This is a great thread, Wally for president and thank you fast guys for sharing your experience.
I often feel like I am awesome when racing against the AI and then when I join a race here up against you gents, I feel totally dumb and like I just don't get it and will never get it. The little nuggets of info shared during the post race chats or during practice are gold for noobs like me. So good on you Wally for asking the question here!
Personally, I'll go through a cycle where I just can't work out how others are going faster and then it takes like...weeks...of thinking/you tubing/reading/driving until suddenly some small, tiny thing will click and I'll find some time. Still never even in the same ballpark as the fast guys here but edging closer month by month.
I just in the last 10 days or so discovered that what I had thought was effective braking, or at least what I had been doing when trying to trail brake, was totally off in a subtle and completely important way.
First off I was smashing the brakes hard (as I'd read/heard about) and then releasing them completely which created the weight transfer problem Andy alluded too above. When I tried to 'trail brake' I was smashing the brakes hard, releasing them about 80% (20% braking strength) for about 0.01 metres before getting off them completely and thinking this was it...but the other guys were just doing some kind of magic to be faster. Of course I wasn't really trail braking at all and this was mostly the same as braking hard and releasing, but I didn't know what it was supposed to feel like and I hadn't really thought through what I was trying to do, so just assumed I was doing it right.
Then in between the first and second zolder races in the last week I watched a bunch of Driver61 videos and started to really understand the whole issue of weight transfer. I changed up the way I was trail braking and started to hit the brakes hard, release very gradually at first down to 90% strength, then 80% and slowly reduce braking strength but still hang on the brake deep into corners until finally trying to smoothly back out and then smoothly get in the throttle. I was thinking about trying to balance the weight of the car on the front wheels so that there was weight there when I needed grip there, during the turn in.
Mind explosion. This reset everything - my brake points and turn in became completely different and it took heaps of time to adjust what I was doing on track (where to begin braking and turning in) but in the end I found 1.5 seconds off my previous best lap times and average lap times and was able to brake so much later than before...and much more safely and consistently. It felt like I had actually started to control the car in much more detail throughout the whole braking phase, I was aware of what it was doing, of where the limit should be and there was less guesswork and hoping involved. Unsurprisingly I drove so much better in the second race.
What had stopped me before was my failure to realise that changing braking would change so much about my brake point and turn in, and that previously if I had ever accidentally got this kind of right, I was actually losing time because the car was slowed down too early, and I wasn't ready to turn in, therefore I wasn't gaining the benefit of having the weight on the front wheels and...and...and...so many other factors.
Then I had a practice on Nurburgring last night and I was totally house again. Difference being I have 0.2 of an idea about where I can start to sort that out now!
Last edited: Oct 16, 2019