More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Ross Bentley
Started reading
August 24, 2017
the Line.
exit phase.
entry phase.
midcorner phase.
Turn-in
Corner Entry
Midcorner
Some corners do not have a midcorner phase,
Corner Exit
Trail Braking
Trail braking begins as soon as approach braking ends, at the turn-in point.
Off-Throttle
In reality, it is sometimes necessary. There are some cars that reward a short period of coasting prior to beginning to accelerate out of the corner (but this is an exception to the rule).
Maintenance Throttle
Acceleration
If you are consistently smooth, tidy, and never making mistakes, your average is most likely slightly below the limit
In the beginning the difference between over and under is quite large. With experience, the difference becomes quite small.
The truly fast race driver is one who is over the limit at times. He’s a bit wild at times. He hangs it out there. He’s aggressive. He makes mistakes every now and then, but is confident enough in himself
to know that, on average, he’s driving at the limit
he will smooth out, get more consistent, and make fewer mistakes. He will rarely get faster, just more consistent.
Start out a little wild, fast, and mistake-prone, add some experience and maturity, and you’ve got the perfect driver.
Start out with a driver who is smooth, tidy, and mistake-free, add in some experience and maturity, and you’ve got a driver who is conservative, a driver who is a little bit slow, and one who will not win unless the race is given to him.
you can average driving the car at the limit—being over, under, over, under, over—you just need to do this more often. The only reason it doesn’t happen all the time is because your mental image is not of that.
At the end of the straightaway, the transition from throttle to braking should be immediate.
If you exceed the limit for threshold braking and begin to lock up, ease up slightly on the pedal; think of curling your toes back and feel for the tires to begin rotating at the limit of traction again.
as you reach the corner, release it gently as your foot goes to the throttle, so that you don’t actually feel the point at which they are fully released.
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.
Wait to the last possible moment, then hit the brake pedal as hard and fast as you can, and hold it down, letting the system do the work for you. Of course, if you’re not used to that style of braking, it will take a little practice. That’s how you apply the brakes with ABS.
But how you release them is no different than from non-ABS brakes.
Trail braking helps “rotate” the car while entering a corner.
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.
As you know, when you brake to slow the car when approaching a corner, the front of the car dives. Weight has transferred onto the front tires. This dive causes the front springs to compress. When you lift your foot off the brake pedal, the springs expand, popping the front of the car up. Weight is transferring away from the front toward the rear. If you lift your foot off the brake pedal too quickly or abruptly right at the point where you begin to turn the steering into the corner, the front will become unweighted, probably causing it to understeer.
If you tried to carry that same speed into the corner by coming off the brakes quickly and immediately, the front would become unloaded and the car would most likely understeer
If you ease off the brake pedal too slowly you will be turning into the corner with too much weight transferred onto the front tires. This may cause the car to oversteer as you turn in. Or it may cause it to understeer by overloading the front tires.
braking as late and hard as possible (at the tires’ limit) would be ideal. That it’s what you should do for each and every corner. But that’s not necessarily true.
There are corners that are best approached with the car not standing on its nose.
If your car tends to understeer entering a corner, try trail braking more or less to see if either loading the front tires more or less helps.
A common error some drivers make is braking too early.
The problem is that often this is prior to the turn-in point. So just before turning in, you come off the brakes, unloading the front of the car. As you turn in, the car will not respond the way you would like, either understeering or just feeling unresponsive.
Even 5 or 10 feet can cause a huge problem.
If you begin to release the brake pedal prior to initiating your turn-in, you probably began braking too early.
Truly fast drivers know that they steer the car with their feet as much, and maybe more, than they do with the steering wheel.
steering wheel becomes a brake. (Every time you turn it, it scrubs off speed.)
Of course, what you need to do if you want to be fast is control the amount of understeer and oversteer to your advantage, using it to make the car rotate more or less,
Obviously, your car’s setup plays a role in how much and how quickly it rotates at any one place on the track, but so does how you manage its weight balance.
The less you turn the steering wheel, the more the front tires are pointing straight ahead, and when that’s the case, they are scrubbing off less speed.
when driving at the limit, the steering wheel becomes more of a brake.
using the feet to balance the car, while turning the steering wheel as little as possible.
If you drive slow enough, you will be able to reduce the amount of steering angle significantly.
slow down your steering inputs, but without slowing down your corner entry, midcorner, and exit speeds.
