On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Joe Ciarcia wrote:
> How does one practice braking? Seems like a silly
> question but seriously, how do I get better at it? I
> seem to be in a rut. It would seem as if most people
> brake to late, or brake to early however I don't seem
> to discriminate between the two (maybe I lean a little
> be towards braking too early which probably makes some
> sense for my experience level). This past event I
> experienced "HOLY CRAP, I didn't know my car could
> stop that fast" and... "ummm... yeah, I'm off course
> because I really wanted to do a donut, yeah that's
> it".
The least costly mistake you can make in autocross is braking too soon.
The most costly mistake you can make in autocross is braking too late.
That being said, my best advice is to understand that there are two
reasons for applying the brakes. The first is slowing down the car. The
second, and equally if not more important, is to transfer weight to the
front of the car. Since a car will not turn without weight on the front
end, it bears some study/practice. In my experience, once I quit thinking
about how much I wanted to slow the car, and started thinking about when I
wanted how much weight where, the braking fell into place.
SUVs are great vehicles for practicing "slosh management", with their
long-travel soft suspensions and great weight. I did a threshold braking
stop last week with five people in the Tahoe, and controlled the brake
release so that there was no rebound - I was quite pleased with the
achievement.
KeS
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