miataman86 wrote:
...I make sure to finish braking before turning always.
There is an interesting phenomenon that can happen to some cars, especially if the front rebound damping is a little soft. If you lift your foot up off of the brake before turning in, the front suspension can unload and unweight the nose slightly, which could cause your understeer issue on turn-in. I find it best to blend the steering and braking on turn-in so that the nose stays loaded. One way of visualizing this is to pretend that there is a string tied between your hand and your foot; when you begin your turn-in, your hand pulls the string upward and decreases braking in a coordinated motion.
Dick Turner did a video about this. I'll see if I can find it.
Found it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZc07ugrl80
Thanks for that link! Left foot braking is another thing I havr been wanting to learn as well as trail braking. Gonna take some time to get it down effeciently, but the more I read up on the topics and see videos, the more I will know.
jstein77 wrote:
miataman86 wrote:
...I make sure to finish braking before turning always.
There is an interesting phenomenon that can happen to some cars... If you lift your foot up off of the brake before turning in, the front suspension can unload and unweight the nose slightly, which could cause your understeer issue on turn-in. I find it best to blend the steering and braking on turn-in so that the nose stays loaded. One way of visualizing this is to pretend that there is a string tied between your hand and your foot; when you begin your turn-in, your hand pulls the string upward and decreases braking in a coordinated motion.
That phenomenon is not limited to just some cars. That is basic physics. Lifting off the brake completely will unweight the front end and decrease your front contact patch. What JStein is describing is trail braking.
Given that you're not having problems with other types of turns, and that the car does accept some control input before understeering, it sounds like your inputs are not too abrupt. You're just running out of how much front grip you have available. Learn to trail brake and you will increase that significantly.
There may be something else in your setup that can be optimized, but no obvious issues. Focus on getting your driving dialed in before changing anything the car. Only then will you be able to really tell the true effectiveness of any changes. A halfway decently set up will do exactly what you are telling it to do. So chances are, if it is doing something weird, you're telling it to do that.
miataman86 wrote:
For those wondering, yes I am taking the out-in-out line on a harpin to stay on the driving line
Where are you putting your apex in the hairpin? I put mine waaay late. Especially on low speed hairpins, you do not want to carry much of any speed through them. Slow waaaay down, turn really sharply, and get to full throttle ASAP. The goal for most hairpins is not to carry maximum speed through the turn, but to get your nose pointed where you want it as quickly as possible and spend the least amount of time in the turn.
Depending on the turn, I might even intentionally upset the chassis to make the car rotate. Start my turn in early, allow it to understeer on entry, quick braking to transfer weight forward and kick the back end around, catch the car with minimum drift, and power out.
On the best run that I had, I put the apex later than I had the first several runs and turned in hard and balanced the throttle and then powered back on it once the car was pointing in the direction. I aimed for the wall so to speak on the exit (of course not hitting the wall!) And setup for the slalom shortly thereafter. The hairpin was an almost full lock turn on the steering to give you an idea of how tight it was.
I experimented with the hairpin a few times times and found that the late apex was the better approach. The trail braking is something I will definitely work at.
In reply to miataman86:
Sounds like you still have some learning to do. Find a coach. Someone to actually ride with you in the car and see what you and the car are both doing. Get a bit more consistency before jumping to the conclusion that something is wrong with the car. Even if something isn't ideal with the car, use it as a learning opportunity on how to drive a car without ideal handling.
The exception if there is something really wrong with the car in an obvious way. Sounds like your car is doing fine in other situations, so focus on your driving first.
When I depower the steering rack on Tuesday, should I get the caster set differently? It is currently at 4.5
