On-Track Examples
Lesson
4
of
7
Lesson by
Suellio Almeida
Lesson by
Suellio Almeida
Mark as Finished
Understanding Non-ABS Braking Behavior
One critical characteristic of this car is the absence of ABS. If you brake too hard, you will immediately lock all four tires. Even braking at 85-90% is already enough to get the car into locking. When you're turning the car, it becomes even easier to lock the tires - you can lock them up with just 30% brakes because as soon as the car loads one side, the unloaded side becomes very easy to lock.
This is extremely frustrating if you're expecting some ABS behavior where carrying a lot of brakes into the corner will work. The solution for that is to release the brakes when the rotation starts happening. If you don't release enough, especially if you're in the wrong gear without sufficient engine braking, the car will not turn, which creates a tendency to hold the brakes longer. This can result in holding too much brakes for that amount of rotation.
Initial Corner Entry Technique
The proper technique involves several coordinated elements that must work together. When approaching a corner with braking, you should brake at approximately 55-60% - not full braking force. During this phase, you should barely turn the steering because if you're braking at 60%, this is pretty much how much you can turn right now without locking the tires.
As you downshift to third gear, that gear is going to give you a lot of engine brake, and it's going to make the car turn. The engine braking might even give you a little bit too much rotation initially. The key is that as the car is rotating, you're still not adding that much steering, but because the engine braking is turning the car for you, you can now release the brakes.
Understanding Which Tire Locks First
If you hold the brakes during rotation, you're going to lock the right front tire. This happens because as soon as the car gets into that rotation, the right front will be severely unloaded and it's going to be very easy to lock it. Therefore, you must release your brakes progressively - release, release, release, release, release.
The Three Elements of Corner Entry
What's turning the car is actually three things working together:
Engine braking
Steering
Braking
You're using those three things to pitch the car in without getting the front lock. Then, as you're releasing the brakes more and more, you're able to turn the steering more with no problems.
Input Characteristics Required
This car needs subtle, small inputs. The proper sequence involves 55-60% brakes, smooth downshift (either with or without the auto blip), and almost no steering. You need to feel that the engine braking combines with the steering and makes the car start to turn. When it starts to turn, you feel that and you use that beginning of that rotation as a trigger to release the brakes.
The car can then build up on top of that rotation, and you want to use more and more and more steering with less and less and less brakes. The engine braking is going to fade, and then on the middle of the corner you start the second half of the process - accelerating.
Exit Technique and Rotation Management
One thing to avoid on exit is applying half throttle and inducing understeer. While inducing understeer is a good process for learning, when you're trying to drive fast and you already understand how much speed you're going to be able to carry, you need to continue the rotation that you generated on entry.
This is super important: as soon as you get the car into a nice slide, you need to transfer that slide. On the exit, you should be turning the car pretty much with the throttle. You're not adding rotation but continuing the rotation from the brakes and the steering. As soon as the car gets into that throttle oversteer, you should relax your hands a lot and your steering should barely move. In a way, you're just kind of listening to the force feedback because at that point it's the rear that is turning the car for you.
Managing the Exit Spiral
The car will want to open its spiral - it's going to want to go out - and you're guiding it there with tiny oversteer corrections. Obviously, if the oversteer gets a little bit too much because you're greedy and you got a lot on power, then you need a bigger correction. The key concept is that you don't want to kill the rotation with the throttle; you want to keep it, you want to continue rotating.
You want to get to a pretty high throttle percentage on the middle of the corner, especially if you got the good rotational entry, to at least get some of that oversteer. The objective is to get a feeling that the right foot is guiding that rotation more than the steering.
The Role of Steering Through the Corner
The steering progression through a corner follows a specific pattern:
Initially: barely any steering
Middle of the corner: add more steering as you release brakes
On power: mostly the throttle guides the car out
You should be able to get on power aggressively and correct it, experiencing the car wanting to go wide, then dial it back. The important part of this car is that it should allow you to drift pretty aggressively.
