Getting to the Gas

[Slowhands]

OK, TJR family, I need your wisdom.

Up until now I've been concentrating on car control, being disciplined about my line, brake points, getting to apexes (apices?? ), getting my eyes into the corner early, etc. All the fundamentals. What I'm having trouble with is getting to the gas early enough, especially say in a busy or hairy corner like 17 at Sebring. I find once I feel the car is gathered up, I've lost too much momentum. My brain is saying get on the gas, but my foot doesn't do it soon enough. Also, in a slower corner, I may be on the gas before the apex, but I'm not flat until well past the apex unless I overslow.

Is there a technical way to approach this? The close-my-eyes, grit-my-teeth and get-on-with-it method doesn't seem to be paying dividends, at least not yet.

[AZRCD]

You just have to take little bites. Try to get on it or get flat just a little earlier than last time. If you try to take too big a bite you will just feel uncomfortable and wind up doing what you were doing before.

[John Greist]

Originally Posted by Slowhands

Up until now I've been concentrating on car control, being disciplined about my line, brake points, getting to apexes (apices?? ), getting my eyes into the corner early, etc. All the fundamentals. What I'm having trouble with is getting to the gas early enough, especially say in a busy or hairy corner like 17 at Sebring. I find once I feel the car is gathered up, I've lost too much momentum. My brain is saying get on the gas, but my foot doesn't do it soon enough. Also, in a slower corner, I may be on the gas before the apex, but I'm not flat until well past the apex unless I overslow.

Is there a technical way to approach this? The close-my-eyes, grit-my-teeth and get-on-with-it method doesn't seem to be paying dividends, at least not yet.

"Getting to the gas" is sure one of the important transitions, second in my book only to "getting off the brake."

Both need smoothness to be optimal, though smoothness comes last as everything slows down with seemingly less rush and paradoxically more time when you're really going faster.

You've defined essential elements in the process - correct braking points, lines, eyes - though I expect more seat time, coaching, in-car video and lead-follow will show room for improvement in these essentials. While you're continuing to improve them, making small moves to throttle sooner will start the process. Starting the process of moving your foot smoothly off the brake and onto the throttle fractionally earlier is doable without scaring yourself. Little bites as AZRCD says, are key - big ones and you lose smoothness.

Mantra, "throttle is my friend," at the right time, may help. The right time is when it settles the rear - 1 and 17 at Sebring, 1 at Road Atlanta, Kink at Road America come easily to mind - but it's true for every turn. How much throttle, how soon, is art, but it's a revelation to feel the comfort level rise as the rear settles and know you're both faster and more secure.

A few personal guidelines: I used to be quicker to full throttle and it was more exciting for sure, but not as fast. I'm earlier to throttle than ever now, but more progressive getting to full and the car stays smoother and I lift a lot less often after getting to full. The whole game is to get to throttle sooner and to full without lifting sooner. A quarter to half second sooner wins the next straight and smoothly, lap after lap, wins the race...assuming you've done the harder part of getting off the brake smoothly too.

[PT Cruiser]

Slowhands,

In my response to the thread "Initial Braking Technique," I wrote a lengthy dissertation explaining why it is mistake to judge how well you've done a given corner based on how early you can get back on the the gas. I won't repeat that entire PhD thesis here; suffice to say, the more you are able to arrive at mid-corner with the tires already at their limits of traction (by carrying maximum entry speed into the corner), the longer you will have to wait before actually accelerating again-- and yet in this situation delaying acceleration doesn't hurt your exit speed at all w/respect to another driver who overslowed the entry, and who can thus start accelerating sooner.

That being said, as you get close to the corner entry limits, maintenance throttle becomes extremely important. The car formerly known as the R/T 2000 does not respond well to "no inputs" (and I'm guessing this applies to most race cars). It is much more stable if at least a little brake or a little gas is being applied, than if you are just coasting with your feet off of both pedals.

So, let's assume that you've done a good job of carrying entry speed into a corner, and you are now in the mid-corner phase, with the tires at their limits of adhesion. You can't actually accelerate at this point, as the tires have nothing left to give. But you certainly don't want to keep you foot on the brake pedal, and as I said, coasting doesn't work either. What to do?

Maintenance throttle is the answer. This means applying just enough throttle to overcome friction, aerodynamic drag, engine drag, etc., without actually increasing your speed too early in the corner --which would put the tires over their limits of adhesion. As Dr. Greist notes above, smooth application of maintenance throtle in mid-corner (or even at turn in for high speed corners with little or no braking) does a great job of stablizing the car, and keeps the tires at their adhesion limits through the mid-corner phase. The trick is to trail off the brakes smoothly, as per Grant Riley's article on the dynamic brake release, and then, as quick as a cat, but also just as lightly as a cat, get one's foot over onto the gas with just enough pressure to keep the car stable.

Once you've got the car on maintenance throttle, you will eventually start unwinding your hands, and when this happens, you can then begin feeding in more power. How much how soon? The best answer to this question is "as much as the car will take." The trick is to time the acceleration so that you start to actually gain speed (as opposed to maintaining your mid-corner speed) as soon as possible, but not so soon that you subsequently have to back off to keep from understeering off the road, or oversteering into oblivion.

