Drove up to Willow Springs this morning for an open practice/test day. This means that only race prepped cars/drivers are allowed on the track in an open format - meaning that you can drive whenever you want and as much as you want thru the day. I did four 20-min sessions in the morning and headed back home just as the temp was cresting 100F.
The goals - get back on the horse that spit me off into the dirt in May; work on a few corners where I'm giving up a lot of time; and test the car to make sure that everything is running well before I head up to race at Laguna Seca in two weeks.
Everything went great and the car ran beautifully in the heat - no problems whatsoever.
In the first two sessions, I slowly built up to qualifying times. Then in the 3rd session, I underestimated how slick the tires would get once the weather heated up and found myself in a big power slide on entry into Turn 2 at a bit over 100mph.
The video shows how easy it is to slide a Boxster - they rotate very quickly because of the mid-engine layout and so your hands need to be fast but smooth to catch the car. If your hands are slow, it will come all the way around. Just remember, quick-smooth, not lazy-smooth.
Ready for Laguna Seca.
__________________
1999 996 C2 - sold - bought back - sold for more
1997 Spec Boxster BSR #254
1979 911 SC
POC Licensed DE/TT Instructor
Drove up to Willow Springs this morning for an open practice/test day. This means that only race prepped cars/drivers are allowed on the track in an open format - meaning that you can drive whenever you want and as much as you want thru the day. I did four 20-min sessions in the morning and headed back home just as the temp was cresting 100F.
The goals - get back on the horse that spit me off into the dirt in May; work on a few corners where I'm giving up a lot of time; and test the car to make sure that everything is running well before I head up to race at Laguna Seca in two weeks.
Everything went great and the car ran beautifully in the heat - no problems whatsoever.
In the first two sessions, I slowly built up to qualifying times. Then in the 3rd session, I underestimated how slick the tires would get once the weather heated up and found myself in a big power slide on entry into Turn 2 at a bit over 100mph.
The video shows how easy it is to slide a Boxster - they rotate very quickly because of the mid-engine layout and so your hands need to be fast but smooth to catch the car. If your hands are slow, it will come all the way around. Just remember, quick-smooth, not lazy-smooth.
Thanks. They don't all turn out that way, but its nice when they do!
You can see that I tend to shuffle steer by sliding my hands along the steering wheel rather than keeping my hands in one location and crossing my hands/arms over each other (although they do cross over when I have to move really fast). Shuffle steering isn't the preferred driving technique for a long list of reasons but it is what I was taught when I started performance driving and it seems to work for me so I haven't focused on changing it. This might be a case of don't necessarily do what I do; but I will also say that you need to find your own driving style that works best for you and not just blindly follow what the "experts" say.
But it was all instinct - I never "thought" about what to do, just did it automatically. For me, I don't think its necessarily talent - just lots of seat time. And while I'm no where near the 10,000 hours of practice that is supposedly required to become expert at something, concentrated practice of a skill definitely helps one to improve.
So maybe all I need is another 9,800 hours of track time and I'll be racing at Le Mans.
__________________
1999 996 C2 - sold - bought back - sold for more
1997 Spec Boxster BSR #254
1979 911 SC
POC Licensed DE/TT Instructor
Hybrid Mode
