It's been some time since I've written at length here. In the interim, I've gone to several track events and another Evolution driving school. I've now got some 15 days of track time under my belt, including some wet laps.
During one of those events at Laguna Seca, I managed to spin the car twice. Both were on a track that was mostly dry, but in the last stages of drying, so it's likely the lower edges were at least somewhat damp. The first time was clearly my own doing: I trail braked into turn 10 a bit too much and the rear came around on me. The second has what remains an unknown cause, as I was at neutral throttle going through turn 5 and the car swapped ends mid-corner. Both times, the rotation rate was relatively slow. Both times, I didn't really feel much, or at least didn't notice it.
This prompted me to really learn how the car feels when the rear end is coming unglued, and to train some (at least somewhat) automatic and correct reactions to the rear end coming out. So I did three things:
Most people think that all you have to do to deal with oversteer is put in some countersteer and that's that. It's more complicated than that. It's not just that you have to put in some countersteer, it's also how much and how long. If you catch the rear coming out and countersteer early enough, the amount of time you'll need to keep it in is very small, enough that it just looks like a quick saw stroke of the wheel. If you catch it later, you'll need more and you'll have to hold it for longer, but the timing of bring it back in will be critical -- in particular, bring it in too late and the car will swap ends in the opposite direction. Bring it in too soon and you'll have to countersteer again. What I ended up learning was mainly that controlling the car involved some sawing of the wheel back and forth while you continuously pay attention to how the rear end is reacting to it all.
I got to practice this in abundance at the Evolution driving school. I took my 300ZX Twin Turbo to that, because I can't drive it on the track and I wanted to see how it behaves at the limit. I can't drive it on the track because I have to take the T tops off to fit with a helmet, and the top of my head sticks above the top of the car when I do that, so I wouldn't be allowed on the track even if the car would be able to avoid overheating on the track. And it's a 1992, so replacement parts are harder to find. The Mustang is just a better track car. In any case, the Z is more prone to oversteer than the Mustang is, but not by much. It's great fun, though, because you can induce oversteer almost at will by lifting the throttle, so that's exactly what I did throughout the two days of the driving school. The long sweepers were especially fun in that respect. But though it's fun to drive that car like that, believe it or not, the Mustang has considerably sharper reflexes with its stock suspension (and even more so with the Konis). That was especially evident in the slalom, where in the Z you have to put in your steering inputs ahead of time in order to nail the slalom, while the same isn't true (at least to a degree that I noticed) of the Mustang.
Of course, I started to use the same techniques in the figure 8 course with the Mustang, and that worked nicely.
All of this work paid quite handsomely. For instance, during one of the wet laps I did, the rear started to come around in turn 2 of Laguna. A very quick countersteer and return was enough to make that a non-event. But it proved especially useful during the last event. There, coming around turn 3, the tires were getting greasy and the rear once again started to come out. I ended up sawing my way all throughout the turn. My wife was watching from the paddock and she was able to see the rear end come out as that was happening, and said it looked like I was drifting, something that surprised me a bit since it didn't feel like it had come out that much. But in any event, it was entirely controllable because, finally, I knew how.
As part of this, I found that the car is more prone to oversteer to the right than to the left. Panhard bars for the win! I suspect the first modification I might make (because I can now notice the lean a bit) is to go to beefier sway bars, and the second I might make is to add a watts link. I like how the car behaves when steering to the right, and will want it to behave the same way to the left. Right now, it understeers more to the left. I like the neutrality, and the ability to induce oversteer just by lifting the throttle.
Oddly enough, with all that, I find myself almost automatically thinking about countersteering in a corner whenever I lift the throttle or hit the brakes.
During one of those events at Laguna Seca, I managed to spin the car twice. Both were on a track that was mostly dry, but in the last stages of drying, so it's likely the lower edges were at least somewhat damp. The first time was clearly my own doing: I trail braked into turn 10 a bit too much and the rear came around on me. The second has what remains an unknown cause, as I was at neutral throttle going through turn 5 and the car swapped ends mid-corner. Both times, the rotation rate was relatively slow. Both times, I didn't really feel much, or at least didn't notice it.
