Car Control-How is it taught?

[fasthonda]

bobt993 wrote:

FYI, driving in the rain is a challenge for club racers also. This is a field of almost 70 cars including a lot of faster cars/classes than my car. It starts raining right at the start and all of us are on slicks, one guy way in the back is on rain tires. The guys up front are some of the best club racers in PCA. I started 14th and moved to 1st in 3 laps because of my comfort in the rain. These drivers are very fast in the dry, but if you are just a little hesitant, you cannot drive close to 10/10th in the rain.

http://bobt993.neptune.com?selectedalbum=bobt993368020

awesome drive, bob! notice how bob is CRUSHING the other drivers in the braking zones -- this is the real definition of 'threshold braking'; he has a great feel (from lots of practice and experience) of what the car feels like when it is just on the edge of adhesion -- if you watch carefully, bob is gaining sometimes 5+ carlengths at each brake zone!!! thats how you move up thru the field so quickly; he is decimating them when it comes to applying the brakes! also note that many times he is 'geared up'; i do this very frequently in the rain or slick conditions; i run the car 'one gear up' from its usual dry track condition gear... for example, i'll leave it in 4th, instead of using 3rd, so that laying down the power is smoother, and easier to control (plus, less shifting to do in those conditions!).

that drive at the glen was a really good teaching tool to view -- you also got to see how the pavement changes affected the car (going from asphalt to concrete and back again), and you could see that when he drove it all the way out to the painted curbs that it really slipped a few times on that paint! excellent vid! bob, you sliced 'em up like a shark in a tank of goldfish!

todd