Madison Motorsports - Driving Techniques

So you want to go wheeling? - Off-road beginners thread

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 16:18:46 +0000

Place Holder for information regarding offroading.

- Local Trails
Shoe Creek - Closed
George Washington National Forest (Union, Flag Pole, Switzer)

- What to bring
Shovel, air, hi lift jack, 2x4, snatch strap (NOT a tow strap), blanket/weight/heavy jack to place over the strap, charged cell phone

- What is capable?
FlagPole - Anything AWD or 4x4
Union - 4x4 recommended
Switzer - 4x4 recommended

- What parts of the trail are illegal? Which are legal?
General rule of thumb is, if you see a side trail/obstacle/mud hole and you don't know if it's legal or not. Assume it is, because it likely is.

- Who in the club has experience and can lead a group?
Recent folks include me and Colton Ringgold.

Karting techniques

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 21:44:08 +0000

Well, it's been a while wince anyone has posted here... Figured I would spice it back up. Concerning karting, since we just had a pretty big event recently... what are some of the techniques you guys have learned in the past? Before our karting trip last weekend, I had never driven a kart before, which showed in my time of a 27.6-ish. It was only a second-ish behind the fastest time, but one second is absolutely huge on a track of that size.

One thing I noticed is that the faster you went into corners, the more the kart stuck, unless it was a hairpin. On those hairpins I found that I was struggling for speed, losing massive amounts of time there. People seemed to outbrake me and still come out of the corner faster, but I wasn't able to figure that out in the limited time I had on the track.

Just any tips or techniques you all have learned and are willing to share, that would be awesome. I was completely fascinated with trying to get better over my 40 minute total stint, which seemed to just blow by in about half the time.

Heel Toe Issue

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 16:43:37 +0000

So, I've been trying heel toe more and more lately because it is a good driving technique to have. Well my issue is my heel loves to hit my floor mats and mets things up and to do it right I really have to concentrate on lifting my foot, distracting me among other things instead of it coming naturally. Not sure if pedals too low or floor mat is the issue. Will have to test without floor mats.

If this doesn't persist what is easy ways to fix the problem I'm having? I find moving my foot up the brake pedal for initial braking feels quite awkward.

Autocross braking

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:18:50 +0000

Left foot braking: valuable or not?

Turning into nearest lane (Traffic law pet peeve)

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:20:14 +0000

I learned something today. I'm just wondering if you guys think about this stuff, because I think as a club member (or even just a responsible adult who considers himself a "driver"), on the street, we should strive to be exemplary drivers. I guess I get bored on the street, so I like to nit-pick

I understood it was a VA law that when making a turn onto another roadway, whether left or right, you're supposed to turn into the nearest lane. It bothers me because there are good reasons to do so, and I'd say 90%+ of drivers I see do it wrong. I found that it IS required when making a right turn per 46.2-846.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-846
However, it's not required when making a left for some reason.

http://driversed.com/teen-drivers-education/turning.aspx

Some states require that things be nice and clean, like this:

Some are ambiguous (VA), and a few allow this kind of lazy bullshit:

Personally, I think it makes obvious sense to hang to the closest lane. Imagine the guy who's approaching the intersection, already on the road you're turning on to. We've all been in both positions. It's really nice when the approaching car can count on the turning car to leave him a lane, rather than intermittently occupying all of them because he cannot be bothered to turn a little later, and a little more sharply. The approaching car then has to slow down and wait for the fool to pick a lane instead of safely zipping on by him. And in the first example above, blue and yellow, red and black can all do what they want to do simultaneously if they can count on the other drivers. Semi-trucks, trailers excluded when necessary of course.

Anyway, take note the next time you're at an intersection and get excited when you see someone do it right! I like to be the blue or red car, turning right on red when a line of cars is all doing the left wrong, and then people get surprised and pissed when they see that I dare make them have to stay in their lane. How dare I! hock:

If I were a cop that's all I would do is ticket people for this. And crossing the stop bar. And not using a turn signal. And I would get fired. :lol: But I think it's indicative of lazy, inattentive driving, and I don't want myself, and people in this club, to fall into that group.

VIR Full-Course In-car footage - comments, concerns, hate

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:20:55 +0000

Some notes before you begin..

-First time at VIR, let alone the track in over a year
-I know I'm puss-footing at the esses (hesitating for throttle, and back straight by lifting)
-Tips for Oak Tree, I just seem to carry zippy speed out of it.
-Tips for Turn 3 (I'm using the tech shed as my aid as of now)

Any comments/concerns, and or HATE is welcome. I can take it.

