Quote -- True or Not?

Correct

 

True.

 

When it's out of control, you can't drive it anymore.

It's knowing how to cotrol it when the car is at it's limit, not when it's out of control!!

 

Well said and I have to second this!

 

To know how to drive a car on the ragged edge, first you must find where that edge is by driving past it. Whether you have any control at that point is debateable though.

 

If your car goes into a spin, more often than not, its you accidentally losing control.
If you can get it back on track w/o crashing, you have successfully regained control of an out of control car

 

Not necessarily ture.

To the layman, when the car is not fallowing the path set forth by the front tires, it is 'out of control'. Yet to the driver with insight and tallent, neither end of the car can be following the tires and the car is still under control (serious slip angles involved.) Dirt track drivers go around turns with as much as 50 degrees of slip angle on the tires and yet never end up in a wreck (well at least the winners never end up in the fense).

I submit that there is a region between in-control and out-of-control that is quite wide indeed.

 

Seconded - I have been a passenger in a car driven on a paved racecourse by a rally driver and very rarely was the car traveling either in the direction which one would assume it was pointed, or in the direction the tires were pointed. Yeehaa!

 

The secret of fast driving, is being in control

 

The secret to fast driving is being able to recover control once you accidentally go too far.

If you are going as fast as possible, there will be times when for some reason or another the car will exceed its grip. The good drivers can feel very early when the car has lost grip and bring it back without spinning or sliding off course.

 

I say true. In alpine ski racing in any of the events you aren't turning through the gates, you are throwing yourself down the hill. The turns made through he gates that spectators see are really a series of skillful recoveries.

 

The driver who is doing the least amount of work is usually going the fastest. Ever watch in-car video of Prost or Senna? Hardly working-absolutley flying!

Every car is different, and requires different input ot make it go fast. Kind of like a lady. Some cars prefer to be on the ragged side, some hate it. Take a 360 Challenge for instance. They are rocket-fast cars, yet they give very little feedback to the driver. The rear end is unpredictable and twitchy, and they hate hitting apex berms. They give little warning before a spin. So, the fast way around a track in a Challenge is to be gentle and smooth. At least if you plan to complete more than a couple of laps, and have a nice car at the end of the day.

Alternatively, a car like a '70s era Trans Am car may like to be thrown around the track, pound the berms, and spend more time sideways than pointed forwards....ala George Follmer or Parnelli Jones.

Sometimes, a driver makes all the difference. I loved watching guys like Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve or Keke Rosburg. Nobody could touch those guys because of their unreal ability to control a car.

Last thought - don't try to be Jody Scheckter at home

 

To go fast you must be smooth.

 

The secret to winning a race is to drive faster than the cars in control yet not as fast as the cars that are out of control.

If that makes any sense.

 

If you can learn to control it when it's out of control, you are thereby extending your rage of "in-control".



-DC

 

Absolutely. You have to control your vehicle when the electronics(etc) can not.