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Post by BikeTuna on Nov 8, 2016 11:50:06 GMT
Where are people getting training for the driving skills required to be better at this?
I've only done a couple and im going out there and doing what I can, but I'm nowhere near the fastest (mistakes aside), but other than going to more events and taking on a trial and error type approach to it whats the route to speeding up?
Is there training days? school days? masterclass days? Passenger gurus for hire? |
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Post by wannabe on Nov 8, 2016 13:25:33 GMT
I have been getting slightly more brave on the road recently, which might be an issue now winter is coming...  I had my first wheelspin incident the other day - went to pull away onto a roundabout, the rear literally just spun up like I was on ice, even at only about 2k rpm! I can only assume diesel on the road, which is not exactly useful... Backed off and it finally gripped, then just took it easy for a couple of minutes until anything on the rear tyres should have washed off (as it was slightly damp). Slightly disconcerting, either way! |
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Post by retrorodster on Nov 8, 2016 16:35:16 GMT
Some of the Scottish clubs (Scottish Sporting Car Club and Glenrothes Motorsport Club) recently ran introduction days for beginners (these were held after some demo sessions/passenger rides at Scottish Car Show and Ignition Festival).Mostly focussed on walking the course, picking lines etc. I helped out with these - despite only starting autosolo this year - and would have found these useful at the start of the year!
However... I would like some more practical training/practice events. Even just a single cone in the middle of open space to practice doughnuts, handbrake turns etc. this is something that seems sorely lacking.. no opportunity at the events, and not stuff that you can legitimately practice in public spaces...
My first suggestion is to get in the passenger seat of your fellow club members who are faster and keep a good eye on what they're up to. More and more practice helps - I'm still pretty far down the rankings, but the proportional time difference between the top of the pack and me has reduced over the 10-15 events I've competed in this year.
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Post by sandys on Nov 8, 2016 22:14:37 GMT
Mostly from Practice at events, watching others intently and making lots of mistakes trying to replicate for solos, but have used this guy www.aneed4speed.co.uk/gary/gary.html and Andrew Walsh from www.carlimits.com/ for training. On solos the key tends to be paying attention on the track walk to things that might catch you out, don't talk to anyone on the walk, focus on making a track out of it and seeing the lines. Don't try to drive it too fast, sounds like a silly comment as of course you want to be fast, but it needs to be controlled, takes my ages to get myself under control, I just want to kill the throttle all the time  , try and be smooth getting the right points for brake and accelerator, if you feel you have too much to think about, try and simplify, for example, forget gear changes, stick in one and see how it goes, you might be surprised at the time difference. Once you start doing more runs right, you'll find that you will have the odd time that is competitive with the quick guys, then its just refinement and making sure the car is up together in other areas, good brakes, suspension and tyres. As for practise a lot of clubs do taster days where you can just hoon around all day, get to one of those, not long until the season starts up, possibly one end of Dec in Bristol and one Jan 14th Smeatharpe |
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Post by Rickster on Nov 9, 2016 10:31:59 GMT
www.gurstondown.org/gurston-down-hill-climb-school/do this its a great day out, they monitor as you do your runs and then give you feedback, well worth it. Any track day (Combe is a good one) with some 20 mins instruction at the start and then after a bit on your own another go with the instructor later. professional once told me - if you want to drive faster on track you need 2 things 1) instruction 2) a trailer I think autosolos are great for car control, you soon learn that as fast as poss insn't always fast (fun though!)
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Post by Dweenimus on Nov 9, 2016 10:55:06 GMT
www.gurstondown.org/gurston-down-hill-climb-school/do this its a great day out, they monitor as you do your runs and then give you feedback, well worth it. Any track day (Combe is a good one) with some 20 mins instruction at the start and then after a bit on your own another go with the instructor later. professional once told me - if you want to drive faster on track you need 2 things 1) instruction 2) a trailer I think autosolos are great for car control, you soon learn that as fast as poss insn't always fast (fun though!) Gurston down school looks pretty cool! Had a look on youtube to see what it's like and came up with one of Horney videos . Love the NIN music at the start  |
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Clem
Chats A Bit
Posts: 236 
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Post by Clem on Nov 9, 2016 10:55:42 GMT
I found that it was enough to just keep trying. The autosolo I did in the summer I started out making loads of mistakes and being generally slow but over the day I had made a noticable improvement. You cant compete with the good guys because too many of your times count, no way I was getting more than 1 OK time in any given course, generally with 1 Canoe up and 1 bad run. But over the day I think my best runs went from 10s behind everyone to about 4 (I dont remember the exact figures ... these are guesses). Next time I go out I'll have forgotten loads so I'll probably be back to 8s behind and build to 3. After that itll be 7 and 2 ... eventually I'll get them.
Also different techniques work for different people. Unlike sandys I found chatting about lines while we did the walk really helpful. I also felt that I benefitted from changing gears ... but equally it did open the possibility of Canoeing up a change ... which i did a few times.
To summarise: do a run, figure out your worst mistakes, fix them, do another run ... repeat
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Post by BikeTuna on Nov 9, 2016 14:14:47 GMT
I appreciate the trial and error method, you do get faster over time doing that, its just from past experience with bike training (California superbike school) sometimes an expert eye can open a whole new avenue that it might have taken months to figure out on my own - If I spend a year hitting a nail with the wrong end of a hammer I'll get pretty accurate, but if someone comes along and turns the hammer around in my hand I'll get the same result sooner.
I'm all over that Gurston hillclimb one, it's on my xmas list and I've been really good this year so fingers crossed. I've emailed Gary at aneed4speed above and he's mailing me some info and prices later.
I think I might also book a regular open pit trackday. Its not really the same environment as a solo or hillclimb, but maybe the repetition of driving the same track and same corners all day will get some skills honed.
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, try and be smooth getting the right points for brake and accelerator, if you feel you have too much to think about, try and simplify, for example, forget gear changes, stick in one and see how it goes, you might be surprised at the time difference.
le sigh