Race driving guide

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Want to race? Good. Start reading, than!

Advanced motoring is not about simply driving brutally fast through tracks and corners. It's about percision driving. In performance driving, every little aspect of driving has to be refined to maximal efficiency, and than put toghether with all other elements in balance, with the three basic creteria of such drivingbeing: smoothness, decisiveness and accuracy. All inputs must be carried out smoothly yet quickly, and just as nessecary. Out of these three, smoothness takes priority, but only with accuracy and decisive actions will you achieve a good result.

Nothing save proper practice will help, but if you be patient and read through this whole guide and practice the methods and guidelines through it, you are sure to make better hotlaps.

This guide in fully comprehensive. It's recommended to start with a simpler, basic guide beforehand. Note that there might be inconsistencies between the guides. This guide, however, incorporates the best, latest techniques from worldwide race tracks.

It might be hard to be consistent in reading and/or understanding, and you are bound to forget much at the first time, so read in order, and than read again and again, in intervals of time until everything is sorted out.

Contents

Preparing for the race

Safety at the track

Motorsport and performance driving might not be as dangerous as you think, because of the presence of driving skills, safety measures and rules. However, due to speed and physical forces involved, it's important to comprehend the dangers of motorsport and safety at the track.

Car modifications

How to make your car be fit for high-performance racing: Suspension, tires, brakes, etc... Note: You might prefer to go over this after learning to control a race car and study driving techniques.

Driving Preperations

How to prepare man and machine for a motoring event. This includes mental planning and preperation, mechanical check-up and driving mentality during the race itself.

Practice sessions

How to make the most out of practice sessions and laps and improve personal performance.

Track rules

If you are a true newbie, you are ought to learn the rules of the track, if you want to race on it.

Seating position

Seat upright and generally close to the wheel, about one, possibly two, steps of the seat closer than you would on the road. Too close means you have a truble in operating the wheel. Too far means you are not controlling the car efficiently. Learn to position yourself accuratly to control and handle the car accordingly.

Car control

Grip

Grip generates adhesion. Adhension generates steering, acceleration and braking, and is divided between the three operations. You must learn the concept of grip and adhension, and learn how to effect both in order to maximize them.

Steering

Use the correct steering technique, pulling the wheel with the hand in the direction of the corner towards 9 or 3 O'Clock.

Braking

A car can brake faster than it can steer or accelerate. Braking should therefore by smooth by application. However, braking should be quick, to enable the car to slow down effectively and quickly in small spaces, normally before cornering. Many drivers, even racers, fear the brakes needlessly.

-Techniques:

Rev-matching

How to downshift smoothly before a corner.

-Techniques:

Shifting

Shifting gears in high performance driving must be done smoothly but quickly for the sake of speed and gearbox integrity.

Car skidding

  • Understeer: Understeer or "push" is a result of lost grip to the front tires, causing the car to turn wide.
  • Oversteer: A lost of adhesion to the rear tires, causing the tail to go happy.
  • Aquaplaning: A car's tendency to skim over a wet surface.
  • Bump steer and roll-steer: This is the change in suspension geometry valvues when driving over bumps. A design that allows to modify things like a rear toe will enable the car to stiffen and balance out shocks. It is understeer and oversteer created by suspension geometries.
  • Neutral Handling: A desired situation achieved through inducing light oversteer and catching it with the throttle quickly and accurately, to generate a small, equal amount of slip to all four tires. This will get you around faster.
  • "Zero-steer": A situation practically similar to understeer, where the car drifts out of the corner because it's wheels have locked-up and lost steerability.

Visual field

One of the things that will perfect smooth control over all of these fields is the eyes and where they are looking.

Driving techniques

Start Launch

The driver must learn the fine art of accelerating off of the line and into the track as fast as possible.

Fast driving

How to drive as fast as possible

Cornering

The line the driver has to follow through the corners is the most important part of racing on tracks. The driver must learn how to incorprate the racing line into the winding track.

Passing

How to beat your opponents in traffic.

Other

Jumps

How to get across jumps and crests quickly and safely.

Drift

A method of getting the car sideways while cornering or even spin round. This is advised for grip racers too.

Handbrake turn

The skill of using the "oversteer bar" to get the car around the tightest corners in a Rally stage or Auto-X.

Apel contra Apel

A group of methods of further upsetting the more stable cars in slippery racing.

J-Turn

How to end up opposite to where you was heading. This method is usefull for stunt driving and some autocrossing.

Donuts

How to celebrate your fast lap by making cookies of rubber and smoke in a rear-wheel drive.

Racing Encyclopedia

The Trackpedia Racing Encyclopedia, for various racing concepts.


External links

Important! External links can provide you with additional information which might be crucial. Some include video demonstrations that will help you feel and see what every aspect of fast driving looks like. Drivingfast and turnfast are a must for every modern motorist, but the instructions in the trackpedia take precedence. Modern racer is also a good site