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Race
Driving Fundamentals Chapter 9 Straights Good straight away skills begin when you are applying the gas when exiting a corner. As stated earlier, good lap times are a result of making time on straights. At over a hundred miles per hour you gobble up distances in a big way. I will be talking in terms of straights, being the moment that you accelerate out of a corner, proceed down the physically straight part of the racecourse, and all the way into the next corner, to the point you have finished your braking and have the car “set” to proceed through the next corner. We will begin with exiting the corner. Practice on a corner that leads into a straight. (By now your collection of corners should be vast) You have taken an early apex because this gives space in the corner to position the car for the most parallel line up with the straight. Notice how much more parallel the car is to the straight with the early apex. With your superior vision you have developed in past chapters pin point some object the moment you start to apply gas. Also make a mental note of how much of the gas pedal to use. Use the measurements of ¼ pedal, ½ pedal, ¾ pedal and full pedal to the floorboard. Next as you apply the gas more note at what point through the corner has the full pedal been applied. These are your acceleration points. Next go through the same corner again. This time move the acceleration points closer to the apex. We are talking precision here. How does the car respond to this? If it does not respond with more tire wheel spin or loss of control then you can keep moving the acceleration points closer to the apex. The way we find the limit is by exceeding it. When figuring the correct corner exit acceleration points take into account how much the car gets out of shape and how much rear wheel spin is developed. Next pick out an exit RPM point. This is a point where you are under full acceleration and everything is stabilized and you are not shifting. This point must be as early into the straight as possible. At this point note the RPM. Let us say that it is at 2400 RPM. Mark this in your log book. This is your “base” number to work from. This will tell you if you are exiting the corner better or worse from your “base line number”. Every gain in RPM here will translate into a higher top speed at your same braking point at the end of the straight. The sooner we are traveling down the straight the higher the speed we go, the more air it is that gets under the car to upset it. Even with front air dams and spoilers, cars handling characteristics become much more sensitive to air flow and inputs from the driver. The more air under the front of the car causes the weight to be reduced and the tires contact with the road is reduced. The feeling is unnerving and takes a difficult feel when making abrupt passes of other slower cars. Practice this high speed sensitively by increasing the front tire pressure to a point where you feel the car being sensitive to your inputs and airflow. You do not have to exceed the speed limit to encounter this. As stated earlier, for our purpose the straight extends into the corner at the end of the straight. When the corner is followed by another we take a late apex because the position of the car on he exit of the corner is just as critical for lower lap times. The thing to remember is that every corner is a compromise in some way. As discussed in chapter #7, picking out a braking point at the end of the straight is critical. Next find two corners separated by a very short straight away. It can be as short as one hundred feet long. You are not looking for high speed for practicing. Think of yourself with you car as a gymnast. You are practicing small elements of a long complicated routine. Once you have entered the straight pick out a braking marker before entering the corner. (refer to chapter 7 for more details.) The moment you reach that point, make a mental note of what your RPM is. Write this in your logbook as a baseline number. We use it in the same way as exiting a corner. A higher number indicates improvement on your straight away speed as well. Practice these two corners and straights until you see your exit RPM and entering RPM improve.
The final part as we stated was when we get the car back on the gas and proceed
through the corner. Refer to chapter 9 on braking, downshifting and “settling”
the car to proceed through the corner. With thorough practice as outlined in this chapter
your ability to handle the car will be greatly improved. Most of all you will have a clear
and simple way to measure your improvements, i.e.; RPM exiting and entering corners
connected by a straight. Chapter 10 - Early Apex
Motor Meister Inc. 12262 Woodruff Avenue Downey, California 90241 Motor Meister is not
affiliated with Porsche Cars North America or Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG. |
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