Achieving Proper Initial Rotation
The most difficult thing is to get that initial rotation in a subtle way. It's very difficult because it requires almost no steering, almost no brakes, and aggressive downshifting. You really need to practice this because when you get that right, you're going to be able to get into a slide with zero effort. It's precision, not necessarily effort.
What's initiating that rotation is the engine braking and the brakes and a tiny bit of steering. You should not turn the steering too fast - turning the steering too fast will not work in this car. The steering on its own isn't capable of generating that rotation. If you turn in fast, you might even get a sense that the car is pointing in nicely, but immediately after that, you get understeer.
Common Mistake: Too Much Steering Input
If you initiate the rotation by turning the steering too fast, you will experience understeer. Even if you do it in a subtle way, it will punish you. What you want is to initiate the rotation with the least amount of inputs possible. You should barely be turning the steering, using engine braking and trailing to let that initial turn-in combined with engine braking really point the car.
Corners Without Braking
If you have a corner that does not have braking in it, then you can turn in faster. These corners don't punish you as much if you turn in faster because you're not trailing and you're not breaking. If you're breaking, you need to initiate that rotation slowly, but if you're on power, you can turn it more quickly.
Technique for Non-Braking Corners
In non-braking corners, you throw the car in and then lift a little bit to get it to point, and then you get back on power. That's why you see the lift and the reacceleration, but that does not prevent you from turning the steering fast. You want to get the car on a kind of slip angle on all four tires and then maintain that.
The reason for lifting the throttle is to send some weight to the front tires to maintain that rotation. As soon as you feel that you are losing that rotation, you need to adjust it. If you turned it fast but stayed on the throttle, that creates too much slide and wheel spin.
Managing Speed and Slip Angle
If you have too much speed, there's no balance that's going to fix it for you. What you're doing is lifting the throttle as soon as you get into that crazy slip angle to prevent the wheel spin and to keep the weight down so that the car still stays on that slip angle, turning the car nicely. You want to maintain that micro drift.
The Micro Drift Technique
In the end, you're always micro drifting this car, and you're micro drifting it with almost no inputs. You've got to feel that rear - the rear is like a pendulum. You have to think about that delay of the rear tires. Even when you want to change direction quite early, you want to keep that rotation going.
If you get understeer, you have to lift. But if you get a nice rotation in the middle of the corner and you're able to maintain that, then you can let the car go out and make the corrections. You're turning with the rear tires and maintaining that rear slip angle all the time.
Lazy and Relaxed Inputs
The technique is very lazy - you're supporting your weight on that side and just adjusting everything you can to maintain that little slide on the middle of the corner. When you apply power, you should relax your hands and let the car carry itself micro sideways. That's the secret of this car.
Complete Corner Sequence Summary
The complete process for driving this car effectively involves the following sequence:
Initially: not lock the fronts, not turn the steering too fast, use the engine braking and the trail braking to initiate the rotation
Then: turn the steering more and release the brakes to prevent locking the front tire
Get as much rotation as you can on the middle of the corner
Be quite aggressive on the throttle to get that rotation to continue
Relax your hands and manage the exit with the throttle
Get more and more and more throttle to not get too much wheel spin
Use less and less and less steering
Maintain more and more and more relaxed hands so you can make corrections on that late exit phase
Middle of the Corner Aggression
The most important thing is to not be afraid on the middle of the corner. You want to be very cautious initially, but then you want to really send the car into the corner. The middle of the corner is the place to turn the steering a lot. The sequence is: cautious, cautious, then turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, then power aggressively to get that early slide, and then you can maintain it.
It's the aggressiveness on the middle of the corner that you don't want to be afraid of doing. Get that going, apply power, let the car go out, get the oversteer. The oversteer will happen, it should happen, unless you're getting too much understeer. If you try to be more aggressive on exits when you have understeer, the understeer is going to carry itself.
Final Principles
These tips do not replace the lap guides from Kane or the actual course. These are just some specific things to focus on with this car. If you get really good with that effortless rotation initially with the engine braking, everything else will be easier and you will be way more consistent as well.
