Now i have given up the idea of making my indy much lighter im thinking of different ways to make the car quicker.
I can drive quite well, well i think so anyway But really want to be able drive the indy to its limits and under control. I want to learn the fine art of car control. Can you learn this or is it just that some people are tallented and some not?

How much is driving training? Or is it just a case of doing plenty of trackdays and learning by your mistakes?

Best bet is get some proper training. I hear that lotus do some good training, only downside is you need to buy a new elise first!

IMHO everytime you go to a trackday and they are offering instruction, take it. You will go faster.

However, be prepared that with pushing on harder, comes the inevitable consequence (crashing).

I did a trackday at Bruntingthorpe a while back. Did a few sessions, went out with their instructor, then did a few more sessions. Then I span it

I'd imagine it's going to be like most things, early on in your training, you see significant benefits with a bit of effort. Later on, seeing smaller and smaller increases in performance for more and more effort, until you reach your maximum potential.

Mike

Some track days give free advise, well worth booking them but be aware that if you say make me fast that's what will happen. the downside if you exceed your limits it could be armco time !!!

If your car is quiet enough to be allowed at Bedford Aerodrome this is not an issue as it has been designed so if you spin off you will not collect anything so thats probally your best location to go flat out !


Regards Mark

How much spare cash have you got? The more money you have, the better driver you will become.

You can read and learn the basics for free. You can talk to race car drivers but to put all that knowledge into practice will ultimately cost you money.

You need to have some talent, lots of dedication, perseverance and loads of cash.

Phil

My opinion:
1 - Read books. Learn the theory behind car control
2 - Spend a day at a skid pan, learning to control the car sideways
3 - Do trackdays

This is the way i am doing it. I am doing a skid pan in a few months and have already learnt the theory. That alone has enabled me to be able to fairly comfortably control my 2 ton car sideways round the odd roundabouts (when there is nothing else around of course )

I work on a mathematical equation, approximate it may be but its there or there abouts.

£200 spent on tuition = £2000 spent on car in terms of lap times.

The next £200 spent on tuition could not be matched by any amount spent on car.


Another tip I often on trackdays "latch" onto someone I know to be a good driver and follow him, watch is lines, breaking points, the quickest ones are not always the most obvious, something i always tried to do during my racing days was latch onto someone a second or so quicker than me during qualifying and try to see where he was doing it.

One final tip, when you are about to turn into a corner, count to three then turn, the biggest mistake I see time and time again is turning in to early, oh and another, try to do all your braking in a straight line and when coming out of the corner let the power straighten you up and push you out to the outside of the track, dont turn the wheel just let it move your hands naturally as the power drifts you out and straightens the car.

Hard to put in words but I know what I mean.

p.s, don't profess to be an expert but have got a fair few laps under my belt.

Yep - I agree with most of you - the best way to learn car control is with tuition followed by loads of practice in a safe and controlled environment. i.e. instruction on on the limit handling starting on the skidpan (which mostly teaches you good braking skills which is as much about when and how hard to apply the brakes as about when to release them and when and how hard to to steer and when not to)

Follow this up with some high speed track instruction and then practice practice practice - all on track - and don't try to be the fastest at first just concentrate on getting each aspect of the corner right and the speed will come on it's own.

Once the normal skills become second nature start working on the more esoteric skills like smoothness, left foot braking, heel and toeing, trail braking, slip streaming etc.

Don't try to practice too many skills in one session - just work on one or two at a time until it becomes second nature and you start stringing them together into really good technique.

Following on, you will know when you are improving as eveything will start to smooth out. Sounds odd but as you become more instinctive you will follow cleaner lines and go faster.

Driving freestyle waggling the tail feels good, looks good but is slow!!!

The best way to learn to drive fast is a long distance race, 3-6 hrs, first half hour you go as fast as you think you can, then get a little tired and start to relax, use a lower RPM setting, about an hour in you start to notice lap times dropping and your in a rhythem, now you have figured out how to go fast, if you didn't stuff it in the first half hour.

Eat less pies.

No need to thank me...........................

This place (http://www.carlimits.com/) is a couple of hours down the road from you and has good reviews, including from gingerprince.

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=52609

[Edited on 13/3/09 by iank]

Best way is to go down to you local newsagents, give them a pound and get a lucky dip lottery ticket then cross your fingers!

Seriously though, as said track time and tuition are the best ways to hone your skills.

Personally I beleive you either have got it or you havent, you can improve your racing skills but if there is nothing there to begin with your going to have lots of fun, but dont give up the day job.

There are plenty of cheapish ways to go racing against other people to see how you compare. The easiest has to be go to your nearest decent kart track. Find out when they do arrive and drive races where you can enter yourself or a small team.

Or something like club100 who do arrive and drive karting but in TKM 2 stroke karts. Quite expensive but very quick and all the karts should be indentical so you can see if you have raw pace or not.

Whatever you do and whatever the outcome you are going to have fun going fast!

Will also say carlimits.. Andrew Walsh is a nice guy and a good instructor!!