Track Day?

[Mobius]

Monday saw me out on the local racetrack ( http://www.racingschool.co.nz/track.htm ) for the third time, in my 24 year old Porsche 928S. I swear, this is the most fun you can have with your pants on! I have learned more about driving in the three days I have had at the track, than in the last 20 years combined.

Of course, it didn't hurt to have the Bridgestone Porsche Racing Series winner, Paul Kelly ride with me for 10 laps, nor did it hurt to run for 10 laps in his GT3 race car, which costs $200 a lap to run! (whoa)

The days typically cost around $130 - $300 depending on who is running it and what sort of day it is. If instructors are scheduled to be in your car at all times, it can hit $500 or more. But for guided \"free for all\" days it is quite low.

The biggest thing I learned is that it is a lie that racing drivers are always on the gas or on the brake: nothing could be further from the truth. Here's what I've learned so far: It's copy for a web site I'm doing for my Porsche technicians, who organised this last track day. http://4sure.co.nz/autothority/index.html

Smooth is Fast

We can’t stress this enough: keeping the car well balanced, and using the controls in smooth flowing motions will keep your car on the road at all times. Aggressive, abrupt movements will unbalance the car and tip you off the track: that’s just about guaranteed.

Driving Feedback

Your thumb palps are the most sensitive part of the hands, and you should be holding the steering wheel such that the pads of your thumbs rest gently, but firmly, on the rim of the wheel. If you are in a Porsche, it’s likely there is a special rim, or an area on the wheel especially for your thumbs.

Seating Position

Please move your seat forwards until you can hang your hands over the back of the wheel, while your shoulders are against the seat. When holding the wheel, there should be approximately 90 degrees between your upper arm and your forearm. This may feel too close for some, but it provides the best ability to control the car.

Holding the Wheel: 9 & 2 or 10 & 3?

Old school style is hands-at-9-and-2 o’clock positions. New school thought is to keep hands opposite each other at the 9 and 3 o’clock positions. This makes is easier to push the wheel.

Steering: Push vs. Pull

In normal driving, one pulls the inside of the steering wheel down in order to make a turn, but we recommend you push the outside of the wheel up instead. This ensures your shoulders are correctly positioned against the seat, and also results in smoother steering we believe.

You can try this in your day-to-day driving too if you like. Pushing is actually physically harder to do, but the results are worth it.

Using the Tyres correctly

On the track, you are asking your tyres to perform to their very limit, and sometimes beyond if you aren’t careful. Road tyres are not designed for the track, and tyres can wear aggressively when used hard on the track.

You will notice that your tyres perform much better after a warmup lap or two, and we suggest you take it easy on the track until your tyres reach a good temperature. Cold tyres perform very poorly, even on the smooth surface of the track.

You must think about your tyres as being very good at 3 things: Accelerating, turning and braking, BUT tyres are only capable of doing any ONE of these three things at a time.

Brake, Accelerate or Turn: PICK ONE

Trying to turn and brake at the same time is a recipe for disaster, the tyres will not turn well, and they will not brake well. Trying to turn and accelerate will result in wheel spin and loss of control.

So, knowing that you can only ask a tyre to do a single thing at a time is a window into good racing technique and good general driving skills.

For this reason, there is etiquette to achieve the best cornering speeds and the lowest lap times:

1) Brake late, and hard
2) Do not turn the wheel until you have finished braking
3) Turn the wheel as you let the brakes off
4) Coast to the apex of the corner
5) Accelerate hard from the apex.

Using this technique will result in the best cornering possible.

It’s worth explaining the steps in the process.

Braking late and hard means braking in a straight line (or as close to it as the track permits) and this lets the tyres do their job properly. Braking also transfers the weight to the front of the car, and loads up the front suspension. So, by the time you have finished braking, the car is properly set up for turning.

Turning as soon as you stop braking means not allowing the front of the car to rise up from its loaded position. As most of the weight is properly on the front wheels at the end of braking, so the car will turn very well when so much force is concentrated on the wheels.

Coasting to the apex means having your foot completely off the gas pedal until you reach the apex of the turn. This may sound strange, and when you first do it, it feels strange too, but if you followed the first two steps correctly, it makes the job very easy. Because you are not asking the car to slow down, all you are doing is steering it, and it will respond very well to your steering inputs.

So, you can concentrate on getting the car as close to the apex as possible.

Accelerating hard from the apex means waiting before you put your foot down on the gas. You must not start accelerating until you KNOW you will not have to back off prior to braking for the next corner. Hitting the gas before the apex (and having it work) means you braked too hard and entered the corner too slowly. Hitting the gas before the apex, if you braked properly will result in an over-steer situation, which will require either counter-steering to balance, or getting off the accelerator. Counter steering is preferred, but can be hard to control (and road tyres work best in a straight line) and if you get off the gas, this will unbalance the car, and hence you will be very slow on the next straight.

Warm up and cool down

As previously stated, your tyres need to be properly warm in order to reach their maximum grip levels on the track. The rear tyres are heated by accelerating, and the front tyres are heated by braking and turning.

It’s necessary to always do one relatively slow lap at the start of each session. You can brake hard on this lap, and accelerate hard too, but do not push harder than your tyres can handle: you may spin and overheat them.

After one or two laps depending on lap length, and how hard you worked the tyres, they should have reached a good temperature, and you should begin pushing.

