There hasn't been a book about driving in a while, and this one just came out in October 2011. Haven't seen it yet, but sounds interesting.

Driving on the Edge: The Art and Science of Race Driving by Michael Krumm

Some of the author's bio: http://gt1world.com/drivers/profile/...FlbCBLcnVtbQ==

He currently drives a racing version of the Nissan GT-R with Lucas Luhr for JRM in the FIA GT1 World Championship series.

And he is in 1st place, having won the series for 2011 and they finished on the podium in 9 out of 20 races. So he knows how to drive.

 

Thanks for sharing, I will check this out.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

Looks very interesting gonna buy that..

 

Post up your comments after reading it. I'm curious about it.

 

Got my copy about a week ago and I am a third of the way through it. Best book on race driving I have seen. All examples are backed up with data logger charts to show you where and why the driving recommendation is faster than another way round.

For example, there is a section showing four ways to go around a long 180 turn. First up is the longest radius line, then the line called the beginner's line which is the one taught by most schools and in most books on driving, then the Pro line, used by many professional drivers per the writer, and finally the ultimate line, used by the author and many other drivers to win races. Data acquisition charts back up each of the 3 corner's sectors, entry, midpoint and exit. He talks about where to look, where to drive.

One of the first chapters deals at length with braking, as author says that is where you pass most people, and where you can gain most time. He debunks many dumb myths, like the age old classic heard so often: " if you exit the corner faster by x mph, you will carry that extra speed all the way down the straight". He shows clearly why that is false and shows that gaining speed is done at corner entry with better braking technique, including left foot braking. He talks about how to set up brake balance, etc, etc.

Great book. I really like it. It is a contemporary book on race driving written by a pro who knows how to explain things and back up what he says with data. Perhaps not the right book for someone who has never been on track, but rather a book for someone with more experience.

It would be nice to get other people's opinions on this book and discuss some of the techniques.

 

awesome, i was kind of waiting for you to fill us in lol.... couldnt be better than goaheadtakethewheel though!

 

Cool, adding that to my Christmas Wish List.....

 

I guess I'm not following you here. I'm not trying to pick on you, so please don't take it the wrong way. I'm genuinely curious. Two points:

1. How is "if you exit the corner faster by x mph, you will carry that extra speed all the way down the straight" a "dumb myth"? Perhaps I'm missing something, but this doesn't make sense. In practice, at the track, it seems to work for me. Please explain.

2. Wouldn't a higher speed at corner entry, assuming you haven't over-cooked it and had to correct before getting back on the gas, always result in a higher exit speed? How is this new information?

Maybe I should just buy the damn book! :-)

 

I'm convinced, off to Amazon.

 

Ok, I guess I'm going to have to get it and read it. That's sticking in the craw of my mind just a little since I'd be that much more into it if I were apply'in it any time soon. I can't count indoor karts as apply'in can I? Did them last night - it was bliss...after my left front got some temp into it.

BTW Claude, just curious, I heard you got pissed off and left the racers board to return to the blingtastic land of lost toys. What was your major malfunction? Must have been Epic!

Scott, who loves folklore...it don't have to be completely accurate in it's truality, it's just got to serve the ideological needs of the community...

 

1) Yes, buy the book and look at the data log chart of the speed down the straight with two different corner exit speeds. Both cases eventually start to slow acceleration due to aero drag which limits speed toward the terminal value, so speeds near end of straight equalize more or less. Reason is at corner exit speed which is slow compared to end of straight speed, you don't have much aero drag so acceleration is fast and car gets up to drag limited range quickly, negating much of the effect of the faster corner exit speed. Of course it is better to exit as fast as possible, but small gains there when close to the limit only net small gains in lap time. Book shows how making improvements in corner entry with different lines and different braking technique yields much more improvement in laptime. So doing everything to maximize corner exit speed is over-rated. Just like the old wife's tail of slow-in and fast-out being good. You want fast-in and fast-out. Book shows how braking technique and corner entry is very important. Slow-in is easy, as is fast-out. What is hard to master is fast-in, for which you need trail-braking on many corners.

2) No. Speed at apex is always the same for a given line since that is where the radius of the line is tightest and thus speed slowest, so you have to slow down to it from corner entry speed while keeping foot on the throttle for as long as possible before engaging the brakes for corner entry. Then you accelerate from the fixed apex speed up to the exit speed. Trick is to find the line with the highest apex speed and thus location and that does not waste time in the entry phase. You also need to consider the total length traveled in a corner, as total time depends not only on average speed through corner but also on distance traveled.

The author talks a lot about doing things always the same way for years and then trying new ways and finding more speed. Forget all the old wife's tales. Get a data logger and see what is fast and what is not. Data logger is what made me improve my times the most, and this book is going to help even more for me I hope. Drive a corner in two different ways, and check the corner time on your logger. Don't just check the revs at corner exit on your tach and think that the line with the highest revs is the fastest line. That is just another old wife's tale, from before loggers were invented, which was around the time of Carroll Shelby and the GT40. Of course you can learn a lot from the book even if you don't have a logger. Book has a very nice forward from Pedro De la Rosa, and pics of when author raced with Schumacher.

 

Funny thing you mention karts. Author says to drive karts to stay sharp between driving seasons. You you are on the right track (well maybe not;-)

Racers (rrax) board did not generate any bad feelings at all, just droning boredom with endless OT stuff. I'm always looking for a good forum. Got any?

