[Landjet]

Originally Posted by RedOctober

But hey, I can't say I'm not insanely jealous when everyone else with power blows by me on the straights.

Thank you for the truth.

[Noah]

i'm not jealous, not one bit. there is zero skill involved in pressing your right foot forward and holding the steering wheel straight. i'm jealous of people who can balance their cars perfectly through the corners, almost defying the laws of physics, slicing their way through the turns with elegance, smoothness, and confidence. that's impressive. driving in a straight line is not.

[MLIN]

Originally Posted by Noah

i'm jealous of people who can balance their cars perfectly through the corners, almost defying the laws of physics, slicing their way through the turns with elegance, smoothness, and confidence. that's impressive.

So is everyone else here.

Just because one has a high HP car doesn’t automatically make him a bad drover or not a momentum driver. It’s all relative at the end of the day. And it certainly doesn’t mean he has to go out of his way to purchase an old car to learn how to drive. Not taking Larry’s side here, but he drove well the day I instructed him.

With that said I think it’s Larry’s constant quest to improve his already capable car that makes him an easy target, and I do admit, makes this thread entertaining to read. It’s like a beginner golfer trying to change equipment every time something doesn’t go well. Most of the time it will only mask bad habits. Nothing wrong with improving your car. But like many here have said, try to focus on seat time and driving skills above all else.

[Landjet]

Thanks Michael, good analogy about the golf equipment.

[RedOctober]

Originally Posted by Noah

I'm jealous of people who can balance their cars perfectly through the corners, almost defying the laws of physics, slicing their way through the turns with elegance, smoothness, and confidence. that's impressive. driving in a straight line is not.

I certainly am too. I just meant that if my N/A had another ~100hp, it would be about the perfect car for me for a LONG time. Not saying I currently have the skills to put those 100hp to their maximum use, nor can I put the 150hp I currently have to their maximum use. Sometimes I just wish I had a 944 Turbo.....I think it is all relative though. If you are one N/A 944 running with a bunch of temp tag GT3s and Turbos in Green group, it gets annoying when they just mash the gas on you at the straights. On the flip side the challenge is then to stay all over them in the corners and under braking, which is fun in itself. I guess what I am saying is if you are running a N/A 944 with a bunch of other N/A 944s, then you really don't miss that loss of HP. You are all going basically the same speed on the straights.

[Landjet]

One thing I don't understand is why everyone thinks it's so hard to drive a high HP car. It's all relative, you adjust. If you really think about it, we are already traveling at over 1000mph even when we are standing still. We don't notice it because we were born into it.

[VaSteve]

I'm not jealous of the guys in faster cars going faster on the straights. I might be jealous of the amount of their disposable income they can allocate to their toys but not the toys themselves. I expect those cars to be faster...When I had my old car I got many a reluctant point by coming out of 9 by a much faster car once I crawled up the exhaust. This happens in all run groups. I have video of Dr K and I getting bogged down by a GT3RS straight line superstar that couldn't exexcute a pass through Madness with us parked on the shoulder. OOOOO I'm jealous.

[RedOctober]

Originally Posted by VaSteve

I'm not jealous of the guys in faster cars going faster on the straights. I might be jealous of the amount of their disposable income they can allocate to their toys but not the toys themselves. I expect those cars to be faster...When I had my old car I got many a reluctant point by coming out of 9 by a much faster car once I crawled up the exhaust. This happens in all run groups. I have video of Dr K and I getting bogged down by a GT3RS straight line superstar that couldn't exexcute a pass through Madness with us parked on the shoulder. OOOOO I'm jealous.

I hear ya there, especially on the $$ aspect, but when running with guys in higher HP cars that can actually drive, you don't wish your S2 had a little more power? For me, running with someone that is a little faster than I am is great fun, and with nobody blasting by you on the straights, makes it seem as if we are going faster.

[Potomac-Greg]

The ultimate objective is a fast car and a fast driver. The question is, if you need to upgrade both, where do you start?

PS: This is why I really want to transition into racing where classification negates the horsepower battle (or at least mitigates it).

PPS: Where I miss horsepower most is not the terminal velocity at the end of a straight. I miss it where the car could handle much more exit acceleration but it just ain't there. T2 at Summit is an example, or T6-7 at VIR.

[HoodPin]

This T-shirts graphic sorta says it all :



(occasionally spotted at our DE's even... )

Larry,
You're driving has come a loooong way. Seriously! And you should be happy with your progression. But unless your car has some serious handling flaws, given the AWD, R-comp tires, and other goodies already on it, IMHO, you should already be able to go thru corners pretty quickly. Unless you're already at the point (and I don't personally know if you are or aren't) when few cars either gain or pull away from you in the turns, you should be focusing on your driving, and not the driver aids.

That's why I highly recommend allowing someone else, with appropriate qualifications/experience in a car like yours, to drive your car with you in it. They will either confirm your suspicions that something mechanical is not right. Or they will show where the real "handling" performance envelope of the car really is. Data acquisition would be an even better way to compare driving results, but it is admittedly a signficant investment.

I know this has been rehashed over & over. But there has been alot of good discussion here. But even over on RL, there's a somewhat current thread about driving/racing coaches, and its interesting to note how many people, many of whom were already accomplished drivers/racers, learned to improve thier times buy signficant increments by simply learning how to drive better.

There are very, very few of us in the performance driving world who can claim to know all there is, and have nothing more to gain. We all have habits, techniques, fears, etc. that can be tweaked and improved. As long as we don't deviate from a safe, responsible approach to learning & getting better, it'll be good (and fun!).

As my last whack on the poor animal () I will suggest that your goal in the next DE or 2 is to observe the cornering performance of those around you. Assess how well you're doing in the corners relative to them. In fact, if you see someone gain on you in the corners, consider letting them pass, and then hold back on the straights, so that you can spend extra time studying what they're doing in turns that is apparently working well.

If you can honestly say that you're keeping up with the better cars, then you can give yourself a hearty pat on the back. And only after that should you start considering performance mods & tweaks. And when you do, be specific about what you're trying to improve, and be able to understand and articulate why you think its deficient now.

Keep up the good work! ()