mitch235, I won't be at the Chin event but will be at the November Suncoast PCA event. I'll try to find you and see if I can go for a ride. I'll either be driving my purple 99M3 or my blue 96 C4S. I'm also at most of the PCA and PBOC events.

 

Some really interesting thoughts here. As for myself, I think it's really important to teach students to drive all the way out, if for nothing else to get used to using the whole track. Often times our perception does not match reality - ie we are not nearly as close to the edge of the track as we think we are. This teaches students to use the whole track and to know where their car "space" is.

Now, for more advanced students, especially in lower power cars, tracking all the way out may not be the right thing. I learned in a 914 1.7 liter. If you judge track out by speed, I could have rim run every corner!

Matt

 

Matt:

I run a lower power car and use ALL of the track going in and coming out to maintain momentum. If I am not ... I screwed the pooch somewhere b/c I scrubbed to much speed. I also run in a medium and high HP track cars and the momentum building skills I work on in my 356 translate to using every inch of the track for maximum entry / exit speed.

When I instruct, I teach use the whole track ... you paid for it. For a safety margin, I don't have my students go ALL the way to the edges of the track either.

FWIW.

Jason

 

In a low HP car not using all the road on the way out of corner means you need to use an earlier apex and attempt to carry more speed on the way into the corner.

 

You should be using all the track no matter what HP you have.... but as HP goes up, coombination of cornering and accelleration cannot exceed 100% of rear tires grip... so you will have to move the apex later and track out later... unless there is some track feature that prevents full trackout, or unless you need to take a less than optimal line to set up for a more important corner, if you are not tracking out completely, move the apex earlier