Braking and Entering

[rezzle]

This was almost a whole chapter from the Skip Barber racing school.

[Flashmn]

and I thought this thread was about burglaring someones home ;P hehe

[Naito]

good shit

[Naito]

just ordered myself a copy
the perks of working in a bookstore hehe....

[Chris Corolla S]

Great Post!!

[RedruM]

excellent...


now only if i had brakes on my ride..hehe

[MRQtwinturbo]

Originally posted by Naito
just ordered myself a copy
the perks of working in a bookstore hehe....

hook a brother up.....i collect stephan king hardbacks......

[Naito]

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASI...000504-5750425
same price I'm getting it for, so try that instead.
I gotta friggin wait 2 weeks for mine anyway *sigh*
oh well, less distraction from studying for exams I guess

[AutoX]

Along the lines of cornering, what do you think about the differences in driving a mid engine, rear drive car like the MR2, versus the front,rear layout of the celicas. I want to switch to a roadster with the Mid/rear layout but I'm not sure what to expect. I did come across a good discussion at www.clubelise.net though. They seem to have some pretty good stuff on performance driving and car setups.

[rezzle]

If you are just starting the type of car FF FR MR Front engine frontwheelldrive, Front engine rear wheel drive and Mid engine rear wheel drive, do indeed handle diffreently in terms of propensity to oversteer or understeer. However in competitive Solo/Autocross/Slalom cars are gouped into classes, and in the end most cars in each class are reasonably equal. Driver ability and car setup, tire pressure weight distribution etc play as much or more of a factor to final outcome in any one class than car model. MR FR cars tend to enter and apex the corner better while FF cars exit faster. It should be noted though that in Rally driving FF cars perform significantly better than FR and all wheel drive cars are another order of magnitude above that.

On the street driver skill is even more of a factor. MR2's have been known to 'suddenly depart' from their intended path. When you look at the age and skill of the driver in combination with the road conditions the reason for the accident quickly becomes apparent. Driver inexperience. Driving too fast on a wet road in a car that is designed to pull +.9 g's in the dry and attempting to do it in the wet or on 'marbles' when the tires can only hold .5g's is .... well ... stupid. Inexperienced drivers don't think of those types of thing and expect miracles of their equipment. Even in the dry driver abilty, car setup, and maintenence can be more important than the car itself.

I know I haven't answerd your question directly that is because I have seen some *very* quick Mr2's and some *very* quick Celicas. I think 'stock' the MR2's have a slight advantage but modified there is no doubt that driver skill determines the outcome. if you look at the actual tire weight distribution front and back most new 'sports' cars FF FR MR are almost all nearly even and it isn't difficult to compensate for peculiar handling by fiddling with weight distribution, early or late left foot braking , or tire pressures.

Just sign up with a local car clup that has solo/autocross - in our club's case we actually consider autocross a seperate style as we have competitions on dirt, Autocross, in addition to the Solo1 and Solo2 type races. After a season you will notice a huge difference in ability and no matter what car you are driving you will be able to outturn most cars on the street ( not that I reccomend trying) simply because you know how and when to brake how to apex and how to exit and nearly 90% of the other drivers out there .. don't.

[Chris Corolla S]

Once again Rezzle comes through with high quality content!

[brink]

Originally posted by rezzle
After a season you will notice a huge difference in ability and no matter what car you are driving you will be able to outturn most cars on the street ( not that I reccomend trying) simply because you know how and when to brake how to apex and how to exit and nearly 90% of the other drivers out there .. don't.

I'll second that. I've only participated in three events so far and already I've been able to avoid one driver-related and one road-related accident primarily because I knew both how to handle my car and how my car was going to react in an extreme situation. I honestly think everyone should be required to take some kind of autox-like driving school upon receiving a license. I think that with *just* the added knowledge of how a car is going to move in unusual situations (compared to uneventful daily driving) would lower the number of accidents each year.

[AutoX]

Thanks for the good reply. I guess my real interest is in whether or not you set up the cars different. I would guess that you would, and it would depend on hte cars weight as well. For instance staggered tires? Anyone know much about it? http://www.clubelise.net/forum/index...ct=ST&f=5&t=40 they've got some good info. Do the MR2 guys use staggered tires? And if so, is it for understeer or oversteer. Also, would you use the same tire pressure front and rear, or stagger that as well?

[Xenon]

Looks like a very interesting book.. I'll probably go to Chapters and see if they have it today.

Thanks for the link rezzle

[rezzle]

You Toronto folks might like this one.


http://www.soloontario.com/

Have fun.