and exiting slower. No matter how fast or cool it may feel, if the wheel are spinning and you are sidways, you are exitng slower than your car can be driven. Learn to drrive your throttle, not stomp it. Control= fast.

If you are clinched onto the wheel, then you are stressed and will eventually make a mistake and your competition will get you. Learn to control yourself as well as your car. try and concentrate on being relaxed aand let the car work itself. If you are fighting it, you are in most cases overdrivng it -or- the car is a handful and needs a better setup. You are only as fast as your car. When you learn this, you will learn what your car is doing and relise what needs altering next to make it and you quicker.

Consitency in a vehicle shows a very good driver. Even if its the local go-kart track, it you lap times are some fast, and some moderately fast, you are making mistakes on the moderately fast laps. If you can run a lets say 27.3 second lap time on your best interval, the rest of your times should be within 1 sec max of that time factoring you did not get slowed by traffic. When you have mastered even a go-kart at times all within say 3/10 to 4/10 of a second idifferent lap times in one full 10 min session of driving the same kart, your driving is not the problem. you can handle a faster car until this is. At that point, you need to practice more again until you have mastered that next level and so on.

So again, I say relax an focus on your seating position. Your body should not be trying to turn the car for you. Your body should remain calm and centered on the kart/ or car.

 

Here's another thing that might help you become a better driver, try some drifting! Before you laugh, hear me out! hahaha. First off, I must point out that drifting is not racing. Its a common misconception that people have, but like Dean said, when the tires are spinning you are loosing speed and loosing time. So its not the fastest way around a roadcourse, but it really does help you understand how to control your car in unexpected situations. As you push the limits of traction on a roadcourse, its inevitable that you will eventually get to "the line" as I call it, the point between traction and a loss of traction. When roadracing, I try to keep it at "the line" because that will pretty much be the fastest the car can possibly go with the current tire setup. And when you play with that line, you will eventually cross it and experience a loss of traction. Now this is where alot of people go wrong. They spend alot of time practicing how to race, but when they do cross that line and they lose traction, they are not prepared to react. I have seen many local roadracers crash or exit the course because they pushed it a little too hard and did not react correctly to the loss of traction. When you drift you are forcing the car to lose traction thus you become familiar with how to react. After much practice you will train yourself to react correctly and this will save you from potentially crashing or going off the track. So doing a little drifting wont make you a better roadracer, but it sure will help you prepare yourself for unexpected situations.

First things first, you need an area. Like Dean I would always prefer to keep it on the track. The streets really isnt the right place to be doing crazy automotive stuff. But some guys dont have tracks, and they do have deserted areas, so I guess that could work too. What you're looking for is a large open area with no poles, no curbs, no solid objects. A large parking lot could work, as well as deserted air fields, or even better, a skidpad at your local track. Here's the last thing, do this in the rain. Yes thats right, in the rain or when its wet (if wherever you're at has a hose). Why? Because when its wet it will be much easier to induce a loss of traction. And along with that, it will not wear down your tires, meaning you can take your car just like it is right now and go try this. Of course you can do this when its dry, but your tire selection, type of rearend (open vs posi/lsd), and ammount of power will play into how successfull you are. Doing it in the wet will pretty much guarantee that anyone with any type of car (from V6 to V8, open rearend or posi, and whatever size tires) will be able to have some fun.

Now you got an area with a wet surface, its time to get familiar with a loss of traction. Staying in 1st gear (auto or manual), turn the wheel all the way (whichever way you want) and floor it. As the rear tires spin, you will feel the rearend come out. If you hold the throttle down and hold the steeringwheel at full lock, the car will spin around. Get familiar with the feeling of the rearend kicking out, its called oversteer. Try it again, but this time, when the rear starts to come out, countersteer (aka turn the steeringwheel back the other way). Play with the throttle while doing this. 100% throttle, 75%, 50%, 25%, and letting off. With some practice you will be able to kick the rearend out, and then bring it back straight without spinning out. If the car keeps spinning out then you either didnt countersteer fast enough, or you're using too much throttle. If the car snaps back the other way and spins out the other way, then you were countersteering too much. It takes some practice to get this down, so dont worry if you keep spinning out. Once you can do this without spinning out, you're probably getting a good feel for controlling the car. Now try to do a controlled 360. You dont want the car to spinout, you want it to stay in a state of oversteer for a 360 circle. Pretend there is an object and try to do controlled 360's around that imaginary object. This will also take some time. Once you can do that, try a controlled 360, but instead of ending it or maintaining one direction, toss the car the other way and do a figgure 8. Now do multiple figgure 8's. Doing all this will help you become familiar with countersteering and throttle control. These are practice techniques used by alot of people that drift. There is still much more to experience (like understeer and crashing haha), but by this time you've made good progress.

