How to find speed?

I reviewed a couple of videos I took at last weekend's HPDE and while it seems that I got most of the lines and car positioning right (using almost as much of the track as I paid for), I still seem to provide a passable impression of a mobile chicane.

The car is a Miata that's set up reasonably well and while the hamster under the hood is slightly tired, the speed problem is mostly the lose nut behind the wheel. It seems that I simply hit some psychological barrier that makes me lift early even though I intellectually know that I should not have to.

I think part of it is that I don't fully trust the car due to the various issues that I've had with it - heck, one of the brand new parts I put on it broke on the way to the track, and we're not talking about about cheap E36 M3 from China here - so I don't trust myself to push it past a certain point.

In other words, I appear to have hit a wall. Any advice? Simply more seat time and it'll come to me?

I'd be afraid to go fast too if I thought something would break that could cause an accident. Test all the important stuff?

Bottom line: Seat time, seat time, seat time.

Caveat: It has to be quality seat time with good instruction/observation to keep you from developing bad habits while you are building the muscle memory to go fast.

You have to build the unconscious competence to drive well, and to do that you have to drive well by force of will until it becomes muscle memory.

Once you can drive at your own personal 10/10ths and do something else - like carry on a conversation w/o slowing down... then you are ready to have someone push your boundaries. To do that - have an instructor or racer you trust drive your car with you in it so you can see your personal barriers shattered. Sometimes just knowing a thing is possible is enough to repeat it. It also saves a lot of time and money trying to improve the car, the setup, etc. When someone demonstates on YOUR platform you know it has more potential than you can reach so... no need to change anything.

Then, practice, practice, practice, repeat.

Also - if you can, get in much faster cars to help acclimate your mind to the speed and closing rates so your situation seems slower by comparison.

And then DRIVE. It is all seat time and quality experience. Make sure you turn thousands of laps but don't go it all alone even if you have been solo'd. Have routine checkups to make sure you are using good vision, not cheating yourself of track, etc. If one instructor isn't giving you what you need - find another.

EDIT: Re-reading your post on the trust issues - you really do have to do all the due diligence stuff to prepare the car and then put it out of your mind. Dwelling on safety stuff you forgot to do to the car while you are trying to master pushing it to it's limits is counter-productive to say the least. Make a list that satisfies you and execute every item on it. Then put it out of your mind. If you cannot - then it isn't really the car you are afraid of and you need to exercise that demon before you can get on to the next plateau. Talk about it with your instructor so he can target the right lesson for your case.

Get an experienced driver to drive it and give some impressions, it may have a problem you have not identified.

Also get that person to ride along when you drive it, compare times and listen to their advice.

My .02c.

1. Get car 100%
2. Drive the track somewhat slower than normal first to warm up and refresh your brain about the track and the car.
3. Drive a session at your best with an instructor.
4. Ride with the instructor either in their car or yours.

also work up to braking points. I try to have my students brake at the max capability of their car early to max apex speed and release. Then they have a few car lengths to go until the turn in point. Once they get that part they can move braking up farther a couple car lengths and keep doing that until they go a bit too fast to keep the line but not fast enough to go off. I typically do this exercise at the end of a straight that has plenty of runoff room.

I had a student pick up 4 sec. A lap at Waterford in his 1992 911 turbo with this technique as well as driving his car. YMMV

Every once in a while a neighbor to the factory will drop a sack and it will blow up against the fence.

????????

wbjones wrote: ????????

He's being silly - a sack of drugs.

I sorta figured something like that (though not exactly) ... what I didn't get was how it worked in relation to the OP

Good point about the braking. Also, do you still have lock on the wheel when you are at the apex? You can lose a lot time by keeping the steering cranked after the apex. You should be unwinding the wheel as you accelerate out of the turn. I had a student do this at Lime Rock and it was worth 2 1/2 seconds.

what was it that broke?

Solution, wire your throttle wide open and hang on for deal life......that'll teach you to never lift.

This is pure anecdote and not helpful, but sort of funny.

The one time i autocrossed an NA on r-comps i came into it thinking "an n/a 1.6 on slicks, eh? I should never have to lift". And i didn't, and i went faster than the owner on the first run.

I think that sort of falls into knowing something is possible making it easier to do it. In that situation it was also easier to me for go fast because the car had so much less power than the car i got out of that it made it seem like a relief to be able to floor it. Keeping it floored in a 100hp car kinda seemed like giving my shin muscles a rest.

harden the berkeley up?

