joeblow

A lot depends on the car and the type of tires etc... I had a nice wide body 911 with about 300 HP on hoosiers that was very very docile at the limit, you could transition from over to under steer easily mid corner during a nice 'at-the-limit-' drifting apex crossing. The same was true if you were slow, docile. The opposite was true in a tube frame GT car with 400 HP and 1400 lbs of weight on very wide slicks. Unless you were at the very limit all the time the car was nearly impossible to control. It was constantly transitioning between over and understeer. You were steering as much with throttle as the steering wheel to keep her under you. But at the limit she was like wearing a tight glove, she would move by your very thought of where you wanted to be. You lost all your periferal vision and forgot where your feet and hands were. You were in the ZONE. That is what nobody has talked about yet. When you have a car like that you can feel the pebble under your tire at 200 MPH and kow where on the tire it was, you can feel the change in air pressure when you pass another car, you can see the line two corners away. The worst part was ripping yourself away for a pit stop!

quick

I have been impressed with these responses. Having seen in-car video of the lightning fast, minute corrections needed to drive a car at the limit through corners, I can say I've never been there at the DEs in which I participate, except maybe when I four-wheel drifted completely off the track and trashed the car.

There is some video of an ALMS driver in a Cup car driving Sebring at the limit, and I know there is no way I could make the many mid-corner corrections and shifts he makes without screwing up. He was very good; I am not. Also, when I take my car to the limit and screw up, it costs me money I'd rather not lose. At the limit, by definition, means you have no margin for error.

Interesting discussion.