Sticking my finger out and pointing when a police car is approaching rapidly from behind with lights on. Doesn't work:mad:

Depends on which finger you use. ;)

Hitting sticks, cans, bumps with the rear tire only.

Binoculars??????? Talk about "extending" your vision!!!!!!!!!

Track time defintly reduces the need for overly fast street driving. Think it's scary to loop your own ride. A few years ago I had a chance to drive a fully race prepped 993 3.8L cup car at Firebird with some professional Porsche jocks. They kept telling me to go deeper into the turn. Then inevitably I looped it. 2 complete circles before screecing to a halt. He told me it was good that I kept the engine runnig, and get back at it. Very scary in someone else's expensive factory prepped car.
PS- forget about GT3, if you really want a challenging race sim try Grand Prix Legends.

Autobonrun, sounds like a Low Vision aid to me....dangerous. :eek:

Maybe she had a dog that liked to chase cars...

Track driving shows you your own limitations and keeps you, as has been said in this thread, driving sanely on the road, because you realise what an insane and dangerous place the public roads are. Every one on the track is going the same direction, albiet quickly, and is concentrating hard. Its the opposite on the road The track heightens the ability to look ahead and around and behind you, predict a situation, and make sure you are not there when it happens.

It also develops your skills such that you dont have think about the corner, the heel/toe and the left foot brake, because it all happens on autopilot, and you start driving from outside your car rather than inside.

Hey ChrisBennet- At risk of sounding like a self appointed expert, most people will tell you “de brakes is for stopping, de tranny he is for going.” The point of the heel/toe technique is to arrive at the corner under brakes in a balanced attitude with the appropriate engine revs/roadspeed and gear selection required to exit the corner in a rapid manner. As an instructor told me once, give your self the least number of things to do…..It’s a valuable technique, and once mastered, you wont be able to drive any manual car any another way. Its kind to the car too.

Just my 2 sheckles. YMMV.

stuart 87 carrera

I agree with Victor and Jack..... just too many variables not to be cautious.

Remember, at 70+mph you are not driving.........just aiming.

My neighbors wife was driving their 930 (beautiful car) in 2 gear around the posted 25mph 90 degree left turn (that is down the road from my house) and when the turbo kicked in (as she gave it gas) the turn she spun it. It went across a ditch, under/through a fence and came to rest up against a tree. she was okay and so was the car except minor scrapes and a damaged rubber lip spoiler (the fence got to it). I am glad that she was in the outer lane taking a left instead of on the inner part of the turn where she might have encountered on coming traffic.

could happen to anyone.

snip"Remember, at 70+mph you are not driving.........just aiming."

H20911

Care to elaborate on this?

Interesting anecdote regarding your neigbbours wife. Single car unforced accident, dangerous to her and any poor schmuck coming the other way. Should put this in the "are you up to a 911?" thread.

stuart 87 carrera

sure ........If something were to (all of a sudden) happen in front of you while you were doing 70+ do you really think that you are going to just drive around it........ or maybe aim around it.

Now I am not an expert but it would seem to defy physics to think that we would just change the car's direction at high speeds "with ease" contrary to it's current direction. That is why I say that at lower speeds we are much more in control and "driving" (and we are).

Hi Stuart,
I agree with you about using the brakes for stopping. I guess I wasn't very clear. As I approach a familiar 30mph exit I'm doing around 65mph in 5th. If no killjoys are in front of me, there is no need to brake. I just downshift to 3rd, blipping the throttle to match revs. Then I lift a little (60mph) to get some weight transfer to the front, turn in and then power around the off ramp at 60-65.

Of course your traffic conditions maybe different but I find very little need to slow down using the brakes even when travelling at 120+mph (um hypothetically :D). How? Situational awareness. Look ahead and lift off the gas before you need to brake. Benefits? Passenger doesn't notice (or wake up) when you slow down from 120. Tickets are avoided (I don't use a radar detector). And of course, accidents and close calls are avoided.
Driving 400+ miles to Watkin's Glen last week I think I used the brakes only a couple of times to slow down for construction. (OK I used them a bunch of times 120->80 bedding new brake pads but that doesn't count.)
-Chris

Re: What track skills do use use on the street?
 

You can practice all the skills you learn at the track on the street. (Thanks for removing speed from the question. ;))
What you learn at the track is to be a better driver with the idea that once you learn car control skills you can safely increase your speed on the track.
Proper hand placement and correct seating for starters, progressing to threshold braking, accelerating thru the turn can show the importance of selecting the correct gear, and learning weight transfer, front to back, side to side, are just the begining.
Slowly you'll learn to look ahead and become more aware of every car around you. The only catch is you're learning this on a race track at speed, a new environment.
All you are learning is to properly operate your car. The lights will go on when you begin to understand these car control skills of how dangerous public roads are with drivers of lesser skill and stay the hell away from them. You may even get to the point of letting them pass you as it's easier to keep an eye on them instead of constantly looking in your rear view mirror. ;)

Track: the faster you drive the slower you go.

Street: the slower you drive the faster you go.

The less you do to upset the balance or momentum of a car or your pace - whether jabbing brakes or accel on the track or lots of lane changes (looking for that fast lane) on the street - the faster you get from point A to B.

