On RWD you can use the throttle to rotate the car more. On FWD the throttle
just causes understeer.
If you break entering a turn, you're really trail braking. This enables you
to rotate the rear of the car somewhat (useful on a FWD or AWD platform) and
get around the corner quickest.
Most of the textbooks will recommend you do most of your braking in a
straight line then gradually lift off the brakes entering the corner
(effectively trail braking), and then being to accelerate when the car is
pointing in the right direction and unwind slowly.
The older opinion used to be that braking had to be done in a straight line.
Of course, it was eventually figured out that this school of thought was
wrong, and you can shave much more time by braking into the corner somewhat.
However, it should be noted that there is more time to be made by getting
the entry/apex/exit acceleration whilst unwinding right than there is by
being perfect on the brakes (time spent slowing versus time spent
accelerating).
It sounds like your second approach was better. Given time, you can perfect
the braking so that some of your slowing is done whilst the car is turning
somewhat (of course, bear in mind that if you're using 100% of your traction
to brake, you can't turn, so you have to lift a bit off the brakes. Traction
circles and all that jazz]
Of course, this is much easier on a wide open track on an autox course, so
I'm sure someone else can give way better advice ;-)
Giles
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Clifford Richardson
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 2:22 PM
To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
Subject: braking...
I was at the event at Mather this past Sunday. The course was the longest
I've ever been on (4th event and counting) and a lot of fun. I posted
horrible times, but I made up for it in the fun runs. There was this
especially deceptive left turn towards the last stretch that caused a number
of drivers to spin out. It starts out mild and got tighter b4 curving back
to the right. I can extremely close to stopping my car in that turn to avoid
hitting a cone during one of my official runs. That notably cost me more
than the one second I would've had if I'd just hit the damn cone...might've
taken more than just one though...
Ok, now on to my point/question; on my second fun run, I shaved off 2.6 secs
of my best official run. One of the things I did differently was braking
HARD right before entering that wicked turn. It allowed me to go through the
turn much more gracefully and accelerate out of it. In previous runs, I was
fighting for control all the way through the turn and was going awfully slow
by the time it straightened out. My question to you veterans out there: on
sharp turns where braking HAS to be done, is it better to brake BEFORE
entering the turn or brake "as needed" during the turn? (both on street and
racing tires)I understand that because of the nature of my tires and
relatively low-torque on my car, my options might be slightly different. Oh
also, is the braking behavior different with FWD vs RWD?
My question may be a bit vague, but that's pretty much the best I can
explain it for now. I welcome any comment in regards to braking. Thanks.
-Arnold
"Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try and take over the world!"
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