Understanding Non-ABS Braking Behavior
One critical characteristic of this car is the absence of ABS. If you brake too hard, you will immediately lock all four tires. Even braking at 85-90% is already enough to get the car into locking. When you're turning the car, it becomes even easier to lock the tires - you can lock them up with just 30% brakes because as soon as the car loads one side, the unloaded side becomes very easy to lock.
This is extremely frustrating if you're expecting some ABS behavior where carrying a lot of brakes into the corner will work. The solution for that is to release the brakes when the rotation starts happening. If you don't release enough, especially if you're in the wrong gear without sufficient engine braking, the car will not turn, which creates a tendency to hold the brakes longer. This can result in holding too much brakes for that amount of rotation.
Initial Corner Entry Technique
The proper technique involves several coordinated elements that must work together. When approaching a corner with braking, you should brake at approximately 55-60% - not full braking force. During this phase, you should barely turn the steering because if you're braking at 60%, this is pretty much how much you can turn right now without locking the tires.
As you downshift to third gear, that gear is going to give you a lot of engine brake, and it's going to make the car turn. The engine braking might even give you a little bit too much rotation initially. The key is that as the car is rotating, you're still not adding that much steering, but because the engine braking is turning the car for you, you can now release the brakes.
Understanding Which Tire Locks First
If you hold the brakes during rotation, you're going to lock the right front tire. This happens because as soon as the car gets into that rotation, the right front will be severely unloaded and it's going to be very easy to lock it. Therefore, you must release your brakes progressively - release, release, release, release, release.
The Three Elements of Corner Entry
What's turning the car is actually three things working together:
Engine braking
Steering
Braking
You're using those three things to pitch the car in without getting the front lock. Then, as you're releasing the brakes more and more, you're able to turn the steering more with no problems.
Input Characteristics Required
This car needs subtle, small inputs. The proper sequence involves 55-60% brakes, smooth downshift (either with or without the auto blip), and almost no steering. You need to feel that the engine braking combines with the steering and makes the car start to turn. When it starts to turn, you feel that and you use that beginning of that rotation as a trigger to release the brakes.
The car can then build up on top of that rotation, and you want to use more and more and more steering with less and less and less brakes. The engine braking is going to fade, and then on the middle of the corner you start the second half of the process - accelerating.
Exit Technique and Rotation Management
One thing to avoid on exit is applying half throttle and inducing understeer. While inducing understeer is a good process for learning, when you're trying to drive fast and you already understand how much speed you're going to be able to carry, you need to continue the rotation that you generated on entry.
This is super important: as soon as you get the car into a nice slide, you need to transfer that slide. On the exit, you should be turning the car pretty much with the throttle. You're not adding rotation but continuing the rotation from the brakes and the steering. As soon as the car gets into that throttle oversteer, you should relax your hands a lot and your steering should barely move. In a way, you're just kind of listening to the force feedback because at that point it's the rear that is turning the car for you.
Managing the Exit Spiral
The car will want to open its spiral - it's going to want to go out - and you're guiding it there with tiny oversteer corrections. Obviously, if the oversteer gets a little bit too much because you're greedy and you got a lot on power, then you need a bigger correction. The key concept is that you don't want to kill the rotation with the throttle; you want to keep it, you want to continue rotating.
You want to get to a pretty high throttle percentage on the middle of the corner, especially if you got the good rotational entry, to at least get some of that oversteer. The objective is to get a feeling that the right foot is guiding that rotation more than the steering.
The Role of Steering Through the Corner
The steering progression through a corner follows a specific pattern:
Initially: barely any steering
Middle of the corner: add more steering as you release brakes
On power: mostly the throttle guides the car out
You should be able to get on power aggressively and correct it, experiencing the car wanting to go wide, then dial it back. The important part of this car is that it should allow you to drift pretty aggressively.
