Track driving technique

[Janner_Sy]

what motor is he driving??

[tony_danza]

ABF'd MKII Golf on TBs - fully prepp'd cage/diff/suspension etc and about 180BHP in 900kilos.

[simey]

Hi guys,

I was having a think ealier about how compitant i'd be on a track, come a track day etc...

How would you guys approach a hard right corner for example? With regards to braking and acceleration at what points etc.?

I've drawn a ridiculous picture in paint, as how i'd drive a rear wheel drive car ( I've done a few charity ferrari track day rubbish things under tuition)  - but does the same still apply to a fwd golf? And am i totally wrong?  



Any advice or pictures would be fun  

Nick

Which track are you going too, up north or down south?

[keano]

Nothing planned at all bud.

However, it would likely be a Northern track as im from Doncaster/ Sheffield.

[danishmkvgti]

when i tried the ring in may, when i had to break for the righthander after flugplatz the golf got a very very light rearend, it actually helped me place it right through the corner. Done my bit og roadracing might have helped in using this light rear end. 

[Janner_Sy]

this is the reason i wanted to get an even stiffer rear ARB so i could have a more oversteer biased handling car.  The vRS with its bigger back end was really easy and predicable to get the back loose, that said most ARBs are designed for the golf and not the vRS, so a bigger bar might have been needd to counter the extra weight over the rear axle

[Truckie]

Have a look at this link. It may be a good way of stepping into, or back into track use. Will bring your driving on, and its in a very similar car to your own.
Much better to make your mistakes with an instructor beside you and get the mistakes sorted out rather than making them lap after lap 

http://driving-experience.knockhill.com/3rd-gear-seat-trakcstar-experience.php

[fuscobal]

Nice track Tony, would like to visit it sometime although it's very far from my location. Quite different corner approach between you and the guy following you in the Golf. About the corner mentioned in the beginning of the thread, there are so many variables it is impossible to tell the best line.

1) It depends if your car is FWD, AWD or RWD. FWD cars can put the power down later on tight corners
2) It depends if that corner is in a horisontal plane or it can be uphill/downhill/blind corner (down>up in the apex>down)/valley (up>down in the apex>up)
3) It depends if the corner is alone or preceded/followed by other corners
4) It depends on the speed you have at the top of a straight line and the radius of the corner that follows
5) It depends on how long the corner is
...

If the drawing you made is realistic, then the line is pretty ok in most cases ... but then again, it depends on how wide the track is. You can carry more speed on the corner, if the track is wide enough on the exit, if you climb over the vibrator !

[tony_danza]

Oulton's amazing, you should do a road trip and take in a few of the UK's tracks.

Lines, yes, I'd only just come out on track so my tyres were cold, which is why I initially tried to get out of Nige's way. So, in Shell Oils (the banked hairpin) for example I simply didn't have enough rear grip to brake around the bend, taking more of a straight line in and turning hard instead. There's no run off there, so it makes sense to be cautious!!!

[jmspear]

Hi Tony, nice video, I know Oulton well and your mate nige takes pretty much the same lines I do in my 993 RS, which in itself is interesting as I always thought there would be a much bigger difference between RWD and FWD, but the lines are clearly the same, (have never done a track day in my GTI, but loads and loads in the RS) the biggest difference from watching the vid is when on and off the power and the speed through the corners, I carry more speed in. go a bit deeper and power out more, but this is basically your fifo scenario, but only in the dry, as the rear weight bias and extreme rear traction of the 993 helps massively in FIFO as does using the weight transfer, BUT, if it was wet and greasy I would be about half a lap behind you as you really don't want the rear weight bias in those conditions. Still very interesting though and great driving, lovely lines and nice and smooth!

[jmspear]

BTW, the way I learn FIFO was my instructor took me to Landau (south wales just outside Cardiff) on about 3/4 occassions (loads of run off and we were the only car and very cheap about £50 from memory on a test day rather than a track day) and got me to go into right angle bends with too much speed to get a feel for understeer, then back off until I managed to get round on the raggedy edge and then the same with oversteer, this gave me such a good feel for the limit on the car and how coming off and back on the power tarnsferred weight front to back and vice versa and altered grip at front and rear on the edge.

This was the way I really "got" steering the acr using the throttle and weight transfer, but you need an empty track, instructor and lots of run off, and I used up a set of tyres!

But moved me on big style from SIFO.