It's certainly true--fast corners are harder to accelerate from. The best
way to win races is to go through them very fast and use up every last bit
of the track. There are trade offs in slowing more than you absolutely need
to. The car is unbalanced, you are accelerating before the apex, etc., etc..
Mid corner speed is the final frontier. When I go to a new track I don't
worry about the fiddly slow corners until I've gotten all I can from the
fast ones. "All I can" simply means I turn in at the right time, hit the
apex within a few inches, nearly run out of track after the exit and don't
have any remaining room to maneuver. If you can tighten up your turn in the
middle of a corner you're not going as fast as you could.
I'm not recommending that for folks that want to have a relaxing vintage
race, but it's the only way to squeeze real time out of a track.
And yes, your brakes last a LOT longer because it's slowing for the fast
corners that really eats them up. Lots of HP to burn off. I've been
disciplining myself in the two tracks that I race the most to not downshift
or brake at all for the two fastest corners. Before I started this personal
crusade I was braking hard and downshifting. Now I lift a little and get
gently back in to balance the car through the turn. I can just make it. Of
course that means if someone drops a little oil in my way I'm not going to
complete the turn...
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@Autox.Team.Net [mailto:owner-fot@Autox.Team.Net] On Behalf
Of Tony Drews
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 4:24 PM
To: Henry Frye; fot@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: converting a tr2 to disks?
Oh yeah, almost forgot. They may last longer in the 4 pot Toyota
calipers...
Still, one of the secrets to going fast is minimizing the brake usage, I
suppose. That's not one of the things I really concentrate on yet. I pick
out the fastest corners and work hard at carrying as much speed through them
as possible. Like turns 1, 2, and 8 at Mosport, or turn 1, 7, the carousel,
especially the kink at Road America. Never felt like I got max speed in the
left-hand falling away corner at the end of the esses at VIR, but that would
qualify. Seems like one of the Carrolls wrote that in a secrets to speed
book (Carroll Smith or Shelby?). Picking up the 5 mph you lost in a 50 mph
corner takes much less time than picking up the 5 mph you lost in a 100 mph
corner was the theory. Sounded good and seems to work. Kinda high pucker
factor, though. :)
- Tony
At 05:59 PM 12/16/2004, Henry Frye wrote:
>At 05:55 PM 12/16/2004 -0600, Tony Drews wrote:
>
>>I changed my pads late in the season (one or two events ago). I have
>>been running those pads since shortly after I bought the car 2 1/2
>>years ago. They probably still have a race weekend left in them. I
>>did have the rotors resurfaced earlier in the year now that you
>>mention it. They were a couple of thou out of true.
>
>Two years on a set of brake pads? Geez, no wonder you are so fast.
>
>Oh, wait... I'll bet you are not running Girling calipers! ;-)
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