Achieving Proper Initial Rotation
The most difficult thing is to get that initial rotation in a subtle way. It's very difficult because it requires almost no steering, almost no brakes, and aggressive downshifting. You really need to practice this because when you get that right, you're going to be able to get into a slide with zero effort. It's precision, not necessarily effort.
What's initiating that rotation is the engine braking and the brakes and a tiny bit of steering. You should not turn the steering too fast - turning the steering too fast will not work in this car. The steering on its own isn't capable of generating that rotation. If you turn in fast, you might even get a sense that the car is pointing in nicely, but immediately after that, you get understeer.
Common Mistake: Too Much Steering Input
If you initiate the rotation by turning the steering too fast, you will experience understeer. Even if you do it in a subtle way, it will punish you. What you want is to initiate the rotation with the least amount of inputs possible. You should barely be turning the steering, using engine braking and trailing to let that initial turn-in combined with engine braking really point the car.
Corners Without Braking
If you have a corner that does not have braking in it, then you can turn in faster. These corners don't punish you as much if you turn in faster because you're not trailing and you're not breaking. If you're breaking, you need to initiate that rotation slowly, but if you're on power, you can turn it more quickly.
Technique for Non-Braking Corners
In non-braking corners, you throw the car in and then lift a little bit to get it to point, and then you get back on power. That's why you see the lift and the reacceleration, but that does not prevent you from turning the steering fast. You want to get the car on a kind of slip angle on all four tires and then maintain that.
The reason for lifting the throttle is to send some weight to the front tires to maintain that rotation. As soon as you feel that you are losing that rotation, you need to adjust it. If you turned it fast but stayed on the throttle, that creates too much slide and wheel spin.
Managing Speed and Slip Angle
If you have too much speed, there's no balance that's going to fix it for you. What you're doing is lifting the throttle as soon as you get into that crazy slip angle to prevent the wheel spin and to keep the weight down so that the car still stays on that slip angle, turning the car nicely. You want to maintain that micro drift.
The Micro Drift Technique
In the end, you're always micro drifting this car, and you're micro drifting it with almost no inputs. You've got to feel that rear - the rear is like a pendulum. You have to think about that delay of the rear tires. Even when you want to change direction quite early, you want to keep that rotation going.
If you get understeer, you have to lift. But if you get a nice rotation in the middle of the corner and you're able to maintain that, then you can let the car go out and make the corrections. You're turning with the rear tires and maintaining that rear slip angle all the time.
Lazy and Relaxed Inputs
The technique is very lazy - you're supporting your weight on that side and just adjusting everything you can to maintain that little slide on the middle of the corner. When you apply power, you should relax your hands and let the car carry itself micro sideways. That's the secret of this car.
Complete Corner Sequence Summary
The complete process for driving this car effectively involves the following sequence:
Initially: not lock the fronts, not turn the steering too fast, use the engine braking and the trail braking to initiate the rotation
Then: turn the steering more and release the brakes to prevent locking the front tire
Get as much rotation as you can on the middle of the corner
Be quite aggressive on the throttle to get that rotation to continue
Relax your hands and manage the exit with the throttle
Get more and more and more throttle to not get too much wheel spin
Use less and less and less steering
Maintain more and more and more relaxed hands so you can make corrections on that late exit phase
Middle of the Corner Aggression
The most important thing is to not be afraid on the middle of the corner. You want to be very cautious initially, but then you want to really send the car into the corner. The middle of the corner is the place to turn the steering a lot. The sequence is: cautious, cautious, then turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, then power aggressively to get that early slide, and then you can maintain it.
It's the aggressiveness on the middle of the corner that you don't want to be afraid of doing. Get that going, apply power, let the car go out, get the oversteer. The oversteer will happen, it should happen, unless you're getting too much understeer. If you try to be more aggressive on exits when you have understeer, the understeer is going to carry itself.
Final Principles
These tips do not replace the lap guides from Kane or the actual course. These are just some specific things to focus on with this car. If you get really good with that effortless rotation initially with the engine braking, everything else will be easier and you will be way more consistent as well.
