Lesson
Lesson
4
of
of
4
The Perfect Corner
Lesson by
Suellio Almeida
Lesson by
Suellio Almeida
Mark as Finished
Written in Collaboration of Coach Kane Halliburton.
Finding the Limit: Entry, Breaking
Break release is the main trigger for entry rotation in the MX-5. The key variable is the amount of break you still have at the point of turn in. This is what's going to decide how much front load you keep, how light the rear stays and how willing the car is to rotate. You can control that in two ways:
The timing of the release
The speed or shape of the release (the breaking trace)
It depends on the corner type and the balance of the car at that moment. A long corner, for example, you will want to release the brakes a little bit earlier. In a shorter entry, you will probably want to release the brakes more quickly because you have less time to do that. The core idea is you are trying to arrive at turn in with the right amount of brakes still in the car, not just be off the brake or already trail breaking. In the MX-5, that amount is one of the main things that decides whether the car rotates cleanly or forces you into steering early and starting doing all the repairs.
Too Little Break at Turn In
If you release too much too early before adding steering, the rear tires will have too much grip. The front will unload and the car will not point.
Too Much Brake at Turn In
If you carry a bit too much brakes into the turn in, the rear will stay too light for too long. The front tires will be overloaded and the car can rotate a little bit too aggressively and force you to correct. It will get into oversteer.
Way Too Much Brakes at Turn In
If you carry far too much brakes as you start to turn in, then definitely the front tires will be the most overloaded and you will get into ABS. So the rotation instantly dies and you get into understeer.
Practical Cue: Minimal Steering
The practical cue here that allows you to manage the whole braking and deciding how much percentage you bring into the corner and how that makes the car react is the steering. Minimal steering to initiate rotation is key here. You do not need, you should not need to add much steering for the car to continue rotating on entry. The steering will stay relatively calm, minimal corrections. It's all mostly on the brake release and on the engine braking to really get the car to start going with barely any steering.
Entry Part 2: Engine Braking and Downshifts
The next big layer is the engine braking. Engine braking is one of the biggest rotation tools in the MX-5, just as important as the brake release itself. Downshifting will slow the rear tires and act a bit like the dynamic rear ward brake bias, helping the car rotate more on entry. The key here is that the downshift timing and the blip size will work together in generating that rotation.
Downshift Timing
The earlier the downshift, the more aggressive the rear tires are slowed and the more rotation you get.
Earlier downshift means you get more rotation and more risk of oversteer
Later downshift means you get less rotation and more stability Remember here, stability does not necessarily mean fast.
Blip Size
The less you blip, the more engine braking affect you get
The more you blip, the more you smooth the downshift, the gear transition from the higher gear to the lower gear, and you reduce a little bit the added rotation
Smaller or no blip means more rear slowdown, more slip, more rotation
Bigger blip means smoother rear behavior and less extra rotation
Understanding Rev Matching
By blipping, I'm talking about that little quick throttle application at the very same time you downshift to help the revs going up and matching the tire rotation with the new gear rotation. So if you don't have that blip, then there's going to be a little bit of a abrupt change, as soon as the clutch gets back to the tire, that gears a little bit too slow and the tires a little bit too fast and that locking is going to overly slow down the car. It's almost like it's going to micro lock the rear tires because of that rev mismatch. So rev matching is accelerating a tiny bit just to increase the revs of the engine so that the transition becomes a little bit smoother. Blips are good because they prevent kicks on the rear tires. You can still get good engine braking rotation even when you blip. The engine braking gives a more constant source of rotation but downshifting without the blip gives you a little bit of a punch that can get you into too much oversteer and can also overheat the tires, making you have less overall grip even when you keep the car pointing to that direction.
Blipping Guidelines
So blipping is generally good, so at least some blip would be helpful most of the time, but sometimes you can make the blip a little bit smaller to control and maybe get a little bit of rotation without harming the tires. If you blip a little bit too much, then you might be over blipping, meaning like you're getting the rev matching but even after the gear has entered the connection with the tire, you're still adding a little bit of power and that's actually just not efficient. You're actually trying to accelerate instead of trying to slow the car down. The core idea here is that in the MX-5, the downshifts are not only for gear changes, they are an important tool as part of your entry balance control toolbox. So you have to use them to support the rotation created by the brake release, not to rescue a bad entry with a big rear slip spike unless really needed to correct a bad entry.
The Main Trap
The main trap here is because the effect is so strong, drivers can end up using downshifts to initiate too much oversteer. The car feels alive, it feels fast, but it's often just too much rear scrub with a large correction needed.
Entry Part 3: Steering
Once those two layers, the brakes and the engine braking are understood, we can place the steering at the right roll. Steering is the final playing of the entry rotation, not the first. In the MX-5, the steering should usually guide the rotation that brake release and engine braking have already created, not replace them. The core idea here is, on initial entry, the steering angle should be very small. Ideally, the wheel stays close to zero while the car starts to rotate underneath you by using mainly the brake pedals and the downshifts. As the brake pressure fades and the engine braking and downshift effect reduce, steering gradually becomes more important through the rest of the entry and towards the apex.
The Job of Steering Changes Through the Corner
On the early entry, it's to only guide the initial path, literally telling the direction
On mid corner, it keeps the front on the limit as the brakes and downshift run out
At the MRP, the maximum rotation point, just before you are about to transition to zero percent brake and start using the throttle, you need to add a little bit more steering to guarantee that you're still using the front grip available
What Does Too Much Steering Look Like?
Big angle early on entry is a problem
A static steering trace with no room to add more at the apex or unwind at the exit because of understeer. Also a problem
Mid Corner: Managing Balance
Trailer brake is about managing the balance of the car. The car idea is at mid corner, you are no longer trying to create the initial rotation. You are trying to keep it and to manage it. As a baseline, aim for roughly one to ten percent brake pressure through mid corner, depending on the corner in the balance of the car. That gives you enough front load to support the nose without making the rear too light or the front too overloaded.
Too Little Trail Brake
If you come off the brakes too much, too early, the rear will gain all the grip, the front will lose grip and the car will stop rotating. You need more steering angle to hold the line and you lose efficiency. And that usually leads to front scrub and understeer trying to rescue the line.
Slightly Too Much Trail Brake
If you carry a bit too much trail brake, the rear gets too light. The car will rotate more aggressively and this can create oversteer or make the rear feel nervous, lowering your confidence. If the rear is nervous mid corner, getting on power at apex can send the rear tires over the limit. The way the car behaves as soon as you apply the throttle is also dependent on how you generated that rotation on entry. So if you already have too much ongoing rotation, getting back on power becomes a little bit more dangerous.
Way Too Much Trail Brake
If you have way too much trail brake into mid corner, as the steering angle increases, the front tires become overloaded and you get into ABS. The car will eventually understeer and starts to wash wide even though you are still on the brakes. You're gonna tell yourself "oh my god, I'm trail braking, why is the car not turning?" That's because a lot of people think that front load means more turning but once you overload the front tires, you lose the exact thing you're trying to gain because of the ABS. The goal here is to use the minimum amount of trail brake needed to keep the front tires loaded and the car rotating cleanly without making the rear unstable and without overloading the front.
Practical Cue: Good Mid Corner Trail Brake
A good mid corner trail brake will feel like this:
The car is still willing to turn
The steering stays relatively calm and hands remain light, slowly adding the steering as the car slows down
The rear is not too nervous with no big corrections needed
You can add steering progressively as you feel that the car is more stable and accepts more and more and more rotation all the way until you get into the MRP
Mid Corner Part 2: Steering
The mid corner steering is the clearest window into whether the entry and trail phase were correct. By this point, the steering has become an equally important tool for rotation in shaping the path of the car but it should still be working with the balance you created earlier, not fighting against it. The core idea here is the amount of steering you need in mid corner tells you a lot how well the car was prepared on entry. In the MX-5, the steering will usually build progressively through mid corner towards the MRP and that is normal. As the brake pressure fades and the downshift effect reduces, steering naturally takes over and does more of the job. The key is not low steering all the time, the key is that the steering will build cleanly and efficiently without becoming excessive, static or full of corrections. It starts very very very very subtle like there's barely any steering and then it shows up and steals the show.
