{"id":40478,"date":"2022-04-05T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=40478"},"modified":"2024-03-23T08:14:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T15:14:28","slug":"q-how-do-i-know-if-im-driving-at-my-limit-or-the-limit-of-the-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-how-do-i-know-if-im-driving-at-my-limit-or-the-limit-of-the-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: How do I know if I\u2019m driving at my limit, or the limit of the car?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Q<\/strong>: \u201cI seem to be pushing the limits NOT OF THE CAR, but my driving abilities lately as I try to improve my lap times. I have been improving my personal best times, but with less differential as I progress.\u00a0I feel as I am pushing harder for that tenth of a second because I am stuck where I am driving-wise. I don\u2019t feel as smooth and seem to be taking bigger risks.\u00a0You mentioned in a chalktalk that if you saw a driver\u2019s hands steady and smooth, he probably wasn\u2019t at the limit because he wasn\u2019t adjusting. I have been working on a hard initial brake at BoB (Begin-of-Braking) and smooth release to EoB (End-of-Braking). I am comfortable with sliding the car, but I find sometimes I am punishing the front tires trail braking hard into corner and weight is on front left in a right-hand turn. So where do I go from here to improve and not be frustrated with my driving? My lap times have improved with later, harder braking and carrying more speed through the corners.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/strong>: The first thing that came to mind when you asked about how to improve, along with the thought of \u201cpunishing the front tires,\u201d is this: it sounds like you might be simply asking too much of them, and that\u2019s the weak link in the chain right now \u2013 that\u2019s what\u2019s holding you back from going to the next level.<\/p>\n

When you enter these corners, what is it that makes you feel as if you\u2019re punishing the front tires? Is it some understeer? If so, what are you doing with the steering at that instant?<\/p>\n

Many drivers, when experiencing understeer, keep the same amount of steering input in, or even add more \u2013 they turn the wheel a little more. After all, the car is not turning as much as you want, so it\u2019s human nature to turn the wheel more in the attempt to make the car change direction more. But that does punish the front tires, and only makes the problem worse. Instead, you should straighten the steering wheel a tiny bit \u2013 just enough for the front tires to regain grip. If you hold the steering wheel at the same angle, you\u2019re going to scrub the front tires, scrubbing off speed, and beating up on the tires (so the next corner will be even worse).<\/p>\n

Be aware of your steering angle. As an exercise, think about every angle of steering you put in over the course of a single lap. Imagine adding up all those angles, in both directions (but not subtracting when you unwind\/straighten the wheel or turn the opposite direction). Let\u2019s say that you turned the steering wheel a total of 750 degrees over the course of one lap. Next time you go on track, aim to turn the wheel only 700 degrees; then, 675 for the following session. The idea is to keep the steering wheel pointing straight ahead more often. If you can do that, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll be faster.<\/p>\n

Your point about driving to your own personal limits, but not the car\u2019s is an interesting one. The question becomes, \u201cHow do you know if you\u2019re at your limit, or the car\u2019s?\u201d I believe a driver must be able to over-drive a car before they can consistently drive it at its limit, so that might be one way of determining whether it\u2019s the car\u2019s or driver\u2019s limit. If you can over-drive a car \u2013 meaning that you can fairly consistently drive it beyond its limit, to the point where that\u2019s actually slower than if you eased off a tiny bit (in which case you\u2019d go faster). If, every time you push to get a little more out of the car, it takes it and you go faster, then you\u2019re not driving to the car\u2019s limit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: \u201cI seem to be pushing the limits NOT OF THE CAR, but my driving abilities lately as I try to improve my lap times. Where do I go from here to improve and not be frustrated with my driving? My lap times have improved with later, harder braking and carrying more speed through the corners.\u201d<\/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-40478","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\/40478","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=40478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40506,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40478\/revisions\/40506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}