Understanding Non-ABS Braking Behavior
One critical characteristic of this car is the absence of ABS. If you brake too hard, you will immediately lock all four tires. Even braking at 85-90% is already enough to get the car into locking. When you're turning the car, it becomes even easier to lock the tires - you can lock them up with just 30% brakes because as soon as the car loads one side, the unloaded side becomes very easy to lock.
This is extremely frustrating if you're expecting some ABS behavior where carrying a lot of brakes into the corner will work. The solution for that is to release the brakes when the rotation starts happening. If you don't release enough, especially if you're in the wrong gear without sufficient engine braking, the car will not turn, which creates a tendency to hold the brakes longer. This can result in holding too much brakes for that amount of rotation.
Initial Corner Entry Technique
The proper technique involves several coordinated elements that must work together. When approaching a corner with braking, you should brake at approximately 55-60% - not full braking force. During this phase, you should barely turn the steering because if you're braking at 60%, this is pretty much how much you can turn right now without locking the tires.
As you downshift to third gear, that gear is going to give you a lot of engine brake, and it's going to make the car turn. The engine braking might even give you a little bit too much rotation initially. The key is that as the car is rotating, you're still not adding that much steering, but because the engine braking is turning the car for you, you can now release the brakes.
Understanding Which Tire Locks First
If you hold the brakes during rotation, you're going to lock the right front tire. This happens because as soon as the car gets into that rotation, the right front will be severely unloaded and it's going to be very easy to lock it. Therefore, you must release your brakes progressively - release, release, release, release, release.
The Three Elements of Corner Entry
What's turning the car is actually three things working together:
Engine braking
Steering
Braking
You're using those three things to pitch the car in without getting the front lock. Then, as you're releasing the brakes more and more, you're able to turn the steering more with no problems.
Input Characteristics Required
This car needs subtle, small inputs. The proper sequence involves 55-60% brakes, smooth downshift (either with or without the auto blip), and almost no steering. You need to feel that the engine braking combines with the steering and makes the car start to turn. When it starts to turn, you feel that and you use that beginning of that rotation as a trigger to release the brakes.
The car can then build up on top of that rotation, and you want to use more and more and more steering with less and less and less brakes. The engine braking is going to fade, and then on the middle of the corner you start the second half of the process - accelerating.
Exit Technique and Rotation Management
One thing to avoid on exit is applying half throttle and inducing understeer. While inducing understeer is a good process for learning, when you're trying to drive fast and you already understand how much speed you're going to be able to carry, you need to continue the rotation that you generated on entry.
This is super important: as soon as you get the car into a nice slide, you need to transfer that slide. On the exit, you should be turning the car pretty much with the throttle. You're not adding rotation but continuing the rotation from the brakes and the steering. As soon as the car gets into that throttle oversteer, you should relax your hands a lot and your steering should barely move. In a way, you're just kind of listening to the force feedback because at that point it's the rear that is turning the car for you.
Managing the Exit Spiral
The car will want to open its spiral - it's going to want to go out - and you're guiding it there with tiny oversteer corrections. Obviously, if the oversteer gets a little bit too much because you're greedy and you got a lot on power, then you need a bigger correction. The key concept is that you don't want to kill the rotation with the throttle; you want to keep it, you want to continue rotating.
You want to get to a pretty high throttle percentage on the middle of the corner, especially if you got the good rotational entry, to at least get some of that oversteer. The objective is to get a feeling that the right foot is guiding that rotation more than the steering.
The Role of Steering Through the Corner
The steering progression through a corner follows a specific pattern:
Initially: barely any steering
Middle of the corner: add more steering as you release brakes
On power: mostly the throttle guides the car out
You should be able to get on power aggressively and correct it, experiencing the car wanting to go wide, then dial it back. The important part of this car is that it should allow you to drift pretty aggressively.
