What's the smoothest and fastest way to take a corner (w/ manual tranny). For example, let's say it's a simple 90" corner (not on a city street of course, b/c that would be dangerous).

I know my gsr is capable of going faster only if I knew how to brake, clutch, shift and throttle properly. Please list in simple steps with numbers. Thanks dudes.

 

uhm, if ur coming in fast, break and double clutch ur way entering the turn at a safe speed---it's not really "good" to be braking or doubleclutching through a turn---u want balance...

so yeah, slow down before the turn, double clutch, keep ur rpms up, hit the apex, and then point and power out...

u dont wanna be punching it through a turn, especially with fwd, even more so, with an open diff...


i know that wasnt much, but hopefully it helps

 

outside, inside, outside
practice practice practice. know your car and how it responds

 

Rule #1 slow in, fast out.

Complete ALL braking before turning in.

 

hehehe.. autocross (and road racing) mantras:
slow in, fast out
look ahead
be smooth
seat time, seat time, seat time

There is a difference between a wheel-to-wheel racing line where you have to defend your position, and the line you take when you have the track/turn to yourself. I'm assuming your talking about having the track to yourself.

In general, you want to get all your braking done in a straight line. Later on you could think about some trail braking to help rotation at turn-in. Get your shift done in a straight line too.. you don't have to double clutch, heel-toe rev-matching is fine for anything but a 2-1 shift.

All in all, I say get back to the earlier mantra of "seat time, seat time, seat time".. seek out an autocross where you can safely go over the limit, or an HPDE where you'll get a ton of seat time and in-car instruction. Don't practice on the road.. without someone in car to tell you you're improving, or a clock to tell you you're improving, you're just fooling around and endangering people..

My fastest times have always been on the runs where my guts tell me I'm taking the corner too slowly.

Edit: can't spell "you're"


[Modified by MechE00, 4:48 AM 12/5/2001]

 

i find i can change from 2nd into 1st with no problems with only heel-toeing.
double clutching never seems to be necessary.
except occaisionally at traffic lights when the car is a bit difficult to get from neutral into first... have to engage the clutch then disengage it to slot into 1st

 

FASt in slOW out!

drift in that corner! use the ebrake hahah

FWD

 

First, read these two articles:
http://www.turnfast.com/tech_intro/i...echnique.lasso
http://www.trentyne.com/driventodriv...ue%20Apex.html

These two articles will give you an understanding as to the proper technique for driving a corner.

For your example (ie. 90 degree turn), you want to get all of your braking (and shifting if need) done before turning in for the corner. By completing them beforehand you will not upset the balance of the car and the car will be more "stable" going through the corner. Here is a illustration which shows you where the car should be placed for this particular example.



Hope this helps you out!!!

 

I alwasy find it fun to down shift before a corner, let off the brake and clutch..and half way through the corner just mash the throttle All hell breaks loose

 

Well, if you keep doing that, you won't be able to do it for much longer.

 

How do you heel-toe without double clutching???

 

Slow in fast out IS the name of the game (assuming that you're not going into a fast corner that leads into a slower corner, of course).

However, it's NOT the best thing to have your foot off the brake before the apex. Sure, you don't want to be FULL on the brakes (or the accelerator) in the middle of the turn. But, some braking during turn in helps get the car into the corner because you keep the front wheels loaded.

MINIMIZE the time you are coasting- some brake until the apex, and accelerate all the way out.

 

Everyone else covered the basics. I'd just like to add another "practice, practice, practice" - try to get a reading of your speedo when you go through your favorite turns and go from there. See how fast you can go entering at a certain angle or position...don't neglect the outside temperature, and whether or not your tires are heated up, pressures, etc. That, and work on weight transfer while you're cornering. Make sure you've got enough torque to pull out of the turn if you get in trouble.

 

That's what they call trail braking.

 

So heel-Toe down shifting is a MUST?

 

yes you have to heel toe downshift if you want any smoothness into the turn, and any power out of it.

As for doing your braking before the turn is over... that's simply incorrect. You want to apply good steady peddle pressure early before hte turn... you want an early braking zone. Then slowly let off hte pressure as you approach the turn... when the turn comes you want to turn in but still have some pressure on the brake. I normally keep a small amount of pressure (but it varies) to keep my weight in the front. Right before i hit the apex, ill let off the brake and start feeding into the gas. The trick is smoothness and weight balance... This is what they will teach you at any driving school (I've attended bondurant).

 

Check out http://nasaproracing.com/hpde/index.htm and join the High Perf Driving Events. It's may seem a little costly but from personal experience, it is worth every penny! You learn how to really drive your car with personal and experienced racers/instructors. Do it more than once and you'll see marked improvement with each event you join. Look for your regional NASA program on the site. Like all racing, seat time is key.

 

Whats wrong with this guy?

Drifting isnt good unless you are rallying... drifting around a corner doesnt get you around it faster than finding the proper apex.

 

Buy and watch Intial D make sure you watch all three stages then you will learn the JDM way to drive.

 

heh heh heh heh they drift like craazzzy

 

thanks BSQ for the links, i was going to post a thread like this too.

hehe yeah Fast in Slow out, someones been watching to much intial D.

 

Anytime If you would like to see a visual example of the proper corning technique, go to http://www.geocities.com/bretq/ontrack.html and click either image (red Integra or black Integra) for a short video clip. These two video clips show the "turn in point", apex and "track out point" for turn 1 at Putnam Park.

You will notice in the video a orange "turn in" cone on the left hand side of the track. By this point you should have all or a large majority (some people choose to trail brake into this corner) of your braking done and you should start to gradually accelerate towards the apex of the corner. You may also notice a apex cone on the video, this is the cone that you should be "aiming" at when turning in for the corner. There is also a "track out" cone, but I don't think that you can see it on the video. The "track out" cone is the where you should be "tracking out" towards. If you hit all of these points correctly you should be making a gentle arc through the turn and you should be making any steering corrections.

 

I don't want to sound dumb, but what is double clutching? Is that when you hit your clutch out of gear and release and then hit the clutch again to put it in gear?

 

Double clutching is when you depress the clutch, shift into neutral, release clutch, depress clutch, select gear, release clutch. Double clutching is not really necessary on modern cars with syncros, but before syncros double clutching was necessary to properly "mesh" the gears together. Although some people still prefer to use double clutching.

 

I asked this same question a while back, and it opened upa real can of worms. Technically and historically, speaking double clutching is what BSQ described. However, most people these days call rev-matching double clutching, cause while the clutch is in, you rev the engine to where you'd expect the tach to be on a downshift. Basically... It produces smoother downshifts and saves your synchros.