Reading the Steering
Too much steering or feeling the need to add more steering quickly, usually means not enough entry rotation coming from the brakes and from the engine braking. Or maybe you try too hard to gain entry rotation, overload the front tires and now you're intuitively asking for more rotation with what you believe is the main tool for rotation, which is the steering
Too little steering or not being able to wet any steering progressively, that usually means your entry rotation was too aggressive and brake release engine braking or downshift gave too much yaw, too much rotation too early. Now you are holding the car with less steering because more would probably make it unstable and you miss the apex because of that or you arrive a little bit too shallow into the corner and you have a bad angle on the exit and then you will have to repair the corner after which means a bad exit
Practical Cue
Mid corner steering should be building towards the apex. If it becomes frozen or excessive or full of corrections, the balance is probably wrong. Opening should be happening only once initial throttle begins and the car transitions to exit. Be careful not to open the steering before you get back on power, you have to get back on power and a fraction of a second after you start the unwinding process.
Mid Corner Part 3: Throttle
The last big mid corner piece is throttle. Mid corner throttle is one of the easiest ways to change the balance in the MX-5 but also one of the easiest ways to put a ceiling on your driver development because mid corner throttle is often used as a protective tool, not a productive one. Drivers use it to settle the rear, to stop the car from rotating too much and to help maintain decent minimum speed. And it can do those jobs well, especially in a car with such a soft suspension where even with a little throttle it can already change the balance quickly. But that's why it becomes such a common habit. It works, but maintenance throttle is an inefficient solution at a high level of driving. It unloads the front tires and also stops the car from slowing down as efficiently, which makes the car less willing to keep turning and increases the braking distances. It is taking exactly the thing you need, front grip and rotation.
Maintenance Throttle on Corner Entry? No.
Remember though, it can be a learning tool, a safer way for newer drivers to explore the front limit, in a conscious way to fix a mistake. But it can also:
Reduce rotation
Reduce the braking capability of tunnel entry
Delays the point where throttle becomes truly productive in pushing the car out of the corner
Cover up braking and downshifting mistakes, if done on entry
Build multiple bad habits and poor techniques on corner entry
Become your default answer and start hurting your long-term pace and development
Better Long-Term Fixes
If you keep relying on throttle to make the middle of the corner work, the better fix is usually one of these:
Start brake release earlier or quicker to make the car over rotate a little bit less
Reduce the trail brake amount, so when you get to mid-corner, start braking a little bit less, and you might be doing 20% or 15%. Bring that down to 5%, maybe even what feels to be 1%
Delay the downshift timing, get a little bit less engine braking so that you have a stable car as you get into the corner
Increase the blip size, prevent the car from doing those kicks by increasing a little bit the amount of blipping and making your gear shifts become a little bit smoother
Adjust all that to a line that asks less from the rear and needs less rotational entry, including turning in a little bit earlier
Exit Part 1: Steering
Now we get to the exit where all of this either pays you back or exposes the damage. Opening the steering at the correct rate is one of the biggest tells if you had a good entry in any car. As a baseline, once the throttle starts becoming productive, meaning starts to push the car forward, you should be aiming to open up the steering wheel. Even if you can only unwind it very slowly, being able to open up the steering at all is the goal. Sometimes that unwind is very slow at first, sometimes if the grip increases from compression, camber or something similar that gives you more grip, you may even be able to hold the steering a little bit longer or in more extreme cases, even add a little bit more steering on power, but that is not the default. The baseline is that on throttle, the steering wheel unwind. The throttle application and the steering unwind happen pretty much at the same time. Like I said, the steering unwind happens a fraction of a second after you start getting back on power and gaining speed.
The Exit is a Handoff
The core idea here is that the exit is a handoff. It's a transition, the steering is gradually doing less, the throttle is gradually doing more. The speed of that handoff matters.
If you open the steering too slowly and you keep too much demand on the front tires, the throttle will become less productive, the car will push wide and you may need to lift or delay your full throttle
If you open the steering too quickly though, you suddenly lose the line because you're now going a little bit straight too fast, so you're letting the car go wide too early, you miss the ideal exit path, and then you will be forced to add a second steering input later not to go off track. That's terrible
The goal here is to open this steering as quickly as the car allows, without giving away your exit line, without giving away your cornering forces that will keep you inside the track. This is what really turns a good apex into a strong exit with a nice opening spiral.
Practical Cue: Good Exit
A good exit feels like this:
The steering starts to open naturally as the throttle comes in
The car is still holding the line without extra correction
Throttle and unwind of the steering are happening together
Because of low power, you might reach 100% throttle even while the steering is still slowly opening up, that is normal in low power cars, but even so, in some situations, especially if the car is on neutral steering or over steering a little bit mid corner, you will still need to add the throttle a little bit more slowly while transitioning with the steering unwind. Always read the balance of the car and respond to it. Be careful not to blindly go to 100%, especially if you're already sliding a little bit too much.
Exit Part 2: Throttle Shape
The throttle itself needs the right trace. The throttle should be usually just one clean application, because the MX-5 is low power, you can often be aggressive, but it still needs to be one single clean squeeze, not a messy series of stabs and holds and repairs. The car idea here is that the goal is not the earliest throttle possible. The goal is the earliest productive throttle possible. Again, productive means a throttle that pushes the car forward and out of the corner, definitely. If the car is pointed and the wheel is ready to open, throttle can come in, or certainly, but if it's not, early throttle will just unload the front, kill the rotation and turn the exit into a repair spiral.
What Does Good Throttle Look Like?
One clean throttle application, assertive but still smooth
No unnecessary lifts after you went to 100% throttle
No maintenance throttle hanging around too long before the real commit of the throttle
The Common Trap
A common trap here is a lot of drivers go to the throttle too early to feel stable, then the front washes wide, they add more steering, and then they lift to regain some of that rotation that they lost, and then they go back on throttle and so on. That whole sequence usually means the throttle was not productive when it first came in.
Special Cases
There are some special cases here, for example, you have to be more careful:
In first gear
When the rear tires are hot from aggressive downshifts or sliding
When the car still has excess yaw from entry or mid corner
When you're accelerating over bumps or curbs
When accelerating over crests or coming out of camber In these cases, you might have to be a little bit more progressive than normal with the throttle.
Exit Part 3: Shift Timing
And finally, shift timing is very important in DMX 5, because it's not only about the RPM, it's about choosing which effects of the shifting you want and which ones you want to avoid. A downshift into a lower gear can give you several things at once:
Engine braking
Rotation
More torque and acceleration when you get back on power
A shift in the balance
The core idea here is that if you need a lower gear for the exit, the downshift to that gear on entry will also create maybe a little bit too much extra rotation or even oversteer. In those cases, the answer is actually to not downshift. It's to wait until the right moment. Very often, that means waiting until the moment the throttle starts to come in or the last possible moment before it so that you can get the benefit of the lower gear for acceleration without getting unnecessary engine braking or extra rotation while the car is still finishing the first half of the corner.
The Hidden Skill
The main discovery here, that's a secret. A lot of drivers think that downshifts have to belong only to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, one of the hidden skills is realizing that if the car needs a lower gear for the exit only, the timing of that shift is part of the exit technique itself. Believe it or not, sometimes the cleanest time to downshift is right at the very same time you start applying the throttle. That sounds backwards at first because most drivers think of downshifts as something that belongs entirely to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, if the exit needs the torque of the lower gear, taking that gear too early can create a little bit too much extra engine braking, extra rear tires low down and extra rotation at the exact moment you don't need it anymore.
Example: Slow Corner with First Gear
For example, let's say you're in a slow corner. First here is definitely necessary for you to get a better exit. If you stay in second, the car bogs down and as soon as you get back on power there's no acceleration. But if you downshift to first, the car is still rotating and you are already on the limit, that shift can create extra engine braking and extra yaw pushing the car into oversteer. In those cases, doing the whole corner entry in second and waiting until the moment throttle starts to come in just shift to first gear can actually be the best choice. Why is that? Because the throttle itself will act like a blip, helping force the car into that gear more smoothly while also calming the balance compared with an aggressive off throttle downshift.
Two Different Outcomes from the Same Lower Gear
If it's done too early off throttle: More engine braking, more rear end, slow down, more rotation, and more risk of oversteer
If you do it later after the throttle starts: Smoother engagement, better balance, no unwanted rotation on entry, while still getting all the exit power that you need for the exit
Upshifting in the MX-5
When it comes to upshifting the MX-5, that's pretty simple. Upshift at the maximum rev possible. That's the baseline rule. The gearbox is a dog box, so it does not need the clutch or a lift to complete the shift cleanly, and in practice the flat upshift, meaning you essentially press the pedal without having to lift your throttle or totally fine. So unlike downshifts where you need to blip, on the upshift you don't have to even think about it. Shift at max revs with maximum throttle.
