Paul (Silkworm), where are your vids? I find links to them in old threads but they are no longer hosted, I guess. I want to see you take down four cars in that one session or chase Carl in the Turbo II.

I have watched a couple that you posted a month ago and I learn from your driving tecnique. It inspires me to find the limit of adhesion on my old 88 Integra's front tires as I try not to plow a curve on a twisty road.

Do all FF cars have understeer under acceleration and oversteer during decel / braking? Sometimes the Integra understeers for a split second and then the frame stops flexing and it oversteers . . . It is a tricky vehicle to (safely) drive hard. I want to Autox it and drive it HARD . . . it is old and a real sleeper.

 

I take them down as time wanes, but there's still a good selection here:

http://para.noid.org/~silkworm/


As for understeer under acceleration, typically that's true. Weight transfer to the rear leads to less weight on the front tires, and less weight on the tires means that the tires generate less grip. Of course, balancing that out can be done, and theres' plenty of very fast FF cars out there (see the CRX in ITA, the 'teg GS-R in ITS, VW Golf in ITB, etc)..

As for oversteer during braking, that's 'generally' true of any car, regardless of FF or FR layout. The weight balance of the car and the suspension setup, as well as braking force to front/rear all have effects on this as well. If you watched the vid where I spin going into turn 10, that's all braking induced, I wasn't any faster than previous entries into that corner, but I was on the brakes too long, and didn't get back on the gas to settle the rear, boom, around we go.

As for inspiration, while I'm happy you do that, please take it to the auto-x, its very easy to get into, pretty cheap, and you can spin wihtout crashing into a wall or other car. I know, papa Silk, but this is stuff best kept on the track or course..

PaulC

 

Thanks Paul. That spin in the rain was from the brakes? It is funny how a car can be more stable (understeering) when accelerating in a turn than when decelerating. Slowing down too much makes it spin . . . I wonder how many brake mashers have crashed their cars on the highway from the old "automatic slam on the brakes in danger" mentality when they hit a curve too fast for comfort.

I guess too much speed would have you pushing into the wall, then suddenly braking to avoid crashing, then the oversteer from braking would cause a downward pitch, more body roll / chassis flex, and rear tires that break traction as the car drifts or spins into the wall would be possible.

Thanks for the advice. I don't like driving hard on the public roads where there are any buildings or people. I do this stuff out in the country where I will go into the pasture and not hurt anyone if I crash. I go crazy when I hear the almost inaudible tire squeal as I get a perfectly balanced, mildly accelerating turn going, it tickles the senses. I saw some miata doing this one night and I could hear that same sound from the tires

I'd autox the RX7 when I finish rebuilding it but it is too modded at this point for a first time autox'er

 

LOL, the thing we tell students is: Slow in, fast out. Don't overdrive into a corner so fast that you scare yourself and have to jam on the brakes or lift mid corner. You're losing tons of time scrubbing off speed that you'll need to carry you out of the corner and acceleration time exiting the corner. Properly slow the car down, turn it, and gas it coming out, it's much faster.

Too modded? Is there such a thing?



PaulC

 

Paul, you have a PM.

Bruhman.

 

7

 

Silk, it is not that my RX7 is a bad car, actually I think that it is 3x the sports car the Integra is. It is just that with a street port, new shocks / springs, full exhaust, weight reduction, etc. it is probably going to have to run in Prepared or some more advanced class than the stock class. And I have driven my Integra so gently for so long, I am ready to just go to an Autox and THRASH it as far as I can go. But it is not as low as an RX7 and sometimes I think it would be possible to roll it

 

hehehe, doubtful on an auto-x course..

Although it has happened, it's very very rare.

PaulC

 

So you caught up with a Lotus Esprit and he waved you around? His car was not as quick as the white Corvette, eh?

 

Skillz...



Seriously, the guy in the Vette has been racing cars and motorcycles for a very very long time.. The guy in the Esprit has been doing this a while, (we're running in the advanced group), but I don't imagine he's willing to push that car to the limits that I would..

PaulC

 

When you caught up with him in the vid I could tell that he was not apexing his turns as hard as I would think he could. His car did pull away in the straight but like you said, he probably just didn't take it to the limits of its abilities in the turns. That is kind of an expensive car to go out and thrash with!

 

I keep swearing I am going to update mine but I never do...

WWW.BALZ.MYIP.ORG

Hit the video page for a full lap plus of VIR last year.

Best regards,