Driving Techniques Dos and Don'ts
Dec 21, 2011, 06:58 PM
#78
Evolving Member
When Should I shift gears to get more speed? I Have a 02' OZ Rally Everything Stock. I normally shift when I hear the engine rev were I think it should be shifted. But To get more speed I shift 3.5k-4.0k+ Is that good For the Engine?
Thanks,
-Andy
Thanks,
-Andy
Jun 22, 2012, 05:59 AM
#81
There is some debate between people on that. i don't know enough to say with absolute certainty. But the issue becomes that your tires can only produce a certain amount of grip. So lets work on an assumed 1/2 circle sweeper. Your centripetal (not centrifugal) acceleration around that sweeper is in a direct relation to your tangential speed. So for a given tangential speed you have a certain acceleration that has to be "held" against. Given the same tires on two cars the car that is not sliding past the 6-10degree slip angle that maximizes tire traction will be the one that is holding a better tangential speed. So in theory that car would be faster than the drift car.
But the application of power in a direction opposite of the centripetal acceleratnion by the drifting car is where things get a little more iffy. I THINK it is essentially (emphasis on think) negating some of the outward acceleration by generating a bit of power drive acceleration the other direction. So the actual tangential speed may be higher or equivalent to before while slipping far past the tires' ability.
Unfortunatley, without question in a longer term race this would be a bad thing (and for most of us as well) as the wear and temperatures on the tire will not be ideal. WRC is a little different as there is considerably minimal traction due to the surfaces and the tires perform extremely well in their standard motive direction (aka trying to move the car forward).
Maybe that clears or confuses the issue further.
I actually do mildly drift my FWD Mazda in some types of sweepers auto-xing because of being able to apply strong power with the LSD while having the alignment and suspension tuned so that the car stays neutral.
Lastly, often a drift line is much wider and longer than a good racing line because of the nature of the drift... this can be deterimental as well. Road racing relies very heavily on maximizing corner exit speed. I'm not sure how comparable a drift exit speed is on a given corner relative to a solidly driven modified racing line.
But the application of power in a direction opposite of the centripetal acceleratnion by the drifting car is where things get a little more iffy. I THINK it is essentially (emphasis on think) negating some of the outward acceleration by generating a bit of power drive acceleration the other direction. So the actual tangential speed may be higher or equivalent to before while slipping far past the tires' ability.
Unfortunatley, without question in a longer term race this would be a bad thing (and for most of us as well) as the wear and temperatures on the tire will not be ideal. WRC is a little different as there is considerably minimal traction due to the surfaces and the tires perform extremely well in their standard motive direction (aka trying to move the car forward).
Maybe that clears or confuses the issue further.
I actually do mildly drift my FWD Mazda in some types of sweepers auto-xing because of being able to apply strong power with the LSD while having the alignment and suspension tuned so that the car stays neutral.
Lastly, often a drift line is much wider and longer than a good racing line because of the nature of the drift... this can be deterimental as well. Road racing relies very heavily on maximizing corner exit speed. I'm not sure how comparable a drift exit speed is on a given corner relative to a solidly driven modified racing line.
e brake is a great help for sharper then 90° turns.
That is why rally cars have a very special and very fast hand break(properly) not an ebrake or parking brake. Also it is hydraulic and has no separate brake set up on the rear. It is using the main oil lines for the rear.
And so on so forth.
Its along story though how many time the hand brake is usefull ... lol
Dec 12, 2012, 09:40 AM
#83
Newbie
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey guys, just to add to what has been said about left foot braking - yes, its most common use is to balance or settle the car and essentially take the place of moving your foot back and forth between gas and brake very quickly, but some people also use it to lock the front wheels on a standard differential (open differential) front wheel drive car. Basically, when going through a turn at high speed, it can act like a manual LSD by pressing both gas and lightly touching the brake at the same time. The differential will "think" it has traction on both wheels still and keep them both going. Obviously it's not thinking at all; that's just how it works mechanically. If you do a real life comparison, without left foot braking on this kind of car, the car will wash out with understeer generally. With the left foot braking while pressing the throttle, the car's front end will stay in line, and you can potentially go faster.
Dec 12, 2012, 09:50 AM
#84
Newbie
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
About using the e-brake in turns - it is generally slower than if the turn can be drifted without, but there are a few cases where the e-brake is faster. One scenario is when the road is tighter than the radius you can make, even if you could do a pendulum turn (Scandinavian flick). This is actually probably very common with the Evo since the turning radius is so large! Another is if the front tires are taking too much of the turning load (such that you have to slow down so much for the front tires to grip, which is more common on slippery surfaces). This could be the case if you can't get any traction on the front tires to do anything (turn in or do a Scandinavian flick that is tight enough to get around the corner). Getting the tail out slightly to balance the load on all four tires (have all four tires do the work for you in the turn) would be faster. In a FWD car, what you're doing is really taking the work away from the front tires by swinging all the mass of the rear around to the place where you want it to get around a turn.
Dec 12, 2012, 10:02 AM
#85
Newbie
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 15
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I guess I would classify the clutch kick as a "driving don't," but I think it is worth mentioning. Pushing in and releasing the clutch quickly is often used by drifters nowadays to unsettle the cars by shocking the drivetrain. When the car is close to or at the limit, "kicking" the clutch will unsettle the car enough that the car will go into a drift. Either the shock unsettles it or if you're really close to the limit, the shift in weight to the front tires will unsettle the rear tires. I personally am not a big fan of this because the first scenario of shocking the drivetrain is hard on the car. Shifting the weight is not as hard. 
But there are cases where people will use the clutch to keep the revs up, especially in turbo cars. This is so they can keep the revs up to stay away from the lag zone of the engine. I wanted to mention one case I heard of where Ari Vatanen (in the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb Dance video) was pressing in the clutch on the all-gravel hillclimb to get traction back. The car was so powerful that the wheels were sliding whenever he pressed the throttle. He would press the clutch in so the tires would disconnect from the engine and get traction back. He mentioned that when he was younger (and driving weaker cars), he would press in the clutch to keep the revs up because the engine was so weak. Now he was pressing in the clutch for the opposite reason!
But there are cases where people will use the clutch to keep the revs up, especially in turbo cars. This is so they can keep the revs up to stay away from the lag zone of the engine. I wanted to mention one case I heard of where Ari Vatanen (in the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb Dance video) was pressing in the clutch on the all-gravel hillclimb to get traction back. The car was so powerful that the wheels were sliding whenever he pressed the throttle. He would press the clutch in so the tires would disconnect from the engine and get traction back. He mentioned that when he was younger (and driving weaker cars), he would press in the clutch to keep the revs up because the engine was so weak. Now he was pressing in the clutch for the opposite reason!
Dec 23, 2012, 08:33 PM
#86
Newbie
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Arcadia
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Not sure if this is common practice but I tend to take corners at near sliding speeds (usually I practice a corner a few times before I take it at the speed in which my rear almost wants to kick out) match my gear to revs and power out of the turn. These cars were made to grip so I feel that so long as your tires aren't spinning faster than they can grip you will be ahead of the game. Though this mostly pertains to circuits as I've never driven the car off the road before.
Jan 29, 2013, 01:59 PM
#89
my 0.02 cents is get your car dynoed find out were your powerband drops and change just a little before it, most evo's love to be thrashed mine plays up like a dog with the mods if i try and do everything gently, just drive your car hard if your tyres are grip squealing around a corner you will probably only get another 3-5miles next time you take it listen to your car itll tell you when its happy
That part of what you said is very confusing and am not sure what your trying to say at all. Especially the part about getting another 3-5 miles. Elaborate on this please, if you would. Thanks. 