Written in Collaboration of Coach Kane Halliburton.
Finding the Limit: Entry, Breaking
Break release is the main trigger for entry rotation in the MX-5. The key variable is the amount of break you still have at the point of turn in. This is what's going to decide how much front load you keep, how light the rear stays and how willing the car is to rotate. You can control that in two ways:
The timing of the release
The speed or shape of the release (the breaking trace)
It depends on the corner type and the balance of the car at that moment. A long corner, for example, you will want to release the brakes a little bit earlier. In a shorter entry, you will probably want to release the brakes more quickly because you have less time to do that. The core idea is you are trying to arrive at turn in with the right amount of brakes still in the car, not just be off the brake or already trail breaking. In the MX-5, that amount is one of the main things that decides whether the car rotates cleanly or forces you into steering early and starting doing all the repairs.
Too Little Break at Turn In
If you release too much too early before adding steering, the rear tires will have too much grip. The front will unload and the car will not point.
Too Much Brake at Turn In
If you carry a bit too much brakes into the turn in, the rear will stay too light for too long. The front tires will be overloaded and the car can rotate a little bit too aggressively and force you to correct. It will get into oversteer.
Way Too Much Brakes at Turn In
If you carry far too much brakes as you start to turn in, then definitely the front tires will be the most overloaded and you will get into ABS. So the rotation instantly dies and you get into understeer.
Practical Cue: Minimal Steering
The practical cue here that allows you to manage the whole braking and deciding how much percentage you bring into the corner and how that makes the car react is the steering. Minimal steering to initiate rotation is key here. You do not need, you should not need to add much steering for the car to continue rotating on entry. The steering will stay relatively calm, minimal corrections. It's all mostly on the brake release and on the engine braking to really get the car to start going with barely any steering.
Entry Part 2: Engine Braking and Downshifts
The next big layer is the engine braking. Engine braking is one of the biggest rotation tools in the MX-5, just as important as the brake release itself. Downshifting will slow the rear tires and act a bit like the dynamic rear ward brake bias, helping the car rotate more on entry. The key here is that the downshift timing and the blip size will work together in generating that rotation.
Downshift Timing
The earlier the downshift, the more aggressive the rear tires are slowed and the more rotation you get.
Earlier downshift means you get more rotation and more risk of oversteer
Later downshift means you get less rotation and more stability Remember here, stability does not necessarily mean fast.
Blip Size
The less you blip, the more engine braking affect you get
The more you blip, the more you smooth the downshift, the gear transition from the higher gear to the lower gear, and you reduce a little bit the added rotation
Smaller or no blip means more rear slowdown, more slip, more rotation
Bigger blip means smoother rear behavior and less extra rotation
Understanding Rev Matching
By blipping, I'm talking about that little quick throttle application at the very same time you downshift to help the revs going up and matching the tire rotation with the new gear rotation. So if you don't have that blip, then there's going to be a little bit of a abrupt change, as soon as the clutch gets back to the tire, that gears a little bit too slow and the tires a little bit too fast and that locking is going to overly slow down the car. It's almost like it's going to micro lock the rear tires because of that rev mismatch. So rev matching is accelerating a tiny bit just to increase the revs of the engine so that the transition becomes a little bit smoother. Blips are good because they prevent kicks on the rear tires. You can still get good engine braking rotation even when you blip. The engine braking gives a more constant source of rotation but downshifting without the blip gives you a little bit of a punch that can get you into too much oversteer and can also overheat the tires, making you have less overall grip even when you keep the car pointing to that direction.
Blipping Guidelines
So blipping is generally good, so at least some blip would be helpful most of the time, but sometimes you can make the blip a little bit smaller to control and maybe get a little bit of rotation without harming the tires. If you blip a little bit too much, then you might be over blipping, meaning like you're getting the rev matching but even after the gear has entered the connection with the tire, you're still adding a little bit of power and that's actually just not efficient. You're actually trying to accelerate instead of trying to slow the car down. The core idea here is that in the MX-5, the downshifts are not only for gear changes, they are an important tool as part of your entry balance control toolbox. So you have to use them to support the rotation created by the brake release, not to rescue a bad entry with a big rear slip spike unless really needed to correct a bad entry.
The Main Trap
The main trap here is because the effect is so strong, drivers can end up using downshifts to initiate too much oversteer. The car feels alive, it feels fast, but it's often just too much rear scrub with a large correction needed.
Entry Part 3: Steering
Once those two layers, the brakes and the engine braking are understood, we can place the steering at the right roll. Steering is the final playing of the entry rotation, not the first. In the MX-5, the steering should usually guide the rotation that brake release and engine braking have already created, not replace them. The core idea here is, on initial entry, the steering angle should be very small. Ideally, the wheel stays close to zero while the car starts to rotate underneath you by using mainly the brake pedals and the downshifts. As the brake pressure fades and the engine braking and downshift effect reduce, steering gradually becomes more important through the rest of the entry and towards the apex.
The Job of Steering Changes Through the Corner
On the early entry, it's to only guide the initial path, literally telling the direction
On mid corner, it keeps the front on the limit as the brakes and downshift run out
At the MRP, the maximum rotation point, just before you are about to transition to zero percent brake and start using the throttle, you need to add a little bit more steering to guarantee that you're still using the front grip available
What Does Too Much Steering Look Like?
Big angle early on entry is a problem
A static steering trace with no room to add more at the apex or unwind at the exit because of understeer. Also a problem
Mid Corner: Managing Balance
Trailer brake is about managing the balance of the car. The car idea is at mid corner, you are no longer trying to create the initial rotation. You are trying to keep it and to manage it. As a baseline, aim for roughly one to ten percent brake pressure through mid corner, depending on the corner in the balance of the car. That gives you enough front load to support the nose without making the rear too light or the front too overloaded.
Too Little Trail Brake
If you come off the brakes too much, too early, the rear will gain all the grip, the front will lose grip and the car will stop rotating. You need more steering angle to hold the line and you lose efficiency. And that usually leads to front scrub and understeer trying to rescue the line.
Slightly Too Much Trail Brake
If you carry a bit too much trail brake, the rear gets too light. The car will rotate more aggressively and this can create oversteer or make the rear feel nervous, lowering your confidence. If the rear is nervous mid corner, getting on power at apex can send the rear tires over the limit. The way the car behaves as soon as you apply the throttle is also dependent on how you generated that rotation on entry. So if you already have too much ongoing rotation, getting back on power becomes a little bit more dangerous.
Way Too Much Trail Brake
If you have way too much trail brake into mid corner, as the steering angle increases, the front tires become overloaded and you get into ABS. The car will eventually understeer and starts to wash wide even though you are still on the brakes. You're gonna tell yourself "oh my god, I'm trail braking, why is the car not turning?" That's because a lot of people think that front load means more turning but once you overload the front tires, you lose the exact thing you're trying to gain because of the ABS. The goal here is to use the minimum amount of trail brake needed to keep the front tires loaded and the car rotating cleanly without making the rear unstable and without overloading the front.
Practical Cue: Good Mid Corner Trail Brake
A good mid corner trail brake will feel like this:
The car is still willing to turn
The steering stays relatively calm and hands remain light, slowly adding the steering as the car slows down
The rear is not too nervous with no big corrections needed
You can add steering progressively as you feel that the car is more stable and accepts more and more and more rotation all the way until you get into the MRP
Mid Corner Part 2: Steering
The mid corner steering is the clearest window into whether the entry and trail phase were correct. By this point, the steering has become an equally important tool for rotation in shaping the path of the car but it should still be working with the balance you created earlier, not fighting against it. The core idea here is the amount of steering you need in mid corner tells you a lot how well the car was prepared on entry. In the MX-5, the steering will usually build progressively through mid corner towards the MRP and that is normal. As the brake pressure fades and the downshift effect reduces, steering naturally takes over and does more of the job. The key is not low steering all the time, the key is that the steering will build cleanly and efficiently without becoming excessive, static or full of corrections. It starts very very very very subtle like there's barely any steering and then it shows up and steals the show.
