Track day driving technique

Equipment that may be needed plus general information on track days.
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HypoThermia
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Track day driving technique

Post by HypoThermia »

I've just found a good [urlw=http://www.drivingfast.net/track/track-driving-tips.htm]introductory set of articles on track driving technique[/urlw], aimed at the beginner and those people with several track days under their belt.

[urlw=http://www.drivingfast.net/track/track-driving-tips.htm]Track driving tips[/urlw]

Reading those articles will not automatically make you a good driver on track. They should give you a starting point for understanding what the car is doing, and how car control techniques change as you move closer to the limits of grip. There is no substitute for the experience of exploring car behaviour on "car control" and track days.

There are plenty more advanced techniques out there to extract every last ounce of speed, but you have to learn how to walk before you can run :D

The articles are part of the [urlw=http://www.drivingfast.net]drivingfast.net[/urlw] web site.


BTW - the thread is locked so we can put the good stuff in here as a concise digest 8)

Ian.
(Former Chairman, Membership Secretary, and long time Admin)
R3 Aurora Blue Mica - Racing Brake calipers, rotors and steel brake lines - Racing Beat exhaust - TARGA2 sensors - Lockwood grilles - blue LEDs - side and fog light upgrades - window tints - Eibach spacers
And still three gears left...
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HypoThermia
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Re: Track day driving technique

Post by HypoThermia »

Tyre pressures in the cold and wet - AtomicRex

If it does, for those novices among us, please bear in mind that the tyres and brakes will struggle to get heat into them! Don't run crazy low pressures as they wont get up to temperature, a common misconception is to lower the pressures if it is wet. The theory behind this is reasonably sound, the tyres will move around on the blocks and cause the tyre to warm up quicker. In reality you wont go fast enough to get this to happen....so raise the pressures instead. You need to open the blocks as they are the bits that disperse the water and stop you floating off the track!

All in all, the best time to measure the pressures is at the end of the session....when they are hot! You are going to get an imbalance due to one tyre working harder than the other.....so quickly pull up in the pit lane and test all of the pressures.


Tyre pressures, measured hot, equal all the way round - AtomicRex
HypoThermia wrote:Should the tyre pressure after some hot laps be pretty much equal all the way round so that the tyres are delivering the same level of grip and and feedback from all four corners of the car during braking and cornering?
Pretty much the long and short of it. Brands is a very Right hand circuit, there are only 2 corners that are left.....so you need to take this into account. The front n/s wheel is going to take a pounding, and the rear o/s is going to be taking a rest for most of the lap! When you come in you need to adjust the tyre pressures so that they take this into consideration, but it can only be done when hot. If you pep the pace up later on in the day, you will need to revisit this. After lunch take a note of the pressures.....the tyres will be cold (if not frozen ;) ) and you should see the difference in pressures. It will give you potentially give you the base settings for the next time you come to brands.
(Former Chairman, Membership Secretary, and long time Admin)
R3 Aurora Blue Mica - Racing Brake calipers, rotors and steel brake lines - Racing Beat exhaust - TARGA2 sensors - Lockwood grilles - blue LEDs - side and fog light upgrades - window tints - Eibach spacers
And still three gears left...
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