What we've learned on the track

[Mike_Yi]

I just did my second track event over the weekend (my first was two weeks ago). Here's a couple of things I learned.

In traffic, never slam on your brakes to slow for something going on ahead of you if you don't have to. On the track, this comes up when the checkered flies or the officials red flag the session. On the street, if you see something going on ahead of you - and after reading this thread you will be looking well out in front - that you are not in imminent danger of being involved in, brake quickly, not safely. The car (truck or SUV) behind you probably cannot stop as quickly as you can.

Be courteous to other drivers. If somebody is going to pass you because they are obviously going faster, let them. Again, situational awareness is the key here. If somebody is coming up on you very quickly and you don't notice it until the last second, don't try to get out of the way then. If you are paying attention and see somebody closing on your quickly, find a safe place to let them pass, and make your intentions known.

Trust your tires and brakes. This goes along with what others have said about learning the limits of your brakes. Don't forget practice not only in dry and wet conditions, but with snow on the ground too. When I met my wife, she was terrified of driving in the snow. We spent a lot of time in parking lots with me showing her how to handle a car in the snow. She is pretty damn good at it now.

After doing these two DE events, I really think that everybody (especially Porsche owners) should go to a DE event. You need to know how your vehicle handles being driven at the limit and how to control it in that situation. When there is an emergency situation, and you are trying to avoid hitting something (or somebody), knowing what to do and what not to could make the difference. As I type this, I am thinking about the OnStar commercial where the car swerves around the deer and plows into the tree.

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by Mike_Yi

In traffic, never slam on your brakes to slow for something going on ahead of you if you don't have to. On the track, this comes up when the checkered flies or the officials red flag the session. On the street, if you see something going on ahead of you - and after reading this thread you will be looking well out in front - that you are not in imminent danger of being involved in, brake quickly, not safely. The car (truck or SUV) behind you probably cannot stop as quickly as you can.

I try to always get "out of line" in a situation where the brake lights are all hammering on ahead of you. With each subsequent car in line, the margin of error is decreased. If you can jump out of that line you not only give yourself a much higher chance of not being rear ended, you also give the cars behind you an increase in their margins of error.
This also fits into some of the above posts about being vigilantly aware of your surroundings, knowing ahead of the emergency happening, where you can and can't go to avoid the crowd and danger.

[FTD]

Quote:


"I know it's a chance of getting an a**hole cop, but I heavily suggest every one of you go to a large vacant parking lot and run up to top of second gear, stand on the brakes as hard as you can and maneuver the car while standing on them."

Originally Posted by Quickurt

My local PCA sets this up at the beginning of autocross season, along with other maneuvers. Maybe other PCAs also do this or would if it were suggested.

[stateofidleness]

wow, i've just read through the whole thread and have learned a lot!

I have a question, I know a lot of the information posted pertains to manual boxes, but what about auto's?

Are the breaking/accelerating techniques any different?

I ask this because I have been forever scarred by my sister's first car.. an old Volvo 540 (thing was a tank).. but it would hydroplane ALL THE TIME!. there was one instance coming out of a mall exit where we 180'ed and were facing oncoming traffic.. i was scared to death...

now, to this day, whenever performing an "aggressive" turn or not slowing down ridiculously slow for a turn, i feel like im gonna fish tail out or hydroplane....

another thing that scares me is the breaking thing... other day I had a car slam on their brakes in front of me, so without anywhere to go I started applying mine. now ive always thought myself to be a decent breaker (no necks jarring, no uneven pressure applied), but once i feel that pedal vibrate (dut dut dut), I feel like im going to crash.. i panic... what is the best thing to do in that situation where you feel the car "skipping"?

[insite]

Originally Posted by stateofidleness

wow, i've just read through the whole thread and have learned a lot!

I have a question, I know a lot of the information posted pertains to manual boxes, but what about auto's?

Are the breaking/accelerating techniques any different?

I ask this because I have been forever scarred by my sister's first car.. an old Volvo 540 (thing was a tank).. but it would hydroplane ALL THE TIME!. there was one instance coming out of a mall exit where we 180'ed and were facing oncoming traffic.. i was scared to death...

now, to this day, whenever performing an "aggressive" turn or not slowing down ridiculously slow for a turn, i feel like im gonna fish tail out or hydroplane....

another thing that scares me is the breaking thing... other day I had a car slam on their brakes in front of me, so without anywhere to go I started applying mine. now ive always thought myself to be a decent breaker (no necks jarring, no uneven pressure applied), but once i feel that pedal vibrate (dut dut dut), I feel like im going to crash.. i panic... what is the best thing to do in that situation where you feel the car "skipping"?

a few notes. some of what you're discussing has to do with the driver; some of it could be the car. braking / accelerating techniques are similar with either auto or manual cars. the goal is to be smooth & not abruptly manipulate either pedal. give the chassis time to react.

