What are some plans that you guys have for keeping your skill level up during the off-season? I'm currently in Iraq so i can't do much. I drive a pick-up most days so i try and work on my apexes through the traffic circles here on base. Other than that - i'm going to the gym and try to lose weight, but nothing much else.

I won't be home until next spring, so i'll prolly miss the first few events. No biggie - stuff happens, but i don't want to forget everything i've learned this past season.

Keep the shiny side up and see you later, mates.



Chris

 

Try and order and read some good literature and run it through your head, if you want to keep up without a car, make it memory... when I'm not driving, I try to do a lot of reading and try to challenge myself into thinking about car dynamics in new ways.... just a thought....

 

^ can u suggest some good literature?

 

Depends on what you want to read about. I like to read books about tuning cars too which helps you make the connection between driving and the physics of the car. There are a number of books for this and I can't think of any off the top of my head. The best book for performance driving is Skip Barber's "Going Faster". The "Speed Secrets" series (there's like 7 of them or something ridiculous) is pretty good but a little too focused on the mental aspect and even speaks about meditation.

As I mentioned, anything to keep your focus on motorsport or the art of controlling a vehicle is beneficial. Its a controversial subject, but actually there is proof that you can physically change your body by simply thinking about performing certain tasks repetitively. Something you can do is simply imagine driving on the track and imagine to the very finest detail what it feels like, not in words, but the actual sensation of it. I do this whenever I am about to go out on a new track or drive a new kind of car, I even do it when I want to build on a skill like controlling oversteer. You can actually build muscle memory and tune your instincts to react accordingly without even ever doing these tasks before.

 

Hey matt, nice post regarding this topic. I kinda stumbled upon this thread hehehe. Cheers

 

Ross Bentley- Speed Secrets series is good.

I have engineering the driver, I liked it.

Scorke

 

Indoor carting when I have the time. The fun ones, not the slow go-carts. I get to work on drifting/cart control.

When I am feeling poor - Forza or GT4 with the cars setup exactly as my real car. Just general tomfoolery.

 

I drive with only my left foot and left hand as well as keeping only 1 eye open, keeps me sharp.


Or you can go out and do this.

 

You have ANY idea how mad I am about living in Cali when I see pictures like this?! I want to go play around with ice racing SOOOO bad!

But seriously, that'll for SURE help car control. Doesn't help someone without a CAR, but if you are in a place that shuts down race tracks and you still want to keep up on the driving, playing in the snow/rain in SAFE locations is an awesome way to keep your reactions sharp.

...I want my Evo back now

 

Off season our not, we like to use the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains on a regular basis. One third of our total mileage since 2003 has been logged in those mountains, sun, rain, snow, ice, no matter, we go!

Matt, we have plenty of snow and ice in California, you just have to go higher to find it!

 

Haha... true. Is there any place that we can ice race though?

 

Sadly no ice racing around here. There was an attempt several years ago to run motorcycles on hockey rinks but it never caught on. We were using speedway bikes with studded tires like the Europeans. Imagine for a moment if you will a motorcycle with no brakes on ice, it was actually very good racing.

 

Ummm. I believe the OP is stationed in Iraq. May I suggest sand racing instead.

 

..... the OP asked what we do in the off season. We know where he is and would like him to be the hell out of there!

 

I guess you're right on that one

2nd on coming back and showing me up on some frozen lakes.