Reading the Steering
Too much steering or feeling the need to add more steering quickly, usually means not enough entry rotation coming from the brakes and from the engine braking. Or maybe you try too hard to gain entry rotation, overload the front tires and now you're intuitively asking for more rotation with what you believe is the main tool for rotation, which is the steering
Too little steering or not being able to wet any steering progressively, that usually means your entry rotation was too aggressive and brake release engine braking or downshift gave too much yaw, too much rotation too early. Now you are holding the car with less steering because more would probably make it unstable and you miss the apex because of that or you arrive a little bit too shallow into the corner and you have a bad angle on the exit and then you will have to repair the corner after which means a bad exit
Practical Cue
Mid corner steering should be building towards the apex. If it becomes frozen or excessive or full of corrections, the balance is probably wrong. Opening should be happening only once initial throttle begins and the car transitions to exit. Be careful not to open the steering before you get back on power, you have to get back on power and a fraction of a second after you start the unwinding process.
Mid Corner Part 3: Throttle
The last big mid corner piece is throttle. Mid corner throttle is one of the easiest ways to change the balance in the MX-5 but also one of the easiest ways to put a ceiling on your driver development because mid corner throttle is often used as a protective tool, not a productive one. Drivers use it to settle the rear, to stop the car from rotating too much and to help maintain decent minimum speed. And it can do those jobs well, especially in a car with such a soft suspension where even with a little throttle it can already change the balance quickly. But that's why it becomes such a common habit. It works, but maintenance throttle is an inefficient solution at a high level of driving. It unloads the front tires and also stops the car from slowing down as efficiently, which makes the car less willing to keep turning and increases the braking distances. It is taking exactly the thing you need, front grip and rotation.
Maintenance Throttle on Corner Entry? No.
Remember though, it can be a learning tool, a safer way for newer drivers to explore the front limit, in a conscious way to fix a mistake. But it can also:
Reduce rotation
Reduce the braking capability of tunnel entry
Delays the point where throttle becomes truly productive in pushing the car out of the corner
Cover up braking and downshifting mistakes, if done on entry
Build multiple bad habits and poor techniques on corner entry
Become your default answer and start hurting your long-term pace and development
Better Long-Term Fixes
If you keep relying on throttle to make the middle of the corner work, the better fix is usually one of these:
Start brake release earlier or quicker to make the car over rotate a little bit less
Reduce the trail brake amount, so when you get to mid-corner, start braking a little bit less, and you might be doing 20% or 15%. Bring that down to 5%, maybe even what feels to be 1%
Delay the downshift timing, get a little bit less engine braking so that you have a stable car as you get into the corner
Increase the blip size, prevent the car from doing those kicks by increasing a little bit the amount of blipping and making your gear shifts become a little bit smoother
Adjust all that to a line that asks less from the rear and needs less rotational entry, including turning in a little bit earlier
Exit Part 1: Steering
Now we get to the exit where all of this either pays you back or exposes the damage. Opening the steering at the correct rate is one of the biggest tells if you had a good entry in any car. As a baseline, once the throttle starts becoming productive, meaning starts to push the car forward, you should be aiming to open up the steering wheel. Even if you can only unwind it very slowly, being able to open up the steering at all is the goal. Sometimes that unwind is very slow at first, sometimes if the grip increases from compression, camber or something similar that gives you more grip, you may even be able to hold the steering a little bit longer or in more extreme cases, even add a little bit more steering on power, but that is not the default. The baseline is that on throttle, the steering wheel unwind. The throttle application and the steering unwind happen pretty much at the same time. Like I said, the steering unwind happens a fraction of a second after you start getting back on power and gaining speed.
The Exit is a Handoff
The core idea here is that the exit is a handoff. It's a transition, the steering is gradually doing less, the throttle is gradually doing more. The speed of that handoff matters.
If you open the steering too slowly and you keep too much demand on the front tires, the throttle will become less productive, the car will push wide and you may need to lift or delay your full throttle
If you open the steering too quickly though, you suddenly lose the line because you're now going a little bit straight too fast, so you're letting the car go wide too early, you miss the ideal exit path, and then you will be forced to add a second steering input later not to go off track. That's terrible
The goal here is to open this steering as quickly as the car allows, without giving away your exit line, without giving away your cornering forces that will keep you inside the track. This is what really turns a good apex into a strong exit with a nice opening spiral.
Practical Cue: Good Exit
A good exit feels like this:
The steering starts to open naturally as the throttle comes in
The car is still holding the line without extra correction
Throttle and unwind of the steering are happening together
Because of low power, you might reach 100% throttle even while the steering is still slowly opening up, that is normal in low power cars, but even so, in some situations, especially if the car is on neutral steering or over steering a little bit mid corner, you will still need to add the throttle a little bit more slowly while transitioning with the steering unwind. Always read the balance of the car and respond to it. Be careful not to blindly go to 100%, especially if you're already sliding a little bit too much.
Exit Part 2: Throttle Shape
The throttle itself needs the right trace. The throttle should be usually just one clean application, because the MX-5 is low power, you can often be aggressive, but it still needs to be one single clean squeeze, not a messy series of stabs and holds and repairs. The car idea here is that the goal is not the earliest throttle possible. The goal is the earliest productive throttle possible. Again, productive means a throttle that pushes the car forward and out of the corner, definitely. If the car is pointed and the wheel is ready to open, throttle can come in, or certainly, but if it's not, early throttle will just unload the front, kill the rotation and turn the exit into a repair spiral.
What Does Good Throttle Look Like?
One clean throttle application, assertive but still smooth
No unnecessary lifts after you went to 100% throttle
No maintenance throttle hanging around too long before the real commit of the throttle
The Common Trap
A common trap here is a lot of drivers go to the throttle too early to feel stable, then the front washes wide, they add more steering, and then they lift to regain some of that rotation that they lost, and then they go back on throttle and so on. That whole sequence usually means the throttle was not productive when it first came in.
Special Cases
There are some special cases here, for example, you have to be more careful:
In first gear
When the rear tires are hot from aggressive downshifts or sliding
When the car still has excess yaw from entry or mid corner
When you're accelerating over bumps or curbs
When accelerating over crests or coming out of camber In these cases, you might have to be a little bit more progressive than normal with the throttle.
Exit Part 3: Shift Timing
And finally, shift timing is very important in DMX 5, because it's not only about the RPM, it's about choosing which effects of the shifting you want and which ones you want to avoid. A downshift into a lower gear can give you several things at once:
Engine braking
Rotation
More torque and acceleration when you get back on power
A shift in the balance
The core idea here is that if you need a lower gear for the exit, the downshift to that gear on entry will also create maybe a little bit too much extra rotation or even oversteer. In those cases, the answer is actually to not downshift. It's to wait until the right moment. Very often, that means waiting until the moment the throttle starts to come in or the last possible moment before it so that you can get the benefit of the lower gear for acceleration without getting unnecessary engine braking or extra rotation while the car is still finishing the first half of the corner.
The Hidden Skill
The main discovery here, that's a secret. A lot of drivers think that downshifts have to belong only to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, one of the hidden skills is realizing that if the car needs a lower gear for the exit only, the timing of that shift is part of the exit technique itself. Believe it or not, sometimes the cleanest time to downshift is right at the very same time you start applying the throttle. That sounds backwards at first because most drivers think of downshifts as something that belongs entirely to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, if the exit needs the torque of the lower gear, taking that gear too early can create a little bit too much extra engine braking, extra rear tires low down and extra rotation at the exact moment you don't need it anymore.
Example: Slow Corner with First Gear
For example, let's say you're in a slow corner. First here is definitely necessary for you to get a better exit. If you stay in second, the car bogs down and as soon as you get back on power there's no acceleration. But if you downshift to first, the car is still rotating and you are already on the limit, that shift can create extra engine braking and extra yaw pushing the car into oversteer. In those cases, doing the whole corner entry in second and waiting until the moment throttle starts to come in just shift to first gear can actually be the best choice. Why is that? Because the throttle itself will act like a blip, helping force the car into that gear more smoothly while also calming the balance compared with an aggressive off throttle downshift.
Two Different Outcomes from the Same Lower Gear
If it's done too early off throttle: More engine braking, more rear end, slow down, more rotation, and more risk of oversteer
If you do it later after the throttle starts: Smoother engagement, better balance, no unwanted rotation on entry, while still getting all the exit power that you need for the exit
Upshifting in the MX-5
When it comes to upshifting the MX-5, that's pretty simple. Upshift at the maximum rev possible. That's the baseline rule. The gearbox is a dog box, so it does not need the clutch or a lift to complete the shift cleanly, and in practice the flat upshift, meaning you essentially press the pedal without having to lift your throttle or totally fine. So unlike downshifts where you need to blip, on the upshift you don't have to even think about it. Shift at max revs with maximum throttle.