in a car with ABS, you will always get your best stopping distances WITHOUT engaging the ABS. the instant the ABS pulses, you have lost a little stopping distance. the best way to learn to feel this moment, regardless of rain or shine, is to PRACTICE. when there is no traffic around, practice panic stops. pick a point ahead of you and 'guess' when you need to apply full braking to stop by that point. the car has much more traction than you think! in certain driving schools, they have a 'box' painted on the asphalt; the goal is to get the car in the box from a high rate of speed under threshold braking without engaging the ABS or over/undershooting the box. it takes time! factor in uphill / downill elevation changes and it gets even MORE tricky. again, the goal is practice. practice in the wet, practice in the dry!

now with regard to the car, there are a lot of factors that will make it unstable in wet weather. in no particular order, those things are: tire / tire tread pattern, tire pressure, wheel alignment. if your tires are balding or if the tread pattern is not very good, the car will hydroplane very easily. if your tire pressures are too LOW, the car will hydroplane very easily. FYI, a car travelling through water that is deeper than the tread grooves will hydroplane at 9 times the square root of the tire pressure. this means that if you're at 36psi, you will hydroplane in deep water at 54mph. drop your tire pressure to 25psi and you'll hydroplane at 40mph. alignment plays a tremendous role in wet weather handling. excessive toe in or toe out will cause you to 'drag' a tire in the wet; the tires will break loose simply because they're not pointed straight. excessive toe out is VERY scary in the rain. above all, notice that in addition to tire pressure, SPEED plays a role in hydroplaning. it is not possible to hydroplane if you are going SLOWER than the speed at which your car will plane out. finally, if your car feels unstable in the rain, IT IS. if you see other cars blowing by you like you're standing still and you cannot FATHOM how they're driving so fast in the rain because your car feels nervous, it's because your car IS nervous! generally this is indicative of a problem with tires, tire pressures, or alignment. check all three!

finally, throttle. obviously with a powerful rear wheel drive car in the rain, one needs to go easy on the throttle in tight corners. too much throttle will break the rear tires loose and the car could spin. what may NOT be obvious is what to do in a higher speed corner if the rear end starts to come loose. there are two types of situations where this can occur in the wet: deep water or just wet pavement. in either situation, if you feel the rear end start to come out, do NOT abruptly lift! if you are in deep water and the problem is hydroplaning, maintain throttle, gently steer the car straight, and gently dial out some throttle. this will let the car slow down below the hydroplane velocity threshold and the tires will settle back down onto the road. if the water is NOT deep and you've simply lost traction, we need to transfer some weight onto the rear tires. gently ADD a little throttle and gently countersteer a bit until grip is restored. then, slow down a bit!

hope this helps. if you can find one, i highly recommend looking for a skidpad in your area & trying wet / dry car control. you will learn a lot.

[Quickurt]

Are those great explanations why they call you "insite?" Well done, I really wish we had a clapping hands emoticon.
As far as the rain goes, let me explain something. I LOVED to race. I LIVED to race.
As a matter of fact, the line in LeMans where Steve McQueen says "Racing is living, everything else is just waiting" was the motto I lived by.
UNLESS IT WAS RAINING!
1- I was paying ALL the bills
2- I was not being paid to race
3- racing in the rain was NOT fun
4- racing in the rain magnified ANY mistake by about 1 million
5- racing in the rain was NOT fun
Did I mention racing in the rain was NOT fun?
There is one steadfast rule of driving. If it is raining, SLOW DOWN and pay twice as much attention to other drivers as you normally do.

[Frodo]

Back in the mid-1970's I was drivng from Virginia (where I was going to school) down to Florida with a couple of friends. We were in a 1973 Vega, what I was driving in those days. (Fortunately, although it wasn't a very exciting car, I did manage to get one of the ones that never had the mechanical problems that many of them did.)

Anyway, we were on 95 South zippin' along at a pretty good pace. Don't even remember what state we were in, though I suspect it was one of the Carolinas. Then it started to rain. Pretty darn hard. Stupidly, I didn't slow down at all, at least initially. I had no probems personally, but before long I saw another Vega, headed northbound, that I'm pretty sure was the same model and year as the one we were in. I suspect he too failed to adjust his driving technique with the sudden change of weather, probably moving at a similar speed to us.

What caught my attention was the fact that he was doing a 360 (actually probably more like a 720, or possibly worse) in the (fortunately quite wide) grass-covered median area between the highways. It was a sight I'll never forget---they were shooting up a rooster tail of mud and grass that we could see from a quarter mile away. Fortuanately for them, the car came to a stop without colliding with anything more formidable than soaked turf. I could actually see the driver after coming to a stop as we drove by; his eyes seemed as big as saucers and I'm pretty sure his fingernails were embedded into the steering wheel.

I slowed down considerably, and still do when it rains. I absolutely cannot imagine racing in rainy conditions. To me, it borders on insanity. (But maybe that's just me. )

I'm currently taking up a month course of driving and i feel glad to read this thread.I learn lot from your pointers and experience shared by different situations that i will possibly encounter in the future.

[Mike_Yi]

I've learned one thing above all else from driving on the track. It's this:

NEVER drive your daily driver on the track, unless you have another mode of transport available.

[ChefCarnivore]

Did you say that the outside mirrors can be removed just by pulling them out of a socket? My drivers side mirror vibrates too much so I was hoping to find out why.