At the end of each session, you should perform at least one cool down lap, where you do not brake or accelerate hard. This lets the tyres cool down, but more importantly, lets your engine’s cooling system bring the internal temperature of the motor down.

Two laps may be required on a short circuit.

It’s important that when you come off the track and into the pits that you ensure your engine temperature has lowered substantially before shutting down the motor.

Looping your car

If you manage to spin your car for any reason, or drift sideways off the track, it is most likely that your tyres are useless for some time to come. That sort of treatment creates stupendous amounts of heat, which causes the rubber to lose a high percentage of its grip.

If you spin your car, it’s a good idea to drive slowly around the track back to the pits, to allow the tyres to cool, and your adrenalin to calm down too.

Don’t continue driving hard, or you will spin again, guaranteed.

When you see formula 1 drivers spin and continue, they often spin again shortly thereafter. This phenomenon can catch out even the world’s best drivers and the world’s best tyres.

What is this “Heel and Toeing” I’ve Heard About?

Heel and Toeing is the action of using your right foot to brake as hard as possible, while simultaneously using it to blip the throttle as your change down the gears.

It is not commonly used in road driving, but is beneficial to good driving, nevertheless. Heel and Toeing is designed to prevent the rear wheels locking due to over-torqueing them as you let the clutch out when downshifting.

If you are close to the red line, and changing down, the engine revs are not matched to the wheel speed unless you blip the throttle to match engine revs to wheel speed. Failing to do this can cause the rear wheels to lose traction, and this is undesirable from a survival perspective.

It is an advanced technique used only on strict-manual gearboxes. Tiptronics and automatics do not require heel and toeing as the torque converter controls the amount of torque being fed to the rear wheels.

For a comprehensive description of the technique, please visit:
http://www.motoringfile.com/2005/07/24/ ... de_simple/

http://www.raadius.co.uk/popup_heel_and_toe.html

May we recommend that when teaching yourself to heal and toe, you practice on long, straight, empty roads? We are sure you will miss the brakes, stab the throttle, slip off the brakes and graunch a few gears before you get the technique working nicely.

In order for heal-and-toeing to work, the pedal set-up of your car is critical. Porsche have ideal arrangements. Additionally, most drivers’ cars have reasonable pedal arrangements, but don’t expect to be able to use the technique in a 4 door Toyota sedan.


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Anyway, this last day was an absolute blast. I am really starting to understand how my car behaves, and exactly what it can and can't do, and exactly how far I can push it. The \"racing line\" is the most important thing to be on. If you can figure it out that is! It's taken me over 100 laps to get the majority of the circuit worked out - and even now, the \"dipper\" is a real challenge to get right. In the track confifuration we had on Monday, there are 4 quick turns at low speed in a row. Very tricky.

The hairpin I have down to a fine art, and the final sweeper onto the front straight is an absolute blast. Getting it right results in 20mph faster speed (140mph) at the end of the straight, than if you mess it up.

Monday saw me take down my first Porsche 911s (old ones, contemporaneous to my car; 911SC, 930 Turbo) a bunch of boxsters being driven by old farts, and a brand new Ford Falcon, 5.7 litre XR8. That guy was absolutely ropeable that my 24-year old $17,000 Porsche can out-pull, and out-corner his brand new $80,000 Ford. HEH!

It's all about how hard you are prepared to push your car, and how hot you are prepared to make your brakes. (Between sessions, my wheels were so hot they'd burn you if you touched them!) and how smooth you are.

So - have you taken it to the track? I thoroughly recommend it!

[Tricord]

Sounds like a lot of fun. Before you know it, you'll have a set of slick tyres for track days and will do a full brake maintenance before each one. When you do that, the first few laps are to be taken easy not in order to warm up the tyres, but in order to set in the new brake pads

Didn't you have an automatic tranny on your Porsche?

I'm sure you beat my car in terms of acceleration, but it'll be hard to corner as tight as I do

[Will Robinson]

I'm so jealous! Sounds like a great time, I'm planning to try one day soon but our nearest track isn't as nice although I hear they are building something pretty cool near Augusta.

Tricord - I don't know which car you are comparing but you should try a 928, the handling as well as braking ability might impress you more than you expect it will.

[Herculosis]

x2 on the 928.

Will, I just saw your pics in the \"speed\" thread, and followed them to the others on your site. Very nice. I really like the interior mods.

I've got what looks like the same wheels on my 86.5

[Will Robinson]

x2 on the 928.

Will, I just saw your pics in the "speed" thread, and followed them to the others on your site. Very nice. I really like the interior mods.

I've got what looks like the same wheels on my 86.5

Thanks!
I have to give some thanks to Mobius for reminding me about the 928.
I was asking him about some other cars and he just mentioned it as an aside, when I found out they were so affordable I went on a hunt imediately and found a 1988 5 speed with supercharger in Erie Pa....went up there to check it out a few months ago and ended up driving it home that weekend. I've been loving it ever since!
Talk about a small world, we have at least 3 D3'ers with 928's! Never would have believed it would happen.

[CDN_Merlin]

I've learned most of this from playing Racing Sims on my PC since 1994. I can only apply some of it to road driving as some rules can't be applied to driving on the roads.

I'd love to take my car to the track but I don't have a sportscar, nor the cash to fix anything that goes wrong.

[Top Gun]

Unless my '97 Ford Escort sedan has hitherto-unforeseen performance, I doubt it'll find itself on a track anytime soon. Sounds like a hell of a rush, though.