By the way, I am off on Monday to a 2 full-day SAE seminar on data logging at the PRI show in Orlando, given by Jorge Segers, who works in the same FIA GT series the author of the driving book won the championship for. Requires a laptop for many Excel exercises they say. Jorge wrote a fantastic book on data logging:

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Techn.../dp/076801655X

 

Unh-unh...I heard you got "pissed off"...it's becoming common knowledge at this very moment.

Well, aside from this place...the FSAE board, Autosport Magazine's tech forum, Eng-Tips chassis sub-forum, DSR, ApexSpeed, and not least Race-Dezert.

Scott, who is into data too...but I can only handle limited amounts of it...typically no more than 3 digits on either side of the decimal point...

 

Thanks for the heads up!

I've just order it!

 

Hmm...something a bit odd here

Perhaps that belief (being pissed off) is in error, these things do happen....internet being a poor medium for intentions and all that. Rumor sux, especially if it gets widespread. You figure If only a few(?) people are...confused with the facts and you have some insight to the situation, its usually good to set the record straight before things get even more confused.....or you could just keep the ball rolling in that direction of confusion by perpetuating "common knowledge" <shrug>

Just finished watching the last FIA GT1 race of the year at San Luis. Shame about the last race for Krumm and Luhr, but thats why you win a championship before the last race I guess . Not too many contemporary racing books with datalog traces along with theory/technique. "Science" indeed, Ill have to add it to the christmas list.

The youtubes provides...www youtube com/watch?v=E0Ao--6AsQQ

Happy holidays to all !

Gavin

 

No... Somebody just making things up. Really only left there because it was boring.

So book has a chapter on setup with a short section on dampers (the proper word for the things). Starts out with: "Dampers are arguably one of the most complex and difficult elements to understand on a racing car...The subject is so complex that it would easily fill another book." I knew that!

 

I think karts, even or maybe even especially the indoor kind, really do teach you that corner entry is Everything...everything After you're doing everything else more or less correctly. In my own car, When it's working well, I've always enjoyed playing the brake pedal against the traction-circle on entry more than any other part of the drive. Which probably stands to reason in some part since I just don't have that much trouble with traction on the exits

Scott, who...Dampers?...Complex?...has anybody bought the revised edition of Jan Z's book?...

 

Thanks for the response. It's more clear to me now. I figured aero drag would be an important factor here, just wasn't sure of the extent.

Sounds like a good book and one that I'll have to check out.

BTW, speaking of data, I have been using a Traqmate for the past two seasons but mainly as an expensive lap timer. One of my goals this winter is to go over my actual GPS-based lap data and learn how to analyze it. Next season, I want to be able to quickly download and review it at the track.

 

braking - "and where you can gain most time."

Curious how he defines this. At the Bertil Roos school I attended this year, he talked about how much racers focus on braking in terms of finding time and how that isn't the primary place emphasis should be placed. Then broke it out into 90% cornering, 10% braking therefore we should care more about the cornering. Maybe this author just making a different point in terms and more about passing than lap times?

On edit: Just placed order. Will post up additional thoughts after going through it as well.

 

Author goes at it from the point of having been a pro racer for years, and driving as fast as he thought possible at every point. Then he looks at where could he possibly gain time, and in some cases finds it in the braking zone and corner entry, having tried to find it every way possible at corner exit. Not talking to beginners. Of course you cannot make up much time under braking, as you spend very little time actually braking compared to the rest of the lap. But if you are already at your max everywhere (or you think you are), then place to find more speed is by improving corner entry technique, which involves the corner entry line, staying on the gas as long as possible, and trail braking in some corners. Not like some old Skip Barber book lecturing to first time track drivers, with the same old, same old. That is the difference I see in this book.

 

So far it's a great book, it doesn't seem oriented for newbie but great for experience driver. He doesn't take 20 pages to explain the circle of traction...and goes straight to the point.

It's been a long time that i found a ''driving'' book that i find interesting like this one.

 

Thanks for this post. Looking forward to this read.

 

Just got mine today. Can't wait to read it, but preperation for this 25hr race this weekend is taking a lot of my time!

 

I don't really know what kind of cars he's talking about when he claims that exit speed is not critical for time saved down the straight, but he is full of ****. I can show you logged data from my car from the Mid-Ohio back straight with various keyhole exit speeds, and the exit speed has a CRITICAL effect on the lap time.

For example, an exit speed of 63mph vs a crappy exit at 60mph is a difference of 0.6 seconds by the time you hit the braking zone by the end of the straight. Sure, the gain you get will slightly decrease by the end of the straight due to drag...but not that much. Is he talking about 2 miles long straights or what? I'm not saying there isn't time to be gained on corner entry, but not 0.6 seconds.


Edit: I will say that a 3mph difference in exit speed is an atypical example, I wouldn't expect a good driver's exit speed to normally vary by more than 1mph. Perhaps the Author's argument isn't so much that exit speed doesn't buy you time down the straight, but is that most drivers have already maximized their exit speed so they don't have as much to gain there as they do on entry?? That would be a more reasonable statement in my opinion.

 

I'm looking at this book as directed towards more advanced drivers, and am thinking the author kept that in mind. The first focus of new drivers is exist speed, then entry speed, then lastly mid-corner.

He talks how overly focusing on exit speed causes a sacrifice in braking and mid-corner performance. He's also stating that the gain on exist does not stay the same throughout the straight due to various reasons - both cars reach their maximum speed where engine output is matched by aero drag.

What I like about the little I've read thus far is it forces you to think and question many popular driving teachings.