Now how will this help you on a dry track? Well the first thing that you must remember is that these are only exercises to help you become familiar with countersteering and throttle control. These exercises were also an attempt at helping you get a feel for oversteer. This will help you get a feeling for how the weight (aka inertia) transfers through the car while racing, which can help you predict things before they happen. These will not directly help you race faster, but they can prevent you from crashing if the car oversteers at speed. Of course the situation will be different on dry pavement (compared to the rain), everything will happen much faster and the angles will be different. But by training yourself to countersteer and modulate throttle, you will be better prepared for a loss of traction at speed. And by becoming familiar with oversteer by forcing it, you will not be caught off guard when it happens.

The next thing to experiment with in your wet practice area will be becoming familiar with understeer. Understeer is evil. But more on that later ...

 

If you was to push that line tho say in a high lap road race wouldnt you wear the tires down to quick? I guess it depends on the situation.

 

You wear tires down faster when drifting. In a road race situation, you want be on the line, not breaking it to the point of drifting.

 

Thats what i meant by pushing the line close to losing traction pretty much the faster you go the quicker the tires wear.

 

That sounds right.

 

don't know if it matters or not, or even applies to road racing, but way back when i had a kart my son drove friend that helped me with it told my son to keep both hands at the bottom of the wheel and to push it like you said. he was only driver that drove that way, part of the thinking was it kept your arms in close in case you crashed but also was quicker to move wheel.

 

I'll play along.

Never cross your hands up while turning. This really applies more to auto-x. But in a tight corner for road racing (like 1-2 at PIR) this is something to think about.

And then I am going to back up a couple of things said here. Use two feet. One of the best example of this is Walter Rohrl driving the Audi S1 Rally car in the mid 80's. There is a video clip of him during the monte carlo rally. The footwork is unbeleivable, his smoothness with the wheel, and the footwork, are really something to aspire to.

Practice... Practice...Practice. The REAL key to a fast car is the driver. If anyone really wants to become a good driver, you need wheel time. Start auto-xing, and going to HPDE's. The skills you can learn from others is how you will become fast.

 

Like was said before never cross your hands. Use shuffle method. Shuffle your hands around the steering wheel so you always have hold of the wheel.

Think about weight transfer also. How weight transfers around on tires in corners. Braking plays into to this also. If you brake hard in a hard corner when theres lots of transfer, things can get ugly........

 

Along with pulling the wheel... I'll position my left hand by 11 o'clock for a left turn, with my right hand at 4:00. If I swing into a right turn after that, then the right hand goes to 1:00 and the left hand drops to 7:00. Keeps my weight pulling against the wheel, as was mentioned a few times here already. But instead of sliding my hands across the wheel to switch, I re-grab the wheel, hand-over-hand.

Always use a blinker. If you can't signal a lane change, then you've got no business going fast. Drop to the slow lane where ya belong. Remember you don't need to "click" the blinker handle into position; just hold it against the stop and it'll go on.

For those of us that get cold weather- Next time it snows, go to an unplowed parking lot and learn your car's limits. Do some figure 8's. When the car slides out, learn how to correct it. Don't go spinning across the lot like an 18 year old trying to impress his girlfriend! If the rear kicks out, spin the wheel so you're going straight again. Car spun 180? Hit the gas so it stops spinning.

The reason for this "fun in the snow"? The bite time for your tires is much faster on dry pavement than on wet pavement or icy/snowy pavement. Think of the snow as your time machine; you're slowing time down. You have more time to react. The car is slower to respond. There's no pressure on you since there's no "do or die" situation.

It's a rainy day in March and you're by yourself on a 4 lane highway that curves to the right. You push the car too hard and the rear slides out. It's not snow, but you've got a small window where you'll feel the car lose grip, and if you're good, you'll be able to correct it before the rubber grabs the blacktop- and you'll stay outta the concrete divider.

Now picture yourself losing the car on a tight 2-lane exit ramp on a sunny summer day. That rear is gonna kick out and send you spinning in the blink of an eye. No more time machine here; you've got a few microseconds to react. If you've practiced enough, you may just have a chance to react before the back bumper passes your front bumper. Remember what Meatman said about the suspension loading up; be prepared for the suspension to unload and send you spinning the OPPOSITE way.

But if you have no idea how to control your car, or what it's limits are, then you'll be facing the wrong way with a snapped axle, bent control arm, and in a hell of a dangerous situation! Or if your suspension unloaded and you were unprepared, you'll have done an "S"-shaped skid and went head first into the guardrail instead of butt-first.

 

When cornering look where it is that you want to be on the track - not just 10 feet in front of your car.

