Having fun at Homestead...

[Shosholoza]

Last weekend at a Chin Motorsports HDPE day...

[OC3]

Smooth

[CanAutM3]

Cool!!

Can't wait for the season to start

[klammer]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

Cool!!

Can't wait for the season to start

+1

[Bubbles]

I see the pads worked for you. Nice driving.

[SoTempted]

You make that look easy! Damn, I need to learn how to properly handle my car one of these days!

[Shosholoza]

Originally Posted by Bubbles

I see the pads worked for you. Nice driving.

Yeah they worked perfectly! Thanks

[IN54NITY]

Nice driving! Your steering input is smooth and slow (resulting in being fast on the "outside"). You even naturally turn more when you're going through the slowest part of the turn - and that's what you want. Two things though I will humbly point out: You have a tendency to put your hands at 10 and 2, and you frequently don't wrap your thumbs around the steering wheel. If you ever go wheel to wheel racing... and you don't have your thumbs "wrapped", you could lose control of the steering wheel if you get bumped hard enough and that could be all the difference when fractions of a second count. Again, great driving, that was a fun video to watch.

[Shosholoza]

Originally Posted by aleckzandr

Nice driving! Your steering input is smooth and slow (resulting in being fast on the "outside"). You even naturally turn more when you're going through the slowest part of the turn - and that's what you want. Two things though I will humbly point out: You have a tendency to put your hands at 10 and 2, and you frequently don't wrap your thumbs around the steering wheel. If you ever go wheel to wheel racing... and you don't have your thumbs "wrapped", you could lose control of the steering wheel if you get bumped hard enough and that could be all the difference when fractions of a second count. Again, great driving, that was a fun video to watch.

Thanks for your observations.
Regarding the thumbs - you learn something new every day! I did a lot of off-road driving and instructing in South Africa, and when you're off-road the rule is "thumbs out". This is because if you hit an unexpected obstacle the steering wheel could spin and potentially break your thumbs if they are wrapped.
Last year my son was instructing at Sebring, his student made a serious error on turn 16 and hit the inside wall. His thumbs were wrapped and he ended up with a dislocated thumb, and a bad cut between thumb and forefinger from the steering wheel spinning! Same as off-road.
So I'm still undecided there...

Should I speed up my steering input a little?

[IN54NITY]

Originally Posted by Shosholoza

Thanks for your observations.
Regarding the thumbs - you learn something new every day! I did a lot of off-road driving and instructing in South Africa, and when you're off-road the rule is "thumbs out". This is because if you hit an unexpected obstacle the steering wheel could spin and potentially break your thumbs if they are wrapped.
Last year my son was instructing at Sebring, his student made a serious error on turn 16 and hit the inside wall. His thumbs were wrapped and he ended up with a dislocated thumb, and a bad cut between thumb and forefinger from the steering wheel spinning! Same as off-road.
So I'm still undecided there...

Should I speed up my steering input a little?

Good to know about the off-road rule! I myself will keep the thumbs "in" at the track (wrapped, curled, whatever, just lightly so) - it's what I was taught. Maybe I'll pull the hands off the wheel before I ever (God forbid) hit a wall... Both feet are (probably) "in" anyways...

As for the other, no way! Keep your hands as is! Slow inputs are going to help you keep the wheels at high slip angles - read: high grip - and the corrections need to be only very small. http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets22.html Look at the graph titled "Typical Slip Angle / Cornering Force Curve". Note at the top of the graph the curve itself is pretty flat, it's only on the front side or back side that the curve is steep. Fast hands are only necessary if you ~absolutely know~ you have turned too much one way or the other and you need to correct right now to prevent yourself from losing any more grip (if it's not too late already - go too far and a spin will happen anyways - time to put both feet in) but at the top of that graph, "slow hands" are best in order to judge how to get that last bit of extra grip. "Fast hands" will only cause us mere mortal drivers to fall off the graph so to speak, e.g., lower grip.