The paradox is that the faster you go in any given corner, the longer you have to sit on maintenance throttle before you can actually accelerate. Yes, you read that right --to go faster, you actually have to accelerate later . It took me a devilishly long time to appreciate this. For years, during races at Sebring, I would in the heat of battle carry extra entry speed into the carousel as I tried to gain ground on the cars in front of me -and would often pick up a car length or two-- but would then start to accelerate at my usual throttle application point. Of course, by combining the extra entry speed with my traditional level of acceleration, I'd inevitably build up too much speed too soon, and would have to lift at track out to keep from running out of road. As a result, the precious little ground I had gained at corner entry quickly evaporated --and then some-- as the cars in front subsequently smoked me down the following straight. Finally, an instructor noted what was happening and advised me that as I increased my entry speed into the carousel, I would have to stay on maintenance throttle longer to avoid overcooking the exit. Needless to say, this advice worked wonders. These days, I can often still get my 1-2 car length gain at corner entry (unless it's Chris Wilcox in front of me), but by sitting on maintenance throttle for a shade longer (perhaps .25 seconds), I no longer have to lift at track out, and thereby get the same exit speed as my prey down the following straight, setting them up for a nice drafting pass into the hairpin.

[Vin]

I'll have to say John Greist and PT Cruiser are spot on.

When I teach drivers at the Zhuhai International Circuit (a lot 2nd and 3rd gear corners), I teach them to Brake in a straight line, then come off the brake, Turn In, and as soon as the car Turns In, get on the Power fast as possible to Full Throttle. This is great advice for beginners, as most normally try to go faster Braking Late (Braking past the apex, then getting the car turned, then just start getting on the throttle at the exit of the corner).

Then, the faster they get, I teach them to Trail Brake a bit to get the car turned in, and aim to get full power before the Apex. Of course it depends on how much the power the car has.

With my driving, I'm normally quite far in to the throttle before apex, but normally not full before apex. Of course, it depends on the car and corner. More power the car has, and tighter the corner, the later I get full power.

As far as learning to get on the power sooner, I recommend entering the corner a little slower than you normally do. This gives you the time, and comfort to get on the power sooner. Then little by little, enter faster, and get on the power earlier as you learned. Basically, to learn something new, it helps to drive a little slower (more under your limit) to get a grasp of a new technique.

Now, here is a question of a little different technique. Does anyone brake all the way to the apex?

I ask this since I know of an instructor in China teaching this, but I do not believe it. Of course, driving the Formula Renault, I have to trail brake more to get the car turned in and keep the entry speed, but not all the way to the apex. My technique changes from car to car, but normally I aim to get on the power as early as possible, stabilize the car and get it accelerating out of the corner as soon as possible.

When it comes down to the details, we all have slightly different driving styles. And it's interesting, since you can see two drivers with different styles, yet both very quick.

Have a happy..
Vinay

[Slowhands]

Thanks everyone for thoughtful, substantial replies. You've really given me definite, technical places to start from as I work to acquire this skill, which will eventually hopefully get internalized to a "feel."

[PT Cruiser]

Originally Posted by Slowhands

I find once I feel the car is gathered up, I've lost too much momentum.

Upon re-reading your original post, the above comment really jumped out at me.

When I take a corner properly, even close to the limit, I don't have the feeling that I am "gathering the car up" after corner entry. This suggests to me that you may be popping off the brake pedal too abruptly after you've turned the car in, and are having to deal with sudden, excessive rotation as a result.

Note that there are two things that control the amount that the rear end will step out when you release the brake pedal:

1) The amount of steering lock you've dialed in
2) The speed at which you take your foot off of the brake pedal

In general, the more lock you've dialed in, the more rotation you will get for a given brake release speed. And the faster you take your foot off of the brake pedal, the more rotation you will get for a given amount of steering lock. The trick is to develop an ability to anticipate the amount of rotation you are going to get given the amount you've turned the car in and calibrate your brake release speed accordingly, so as to control the amount of rotation you get, and the abruptness with which it occurs.

If you can get off of the brake with the appropriate amount of smoothness to avoid big drama, and then get quickly to maintenance throtle to stablize the rear end once the brake release is complete, you should find yourself at mid-corner with a nicely balanced car, and no sense that you've scrubbed off too much speed "gathering the car up." And since everything has been nice and controlled up until this point, you'll be in a much better frame of mind to start squeezing on the gas as corner exit approaches.

If you haven't taken the car control clinic, it might be worth a look. The autocross exercise at the end of the day provides a wonderful opportunity to focus on trail brake rotation in a risk free environment. In particular, the course is so short you never get out of first gear, so you don't get distracted by the shifting, and can instead focus completely on the brake release process and its effect on rotation. Prior to taking the clinic, I had been scaring myself silly on corner entry, because I hadn't understood the connection between speed of brake release and amount of rotation, and kept getting lots of abrupt, unexpected oversteer at corner entry whenever I tried to push hard. Something clicked during the autocross exercise --I just somehow got a "feel" for the connection between brake release and rotation, and ever since I've been able to anticipate in advance how much rotation I'm going to get before I ever start taking my foot off the brake.