Achieving Proper Initial Rotation
The most difficult thing is to get that initial rotation in a subtle way. It's very difficult because it requires almost no steering, almost no brakes, and aggressive downshifting. You really need to practice this because when you get that right, you're going to be able to get into a slide with zero effort. It's precision, not necessarily effort.
What's initiating that rotation is the engine braking and the brakes and a tiny bit of steering. You should not turn the steering too fast - turning the steering too fast will not work in this car. The steering on its own isn't capable of generating that rotation. If you turn in fast, you might even get a sense that the car is pointing in nicely, but immediately after that, you get understeer.
Common Mistake: Too Much Steering Input
If you initiate the rotation by turning the steering too fast, you will experience understeer. Even if you do it in a subtle way, it will punish you. What you want is to initiate the rotation with the least amount of inputs possible. You should barely be turning the steering, using engine braking and trailing to let that initial turn-in combined with engine braking really point the car.
Corners Without Braking
If you have a corner that does not have braking in it, then you can turn in faster. These corners don't punish you as much if you turn in faster because you're not trailing and you're not breaking. If you're breaking, you need to initiate that rotation slowly, but if you're on power, you can turn it more quickly.
Technique for Non-Braking Corners
In non-braking corners, you throw the car in and then lift a little bit to get it to point, and then you get back on power. That's why you see the lift and the reacceleration, but that does not prevent you from turning the steering fast. You want to get the car on a kind of slip angle on all four tires and then maintain that.
The reason for lifting the throttle is to send some weight to the front tires to maintain that rotation. As soon as you feel that you are losing that rotation, you need to adjust it. If you turned it fast but stayed on the throttle, that creates too much slide and wheel spin.
Managing Speed and Slip Angle
If you have too much speed, there's no balance that's going to fix it for you. What you're doing is lifting the throttle as soon as you get into that crazy slip angle to prevent the wheel spin and to keep the weight down so that the car still stays on that slip angle, turning the car nicely. You want to maintain that micro drift.
The Micro Drift Technique
In the end, you're always micro drifting this car, and you're micro drifting it with almost no inputs. You've got to feel that rear - the rear is like a pendulum. You have to think about that delay of the rear tires. Even when you want to change direction quite early, you want to keep that rotation going.
If you get understeer, you have to lift. But if you get a nice rotation in the middle of the corner and you're able to maintain that, then you can let the car go out and make the corrections. You're turning with the rear tires and maintaining that rear slip angle all the time.
Lazy and Relaxed Inputs
The technique is very lazy - you're supporting your weight on that side and just adjusting everything you can to maintain that little slide on the middle of the corner. When you apply power, you should relax your hands and let the car carry itself micro sideways. That's the secret of this car.
Complete Corner Sequence Summary
The complete process for driving this car effectively involves the following sequence:
Initially: not lock the fronts, not turn the steering too fast, use the engine braking and the trail braking to initiate the rotation
Then: turn the steering more and release the brakes to prevent locking the front tire
Get as much rotation as you can on the middle of the corner
Be quite aggressive on the throttle to get that rotation to continue
Relax your hands and manage the exit with the throttle
Get more and more and more throttle to not get too much wheel spin
Use less and less and less steering
Maintain more and more and more relaxed hands so you can make corrections on that late exit phase
Middle of the Corner Aggression
The most important thing is to not be afraid on the middle of the corner. You want to be very cautious initially, but then you want to really send the car into the corner. The middle of the corner is the place to turn the steering a lot. The sequence is: cautious, cautious, then turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, then power aggressively to get that early slide, and then you can maintain it.
It's the aggressiveness on the middle of the corner that you don't want to be afraid of doing. Get that going, apply power, let the car go out, get the oversteer. The oversteer will happen, it should happen, unless you're getting too much understeer. If you try to be more aggressive on exits when you have understeer, the understeer is going to carry itself.
Final Principles
These tips do not replace the lap guides from Kane or the actual course. These are just some specific things to focus on with this car. If you get really good with that effortless rotation initially with the engine braking, everything else will be easier and you will be way more consistent as well.
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