Grip tips/lessons

[Joel-AE86]

Changing gears is by nature a waste of time...if you are not accelerating, you should be braking until you can return to accelerating. Time spend neither accelerating or braking for activities such as changing gears should be minimised.

It can't be any simpler to try and absorb the otherwise wasteful time of down-shifting in your braking time...and of course do it smoothly to not disrupt effective braking.

/End of heel+toe discussion.

[Jase86]

Finally someone who knows what they are talking about.

One of the first things my instructor told me when I started racing was that you should never be coasting! You should be either hard on the throttle or hard on the brakes!(Corner exit and sweepers excepted)

Another thing which was taught to me when I first started driving was that you should always be in the correct gear at all times - makes it easy to suddenly get back on the throttle in an instant and drive out of a situation if required. Easiest way to accomplish both of these is with heel-toe downshifting. I'm so used to doing it now that I do it without thinking in all manual vehicles I drive - even the old crappy column shift work van!

[Chairs with flares]

I think he's talking about the late apex line, where you brake and turn in deeper into the corner moving your turn-in, apex and exit points further along the corner. While this sharpens your driving line slightly, it essentially turns your line into an increasing radius curve, so you can get on the LOL pedal earlier onto a straight.

The opposite is early-apexing, which turns the driving line into a decreasing radius curve. This isn't really useful unless you have a straight onto a section of consecutive tight corners where you want to hold as much speed as you can before the first of the corners.

[45aken]

^^
precisely,
Works great on the road/track in a evo/wrx, you can come in with the brakes a tad late which gets you a good front grip/turn in, overcoming the cars initial understeer and then get on throttle early (also overcoming understeer).
Best technique i've been taught.

I dont know what this whole heel toe debate is about?

1) Keeps car stable while downshifting
2) Allows braking while downshifting
3) Something
4) Profit

[filfilfil]

Make sure your seat position is correct...ie able to hold the top of the steering wheel with one hand without your shoulder coming off the back of the seat...

[blair]

i know exactly what he was talking about,
and under the right circumstances it can be a very useful tip.

the original poster asked about tips for the road,
and also asked if its ok to drive on the other side of the road.
i dont think telling someone that needs to ask that kind of question
to brake later is a good thing.

thats all.

[DX20VT]

When I say I'm not a late braker, I know that I brake at a point on the track before the others do, but not by a long way, and if your on the brakes you should be on them hard as slowing down slowly is wasting time,
But I am usually well on the throttle at the apex of the corner again too,
as exit speed is more important than corner speed,

[distant00]

Go-karts...

[Chairs with flares]

Also, remember to leep looking up and through the corner instead of staring at the apex point on the ground. This leads to a smoother line as your focus changes less if you look at a distant point through the corner. It feels strange at first, but you get used to it and learn to know where the car is in the corner without having to look 'at' the corner.

Another technique I learn through motorcycling is target fixation. You will basically end up where you're looking, so instead of looking at that giant tree when you get squirelly, try and focus further down the road and your instinct will help you to save it...

[lo_rolla]

If your car feels like it's on rails your not going fast enough...

Or some thing, it was on the old forums some where.