{"id":45795,"date":"2024-02-05T03:48:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T11:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/?p=45795"},"modified":"2024-12-05T14:52:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T22:52:22","slug":"q-what-contributes-to-a-driver-having-confidence-in-a-car-and-what-can-i-do-to-feel-better-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/q-what-contributes-to-a-driver-having-confidence-in-a-car-and-what-can-i-do-to-feel-better-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Q: What contributes to a driver having confidence in a car, and what can I do to feel better about it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/strong>: \u201c<\/em>I have a new-to-me BMW M2C as a track car and am trying to get the suspension dialed in. I am running 3-way MCS shocks, and I am using the settings that Bimmerworld recommends. Also using spring rates of 900\/800 F\/R based on tire wear, almost no rear anti-roll bar and a good deal of bar in the front. My BIG problem is that I am just lacking confidence in the car. I am coming from a Porsche GT3 with a full Porsche Motorsports suspension \u2013 some RSR, some Grand-AM, some Cup. That car was 10-15 seconds faster than the BMW. Prior to that I had a Subaru STi with a good suspension. That car was great, I could do anything and just not be surprised. The BMW is just not making me confident. I have done ~18 days this year in the BMW, and some last year. I guess if I needed to characterize the car’s behavior, I would say it is a bit \u2018numb,\u2019 and not ‘tight’. My question is: What contributes to confidence in a car?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"A<\/strong>: What contributes to confidence in a car? Hmmm\u2026 that\u2019s a big topic! Let me see if I can give you a few thoughts here.<\/p>\n

Simply, the car doing what you expect it to do. That\u2019s what contributes to confidence. If you brake, turn, or apply the throttle, and your car does something that you didn\u2019t expect \u2013 or it\u00a0didn\u2019t do as much of what you expected \u2013 you don\u2019t trust it, and lack confidence in it.<\/p>\n

This is why it\u2019s more important for your car to be balanced than it is to even have more grip or performance. In other words, if you make a change to your car\u2019s setup, and it gains, let\u2019s say, more front grip, then it\u2019s going to oversteer now. Even though it has more grip, it\u2019s not as well balanced. What you expect is balance, to do what you want, and that\u2019s what gives you confidence. And that\u2019s why adding more grip doesn\u2019t always lead to faster lap times \u2013 because the car is doing things you\u2019re not expecting, or don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n

I doubt your BMW does anything \u201cevil,\u201d though. I doubt it\u2019s doing too much of what you\u2019re not expecting, as I know it\u2019s a very good car. It is a heavier car, though, so it may be that you\u2019re expecting it to be as responsive as your GT3 or STi. You may expect to be able to flick it from one direction to another, but because the very nature of the car is that it\u2019s heavier, it takes a tiny bit longer to respond to your inputs. And that leads to less trust or confidence in it. Maybe.<\/p>\n

How can you develop more confidence in your car? Sure, more seat time is going to lead to you being able to predict what it\u2019s going to do, and that\u2019ll help. But, as you know, seat time is expensive, so anything you can do to speed up this process is a good thing, right?<\/p>\n

First, I\u2019d stay away from making many \u2013 or any \u2013 changes to your car\u2019s suspension or setup. You want consistency from your car.<\/p>\n

Then, I would use the \u201cdriving drill\u201d I call Sensory Input Sessions. In order to not just repeat myself, go to the How can I get better at sensing my car\u2019s limits?<\/a> post.<\/p>\n

Finally, I recommend experimenting in a smart way. By that, I mean deliberately making the car do things that you would normally not want it to do, such as entering a corner a little too fast, trail braking longer into a corner, applying the throttle sooner than ever, and even be a little abrupt with your steering. I want to emphasize that I said to be smart about this, and not go crazy, throwing your car off the track! In fact, pick the safest corners to do this in. The objective is to over-drive your car, and learn what it\u2019s going to do in response. You may find out that it\u2019s not going to do anything terrible, and even that it has more performance in it than you currently think.<\/p>\n

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Q: \u201cI have a new-to-me BMW M2C as a track car and am trying to get the suspension dialed in. I am running 3-way MCS shocks, and I am using the settings that Bimmerworld recommends. Also using spring rates of 900\/800 F\/R based on tire wear, almost no rear anti-roll bar and a good deal […]<\/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":[57,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-ross","category-driving-tips"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45795","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=45795"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107862,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45795\/revisions\/107862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedsecrets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}