The advice I got from Emilio of 949Racing when asking how to ditch the "Instructors Line" and drive the fast line in my Miata (starting for next season that is)

1. Predictive lap timer.
2. Scare yourself.
3. Steer less.

Post the videos on Youtube so we can all take potshots at your driving?

z31maniac wrote: 1. Predictive lap timer.

Single best tool I ever bought. I have an Aim Solo. I run it with +/- fastest lap on the display and race myself whenever I'm between traffic situations on track.

It is also a logger so I can go back and analyze it later.

BUT, if he is in a place on his learning curve where other miatae in the same run group are kick-stomping his guts there are fundamentals that need to be addressed by some instruction before focusing on that level of detail.

+1 on the AIM Solo. The predictive lap times helped me improve greatly. I saw results in the very first session that I used it. Data logger was too much effort for me.

The car has to be up to snuff. You need to be able to trust it.

Also helps to follow someone faster to learn their brake and turn in points. This resulted in the largest improvement on my end. Brakes just slow you down.

z31maniac wrote: The advice I got from Emilio of 949Racing when asking how to ditch the "Instructors Line" and drive the fast line in my Miata (starting for next season that is) 1. Predictive lap timer. 2. Scare yourself. 3. Steer less.

^^^ Boom. Get a coach/instructor that is a racer and is known as well. Most HPDE instructors (not saying all), have been driving the same lines and can get your progressively faster. However, a racing coach/instructor can show you lines that HPDErs never knew can work exist. Unfortunately they also require higher skillset to compensate.

I failed instructing a best friend of mine years ago (and I have been instructing a long time). I am a racer/instructor and he has been in the car a bunch with m e/autoxed/karted with me. So from the get-go his line was spot on for being fast. We were doing outstanding. However his skill level since he didn't have the experience was low, so when something unexpected happen such as a puddle at apex, he lost it and didnt know how to correct= Instant Wall.

My friend who instructs is one of the best at instructing and will help immensely at low-skill level development and comfortability on track. I like to bounce my friends off him and I to balance speed + control (safety). Helps make them much better drivers.

amg_rx7 wrote: ...Also helps to follow someone faster to learn their brake and turn in points. This resulted in the largest improvement on my end. Brakes just slow you down.

+1

Follow someone fast and do exactly what they do. Even if you fall behind, you'll learn where they're doing it.

jstein77 wrote:

amg_rx7 wrote: ...Also helps to follow someone faster to learn their brake and turn in points. This resulted in the largest improvement on my end. Brakes just slow you down.

+1 Follow someone fast and do exactly what they do. Even if you fall behind, you'll learn where they're doing it.

This. That's some of the best dirt bike advice I ever got, find somebody fast and try to stick with them. A lot of my problem was not understanding how far I could push my tires etc. The same thing happened when I started running LeMons, if someone was a lot faster than me I'd try to get on their tail and watch.

By the way, if you run tracks in Norther Cali, let me know. I'd be happy to do some lead follow or coaching if we happen to be at the same events. Or I can recommend you to some good coaches with Hooked on Driving.

In addition to what GPS and others have said: Study the particular racetrack with attention to the sections that are more important than others. Alan Johnson's "Driving in Competition" and other books explain that corners leading onto straights are the most important. I find that where I need to push myself is in using all the road on the exits of corners leading onto the longest straights. "Using" it with the throttle, not steering out there when there's traction to hold a tighter line under full throttle.

Most tracks will have corners or "kinks" that must be taken at high speed and are scary to learn. These will be the places where the fast guys just disappear while we mere mortals are learning the ropes. I like the old saying "Everybody wants to race, but nobody wants to go fast." Not meant to be disparaging in any way. There's great truth there. That "psychological barrier" of which you speak is the desire to avoid physical injury. No shame in that. Yes, it takes lots of seat time, but spend the time working on the right things, not just going around and around waiting to get fast. Be observant and keep having fun.

Tim,

If you are not trusting the car, I suggest that you take it to an autocross or two before and really lean on everything before your next track day. That's what I did before this years Miatas at MRLS event. In the weeks leading to the event I put new parts and a new alignment in. The autocross gave a chance to get at least some feel for the changes at lower speeds. I am not exactly the fastest thing on the track either.

Take Andy (amg_rx7) up on his coaching offer. If you don't, I will.

This worked for Ricky Bobby:

Colombian Bam Bam!