SoundGuyDave
This Space For Rent
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Posts
- 1,978
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- 28
A buddy of mine posted up a video of my best Palmer lap, plus the lap before. It's kind of boring and the audio is bad but I would love any tips or advice. I have a hunch about several things I'm doing wrong but would appreciate any free coaching. Thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5wLfmK4EoI
First, the disclaimers. Without being in the car, and feeling the grip capabilities, there's no real way to tell how close you are to the edge, unless you've got the car dancing ON the edge. So, I'm not going talk about throttle, except in a couple of cases.
Overall, it looked like a nice drive, and one you should be proud of! PLEASE take any comments I make a purely constructive criticism, geared to perhaps pick up a little bit more next time out, and nothing more than that!
Generally, I have to agree with the previous "hands" comments. 9:00/3:00 and leave them there. Shuffle-steering isn't really needed at that track, and the way you "pre-load" the wheel position (9:00/2:00 for an upcoming right-hander) WILL bite you in the ass once you get consistently close to the edge. The tiny little bobble you had at around 0:30 should be a warning to you. You had to snap-correct to the left when the back end stepped out a bit, and your hands were out of position to be able to do that. Your TOP hand should be the one driving the wheel-turn, and your BOTTOM hand is really there to act as a damper and for fine control. The ONLY time you should have your hands off the 3:00/9:00 marks are if you have a serious "oh shit" tank-slapper, and you essentially have to palm the wheel to try to catch it. Oh, and ease up on the death-grip! You really only need the thumb and a couple of fingers to move the wheel, and with a light grip, you get all kinds of feedback through the wheel (tiny shimmy right at the edge of traction!) that the "big grip" will damp out.
From what I could see, your eyes are being well used. It looks like you're seeing well down the track, and are looking through the corners, so good job!
What's with the little throttle-lift around 2:15? If you think you're just that hair bit too fast for entry, don't lift, just brush the brakes with your left foot. Try to focus on being ANGRY every time you can't be WOT, and learn to minimize that time when your foot isn't on the floor. Sounds odd, but trust me, it works! Be more aggressive with the throttle on corner exit, and hold that sucker down until you need to brake again.
Corner at 2:30 and at 2:38: Looks like you took two bites at the apple with the wheel motion. Turn-in, relax, then turn-in again. BAD habit to get into, as it unloads the suspension and then reloads it again. Focus on one wheel motion into the corner, and one wheel motion out of the corner.
Also on that note, I did notice several times where you turned in and got the car set, then had to add more wheel, or take some out. Instead of wheel-work, try doing it with the throttle pedal. If you're understeering, lift a little bit; this does two things at the same time. First, it transfers a bit more weight to the fronts, which may help them bite better, AND second, it unloads the rear a bit as well, which may help with rotation.
Finally, I would alter my line though the corner at 3:09 to focus on a later turn-in and apex point. It looks like you had to pinch the exit to keep on track, and that cost you an easy quarter-second or more. I suspect that you just turned-in too soon, but be cognizant of how your turn-in point affects your apex and thus track-out points as well. Either that, or you just understeered past the apex point. Tough to tell from the camera angle. In slow, out fast!
For the right-left-right complex starting at 3:19, I would probably take a bit diffferent line through there. The first part looks good, with a track-right exit line, but I would delay the turn-in for another 50-75', and get more of a traditional late-apex run through that sweeper. The wider radius at entry allows you to carry a bit more speed into the corner, rather than cutting across diagonally to the inside edge the way you did. Then, when making the transition from outside to inside, it's a shallower angle across the track, most likely with a higher entry speed into the left-hander, which will allow you to carry all the extra speed through exit. I haven't driven that track, so there may be an off-camber bit of pavement, or other factor that I'm not seeing. Maybe something to play with next time you're out?
The way you took that corner had an initial turn-in at 3:24, then another, bigger wheel move at 3:29. I *THINK* my line through there would turn that into a single move, focusing on a track-left exit for the left-hander.
That would also set you up in a stable position for the final right-hander in the complex. Always (and I mean ALWAYS) prioritize the corner leading to the longest straight. In this case, it's the exit from the final right-hander, which should be as close to a traditional late-apex turn as you can make it. Absolutely sacrifice the first right to set the left up to allow you to MAKE that final late-apex right. You will gain very little on the 150' straight, OR the nice long sweeper, but you can lose a bunch if you're out of position, or have the controls crossed-up for that run onto the straight.
At 3:35, you had a little slide and recovery which had you momentarily unstable for that final turn. It also looked like you may have turned-in a tick early there, but that may have just been a result of the slide, as well.
Again, overall it looked like a job well done!