Written in Collaboration of Coach Kane Halliburton.
Finding the Limit: Entry, Breaking
Break release is the main trigger for entry rotation in the MX-5. The key variable is the amount of break you still have at the point of turn in. This is what's going to decide how much front load you keep, how light the rear stays and how willing the car is to rotate. You can control that in two ways:
The timing of the release
The speed or shape of the release (the breaking trace)
It depends on the corner type and the balance of the car at that moment. A long corner, for example, you will want to release the brakes a little bit earlier. In a shorter entry, you will probably want to release the brakes more quickly because you have less time to do that. The core idea is you are trying to arrive at turn in with the right amount of brakes still in the car, not just be off the brake or already trail breaking. In the MX-5, that amount is one of the main things that decides whether the car rotates cleanly or forces you into steering early and starting doing all the repairs.
Too Little Break at Turn In
If you release too much too early before adding steering, the rear tires will have too much grip. The front will unload and the car will not point.
Too Much Brake at Turn In
If you carry a bit too much brakes into the turn in, the rear will stay too light for too long. The front tires will be overloaded and the car can rotate a little bit too aggressively and force you to correct. It will get into oversteer.
Way Too Much Brakes at Turn In
If you carry far too much brakes as you start to turn in, then definitely the front tires will be the most overloaded and you will get into ABS. So the rotation instantly dies and you get into understeer.
Practical Cue: Minimal Steering
The practical cue here that allows you to manage the whole braking and deciding how much percentage you bring into the corner and how that makes the car react is the steering. Minimal steering to initiate rotation is key here. You do not need, you should not need to add much steering for the car to continue rotating on entry. The steering will stay relatively calm, minimal corrections. It's all mostly on the brake release and on the engine braking to really get the car to start going with barely any steering.
Entry Part 2: Engine Braking and Downshifts
The next big layer is the engine braking. Engine braking is one of the biggest rotation tools in the MX-5, just as important as the brake release itself. Downshifting will slow the rear tires and act a bit like the dynamic rear ward brake bias, helping the car rotate more on entry. The key here is that the downshift timing and the blip size will work together in generating that rotation.
Downshift Timing
The earlier the downshift, the more aggressive the rear tires are slowed and the more rotation you get.
Earlier downshift means you get more rotation and more risk of oversteer
Later downshift means you get less rotation and more stability Remember here, stability does not necessarily mean fast.
Blip Size
The less you blip, the more engine braking affect you get
The more you blip, the more you smooth the downshift, the gear transition from the higher gear to the lower gear, and you reduce a little bit the added rotation
Smaller or no blip means more rear slowdown, more slip, more rotation
Bigger blip means smoother rear behavior and less extra rotation
Understanding Rev Matching
By blipping, I'm talking about that little quick throttle application at the very same time you downshift to help the revs going up and matching the tire rotation with the new gear rotation. So if you don't have that blip, then there's going to be a little bit of a abrupt change, as soon as the clutch gets back to the tire, that gears a little bit too slow and the tires a little bit too fast and that locking is going to overly slow down the car. It's almost like it's going to micro lock the rear tires because of that rev mismatch. So rev matching is accelerating a tiny bit just to increase the revs of the engine so that the transition becomes a little bit smoother. Blips are good because they prevent kicks on the rear tires. You can still get good engine braking rotation even when you blip. The engine braking gives a more constant source of rotation but downshifting without the blip gives you a little bit of a punch that can get you into too much oversteer and can also overheat the tires, making you have less overall grip even when you keep the car pointing to that direction.
Blipping Guidelines
So blipping is generally good, so at least some blip would be helpful most of the time, but sometimes you can make the blip a little bit smaller to control and maybe get a little bit of rotation without harming the tires. If you blip a little bit too much, then you might be over blipping, meaning like you're getting the rev matching but even after the gear has entered the connection with the tire, you're still adding a little bit of power and that's actually just not efficient. You're actually trying to accelerate instead of trying to slow the car down. The core idea here is that in the MX-5, the downshifts are not only for gear changes, they are an important tool as part of your entry balance control toolbox. So you have to use them to support the rotation created by the brake release, not to rescue a bad entry with a big rear slip spike unless really needed to correct a bad entry.
The Main Trap
The main trap here is because the effect is so strong, drivers can end up using downshifts to initiate too much oversteer. The car feels alive, it feels fast, but it's often just too much rear scrub with a large correction needed.
Entry Part 3: Steering
Once those two layers, the brakes and the engine braking are understood, we can place the steering at the right roll. Steering is the final playing of the entry rotation, not the first. In the MX-5, the steering should usually guide the rotation that brake release and engine braking have already created, not replace them. The core idea here is, on initial entry, the steering angle should be very small. Ideally, the wheel stays close to zero while the car starts to rotate underneath you by using mainly the brake pedals and the downshifts. As the brake pressure fades and the engine braking and downshift effect reduce, steering gradually becomes more important through the rest of the entry and towards the apex.
The Job of Steering Changes Through the Corner
On the early entry, it's to only guide the initial path, literally telling the direction
On mid corner, it keeps the front on the limit as the brakes and downshift run out
At the MRP, the maximum rotation point, just before you are about to transition to zero percent brake and start using the throttle, you need to add a little bit more steering to guarantee that you're still using the front grip available
What Does Too Much Steering Look Like?
Big angle early on entry is a problem
A static steering trace with no room to add more at the apex or unwind at the exit because of understeer. Also a problem
Mid Corner: Managing Balance
Trailer brake is about managing the balance of the car. The car idea is at mid corner, you are no longer trying to create the initial rotation. You are trying to keep it and to manage it. As a baseline, aim for roughly one to ten percent brake pressure through mid corner, depending on the corner in the balance of the car. That gives you enough front load to support the nose without making the rear too light or the front too overloaded.
Too Little Trail Brake
If you come off the brakes too much, too early, the rear will gain all the grip, the front will lose grip and the car will stop rotating. You need more steering angle to hold the line and you lose efficiency. And that usually leads to front scrub and understeer trying to rescue the line.
Slightly Too Much Trail Brake
If you carry a bit too much trail brake, the rear gets too light. The car will rotate more aggressively and this can create oversteer or make the rear feel nervous, lowering your confidence. If the rear is nervous mid corner, getting on power at apex can send the rear tires over the limit. The way the car behaves as soon as you apply the throttle is also dependent on how you generated that rotation on entry. So if you already have too much ongoing rotation, getting back on power becomes a little bit more dangerous.
Way Too Much Trail Brake
If you have way too much trail brake into mid corner, as the steering angle increases, the front tires become overloaded and you get into ABS. The car will eventually understeer and starts to wash wide even though you are still on the brakes. You're gonna tell yourself "oh my god, I'm trail braking, why is the car not turning?" That's because a lot of people think that front load means more turning but once you overload the front tires, you lose the exact thing you're trying to gain because of the ABS. The goal here is to use the minimum amount of trail brake needed to keep the front tires loaded and the car rotating cleanly without making the rear unstable and without overloading the front.
Practical Cue: Good Mid Corner Trail Brake
A good mid corner trail brake will feel like this:
The car is still willing to turn
The steering stays relatively calm and hands remain light, slowly adding the steering as the car slows down
The rear is not too nervous with no big corrections needed
You can add steering progressively as you feel that the car is more stable and accepts more and more and more rotation all the way until you get into the MRP
Mid Corner Part 2: Steering
The mid corner steering is the clearest window into whether the entry and trail phase were correct. By this point, the steering has become an equally important tool for rotation in shaping the path of the car but it should still be working with the balance you created earlier, not fighting against it. The core idea here is the amount of steering you need in mid corner tells you a lot how well the car was prepared on entry. In the MX-5, the steering will usually build progressively through mid corner towards the MRP and that is normal. As the brake pressure fades and the downshift effect reduces, steering naturally takes over and does more of the job. The key is not low steering all the time, the key is that the steering will build cleanly and efficiently without becoming excessive, static or full of corrections. It starts very very very very subtle like there's barely any steering and then it shows up and steals the show.