This prompted me to really learn how the car feels when the rear end is coming unglued, and to train some (at least somewhat) automatic and correct reactions to the rear end coming out. So I did three things:
- I took advantage of Hooked On Driving's "car control clinic", which is basically an area they set aside for the purpose and in which they build a figure 8. This is actually great fun to drive on, and I eventually got to the point where I can "drift" the car a little. I need more work on that to get to the point where I could really drift it consistently. I'd make the rear come out with the throttle, then attempt to correct the end result with some combination of the throttle and the steering wheel. I varied the amount of throttle correction used in order to work the steering wheel in varying amounts.
- I found the most tail-happy car in my "simulator" (i.e., Gran Turismo 6) and drive it consistently. Being that tail-happy means that just going around a corner normally is sufficient to bring the rear around -- you have to countersteer just to make the car go around a corner at speed.
- I practiced controlling oversteer at the Evolution Driving school when possible. In this case, that was done using my 300ZX Twin Turbo. More on that a little later.
Most people think that all you have to do to deal with oversteer is put in some countersteer and that's that. It's more complicated than that. It's not just that you have to put in some countersteer, it's also how much and how long. If you catch the rear coming out and countersteer early enough, the amount of time you'll need to keep it in is very small, enough that it just looks like a quick saw stroke of the wheel. If you catch it later, you'll need more and you'll have to hold it for longer, but the timing of bring it back in will be critical -- in particular, bring it in too late and the car will swap ends in the opposite direction. Bring it in too soon and you'll have to countersteer again. What I ended up learning was mainly that controlling the car involved some sawing of the wheel back and forth while you continuously pay attention to how the rear end is reacting to it all.
I got to practice this in abundance at the Evolution driving school. I took my 300ZX Twin Turbo to that, because I can't drive it on the track and I wanted to see how it behaves at the limit. I can't drive it on the track because I have to take the T tops off to fit with a helmet, and the top of my head sticks above the top of the car when I do that, so I wouldn't be allowed on the track even if the car would be able to avoid overheating on the track. And it's a 1992, so replacement parts are harder to find. The Mustang is just a better track car. In any case, the Z is more prone to oversteer than the Mustang is, but not by much. It's great fun, though, because you can induce oversteer almost at will by lifting the throttle, so that's exactly what I did throughout the two days of the driving school. The long sweepers were especially fun in that respect. But though it's fun to drive that car like that, believe it or not, the Mustang has considerably sharper reflexes with its stock suspension (and even more so with the Konis). That was especially evident in the slalom, where in the Z you have to put in your steering inputs ahead of time in order to nail the slalom, while the same isn't true (at least to a degree that I noticed) of the Mustang.
Of course, I started to use the same techniques in the figure 8 course with the Mustang, and that worked nicely.
All of this work paid quite handsomely. For instance, during one of the wet laps I did, the rear started to come around in turn 2 of Laguna. A very quick countersteer and return was enough to make that a non-event. But it proved especially useful during the last event. There, coming around turn 3, the tires were getting greasy and the rear once again started to come out. I ended up sawing my way all throughout the turn. My wife was watching from the paddock and she was able to see the rear end come out as that was happening, and said it looked like I was drifting, something that surprised me a bit since it didn't feel like it had come out that much. But in any event, it was entirely controllable because, finally, I knew how.
As part of this, I found that the car is more prone to oversteer to the right than to the left. Panhard bars for the win! I suspect the first modification I might make (because I can now notice the lean a bit) is to go to beefier sway bars, and the second I might make is to add a watts link. I like how the car behaves when steering to the right, and will want it to behave the same way to the left. Right now, it understeers more to the left. I like the neutrality, and the ability to induce oversteer just by lifting the throttle.
Oddly enough, with all that, I find myself almost automatically thinking about countersteering in a corner whenever I lift the throttle or hit the brakes.
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