New video by Paradigm Shift Racing - The 4 elements of a perfect corner

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by Racer Boy

Steve, I recommend that you stick to your current set-up until you stop improving your lap times. Until you are at the car's limit (not YOUR limit), all you will be doing is wasting a lot of time and money.

My plan exactly except I may bump up the neg camber a little bit to tweak/even my tire wear. Cory (the coach who drove my car) showed me the car has at least 5 more seconds at Roebling road. Well at least 4 because he helped me take a second off my best time that day after he drove my car.

When I say trends to oversteer that is mostly on mid corner and track out under full throttle. turn in is pretty neutral and controlled by the amount of trailbraking I do. Too much, and the car oversteers just right, and the car is fairly neutral.

[Racer Boy]

Originally Posted by The Radium King

i've seen people suggest that before and struggle with it. it's like telling a lumberjack not to buy a chainsaw until he gets as good as he can with an axe. if you are out to cut down as many trees as possible then get the right tool for the job.

Let me clarify what I meant. Steve let another driver takes some laps in his car, and the other driver was 5 seconds a lap quicker. As humbling as that is, it shows that Steve has a ways to go before he approaches his car's limits. At this stage in his development as a driver, his resources might be better spent on working on his own driving.

Please know that I am in no way casting aspersions on Steve's driving abilities, from what I've read, he is in the process of learning a lot, and he is constantly improving (that is exactly what you want to do!).

I've seen other learning driver's make the mistake of making big changes to their car so it felt better to them, when they were many seconds off of what the car was capable of. As those drivers improved, they ended up un-doing those changes because as they went quicker, the car was set up totally wrong for the increased pace.

[The Radium King]

i get that, and resemble it - i am having a tough time learning how to drive as i am constantly having to change how i drive to suit the changes i make to my car. however, it is a very long journey if you have to learn to drive your car as-is, then modify slightly and re-learn, then modify again, only making changes to your car when you feel that you've hit the limit of your automobile. i think there is a happy limit in there somewhere, and that perhaps some more camber and some adjustable swaybars are within that limit. add to that the fact that the car has some inherent understeer designed into it from the factory, and that getting rid of this understeer (with sways and camber) is one of the first track mods follks make. necessary to learn how to go faster? no, but i would hesitate to call it a waste of money.

[steved0x]

I get what you guys are saying, and I greatly appreciate the shared wisdom.

I think I have dialed out a lot of understeer, with some remaining. As my coach said, the car is limited by understeer. I guess the other choices are neutral, or oversteer biased.

I guess it is speed dependant too. Flooring it out of a hairpin it pushes like crazy. Full throttle out of a 90+ mph sweeper, understeer is barely detectable. Tail happiness on cornetr entry is controlled by the trail braking dor me. And a few times mid corner I felt a nice 4 wheel drift which was pretty awesome - I have only felt that in the wet before.

Tbh, I am.loving the car right now, my confidence is high, and I am passing other cars like crazy I think I will bump.up the neg camber and I am going to keep an eye out for a pair of the tarret adjustable bars to come on sale, which I consider an incremental upgrade.

Also tbh, I am terrified of oversteer I might be the type of driver that always orefers a slight understeer bias

Here is the video of the coach driving my car, possibly it may show some setup on my car?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xZqRT3phoVw

It was totally awesome

[The Radium King]

wrt to the hairpins and pushing on turnout, perhaps get the car more rotated earlier so that you have a better line for the exit - either slower on entry, OR, get it to understeer on turn-in, lift, and use some throttle steer to aggressively rotate your car before the apex?

[Racer Boy]

It's okay to be wary of oversteer. I personally prefer a car that has slight understeer. At least with understeer, you can see what you are going to crash into! It's said that a loose car is faster, but it is more difficult to manage an oversteering car over time. What it comes down to is what you are comfortable with. The more you try to reduce understeer with the car's set-up, the more likely you will end up with a car that is uncomfortable for you if you are afraid of oversteer.

Radium King is right, you can try different driving techniques to get around the understeer coming out of hairpins. Do you feel that the full throttle push is costing you time? If not, don't worry about it so much. I'm guessing that you spend very little time in those kind of turns compared to mid- and high- speed corners. BTW, every car I've raced has had understeer in slow hairpins, but so little time was spent coming out of that hairpin that I never worried about it.

One thing to keep in mind with a slow speed turn is that it's really easy to over-drive the car, because a slow corner just isn't very scary. I've been very guilty of that many times in my own driving history!

[The Radium King]

note also type 1/2/3 turns - what is after that hairpin? if it is a nice long straight, then getting out of that turn fast is essential to shaving seconds (vs say a hairpin that is the first turn in a complex of turns).

[steved0x]

The one hairpin I am thinking about is a 180 hairpin going onto a moderate straight that lets me get up to about 85-86 before braking down to about 70 and then trail braking in to the apex at around 60. The push doesn't really hurt me.

https://youtu.be/gMILJ-Mk8lg?t=3m40s

I guess car setup is all a bunch of compromises. And while I can conceptually understand them, my "seat of the pants" is not caught up yet But I am getting there. it is a fun journey.

[WorkInProgressK]

After recently completing and succeeding at Nasa and BMW CCA Competitive driving school allowing me to race wheel to wheel, this is my take away.
-Look around, pay attention to your mirror, be aware of your surroundings and flags and remember key features like run offs.
-A corner is a corner is a corner. You will get to see the same corners at different tracks. It's just a set of lines defining the paved portion of the track.
-You can always go faster but practice being consistent at 7/10 & -8/10 all the time. Most of the time saving your car is a bigger victory then being able to run 9/10 or 10/10 then spin.
-Braking is the key: brake less and longer. Keep more momentum.
-Get on throttle early as a good habit will allow you to run more aggressive setups. 10% throttle not 100% and move up from there.
-Test your limits early in the day.
-Don't scrub tires.
-Practice different lines: early vs late vs conventional.
-Get on the simulator. Iracing, Asseto Corsa.
-AutoX, Karting, practice being smooth!

In racing, unless you are qualifying, you will rarely have the chance to do the perfect corner.