Reading the Steering
Too much steering or feeling the need to add more steering quickly, usually means not enough entry rotation coming from the brakes and from the engine braking. Or maybe you try too hard to gain entry rotation, overload the front tires and now you're intuitively asking for more rotation with what you believe is the main tool for rotation, which is the steering
Too little steering or not being able to wet any steering progressively, that usually means your entry rotation was too aggressive and brake release engine braking or downshift gave too much yaw, too much rotation too early. Now you are holding the car with less steering because more would probably make it unstable and you miss the apex because of that or you arrive a little bit too shallow into the corner and you have a bad angle on the exit and then you will have to repair the corner after which means a bad exit
Practical Cue
Mid corner steering should be building towards the apex. If it becomes frozen or excessive or full of corrections, the balance is probably wrong. Opening should be happening only once initial throttle begins and the car transitions to exit. Be careful not to open the steering before you get back on power, you have to get back on power and a fraction of a second after you start the unwinding process.
Mid Corner Part 3: Throttle
The last big mid corner piece is throttle. Mid corner throttle is one of the easiest ways to change the balance in the MX-5 but also one of the easiest ways to put a ceiling on your driver development because mid corner throttle is often used as a protective tool, not a productive one. Drivers use it to settle the rear, to stop the car from rotating too much and to help maintain decent minimum speed. And it can do those jobs well, especially in a car with such a soft suspension where even with a little throttle it can already change the balance quickly. But that's why it becomes such a common habit. It works, but maintenance throttle is an inefficient solution at a high level of driving. It unloads the front tires and also stops the car from slowing down as efficiently, which makes the car less willing to keep turning and increases the braking distances. It is taking exactly the thing you need, front grip and rotation.
Maintenance Throttle on Corner Entry? No.
Remember though, it can be a learning tool, a safer way for newer drivers to explore the front limit, in a conscious way to fix a mistake. But it can also:
Reduce rotation
Reduce the braking capability of tunnel entry
Delays the point where throttle becomes truly productive in pushing the car out of the corner
Cover up braking and downshifting mistakes, if done on entry
Build multiple bad habits and poor techniques on corner entry
Become your default answer and start hurting your long-term pace and development
Better Long-Term Fixes
If you keep relying on throttle to make the middle of the corner work, the better fix is usually one of these:
Start brake release earlier or quicker to make the car over rotate a little bit less
Reduce the trail brake amount, so when you get to mid-corner, start braking a little bit less, and you might be doing 20% or 15%. Bring that down to 5%, maybe even what feels to be 1%
Delay the downshift timing, get a little bit less engine braking so that you have a stable car as you get into the corner
Increase the blip size, prevent the car from doing those kicks by increasing a little bit the amount of blipping and making your gear shifts become a little bit smoother
Adjust all that to a line that asks less from the rear and needs less rotational entry, including turning in a little bit earlier
Exit Part 1: Steering
Now we get to the exit where all of this either pays you back or exposes the damage. Opening the steering at the correct rate is one of the biggest tells if you had a good entry in any car. As a baseline, once the throttle starts becoming productive, meaning starts to push the car forward, you should be aiming to open up the steering wheel. Even if you can only unwind it very slowly, being able to open up the steering at all is the goal. Sometimes that unwind is very slow at first, sometimes if the grip increases from compression, camber or something similar that gives you more grip, you may even be able to hold the steering a little bit longer or in more extreme cases, even add a little bit more steering on power, but that is not the default. The baseline is that on throttle, the steering wheel unwind. The throttle application and the steering unwind happen pretty much at the same time. Like I said, the steering unwind happens a fraction of a second after you start getting back on power and gaining speed.
The Exit is a Handoff
The core idea here is that the exit is a handoff. It's a transition, the steering is gradually doing less, the throttle is gradually doing more. The speed of that handoff matters.
If you open the steering too slowly and you keep too much demand on the front tires, the throttle will become less productive, the car will push wide and you may need to lift or delay your full throttle
If you open the steering too quickly though, you suddenly lose the line because you're now going a little bit straight too fast, so you're letting the car go wide too early, you miss the ideal exit path, and then you will be forced to add a second steering input later not to go off track. That's terrible
The goal here is to open this steering as quickly as the car allows, without giving away your exit line, without giving away your cornering forces that will keep you inside the track. This is what really turns a good apex into a strong exit with a nice opening spiral.
Practical Cue: Good Exit
A good exit feels like this:
The steering starts to open naturally as the throttle comes in
The car is still holding the line without extra correction
Throttle and unwind of the steering are happening together
Because of low power, you might reach 100% throttle even while the steering is still slowly opening up, that is normal in low power cars, but even so, in some situations, especially if the car is on neutral steering or over steering a little bit mid corner, you will still need to add the throttle a little bit more slowly while transitioning with the steering unwind. Always read the balance of the car and respond to it. Be careful not to blindly go to 100%, especially if you're already sliding a little bit too much.
Exit Part 2: Throttle Shape
The throttle itself needs the right trace. The throttle should be usually just one clean application, because the MX-5 is low power, you can often be aggressive, but it still needs to be one single clean squeeze, not a messy series of stabs and holds and repairs. The car idea here is that the goal is not the earliest throttle possible. The goal is the earliest productive throttle possible. Again, productive means a throttle that pushes the car forward and out of the corner, definitely. If the car is pointed and the wheel is ready to open, throttle can come in, or certainly, but if it's not, early throttle will just unload the front, kill the rotation and turn the exit into a repair spiral.
What Does Good Throttle Look Like?
One clean throttle application, assertive but still smooth
No unnecessary lifts after you went to 100% throttle
No maintenance throttle hanging around too long before the real commit of the throttle
The Common Trap
A common trap here is a lot of drivers go to the throttle too early to feel stable, then the front washes wide, they add more steering, and then they lift to regain some of that rotation that they lost, and then they go back on throttle and so on. That whole sequence usually means the throttle was not productive when it first came in.
Special Cases
There are some special cases here, for example, you have to be more careful:
In first gear
When the rear tires are hot from aggressive downshifts or sliding
When the car still has excess yaw from entry or mid corner
When you're accelerating over bumps or curbs
When accelerating over crests or coming out of camber In these cases, you might have to be a little bit more progressive than normal with the throttle.
Exit Part 3: Shift Timing
And finally, shift timing is very important in DMX 5, because it's not only about the RPM, it's about choosing which effects of the shifting you want and which ones you want to avoid. A downshift into a lower gear can give you several things at once:
Engine braking
Rotation
More torque and acceleration when you get back on power
A shift in the balance
The core idea here is that if you need a lower gear for the exit, the downshift to that gear on entry will also create maybe a little bit too much extra rotation or even oversteer. In those cases, the answer is actually to not downshift. It's to wait until the right moment. Very often, that means waiting until the moment the throttle starts to come in or the last possible moment before it so that you can get the benefit of the lower gear for acceleration without getting unnecessary engine braking or extra rotation while the car is still finishing the first half of the corner.
The Hidden Skill
The main discovery here, that's a secret. A lot of drivers think that downshifts have to belong only to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, one of the hidden skills is realizing that if the car needs a lower gear for the exit only, the timing of that shift is part of the exit technique itself. Believe it or not, sometimes the cleanest time to downshift is right at the very same time you start applying the throttle. That sounds backwards at first because most drivers think of downshifts as something that belongs entirely to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, if the exit needs the torque of the lower gear, taking that gear too early can create a little bit too much extra engine braking, extra rear tires low down and extra rotation at the exact moment you don't need it anymore.
Example: Slow Corner with First Gear
For example, let's say you're in a slow corner. First here is definitely necessary for you to get a better exit. If you stay in second, the car bogs down and as soon as you get back on power there's no acceleration. But if you downshift to first, the car is still rotating and you are already on the limit, that shift can create extra engine braking and extra yaw pushing the car into oversteer. In those cases, doing the whole corner entry in second and waiting until the moment throttle starts to come in just shift to first gear can actually be the best choice. Why is that? Because the throttle itself will act like a blip, helping force the car into that gear more smoothly while also calming the balance compared with an aggressive off throttle downshift.
Two Different Outcomes from the Same Lower Gear
If it's done too early off throttle: More engine braking, more rear end, slow down, more rotation, and more risk of oversteer
If you do it later after the throttle starts: Smoother engagement, better balance, no unwanted rotation on entry, while still getting all the exit power that you need for the exit
Upshifting in the MX-5
When it comes to upshifting the MX-5, that's pretty simple. Upshift at the maximum rev possible. That's the baseline rule. The gearbox is a dog box, so it does not need the clutch or a lift to complete the shift cleanly, and in practice the flat upshift, meaning you essentially press the pedal without having to lift your throttle or totally fine. So unlike downshifts where you need to blip, on the upshift you don't have to even think about it. Shift at max revs with maximum throttle.
