Ultimate Speed Secrets: The Complete Guide to High-Performance and Race Driving
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SPEED SECRET The less you do with the controls, the less chance for error.
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Your right foot should always be either on the throttle (even if it’s a light, steady throttle) or the brakes. Don’t waste time doing nothing, with your foot in between the two. You should never be coasting.
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Look and think farther ahead, planning your path or line through a corner, so that you will be able to turn the steering as little as possible, straightening the corner out as much as possible.
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Make sure you always complete your downshifts before you turn into a corner.
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So your goal then is to drive in such a way as to keep the weight of the car as equally distributed over all four tires as possible. In other words, balance the car. How? By driving smoothly.
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Learn how to overlap the braking, cornering, and acceleration, and you will drive the limit.
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It should be a hard but smooth initial application of the brakes, maintain the pressure throughout the brake zone, and then gradually release the pressure toward the end.
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As a general rule, the slower and tighter the turn, the more you will use trail braking to help you rotate the car; the faster and more sweeping the turn, the less you will use trail braking.
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Determining whether or not you had the correct apex is simple. If you come out of the corner having to turn more to keep from running off the road, then you had too early an apex. If you chose too late an apex, the car will not be using the entire road on the exit. It will still be too close to the inside of the corner.
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The most important corner is the fastest one leading onto a straightaway.
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The faster and longer the corner, the less trail braking you should use and the earlier you need to be on the power; the slower and tighter the corner, the more trail braking you should use to help rotate the car.
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Focus your eyes where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go or where you are.
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In fact, this is the key to driving the ideal line. If you want the car to follow a particular line through a corner, then that’s where your eyes should be focused. If you don’t want the car to go somewhere, like toward a cement wall on the outside of the track, then don’t focus there.
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That is why it is important to start off slowly when learning a new track or car, gradually building up your speed. It allows the conscious mind to keep up to the speed of the car, while it programs your subconscious.
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Your emotional or mental state of mind must be controlled if you want to be successful. If you are excited, nervous, depressed, stressed, distracted, angry, or whatever, you may not be mentally effective. Your decision making will be slowed; your mind will not be focused. You don’t need to be psyched-up. You need to be calm, relaxed, and focused.
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If you believe you can’t, you can’t. If you believe you can, you can.
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Focus on your own performance rather than on the competition.
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You must feel completely comfortable and confident with the sense of speed just slightly beyond the limit. One of the best ways of doing that, although not always practical, is to drive a car that is faster than the one you race. You then become so accustomed to a higher speed that when you return to the speed of your race car, it feels slow.
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Turn everything you can into a positive. For example, just saying you love racing in the rain over and over again will make you a better driver in the rain.
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Every time you leave the pit lane, whether on a private test day, practice session, or qualifying, drive like you mean business. Accelerate hard out of the pits and get up to speed as quickly as possible. Push as hard as possible right away. Be intense (but not tense!).
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Bobby Rahal was once quoted as saying that it takes 10 percent talent and 90 percent perseverance to make it in racing. I agree.
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If you ever feel like the car is great—it’s well balanced, not excessively understeering or oversteering—then maybe you just need to push the limit a bit more.
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you need to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
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The best drivers love any condition or situation. It’s as if they get better when the conditions are worse. The tougher and more demanding they are, the more at home they are. You want to be comfortable being uncomfortable, with the car dancing on that ragged edge.
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The more you learn, the better you get; the better you get, the more you win. Focus on learning, and you’ll win more often.
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Practice doesn’t make perfect; only perfect practice makes perfect.
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Never turn down an opportunity to pass; you may never get it again.
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The better the information your senses provide to your brain, the more sensitive you’ll be to what the car is doing and what it needs.
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An important piece of business advice was once given to me. It went like this, 7 out of 10 problems in business are: 1. People 2. People 3. People 4. People 5. People 6. People 7. People In other words, the biggest challenge in building and running a successful business is the people involved. (If you’re wondering what the other three are, it doesn’t matter. If you select and manage your people well, everything else is easy!)
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Look for a smooth, seamless overlap of braking and throttle, in both directions: from throttle to brake and brake to throttle. If there is any gap between the two, you’re wasting time.
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Buy the best safety equipment you can.
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Don’t set expectations. Focus on the possibilities and your potential.
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It’s not how much talent you’re born with that’s going to make the difference; it’s what you do with that talent. To do anything with your talent, you need to begin with an open or growth-oriented mindset, one that is constantly looking for ways to improve. It’s a mindset of wanting to work harder at becoming better than anyone else. It’s an understanding that it’s through effort that any amount of talent you currently have will turn into something special. It’s knowing that, no matter how easy it’s been to be successful so far, you now need to work harder than anyone else to get to the very ...more
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Learn how to learn and you will never stop improving.