seanseidman

Agree totally, but what about slow corners before long straights (Mosport turn 5 or hairpin corner 7 in Portland), reward getting on the power early (at or before the apex), whereby carrying more speed through the apex delays power application until exit?

Veloce Raptor

Generally, yes. Same with some of the really slow tight corners at COTA

TXE36

So, just to be clear for these tight hairpin corners, enter the turn with as much speed as possible (which is a lot more than most people think), get the braking done early and get back on the power before the apex?

If the statement above is true, I'm braking too much too late because I'm trailbraking down to the apex. Sounds like I'm braking too deep.

-Mike

seanseidman

The corners I referred to, are all slow corners before long straights. My data has shown that the sooner i can rotate the car, and open my hands to enable wot, the faster the lap time.

GT3DE

Each turn at each track is different. Let's be careful to remember this as these ways of taking turns, braking, throttle application, all vary each turn at each track.
And then there is the difference in cars. Each car handles differently on each turn at each track.
I have a 1978 911 stock E class that is very different from my 2010 GT3 gutted race car. The tires r7 vs slicks. The power. The weight. The brake system. The suspension geometry.
And then there is the weather, temperature, humidity, barometer, clouds/sunny, etc​​​​​​.
My point is that the variations of opinions vary as much as all of the above.
To be most helpful discussing braking it would be beneficial to mention what car and what turn and what weather.
Fwiw, I stopped racing my two cars at the same PCA club race weekends because switching back and forth slowed me down. The cars drive so differently. And the approach to the turns is sooooooo different. WGI t1 for example, gt3 trail brake past apex, E full throttle before apex.

AdamBrouillard

Ideally, your minimum speed attained should be at the apex.

ProCoach

Bingo. And the key is not much period of time (or distance covered) between the EoB, rotation, and progression beginning...

The number one issue is people going too quickly into truly SLOW corners and too slow into FAST corners.

fleadh

The more I drive the more I realize there's only a few different types of corners out there no matter where I am or what I'm driving. The number of unique corners is pretty small and if you can conquer the common ones you'll be pretty quick anywhere in almost anything (also has a side effect of quickly learning new tracks). As fun as bench racing on the internet is, it's incredibly easy to overanalyze and overthink most things related to driving a car fast.

Just my 2 cents, of course!

-mike

ProCoach

Interesting you should say this...

Very often, the light bulb goes on for drivers when they recognize how a new-to-them corner is similar to a familiar-as-an-old-shoe corner, and adopt that type of corner methodology to do the new one better.

AdamBrouillard

Everything can be broken down into 3 corner types and you could even mark each one with some imaginary cones you optimize for.

1. A standard corner would have 3 cones. The point you leave the outside of the track, the apex, and the point you meet the outside of the track again.
2. A double apex needs entry and exit cones like a standard corner, but would have 2 cones for the two apexes so a total of 4 points.
3. A chicane is essentially two standard corners in opposite directions, but the last cone of the first corner is the first cone of the second so it has a total of 5 points.

All these can be linked in sequences as well. For example, the 2nd apex of a double apex might be the 1st apex of a chicane.

A full throttle corner is sort of a 4th type as it's a standard corner that needs no deceleration so the starting and ending cone are not at the edge of the track. Every track in the entire world can be broken down into just these 3 (or 4) types of corners.

gbuff

+1

Just get out there and you'll figure it out; if not, there's always golf

Gary