Written in Collaboration of Coach Kane Halliburton.
Finding the Limit: Entry, Breaking
Break release is the main trigger for entry rotation in the MX-5. The key variable is the amount of break you still have at the point of turn in. This is what's going to decide how much front load you keep, how light the rear stays and how willing the car is to rotate. You can control that in two ways:
The timing of the release
The speed or shape of the release (the breaking trace)
It depends on the corner type and the balance of the car at that moment. A long corner, for example, you will want to release the brakes a little bit earlier. In a shorter entry, you will probably want to release the brakes more quickly because you have less time to do that. The core idea is you are trying to arrive at turn in with the right amount of brakes still in the car, not just be off the brake or already trail breaking. In the MX-5, that amount is one of the main things that decides whether the car rotates cleanly or forces you into steering early and starting doing all the repairs.
Too Little Break at Turn In
If you release too much too early before adding steering, the rear tires will have too much grip. The front will unload and the car will not point.
Too Much Brake at Turn In
If you carry a bit too much brakes into the turn in, the rear will stay too light for too long. The front tires will be overloaded and the car can rotate a little bit too aggressively and force you to correct. It will get into oversteer.
Way Too Much Brakes at Turn In
If you carry far too much brakes as you start to turn in, then definitely the front tires will be the most overloaded and you will get into ABS. So the rotation instantly dies and you get into understeer.
Practical Cue: Minimal Steering
The practical cue here that allows you to manage the whole braking and deciding how much percentage you bring into the corner and how that makes the car react is the steering. Minimal steering to initiate rotation is key here. You do not need, you should not need to add much steering for the car to continue rotating on entry. The steering will stay relatively calm, minimal corrections. It's all mostly on the brake release and on the engine braking to really get the car to start going with barely any steering.
Entry Part 2: Engine Braking and Downshifts
The next big layer is the engine braking. Engine braking is one of the biggest rotation tools in the MX-5, just as important as the brake release itself. Downshifting will slow the rear tires and act a bit like the dynamic rear ward brake bias, helping the car rotate more on entry. The key here is that the downshift timing and the blip size will work together in generating that rotation.
Downshift Timing
The earlier the downshift, the more aggressive the rear tires are slowed and the more rotation you get.
Earlier downshift means you get more rotation and more risk of oversteer
Later downshift means you get less rotation and more stability Remember here, stability does not necessarily mean fast.
Blip Size
The less you blip, the more engine braking affect you get
The more you blip, the more you smooth the downshift, the gear transition from the higher gear to the lower gear, and you reduce a little bit the added rotation
Smaller or no blip means more rear slowdown, more slip, more rotation
Bigger blip means smoother rear behavior and less extra rotation
Understanding Rev Matching
By blipping, I'm talking about that little quick throttle application at the very same time you downshift to help the revs going up and matching the tire rotation with the new gear rotation. So if you don't have that blip, then there's going to be a little bit of a abrupt change, as soon as the clutch gets back to the tire, that gears a little bit too slow and the tires a little bit too fast and that locking is going to overly slow down the car. It's almost like it's going to micro lock the rear tires because of that rev mismatch. So rev matching is accelerating a tiny bit just to increase the revs of the engine so that the transition becomes a little bit smoother. Blips are good because they prevent kicks on the rear tires. You can still get good engine braking rotation even when you blip. The engine braking gives a more constant source of rotation but downshifting without the blip gives you a little bit of a punch that can get you into too much oversteer and can also overheat the tires, making you have less overall grip even when you keep the car pointing to that direction.
Blipping Guidelines
So blipping is generally good, so at least some blip would be helpful most of the time, but sometimes you can make the blip a little bit smaller to control and maybe get a little bit of rotation without harming the tires. If you blip a little bit too much, then you might be over blipping, meaning like you're getting the rev matching but even after the gear has entered the connection with the tire, you're still adding a little bit of power and that's actually just not efficient. You're actually trying to accelerate instead of trying to slow the car down. The core idea here is that in the MX-5, the downshifts are not only for gear changes, they are an important tool as part of your entry balance control toolbox. So you have to use them to support the rotation created by the brake release, not to rescue a bad entry with a big rear slip spike unless really needed to correct a bad entry.
The Main Trap
The main trap here is because the effect is so strong, drivers can end up using downshifts to initiate too much oversteer. The car feels alive, it feels fast, but it's often just too much rear scrub with a large correction needed.
Entry Part 3: Steering
Once those two layers, the brakes and the engine braking are understood, we can place the steering at the right roll. Steering is the final playing of the entry rotation, not the first. In the MX-5, the steering should usually guide the rotation that brake release and engine braking have already created, not replace them. The core idea here is, on initial entry, the steering angle should be very small. Ideally, the wheel stays close to zero while the car starts to rotate underneath you by using mainly the brake pedals and the downshifts. As the brake pressure fades and the engine braking and downshift effect reduce, steering gradually becomes more important through the rest of the entry and towards the apex.
The Job of Steering Changes Through the Corner
On the early entry, it's to only guide the initial path, literally telling the direction
On mid corner, it keeps the front on the limit as the brakes and downshift run out
At the MRP, the maximum rotation point, just before you are about to transition to zero percent brake and start using the throttle, you need to add a little bit more steering to guarantee that you're still using the front grip available
What Does Too Much Steering Look Like?
Big angle early on entry is a problem
A static steering trace with no room to add more at the apex or unwind at the exit because of understeer. Also a problem
Mid Corner: Managing Balance
Trailer brake is about managing the balance of the car. The car idea is at mid corner, you are no longer trying to create the initial rotation. You are trying to keep it and to manage it. As a baseline, aim for roughly one to ten percent brake pressure through mid corner, depending on the corner in the balance of the car. That gives you enough front load to support the nose without making the rear too light or the front too overloaded.
Too Little Trail Brake
If you come off the brakes too much, too early, the rear will gain all the grip, the front will lose grip and the car will stop rotating. You need more steering angle to hold the line and you lose efficiency. And that usually leads to front scrub and understeer trying to rescue the line.
Slightly Too Much Trail Brake
If you carry a bit too much trail brake, the rear gets too light. The car will rotate more aggressively and this can create oversteer or make the rear feel nervous, lowering your confidence. If the rear is nervous mid corner, getting on power at apex can send the rear tires over the limit. The way the car behaves as soon as you apply the throttle is also dependent on how you generated that rotation on entry. So if you already have too much ongoing rotation, getting back on power becomes a little bit more dangerous.
Way Too Much Trail Brake
If you have way too much trail brake into mid corner, as the steering angle increases, the front tires become overloaded and you get into ABS. The car will eventually understeer and starts to wash wide even though you are still on the brakes. You're gonna tell yourself "oh my god, I'm trail braking, why is the car not turning?" That's because a lot of people think that front load means more turning but once you overload the front tires, you lose the exact thing you're trying to gain because of the ABS. The goal here is to use the minimum amount of trail brake needed to keep the front tires loaded and the car rotating cleanly without making the rear unstable and without overloading the front.
Practical Cue: Good Mid Corner Trail Brake
A good mid corner trail brake will feel like this:
The car is still willing to turn
The steering stays relatively calm and hands remain light, slowly adding the steering as the car slows down
The rear is not too nervous with no big corrections needed
You can add steering progressively as you feel that the car is more stable and accepts more and more and more rotation all the way until you get into the MRP
Mid Corner Part 2: Steering
The mid corner steering is the clearest window into whether the entry and trail phase were correct. By this point, the steering has become an equally important tool for rotation in shaping the path of the car but it should still be working with the balance you created earlier, not fighting against it. The core idea here is the amount of steering you need in mid corner tells you a lot how well the car was prepared on entry. In the MX-5, the steering will usually build progressively through mid corner towards the MRP and that is normal. As the brake pressure fades and the downshift effect reduces, steering naturally takes over and does more of the job. The key is not low steering all the time, the key is that the steering will build cleanly and efficiently without becoming excessive, static or full of corrections. It starts very very very very subtle like there's barely any steering and then it shows up and steals the show.
