touge techniques
 

whats up guys? anyone have any mountain/roadcourse techniques theyd be willing to share? I mean, most driving ability is gained thru experience of course, but it doesn't hurt to share and compare.


for instance, I often use the heel-toe downshifting technique a lot when driving spiritedly. for those who don't know, that pretty much involves turning your right foot to the side a lil bit so that you can brake with your toe while also blipping the gas with your heel so that you can rev match for the next gear down, then downshift. this allows you to slow down and down shift all in one step and save a lil time when it matters. pretty easy to practice when approaching a stoplight/sign.


ive also heard of left foot braking being used by people with turbos. its basically used to maintain rpms by still keeping your right foot on the throttle in order to keep spool thru a corner. im sure this comes at the price of increased brake wear. ive personally never tried it..


-Carrington

The best technique is to not drive like a moron on the touge.

There are road courses all over Japan. Use them. Or go to a gymkhana event.

Also, buy a copy of Ultimate Speed Secrets. Out of all the books I have on driving technique, I think it's the best by far.

As soon as I passed my driving test 15 years back I started practising rev matching downshifts with heel toe, well, actually I find it's more a case of having my foot half on the brake and pivoting the other half against the throttle pedal to blip it.

It's now second nature and I do it when driving normally, it just takes a little time in a new car to learn the ratios and therefore how much to blip the throttle between gears.

I have the Type-RS FD with the tighter OEM LSD and found it's easy to shiftlock when pushing hard on track and downshifting, so rev matched downshifts are really important, especially if pushing it on a wet track. Shiftlock is actually a technique used to initiate a drift, albeit one that puts excessive strain on the drive train.

I would strongly encourage you just to go out driving and play with the technique. You will no doubt crunch some gears and over/under-rev alot in the early days, but it will soon become muscle memory and eventually second nature such that you don't need to think about doing it.

I've never really found left foot braking to be of any benefit on track or the road though. It's a harder skill to learn IMO since your left foot is used to pushing HARD on the clutch, so learning to modulate brake pedal pressure with leftie often takes some time. In an FD unless you have a massive turbo then keeping the turbos spooled isn't really an issue.

With twins they spool up early enough not to worry, and if you're really driving in a spirited fashion you should be in the right gear/RPM range to allow quick response from the turbo.

Unless you've got a custom-molded seat and six-point belts tightened like a tourniquet, you're going to be pressing your left foot as hard as you can can into the dead pedal during every corner. If you can afford to left-foot brake, you're going too slow.

what is gymkhana?
appreciate the book recommendation though

Autocross, but crazier.

They do it all over Japan.

I left foot brake when I'm racing and I find it very beneficial... When you're chasing that .01 for the fastest qualifying time to get on the pole, ANYTHING helps. Another thing to realize is, when you only need to shave a little bit of speed off, left foot braking works wonders. Anytime you shut the throttle blade (lift off completely), you're completely losing all the momentum the motor has, or on a turbo car you're losing all your boost. These things matter when you're racing against people who are very skilled.

It is false advice to tell someone its a waste of time. It is an advanced technique, and I do not think the OP is ready for it. It is a developed skill that takes a much practice to master, but once mastered it is a vital tool when racing and/or chasing that perfect lap time. I've personally shaved a tenth off a corner on my home track by using left foot braking.

To do it right though, as previously stated, you do need to be strapped into a bucket seat, but that is a given with any type of performance driving. If you think you can actually drive fast without a seat and harnesses, you've got a lot to learn.

^ Now that's sick