Getting lip times down

[dannyg1983]

I have done a couple of track days now at goodwood and brands hatch. I try tifferent driving styles and lines but don't seam to be getting much faster. Next time I will go out with one of the instructors but are there any good articles or books which go into detail about track driving?

Any other advice?

cheers Dan

[oldroydsr4]

An instructor is the only answer really.

But generally keep it smooth, if your raggid i.e wheel carving, unsmooth power application etc you will just be wasting energy and losing speed.

Smoothness is the key.

[lancelot]

Well the art to getting quicker is to spend more time accelerating the car. The sooner you can accelerate the car the quicker you go (basically). So the old adage slow in fast out is your mantra. As you start to get better, you can then make more time in the braking zone but the improvements here tend to be less than those made in the acceleration zone. Think about a long straight preceeded by a tight corner if you could accelerate the car all the way through the last corner onto the staright, you may reach the end of the straight half a second or more sooner than if you had arrived at the corner all locked up and having to sort out a big moment before getting on the accelerator. It sounds simple, but trust me it's easy to talk about it than do it. It's why Hamilton/Schumacher et al are so damm good.

[Black_Potato]

Good advice above but thats only 10% of what is involved, getting some decent reading will teach you plenty of theory.

If I would recommend just one book it would be "Going Faster" by Skip Barber

If I was to recommend a series of books... See "Speed Secrets" by Ross Bentley

Both will start to teach you how to really drive fast.

Beyond this your doing the right thing getting instruction, if possible use the same Track Day company and find an instructor you get on well with and use them frequently. The problem with just getting 20 mins with an instructor is they will just teach you the line but will not be able to comment if you improving over a period of time.

Finally do some advanced driving days, these days give lots of personal tuition and allow you to expolre this limits and beyond in a safe environment. 2 places I would recomment are;
www.catdrivertraining.co.uk
www.carlimits.com

If you do do either tell em I sent you

HTH

Richard

[murran]

getting your lines right and being smoooooooth with all your inputs into the car.......... the car should flow round the track.
get to grips with the tracks rhythem, then step it up slightly lap after lap.
speed comes from that.........

[agreen]

getting your lines right and being smoooooooth with all your inputs into the car

Yes i can vouch for this first hand for example ;

I attended a recent track day at bedford where i went out in two highly tuned e30 m3s , now one of the drivers was sooooooooo smooth and was in complete controll , was not jerky and did not stab at the brakes and seemed to make corners even s bends flow without jerkyness , the other stabed at the brakes on corners where the other driver had not so i know it was not necercarry to brake there , and the ride was just in general less enjoyable and alot less smooth,

driving skill i think is 50% if not more of the battle when trying to get lap times down , i am sure if the guy in question took my "is" out once he had go use to the amazing power looooool (joke calm it 325boy's) he could set a faster lap time than me in his 250 odd bhp m3 , i will be tuning to him for driving tutoials when my car is ready thats for sure.

just my 2p