Where there's a series of corners you should be thinking at least one corner ahead.

When following someone close through a corner don't fixate on the back of the car in front of you. Hard to describe this one in words but I sort of think through the car in front and where necessary use my peripheral vision to remain oriented in the track - same thing if it's raining and the car in front is throwing up a lot of spray.

 

Good point on the car in front of you. I'll help explain by saying you'll follow him right into the same ditch unless you yourself are watching the road and not only him. A driver in front of you will very frequently make mistakes because he himself is driving in his mirror watching you on his tail.

 

On the street, its always best to err on the cautious side when corning fast, even when you are certain you know the corner and have taken it a 100 times in the past year. Always leave margin for error if there is no escape into a pole or wall on the outside of that corner because something may have happened there lst night and ther could be oil residue or dirt debris that will make the road slick. Eveen a brken pipe underground and water seepage just enough to moisten the asphalt but not look like a puddle. Things happen. Most crashes end up this way when you have in fact done the same exact thing 100 times. Confidence puts you at ease then WHAM.

I had an incident about 15years ago through a canyon that we would timetrail roadrace through. I caught a corner that one of the guys ahead of me ran prior on his interval and tossed dirt onto the corner (we used to run time trails in canyons with walky talky spotters on traffic.) I hit that corner and *** ended around 1 3/4 spins and and backed the slide right into a roadside dirt turnout- very luckily. Didn't hit a damn thing but my life did pass in front of me- I bought H4 headlights the next week for my VW karman Ghia- Vw headlights are notoriously terrible.

I know, doesn't sound like I learned a thing. But in fact I did- I learned to always keep a sharp eye on the unexpected. Professional racecar drivers have the highest heatbeat rate of ANY professional sport- it has been documented

 

If you dont think you will bottom out, chances are you will!

 

I will second that. The un-expected always happens. I was out for a spirited drive on the Scenic Columbia Gorge Hi-Way (one of the best roads in America, if you are ever in the PNW, it is something everyone should go see). I was going around a series of switchbacks I had done dozens of times. There was a large SUV that had crossed the centerline trying to make the turn, becuase of that I ended up having to make a huge correction to the inside, and ended up loosing the backend of the car. Luckily I hit no one else, even as I swung the car sideways several times, trying to scrub off speed. I ended up brushing the nose on a dirt embankment. The point is, I could have easily taken the corner at the speed I was going, BUT, the unexpected happened, there was another car halfway in my lane.

I will agree on the blinker bit too not using signals is one of my big pet peaves.

 

Get there in time for the drivers meeting so that you know what's going on with flags and schit..lol.

 

I know it's a trivial comparison, but that works well for arcade driving games too!

 

Ok Tak, sounds like someone's been watching too much Initial D j/k, still good advice.

 

isn't this where heal&toe shifting can come into play by allowing you to make that shift without hopefully unsettling the car?

 

sounds like you speak from experience



another point about being a better driver is maintaining your car.


you don't maintain it soon you won't have a car to drive. not only does it make the car safer, and last longer though it also makes the drive more fun.
a well maintained car is a faster happier car.
also when working on the car you tend to learn things about it and see what you can do to help improve it make the ride even more enjoyable. which again leads us to fun car means more time you will wnat to spend practicing........


and as it is always said.
practice, practice, practice, practice!!!!!!

get used to the car and how it feels drive it to where you are comfortable with it but not overconfident.
when you are stressed you tend to make more mistakes tend to panic easier and react slower or react too fast and over react. be comfortable. kinda like crazy was saying go do some drifting somewhere safe that way you konw the car know what it does and how it reacts and you can learn ok if I do this the car does.... "ah crap" but you know those ah crap situations learned out in the middle of nowhere can help you cause now you know not to do that again and by learning things not to do you are put at better terms with those unexpected situations

 

My first post.

This is about street driving.

Don't drive fast if you don't know what you are doing. If you are tail gaiting and have no idea what your next move is I'm talking to you. If you get close to someone and aren't looking to pass you are wasting your time. If you floor it but don't speed you might as well take off as fast as everyone else because you are just wasting gas. Don't speed when it is wet if you are around other vehicles and stay out of puddles. Keep an eye on the entire road, not just the front and sides but the rear also. Let anyone who is driving faster pass you. If you have to slam on your brakes 95% of the time you did something wrong. Pay attention to the lights, go easy on the brakes and gas, smoothness saves gas and prevents wrecks.

As far as driving fast in the street know your car and yourself and distrust other drivers. Don't be stupid, know where you're going and you should be ok.

PS Always keep calm, people who act like they are in a hurry often cause stupid accidents. This is coming from a delivery driver.

 

Yes. But without the proper pedal height adjustments (racing pedal setup) I highly doubt it can be done well with the stock 3rdgen pedals.

