{"id":32201,"date":"2020-08-10T03:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=32201"},"modified":"2020-07-23T19:54:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T02:54:13","slug":"q-can-you-explain-how-the-timing-and-rate-of-brake-release-helps-me-drive-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-can-you-explain-how-the-timing-and-rate-of-brake-release-helps-me-drive-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: Can you explain how the timing and rate of brake release helps me drive faster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: \u201c<\/em>A friend shares his old Road & Track magazines with me and I really enjoyed your Oct 2019 article. It initially caught my eye with the tartan on the helmet of my life-long hero Jackie. It grabbed me further in covering another hero, Mario. And finally, something I\u2019ve been thinking about a lot over the past few years, which is your main point (that you\u2019ve made before) about brakes being useful for way more than slowing down, and especially rotating the car.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something that doesn\u2019t make sense to me about this with what I\u2019ve read or heard from you though. I\u2019m not sure if this just hasn\u2019t \u201cclicked\u201d for me yet on the track, or maybe I\u2019ve been doing it all along and am expecting more. Sorting that out will take more coaching at the track, but meanwhile, there is a teaching point I\u2019d like to ask you about.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy challenge is understanding the emphasis on\u00a0release<\/strong>\u00a0when describing rotating the car. Specifically, is there something about the actual\u00a0rate<\/strong>\u00a0of release beyond, (1) not over-slowing, and (2) keeping some weight on the fronts to steer in the corner? Also, isn\u2019t this \u201ctrail braking\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking because I have experienced rotation in some corners with my 911 race car with an abrupt brake release while steering in the corner; this won\u2019t happen with a usual more gradual release. It makes no sense to me, but somewhere I read that releasing the brakes, which were \u201cholding the chassis back\u201d, can cause the car to \u201cspring forward\u201d and decreases rear grip to rotate the car. Is that possible? This isn\u2019t what you\u2019re talking about Jackie, Mario and Colin doing, though, I assume?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: Yes, the rate of release is used to manage corner entry speed and load on the front of the car. If the brake release is too quick, it unloads the front and that might lead to understeer. If the release is too slow it can over-slow the car, and possibly overload the front tires. The best drivers use the rate of release to manage speed and load on the front tires.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Abruptly releasing the brakes, from a vehicle dynamics perspective cannot help the car rotate. In fact, by quickly unloading the front tires, it\u2019s most likely going to cause understeer. And I\u2019ve heard all sorts of reasoning for how it might help rotate a car (most of which I don\u2019t buy into). The only way to explain why popping your foot off the brakes might make the car rotate is that if you\u2019re using up all the front tires\u2019 grip for braking, then begin to turn in, you\u2019re asking too much of the front tires and they may begin to slide – understeer. If you then quickly release the brakes, you\u2019re giving some grip back to the front tires to turn the car.<\/p>\n

For sure, Mario, Jackie and Colin did\/do not abruptly release the brakes.<\/p>\n

I talked about this in a video on my YouTube channel a few years ago. Watch The Key to Being a Fast Track Driver: How You Release the Brakes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve mentioned how brakes are useful for more than slowing down, and can be useful for rotating the car and helping me drive faster. Is there something about the actual rate of release beyond, (1) not over-slowing, and (2) keeping some weight on the fronts to steer in the corner? Also, isn\u2019t this \u201ctrail braking\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32358,"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-32201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-ross"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32201","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=32201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32202,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32201\/revisions\/32202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}