SS2: Back From School

WOW! It will take a while to wipe this smile from my face. Team O'neil was great and on top of that I learned a ton. Sure it could be better by adding a little e-brake action to their curriculum but on the dirt it is not as important as what I learned. And what I learned was left foot braking.

Left foot braking really does work, and it works beautifully. Foot planted on the gas and the brake (simultaneously as I was driving a car with not so much power) to slide front wheel drive car. My prediction of keeping torque applied to the wheels so they don't lock up was quite correct. But I was incorrect as to why it would make a car slide. That is caused by the beautiful effects of weight transfer. Soft springs help exaggerate weight transfer front to back and side to side, which gives different tires more grip while removing grip from the other tires and it also loads the suspension so you can use the suspension to do tons of work for you. You can't even turn without left foot braking (or lifting with enough engine braking) in the Audi 4000s. The weight transfer from braking makes those front tires grip and it ends up turning the car. If enough weight is transferred to the front wheels and taken off the back a slide happens.

The concept of weight transfer leads into the Pendulum Turn, aka the Scandinavian Flick. You turn right to go left and vice versa. So you're coming in hot to a 90 degree left, what do you do in your front wheel drive Golf and you're on snow? Slide the car right. WHAT?! Yea, you want to load that suspension and scrub speed at the same time. Sliding is not super fast and it tends to slow you down (tons of friction compared to rolling wheels). But why slide the wrong way? Because that makes it easier to get a full 90 degrees or more of rotation the other way while scrubbing speed and now plowing into the apex of the turn. You use the potential energy built up in the springs of the suspension to help rotate you the other way. So post counter steer, when you get off the brakes (thats what caused the slide), the suspension unloads forcing weight to the rear and neutral side to side the rear tires bite, following in the footsteps of where the front tires are pointed. So that whips you around with some speed. But the unloading of the suspension does the rest of the work. Those springs push the car back around and they make it easy to spin right around (think 180). To make the car rotate even more in the flick just hit the gas for a moment when you come off the brakes. It will exaggerate the weight transfer to the rear tires causing them to bite harder.

In the VW Golf I kept coming into the pendulum way too hot, and you can see that on video. So I ended up taking a bunch of cones with me on my first few tries in the Golf. As always if you intend on practicing this do it somewhere safe.

Another big lesson and explains why I was trash with the golf in a pendulum turn was always look far ahead. Ive known to look ahead far on tracks and in karting, but when you're learning something new it can be difficult to look ahead. Look where you want to go, do not look at things you do not want to hit. So if there is a tree you're headed right for, look up the road you're flying off of, you'll have a much better chance of regaining control of the car if you're looking up. The instructor noticed I wasn't looking up when I kept forgetting to counter-steer early. He said I would have caught when to counter-steer earlier if i was looking further ahead because the cars frame would would make it more obvious as to where i was pointed. You can't rely on feeling sideways, you've got to see it. So with that my argument for video games as simulators is improved. And you can learn to look ahead by playing video games.

My looking ahead improved for tarmac driving (non-coned) after playing TOCA Race Drive 2 on my friend's computer (with wheel+pedals). My lap times were slow until I started looking far ahead in the corners, then I demolished my old lap times. I even out paced my friend. While It's not the same as driving for real, video games can help with certain aspects of driving, especially the hand eye coordination involved in driving.


The double clutching and heel toe downshifting I practiced weren't utilized this time around. We did most of our work in 2nd gear. The courses were set up, and it was slippery enough, that we didnt need 3rd gear. The VW and Audi motors weren't turbocharged so we didnt need to keep them where the power was. They had good torque for most of the powerband.

I have some video footage from the classes (not too much because I had plenty of other things to worry about) and that should be edited and put up on youtube/googlevideo at some point. One warning: video and fixed camera angles make cars look really slow. Also, my camera mount can get a bit shaky.

Overall I suggest you go, and tell them this site sent you :D Because I know I'm going back for 2 or 3 more days.