 

Great input about oversteering -- since we are in our rainy season, please continue with the Evil Understeer...

 

whats inital D?
i did a google search and came up with a bunch of Japanese anime crap......




heh, anyhoo, on the subject, i donno where to start... ive been to skip barber, and a few other places, but theres just so much stuff, i wouldnt know where to begin.


my suggestion would be to take a class or 12.. get some track time with a instructor, and pick it up that way... even if you have to save for a couple months for the trip, you wont regret it.

 

do auto-x

a lot of times (least around here) they do a little class like thing for the first race of the year. Many times there are also other drivers around and most are fairly nice to help out with what to do and how to drive your car more efficiently. Here you can get some time with your car pushing the limits in a safe enviroment.
and most the time they are not very expensive. think around here it is like $15.

 

If you bought the car with crummy tires, ditch them. I didn't, and ended up encountering massive understeer during an autcross run. It had rained, so the car was totally messed up in terms of handling. Or rather, I was. I was still trying to push it like the track was dry! The fact the tires I had were Aquatreads didn't help much either. At least I had some hydroplane protection...

I was lucky that all I did to the car was put a bolt through it, but the tire didn't explode like I thought it would. Hardly leaked at all, but it did make a neat thump-thump-thump noise. I was also licky that I ddin't leave the course diuring the understeer episode, only clipped a cone I think. Better tires made handling improve vastly, and they're still not anything special, they're just a lot better then the Aquatreads were. So, I learned that wet roads are fun for sliding around. I now drive slower and take turns slower when it's wet. Unless I want to try breaking the rear loose for fun, in order to figure out how to correct that if and when it happens.

 

Don't "HIT" the pedals, Squeeeeeeeze them..... Especially the brakes but it applies to all of them (clutch and throttle included). There are some exceptions like for Heel-Toe shifting when you need to blip the throttle fast to match the RPMs when downshifiting.

Assume a good relaxed seating position with the seat as close to a 90* with regards to the seatback as possible and have a bend in each arm. Your body will better sense the loading of the car with your spine perpendicular to the plane of the car and you will have much better feel for what the car is doing. This is assuming you fit in your car when you are positioned properly for "spirited" driving/racing (this gets to be an issue if you are pretty tall and are using race seats). I pretty much sit like this all the time now in every vehicle I drive because I feel so much more in touch with what the vehicle is doing.

To go along with pulling the steering wheel down into the corner, release it on the exit with the same inside hand - don't pull it out of the corner with the outer hand.

Resist the urge to brake early. Always use the latest apex possible... Well, maybe this isn't such a good idea for the beginners or poor braking vehicles.

 

Interesting point, and related, but somewhat unrelated.

I saw a some data from F1, with braking points, etc from Formula1 drivers. Schuie actualy started braking earlier than any of the other drivers. I do agree, braking zones are where many passes are made. and may races won. I just thought that I would share that fun fact, that possibly the best driver in the world, started braking earlier than the rest.

 

That is interesting.... But I am willing to bet that Schumacher's "early" braking points would still be quite late compared to the vast majority - if not all - of us here.....

I'm just commenting on how a lot of beginners brake too early - I mean even taking into account that they are beginners they are on the binders waaaaaaayyyyy too early. Even when instructed on where to begin the braking in a safe manner by trained instructors taking into accoun their vehicle's abilities - some will still just start braking whenever they feel like it. This will steepen the learning curve as well as annoy others on the track. I have seen this conduct create unsafe situations for both the beginner himself as well as others around him as well...

The thing is, if you don't carry enough speed into the corners you will have a very hard time apexxing and exiting properly and everything else for that matter. Try going to a track you know and hitting all of your lines at half speed. It's damn near impossible.

I suppose that is more of a track-only piece of advice though.

 

I would prefer a beginer brake a littler early, than brake late, and try to recover. At their first track event.

but I do know what you are saying. That is why there are instructors, to help people learn, and help them determine their braking points.

On another note. Pick a braking point that will not move. Do not pick a cone, or something moveable as your braking point.

 

If you think f body pedals are bad try a 3rd gen mustang! Heres one for driving on the street, DONT TAILGATE! Tailgating limits the view of the road ahead, just about eliminates your reaction time to nothing and enrages the tailgatee. Its so simple, Im sure no one on here tailgates, right guys? The closer you get the slower I go...

 

6 months ago i hit i deer in my precious 89 fox body coupe autocross car coming into a town and with out going to driving schools and learned about reaction and how to react I woulndt be here today,I would have wiped out into a telephone pole,luckily I took out a fence ...Also I use to be a bad tailgater when I started to drive,but grew out of that real quick....