I wanted to get a discussions gong on trail braking. Do you use it? When? Why?

Do I use it - Yes.
When - To rotate the car better through certain turns. Or to shave off a bit of speed if I've gone into a corner too hot.
Why - Because I was running near stock suspension and it was the way I learned to help manipulate the car through a turn - countering the excessive understeer that near stock evo's have on the track.


Which brings up the question; when not to use trail braking? My new setup has a very high rear springrate. My first track event with this setup definitely shed some light on the negatives of trail braking with a high rear spring rate! The short answer is an unsteady and light rear end.
What technique would others suggest I use instead of trail braking in my above example? Perhaps I don't need this technique anymore or perhaps I just need to be more sensitive in my braking technique itself. Would the opposite be throttle steer?

 

FYI, there was a huge thread on trail braking a couple of years ago...

l8r)

 

the good ol' Paul vs. Robi thread comes to mind....

Paul swears by it, Robi thinks it over heats the inside rear tires too much for the EVO & is not needed.

Do I trail brake? Mostly not.. but it happens

 

Yeah, I found that. It spent several pages explaining what trail braking is. And then constructive arguing over the use of it.

Old Thread Here.

I used to use it, but now that I've altered the suspension it seems that is no longer a good option for me. So I was hoping for some feedback from others.

 

robi's right. if you need to trail brake, time to tune your suspension. To get speed out of an evo, you should be back on the gas on turn in.

we used to use it a lot in the old GTIs as the spec rules were such that you needed 55psi in the rear tires and a whole lot of help turning.

 

Although still very new to tracking my car I used to do it all the time until I realized what I was doing. Last time I was at the track I made it a point not to do it and I felt way more comfortable with the car. My times were also faster.

 

I started trailbraking when I used to autocross my Type R years ago, until I modded the suspension it was the only way to get it to rotate the way I wanted to.

I still trailbrake the R on track or autocross now, it just comes naturally to me. It tends to scare the **** out of friends that I take out for fun laps on roadcourses. But I know the car really well and the suspension is setup JDM safely so it's really controllable. I absolutely Do Not teach it to any novice students I have though.

For the EVO I tried it only a few times at autocross and found that it just faded the rear pads and just didn't do what I wanted it to do so I attack corners differently and don't do it in the EVO.

 

Agreed, although we are typically on the gas a touch later in autox. The earlier the better IMO.

 

I'm just learning how to really trailbrake the AS Solstice I'm running this year correctly. It can work wonders if you do it right. There is a lot of time lost getting to the apex if you're doing all your braking before turn-in.

That being said, it doesn't help as much with the Evo's tendency to push under braking.

 

Now that I have a suspension that works decently well I don't have to work the brake near as much as I did prior. I can just adjust the steering angle, adjust throttle and make the butt rotate, bite and zip right out the other side of the turn.

I'm still getting a better feel for it but I can see why one would say that trail braking is not needed and actually counter to a fast time if you are set up in a similar fashion.

 

In my experience with bikes and cars, trail braking is good in some corners, and not good in others. I'll tend to use it more in a race where you need to beat someone to the apex. As we all know, racing sometimes isn't about the best line, but more about passing or preventing being passed.
I guess I'm trying to say that no matter what, it's a good tool to have in the box.

 

I compress my braking so much that I tend to go into the corner with them simply out of necessity. I really need to back off some (as is evident by the fact that I plowed a mustang last year doing that) but I have gotten quite used to being able to go full throttle way before the apex since the car is rotated from the trailbraking. I'm no expert on tire wear for sure, so I may very well be heating up the rear too much. All that said to say: I used to, but I'm going to try to give myself more space during braking this year so that I can try to corner w/o TBing.

 

lol, that's a new one to me. I love the adjective "JDM".

 

Gingerman turn 2 yes I do. Only way I've found to stop the front end from pushing, the track drops away a little there.

 

This sounds like my situation. I used to, but I don't believe it's a tool I 'need' to use anymore with the better suspension.