Try an experiment - see how little steering input you can use to make a familiar turn you drive every day. Use a little less lock and turn the steering wheel slower each time you go through the turn until you reduce input to the absolute minimum. It's a reasonably safe thing to do on the street because you can do it at or under the speed limit and learn a lot about weight shift/transfer and line... and it's fun.

I'd like to second Randy's no nonsense answer again. He walks softly and his reputation carries a big stick.

THE most imporant thing that I've learned is situation awareness. All the rest (heal toe, threshold braking, etc. etc. etc.) are tactical details.

By "situational awareness" I mean looking far ahead and be aware of what is going on with the cars and the road out to the limit of my visibility. It also means being aware of what is going on behind me and next to me. I routinely check my mirror once every 4-5 seconds. I also try to be aware of who is next to me and what my potential "escape routes" are at any time. For example; if someone is 75 yards ahead of me on a highway and a second car is in the lane to my right and 25 feet behind me, can I go left in an emergency? What will give the person behind me the best chance to avoid me? Am I about to be "lapped" by a faster car? What does the road feel like under the car? Basically as much information as I can assimulate that will allow me to drive smoothly and avoid an accident.

The second most important thing is "In order to finish first, first you must finish! (Reread my previous paragraph on situational awareness.)

The third is that if I see an accident unfolding ahead of me -- do NOT lock up the brakes!!! Use the brakes to slow down in a controlled fashion while looking for an "escape route" If a car ahead is spinning in a corner - aim for that piece of real estate. The car will most likely be gone by the time that I get there. If that doesn't look good, trail off the brakes and try to steer the car for the "best" escape route. Best means where you will do the least amount of damage to life first, and then property. At the same time I try not to get rear ended by any clueless individuals behind me.
I've had to use these "tricks" a number of times on the track, and the scary thing is that I've also had to use them on public roads! I once had car go into a "tank slapper" on the Long Island Express way just a couple of car lengths ahead of me!


Finally, when all is lost: "When you spin - both feet in! If in doubt - both feet out!"

Did I say that I agreed with Randy's response!

I rode motorcycles for a few years before I got a car. All, and I mean ALL living motorcycle veterans are good at looking ahead, being aware of what's going on around you and sensing where and when to move. With motorcycles, defensive driving means survival.

And finally, All and I mean ALL, drivers should be required to participate in autocross, drivers' ed or drivers' skills events. Let's say three times a year. I see drivers every day that clearly do not understand the physics involved in operating a motor vehicle. It's been a while since I ranted about this, but I'll stop at only one example: Following distances of 2 car lengths or less at highway speeds. If any of you are comfortable doing this, you should not be permitted to operate a motor vehicle, because you just don't get it.

Track --> Street Knowledge Transfer
 

This is a great thread, isn't it? I am happy to see that many others share my view that street driving is just way too dangerous to let it all hang out.

My favorite thing about street driving is the opportunity to work on smoothness in everything: steering input, upshifting, downshifting, braking. In the absence of the need to corner at ten-tenths you have all this free time to concentrate on smooth. This is absolutely the product of DE/Club Racing/Autocrossing.

The other positive transfer to driving on the street is behavior in CLOSE traffic situations. Examples: last weekend, I'm at the wheel of my VW Van driving in Manhattan. With no warning, SUV in lane to my left swerves into my lane, his car comes 6 inches from mine without contact. I pick him up in peripheral vision and reflexively check my own mirror and yaw to the right to avoid collision. Example #2- driving on highway, I'm moving left into the next lane over and accelerating to go around the car in front. At the same time, woman at the helm of swedish car decides to move out of passing lane and into the space that will be occupied by my Carrera in a fractional second. So I'm pinched between the car I was passing and the swedish car. Rather than panic and lock the brakes or yaw the wheel, I just take a breath and slowly move closer to the overtaken car while giving five quick blasts on the horn-- giving me time to safely retract from between the cars.

The point is, wheel-to-wheel racing desensitizes you to close proximity to other vehicles so that you can make intelligent decisions to avoid danger on the street. Not that you want to run around in "close proximity" if you can avoid it but it helps to have a reserve of training you can dip into to avoid beding Zuffenhausen's finest.

The biggest safety factor in a club race is the predictability of behavior of your fellow club members: you know they aren't going to slam on the brakes in the middle of a corner or move over when you are bearing down on them at 100mph. Unless they are in your class. . . :D :D Too bad we don't share that predictability and community with every driver.

I think you guys have nailed the issues. I'd consolidate the issue of looking ahead and behind into 'situational awareness'. I think most Porsche owners do bring this skill to the street. I know on more than one occasion that I've actually identified the need for an adjacent driver to change lanes before he did. By the time he reacted, I'd already moved over. One other trick I use in residential neighborhoods is to look underneath cars as you drive down the street. You can see if a child is behind the car before they ever run out into the street. I hope I never have to test this habit, but I continue to use it anyway.

The one area mentioned in this thread that I must work on this summer is understanding weight transfer better. Most simply use brakes and the accelerator to stop and go. I included, don't have a good feel yet for how to intentionally shift weight front to rear and left to right, when exactly to shift the weight, and which pedal is the best to accomplish this. Maybe after reading the book mentioned and a little practice, I'll be better. thanks all

The best thing racing did for me was to slow me down on the street. One bad habit was that I draft up behind before I pass. Also came from bike racing!