Reading the Steering
Too much steering or feeling the need to add more steering quickly, usually means not enough entry rotation coming from the brakes and from the engine braking. Or maybe you try too hard to gain entry rotation, overload the front tires and now you're intuitively asking for more rotation with what you believe is the main tool for rotation, which is the steering
Too little steering or not being able to wet any steering progressively, that usually means your entry rotation was too aggressive and brake release engine braking or downshift gave too much yaw, too much rotation too early. Now you are holding the car with less steering because more would probably make it unstable and you miss the apex because of that or you arrive a little bit too shallow into the corner and you have a bad angle on the exit and then you will have to repair the corner after which means a bad exit
Practical Cue
Mid corner steering should be building towards the apex. If it becomes frozen or excessive or full of corrections, the balance is probably wrong. Opening should be happening only once initial throttle begins and the car transitions to exit. Be careful not to open the steering before you get back on power, you have to get back on power and a fraction of a second after you start the unwinding process.
Mid Corner Part 3: Throttle
The last big mid corner piece is throttle. Mid corner throttle is one of the easiest ways to change the balance in the MX-5 but also one of the easiest ways to put a ceiling on your driver development because mid corner throttle is often used as a protective tool, not a productive one. Drivers use it to settle the rear, to stop the car from rotating too much and to help maintain decent minimum speed. And it can do those jobs well, especially in a car with such a soft suspension where even with a little throttle it can already change the balance quickly. But that's why it becomes such a common habit. It works, but maintenance throttle is an inefficient solution at a high level of driving. It unloads the front tires and also stops the car from slowing down as efficiently, which makes the car less willing to keep turning and increases the braking distances. It is taking exactly the thing you need, front grip and rotation.
Maintenance Throttle on Corner Entry? No.
Remember though, it can be a learning tool, a safer way for newer drivers to explore the front limit, in a conscious way to fix a mistake. But it can also:
Reduce rotation
Reduce the braking capability of tunnel entry
Delays the point where throttle becomes truly productive in pushing the car out of the corner
Cover up braking and downshifting mistakes, if done on entry
Build multiple bad habits and poor techniques on corner entry
Become your default answer and start hurting your long-term pace and development
Better Long-Term Fixes
If you keep relying on throttle to make the middle of the corner work, the better fix is usually one of these:
Start brake release earlier or quicker to make the car over rotate a little bit less
Reduce the trail brake amount, so when you get to mid-corner, start braking a little bit less, and you might be doing 20% or 15%. Bring that down to 5%, maybe even what feels to be 1%
Delay the downshift timing, get a little bit less engine braking so that you have a stable car as you get into the corner
Increase the blip size, prevent the car from doing those kicks by increasing a little bit the amount of blipping and making your gear shifts become a little bit smoother
Adjust all that to a line that asks less from the rear and needs less rotational entry, including turning in a little bit earlier
Exit Part 1: Steering
Now we get to the exit where all of this either pays you back or exposes the damage. Opening the steering at the correct rate is one of the biggest tells if you had a good entry in any car. As a baseline, once the throttle starts becoming productive, meaning starts to push the car forward, you should be aiming to open up the steering wheel. Even if you can only unwind it very slowly, being able to open up the steering at all is the goal. Sometimes that unwind is very slow at first, sometimes if the grip increases from compression, camber or something similar that gives you more grip, you may even be able to hold the steering a little bit longer or in more extreme cases, even add a little bit more steering on power, but that is not the default. The baseline is that on throttle, the steering wheel unwind. The throttle application and the steering unwind happen pretty much at the same time. Like I said, the steering unwind happens a fraction of a second after you start getting back on power and gaining speed.
The Exit is a Handoff
The core idea here is that the exit is a handoff. It's a transition, the steering is gradually doing less, the throttle is gradually doing more. The speed of that handoff matters.
If you open the steering too slowly and you keep too much demand on the front tires, the throttle will become less productive, the car will push wide and you may need to lift or delay your full throttle
If you open the steering too quickly though, you suddenly lose the line because you're now going a little bit straight too fast, so you're letting the car go wide too early, you miss the ideal exit path, and then you will be forced to add a second steering input later not to go off track. That's terrible
The goal here is to open this steering as quickly as the car allows, without giving away your exit line, without giving away your cornering forces that will keep you inside the track. This is what really turns a good apex into a strong exit with a nice opening spiral.
Practical Cue: Good Exit
A good exit feels like this:
The steering starts to open naturally as the throttle comes in
The car is still holding the line without extra correction
Throttle and unwind of the steering are happening together
Because of low power, you might reach 100% throttle even while the steering is still slowly opening up, that is normal in low power cars, but even so, in some situations, especially if the car is on neutral steering or over steering a little bit mid corner, you will still need to add the throttle a little bit more slowly while transitioning with the steering unwind. Always read the balance of the car and respond to it. Be careful not to blindly go to 100%, especially if you're already sliding a little bit too much.
Exit Part 2: Throttle Shape
The throttle itself needs the right trace. The throttle should be usually just one clean application, because the MX-5 is low power, you can often be aggressive, but it still needs to be one single clean squeeze, not a messy series of stabs and holds and repairs. The car idea here is that the goal is not the earliest throttle possible. The goal is the earliest productive throttle possible. Again, productive means a throttle that pushes the car forward and out of the corner, definitely. If the car is pointed and the wheel is ready to open, throttle can come in, or certainly, but if it's not, early throttle will just unload the front, kill the rotation and turn the exit into a repair spiral.
What Does Good Throttle Look Like?
One clean throttle application, assertive but still smooth
No unnecessary lifts after you went to 100% throttle
No maintenance throttle hanging around too long before the real commit of the throttle
The Common Trap
A common trap here is a lot of drivers go to the throttle too early to feel stable, then the front washes wide, they add more steering, and then they lift to regain some of that rotation that they lost, and then they go back on throttle and so on. That whole sequence usually means the throttle was not productive when it first came in.
Special Cases
There are some special cases here, for example, you have to be more careful:
In first gear
When the rear tires are hot from aggressive downshifts or sliding
When the car still has excess yaw from entry or mid corner
When you're accelerating over bumps or curbs
When accelerating over crests or coming out of camber In these cases, you might have to be a little bit more progressive than normal with the throttle.
Exit Part 3: Shift Timing
And finally, shift timing is very important in DMX 5, because it's not only about the RPM, it's about choosing which effects of the shifting you want and which ones you want to avoid. A downshift into a lower gear can give you several things at once:
Engine braking
Rotation
More torque and acceleration when you get back on power
A shift in the balance
The core idea here is that if you need a lower gear for the exit, the downshift to that gear on entry will also create maybe a little bit too much extra rotation or even oversteer. In those cases, the answer is actually to not downshift. It's to wait until the right moment. Very often, that means waiting until the moment the throttle starts to come in or the last possible moment before it so that you can get the benefit of the lower gear for acceleration without getting unnecessary engine braking or extra rotation while the car is still finishing the first half of the corner.
The Hidden Skill
The main discovery here, that's a secret. A lot of drivers think that downshifts have to belong only to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, one of the hidden skills is realizing that if the car needs a lower gear for the exit only, the timing of that shift is part of the exit technique itself. Believe it or not, sometimes the cleanest time to downshift is right at the very same time you start applying the throttle. That sounds backwards at first because most drivers think of downshifts as something that belongs entirely to braking and entry. But in DMX 5, if the exit needs the torque of the lower gear, taking that gear too early can create a little bit too much extra engine braking, extra rear tires low down and extra rotation at the exact moment you don't need it anymore.
Example: Slow Corner with First Gear
For example, let's say you're in a slow corner. First here is definitely necessary for you to get a better exit. If you stay in second, the car bogs down and as soon as you get back on power there's no acceleration. But if you downshift to first, the car is still rotating and you are already on the limit, that shift can create extra engine braking and extra yaw pushing the car into oversteer. In those cases, doing the whole corner entry in second and waiting until the moment throttle starts to come in just shift to first gear can actually be the best choice. Why is that? Because the throttle itself will act like a blip, helping force the car into that gear more smoothly while also calming the balance compared with an aggressive off throttle downshift.
Two Different Outcomes from the Same Lower Gear
If it's done too early off throttle: More engine braking, more rear end, slow down, more rotation, and more risk of oversteer
If you do it later after the throttle starts: Smoother engagement, better balance, no unwanted rotation on entry, while still getting all the exit power that you need for the exit
Upshifting in the MX-5
When it comes to upshifting the MX-5, that's pretty simple. Upshift at the maximum rev possible. That's the baseline rule. The gearbox is a dog box, so it does not need the clutch or a lift to complete the shift cleanly, and in practice the flat upshift, meaning you essentially press the pedal without having to lift your throttle or totally fine. So unlike downshifts where you need to blip, on the upshift you don't have to even think about it. Shift at max revs with maximum throttle.
Other Lessons