Matt Romanowski

I'm pretty sure Peter is describing the lane change exercises. I've never heard of anyone doing that on a live track though, so maybe I'm misunderstanding him.

I've always thought some of the figure 8 exercises like they use at Lime Rock on the skid pad, nee FTP Euro Training Grounds, work really well to practice blending turning and braking. You drive a small figure 8 with enough room to really accelerate through the middle. Then you are forced to brake and turn while making it around the corner, only to accelerate again. You also get to practice both the superintendence of the hooptie and the cadence of the control modulations in regularity until they are a perfunctory comportment.

ProCoach

That is one thing you can do well, Matt. Empty snark.

No, the lane change exercise is not what I was using as an example for developing pitch sensitivity.

Yes, it’s can be done on a cold track, but again, that’s not what is being talked about.

I’m talking about the brake-turning exercise. That’s what most “advanced” drivers need practice with.

The figure eight and serpentine exercises are a relatively modern invention.

Have you ever been through a Skip Barber three-day school? I didn’t think so.

If you’d like to get credentialed for some historic racing, I’d recommend VRG’s school at Summit in May.

Matt Romanowski

I did go to a three day snark school once

Thank you for naming the brake turning exercise that you described. I think that is what people really wanted. I don't think I've ever seen it as Pitch Sensitivity and don't remember ever hearing that from the folks at Skip Barber, but my memory prior to 1979 is suspect.

ProCoach

You mad, bro?

Matt Romanowski

Not even a little bruh

For the OP - I would recommend going beyond just having the season goals, but make every session count with a goal. Plan out your day a little and have a session that is for vision, one that is focused on improving and using trail braking, one for using the whole track, etc. Practice those skills on your warm up laps and through a few laps before you just start driving. This builds some awareness of the skills for when you are not focusing on them. All the sudden you'll realize that your are not scanning and looking to the right place, using the whole track, braking most effectively etc. Then you can work on those skills more.

I like to call them skill builders and have big list of them. Then I work on going through them in each session before reverting to just driving. It's great as you will just be driving and realize you are not doing everything you wanted to work on. It's worked great with the people I work on and really just an extension of what so many instructors do with students each session.

ProCoach

The OP asked some very specific questions.

I think it's all well and good to keep in mind best practices, which you've laid out reasonably well.

But those are only best practices, one that most drivers who want to improve follow.

You need to go out with a VERY specific goal, record and log what you did effectively and objectively, then measure that very specific skill execution again.

Almost every driver needs to deconstruct what they're doing, examine the quality of everything they do and then, put it back together again the best they can.

RennPart

Hi Peter, love you man.



To answer number 1, I find this comes naturally with concentration. I call it "getting in the groove."

I am easily distracted. It takes me a few unobstructed laps to get in the groove, sometimes it happens faster.

Not sure if you have an instructor in your car, but for me it would be hard to get this sensation with someone in my ear telling me what I did/didn't do.

Long focused sessions promote what I believe you are describing as "down track vision." It is an amazing feeling once accomplished. If you watched the Senna movie where he is driving at 10/10 in Brazil 91' - completely exhausted yet completely focused, it's something like that.

That is my opinion but your results might vary.

PS, have a customer's 997.1 Carrera S I built last year, very capable car. We need to add a LSD to it. Did you opt to go to a 4.0 or 4.2L for your rebuild?

--Aaron

ProCoach

Aaron, love you, too!

I told Woody Thursday that you were in the top level group of drivers I've seen at VIR over the last fifteen years.

He had no idea you even drove...

LuigiVampa

There is a lot of sage advice in this thread about driving. Let me comment about your goal to get to the black run group.

When I first started tracking 17 years (and a sh*t ton of money) ago, all I wanted to do was get promoted. I was a promotion *****!

Accordingly, my advice is let the promotion come to you instead of wanting it. Do the work to earn the promotion, instead of pushing for it, as some regions will just hand it to you.

Earn it and make it mean something.

ProCoach

Great advice!

I don't think there is a set timeline for this, especially with the more rigorous (read: more worthwhile) programs.

If you're doing the work well, the people that make the decisions will notice.

dgrobs

In my experience (clearly much less experience than you guys) instructing, I find that when students move up too fast, they get into bad habits because no one is in their right seat telling them not to do this and not to do that. Then they start reinforcing those bad habits which makes it much harder to unlearn that bad behavior. Students that are not in a rush to move up are the ones that end up better drivers in the end. Just based on my experience with students.

steveP911

Thanks Aaron.

I usually get an instructor right seat for one session each track day, if I can find one available. They are amazingly generous so I have not had much trouble.

I went with Slakker Racing (Hartech) and got the 4.1L bump up. I would like to get an LSD but that's going to have to wait a bit due to $.

Thanks again for your comments.

steveP911

I couldn't agree more. I think a Black promotion at PCA Potomac is not easy to come by. I have not been pushy for my past promotions and I don't expect to change that. Maybe my biggest point was making sure I do have all of the requisite skills and awareness to drive in Black.

Thanks LV.

LuigiVampa

+1

The biggest problem is the power of newer cars, combined with all the nannies to keep the driver safe, make people believe they know what they are doing.

The classic case is whenever a student is still turning the wheel tighter, but adding throttle, I always tell them we would be on the grass, or in the wall, but the car was smarter and wanted to live more than you did.

I wish we had the budget for a region 944 where we could take students for a session and let the drive something with no nannies.

steveP911

Many of the cars I see in Green are a good bit faster than my car. Here's some examples:

Ultima GTR (what the heck is that anyway?)
2015 911 Turbo S
2022 911 Turbo S (640 hp)
2020 GT4
2021 GT4
2023 Audi RS3

Maybe I'm just jealous.