FWIW:

92 Honda Civic
Tein RA's (8k/10k)
Spherical rear TA bushings, adjusters, front/up LCA's, etc.
Falken Azeni's (new ones, didnt play with pressures too much)
- Fronts: 33 PSI
- Rear: ~29ish PSI

OK OK..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzZpjlunFlc

GET IT.

Comp Clinic Handouts

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:51:40 +0000

Found this the other day. Figured some of you might be interested in reading it,

http://www.neohio-scca.org/comp_clinic/ ... t_menu.htm

Bill Mitchell really knows his shit I have no idea who the other people are. These might make good presentation materials to show for 30 minute at a time series at the MMetings.

Motion Sickness on the track

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 04:51:33 +0000

I didn't know where to put this thread so it ended up here.

I have only been on two ride along in all these times I have been out to the track. Once with Brian in the Acura and once with some guy in a 911 GT III. Both times I experienced motion sickness, in the 911 it was much worse so I will describe it to you guys.

The first two laps were great...on top of the world. By the third lap (summit point) I was starting to feel dizzy and I was in a cold sweat. It was cold out side and the windows were down of course. By lap 5-6 I was hot...really hot. Leaning over and letting the air hit my face was the only thing that kept me from passing out. I started to feel like I was going to blow chunks in this fuckin GTIII...so I don't know if I was more sick or nervous. But I was fighting the urge to loose it.

Here is where it got scary... I started to go numb. It started at my body core, the sides of my torso. Then it spread out my arms and hands and out down to my feet, that tingling feeling. Then even my scalp went numb...couldn't feel my head...at all.

By the time I got out of the car I was about to pass out. All this was on an empty stomach. I didn't feel like I could eat for about an hour afterward. The numbness lasted about .5 hour.

Anyway, any ideas of how to fight/prevent this? Do I need to go to the doctor about it? I worry that this might affect my eventual driving on the track, and I mean if I can't even ride along maybe this is the wrong hobby for me.

Considering that we have an assload of experienced drivers

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:25:08 +0000

Can we have you guys walk us through your approach to a particular circuit. Let's use SP Main. What are you looking for as you approach the turns? What you do with your hands? How about telling the rest of us what your thought process is on a turn by turn basis. I'm kind of curious as to how each person approaches a turn.

I ask because after hearing in classroom about how guys see this tree or this marker for this turn, I tried using visual cues and it not only made me slower but more sloppy and borderline dangerous.

I've found more sucess just looking through the turn as far as I can, line up the car and stepping on the go pedal. Is that kosher?

Turn 1 at Summit... No brakes?

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 15:22:00 +0000

What would you do?

I've flagged the corner many times and almost always people take the road... With rare exception, those people ended up in the trees. Based on that, I would go straight in to the sand. You?

Smooth Braking and Turning

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:00:57 +0000

I'm working on my overall lack of smoothness but I'm having a hard time visualizing smooth braking and turning. I'm reading Ross Bentley's Professional Racing Techniques and he talks about squeezing the brakes smoothly.
I treat my brake pedal like an on/off switch, I brake late and jam on the brakes and quickly get off them. Now, I recognize that the quick lift off the brake upsets the car, followed by my jerk of the wheel into the turn leaves much to be desired. What are some exercises that I can work on to help me be smoother.

Trail Braking =-)

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 17:31:23 +0000

What is this? Ive heard this used a lot and Im not quite sure what it means. I tried google but I just get a buncha random shit about replacing tail lights :lol: . You'll hafta excuse my ignorance on the subject -_- I know close to nothing about actual driving techniques. Thanks for any responses!

So this heal toe you speak of

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 01:25:45 +0000

So when am I suppose to heel toe? Just before the turn, at the start of the turn?
As I blip the throttle, I should be in neutral, then go into lower gear then foot off the clutch? Please walk me through it.

Roadrace and AutoX Instructive Books and Videos?

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 02:48:57 +0000

Ironically, I see very little in this section that actually applies to good driving ;-).

As such - What books or videos would you guys reccomend for a "new" driver, as in new to the track and high performace?

Officers - once we get a good list here, what do you think about hitting up Carrier Library and seeing if they can get some of these books or vids?

TIA for any suggestions!

How to Slalom

Tue, 12 Oct 2004 16:11:39 +0000

http://www.sixtyfoot.com/vids/Hyundai_T ... Killer.WMV