{"id":25105,"date":"2019-09-30T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=25105"},"modified":"2019-09-29T16:10:33","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T23:10:33","slug":"q-how-do-i-know-if-its-me-or-the-car-thats-causing-a-handling-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-how-do-i-know-if-its-me-or-the-car-thats-causing-a-handling-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: How do I know if it\u2019s me or the car that\u2019s causing a handling problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: I drive a 2017 Mazda MX-5 for fun on track, no competition, just always trying to learn and improve. When driving into one or more corners and the car understeers, how do I know when it is me entering too fast versus when the car setup can be improved? I don\u2019t have access to a skidpad. I know I could go slower into the corner or adjust the line a bit, and 9 times out of 10 it\u2019s probably me that is the problem. But how do you know when understeer is a setup issue?<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: First, I recommend a process of debriefing with yourself after each session. It\u2019s a series of questions you ask, and make note of your answers. If you go through this questioning process every time, your brain will begin to expect it, and then it will pick up the information you need while driving to answer them.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself these questions, in this order:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is the car doing? Understeer, oversteer, or neutral (if it\u2019s neutral, perhaps you\u2019re not driving it to its limits)?<\/li>\n
  2. In what corner(s) is the car doing this?<\/li>\n
  3. Where in the corner is it doing it \u2013 entry, mid-corner, exit?<\/li>\n
  4. What am I doing when it does this \u2013 braking, releasing the brakes (slowly or quickly), just starting to turn the steering wheel, turned in to the corner, unwinding the steering, not on throttle, maintenance throttle, easing on the throttle, flat to the floor on the throttle?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Once you\u2019ve asked yourself all these questions and really dug down into what the car is doing, where, and what you\u2019re doing when it\u2019s happening, it becomes more obvious whether it\u2019s you that\u2019s causing the problem, or it\u2019s the car\u2019s setup. I\u2019m saying it will be completely obvious \u2013 although it might be \u2013 but it will be more obvious. And now is when you ask yourself, \u201cIs it me or the car? Am I causing it, or is it the car?\u201d<\/p>\n

    Now, the more you go through this process, the better you\u2019ll get at it. Eventually you\u2019ll be able to do this while driving. I don\u2019t know of any driver who was born knowing how to do this \u2013 it\u2019s a developed skill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Q: I drive a 2017 Mazda MX-5 for fun on track, no competition, just always trying to learn and improve. When driving into one or more corners and the car understeers, how do I know when it is me entering too fast versus when the car setup can be improved? I don\u2019t have access to a skidpad. I know I could go slower into the corner or adjust the line a bit, and 9 times out of 10 it\u2019s probably me that is the problem. But how do you know when understeer is a setup issue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25110,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25105\/revisions\/25110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}