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Tuesday, July 04, 2006

raise your hand...

...if you drive the way I do. If the world left me with nothing but a car and a road, chances are I'd still die a pretty happy man.

OK, so I'm into driving, more accurately, technical driving, the stuff they don't teach you in driver's ed, but in race-driving school as a hobby.

Japanese masses are by no means good drivers. Japan has very winding narrow paths they call roads. I've had a lot more chances since moving here to experiment on different roads without putting others in danger. I got my driver's license as a teenager and god knows why from that point on I've always wanted to drive a lot, a lot, and then some more. I grew up in big cities where driving is for the most part unnecessary if not inconvenient.

Disclaimers:
  1. I don't speed on open road (more than the average driver);
  2. Reckless driving is stupidity at its worst display;
  3. You don't need a good car to be a good driver
    (sometimes it even hinders one's development);
  4. Drinking and driving do not mix.
First off, what they don't teach you at mom&pop's driving school:
  • When and where to turn; (you want to hit the apex right every turn, see pic)
  • Throttle control; (feather touch, off the gas, throttle brakes etc)
  • Brake control; (feather touch, blipping, tapping, heel & toe etc)
  • The many uses of up-shifting and down-shifting; (brakes, rev-match, delays, etc)
  • The many uses of the e-brake; (delicate turns, lose traction, controlled slide, etc)
  • Driver's behavior; (most drivers don't know how to share the road)
  • Weight distribution; (know your car's limits and how it behaves)
  • Precision driving; (know the dimensions therefore where exactly all 4 wheels are at all time)
  • Defensive driving; (a course that teaches you how not to kill yourself and others as well as redeeming a few points)
  • Concentration; (how not to fiddle with the radio and take your eyes off, drive with the eyes of a hawk, spot trouble a mile away, anticipate traffic, never the lack of it)
Braking. Point 'B' in the picture is the braking zone. All straight line braking should be finished here before your foot is on the throttle turning into the corner.

Turn in. Point 'I' is your entry into the corner, start at the outside edge of the track. Farthest from the inside of the corner. You should have a steady steering angle and a constant speed to the apex. Smoothness is crucial at this point, now is when you commit to the turn. Keep your foot on the throttle in one place to maintain constant speed and hold the steering wheel steady in one position all the way through to the Apex.

Apex. Point 'A' is where you are closest to the inside edge of the corner. The proper apex is usually not in the exact middle of a turn, but a little 'late'. Hitting the apex right determines how fast you can exit the corner. From the apex you should begin unwinding the steering and adding power as you now have available adhesion for accelerating. If you think about the Car Dynamics and Adhesion information previously you will see that accelerating out of the corner will be an understeer situation. You won't require much steering input to 'push' the car towards the outside of the track.

Turn out. Point 'O' is the exit from the corner on the far edge of the track. At this point the steering wheel should be straight and you should be on full power.
(pic and descriptions courtesy of nwalfaclub.com)

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