How To Brake?

[csmarx]

Originally Posted by Skypalace

I also do a visualization exercise - think of a string tied between your toe and the steering wheel. When you're on full braking, string is all the way tight from the bottom of the wheel to your toe. As you turn, turning the wheel will lift your toe on the brake. As you press the accelerator after exit, think of it pulling the outside of the steering wheel back down, so that you have to accelerate.

I think that many novice and intermediate drivers are scared of getting too close to the trackout, as they're worried about getting onto (or over) the exit curbing. After all, their instructors have told them numerous times about bad things happening when they drop a wheel off the outside of a curb on exit. So in response they're staying away from track out, but their mechanism for doing so isn't doing a trackout to a lesser point, it's to keep full steering input in while exiting the corner, which at best delays their throttle input until they're pointed straight (killing their corner exit speed), or at worst adding throttle with full input, potentially causing spins or worse (exiting track when overcorrecting after attempting to catch a spin for example).

Jim

I've also used the "string theory" with students to good effect, but I quite like your phrasing of "releasing traction." It's a good image that gets the point across really well." I'll make sure to use that in the future!

As to your last point, I think most of us here on this forum are quite experienced and in some cases experts. So it's easy to forget that a novice often has no idea where his car is going to wind up on the exit of a turn. So it's no wonder they are nervous about going off the track and try to pinch it a bit. But I also think a lot of novices just go too fast for their skill because they are exited to go fast on a track.

I think the best advice an instructor ever gave me was that if you start making mistakes, just slow down to where you are making clean laps. Only then start to speed up - slowly. Repeat as necessary. By the end of the day you will be going much faster than if you just keep pushing and making mistakes. I still use that for my self.

-Christian