Post #61
Somebody once explained tyre grip to me like this. If you brake or accelerate in a straight line and are working the tyre so hard that it is using or near using all of its grip (100%) to maintain traction and you do something else that requires grip such as turning then you need more grip, as the tyre can only provide 100% then something has to give, assuming you don't lift off the throttle or lessen the steering angle the result is the same, slip or understeer. So I found that one way of making smooth progress is to meter out the inputs smoothly this enables tyres (which react badly to violent inputs) to load up and grip before you start asking them to perform. For instance, when approaching a heavy braking zone such as a hairpin at the end of a long straight I find an effective method is to apply the brakes smoothly with relatively little initial pressure but quickly ramping it up to the maximum you feel can apply without locking up (you can feel the front of the car dive, the tyres loading up and the rear going a bit floaty is all indication that you are slowing the car as fast as grip allows) what happens next is critical to avoid generating understeer that once initiated will stay with you right through to corner exit and is all about weight transfer. As you reach the point where braking ends and cornering begins you are going to ask the tyres to change function, so for every bit of steering you want done, they need to do less braking. So smoothly release the brake while simultaneously making your steering input, this will help to control destabilising weight transfer helping your tyres stay flatter on the Tarmac and maintaining more grip. If you make the turn in quick enough whilst trailing the brakes to the apex you should be able to get more turning of the car done before you reach it giving you a straighter run at the exit (I'm assuming a constant radius 180 hairpin here, different corners need different approaches but the gist is valid)
From the apex you can apply the same principles to the exit as you did to the entry only in reverse, obviously the goal is to achieve the highest possible exit speed as this will pay dividends all the way down the next straight. This is achievable by getting the front wheels straight and therefore able to give you maximum traction to propel the car forwards as early as you possibly can, to that end, once you've spotted your exit then start feeding in the power while at the same time reducing the steering lock, this should keep the car stable, prevent it running wide and help to control wheelspin on exit. Barreling into a corner way too fast, carrying too much mid corner speed is the perfect recipe for understeer, you miss the apex despite all the steering lock you can throw at the corner, this is usually followed by lighting up the front tyres and continuing the understeer in a untidy wide arc all the way off the road at the exit of the bend, and we've all witnessed this cornering style at trackdays. Get the car slowed down to the point where it can turn in without sliding and the hard part is done. Slow in fast out.
The above approach works for me and won't be for everyone, it's s generalisation and is way too over simplistic to cover the different ways to tackle track driving as the variables from driver to driver and car to car are infinite. But at its core is smoothness, and if you work on being smooth on track first, going fast comes along as a handy byproduct.
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24seven
Posted 1st Oct 2012 at 17:19
