Understand the why so you can find a solution
Driving fast is not easy. Well, duh! Consider this:
- Trail braking too much can cause your car to understeer or oversteer on corner entry.
- Trail braking too little can cause your car to understeer or oversteer on corner entry.
- Getting on the throttle too hard can cause your car to understeer or oversteer exiting a corner.
- Turning the steering wheel too quickly at turn-in can cause your car to understeer or oversteer on corner entry.
- Getting on the throttle too early can delay getting to full throttle.
If one action can cause one of two reactions, how do you know how to fix it?
First of all, you need to understand the why behind each scenario, so let’s look at each individually.
Too much trail braking causing entry understeer: You’re asking the front tires to do too much — to brake and steer at the same time — so the tires give up and begin to slide. Reducing the amount of brake pressure will lessen or eliminate the understeer.
Too much trail braking causing entry oversteer: You’re turning into a corner with too much weight on the front end, and not enough on the rear, causing the rear tires to slide. Reduce brake pressure to transfer some weight to the rear.
Too little trail braking causing entry understeer: You’ve come off the brakes, unloading the front tires, resulting in them sliding. Continue to trail brake a little more or harder.
Too little trail braking causing entry oversteer: You’ve come off the brakes fairly abruptly, causing the balance of the car to be unstable, resulting in less overall traction (and due to the way your car handles, it oversteers). Release the brakes more gently.
Too hard on the throttle causing exit understeer: Weight transfer issue — you’ve un-weighted the front tires, and they slide more than the rears. Be more gentle with your throttle application.
Too hard on the throttle causing exit oversteer: You’re generating power oversteer, where you’re breaking the rear tires loose (exceeding their traction limit), resulting in wheelspin and oversteer. Be more gentle with your throttle application.
Turning the steering wheel too abruptly causing entry understeer: The sudden turn of the front tires means they haven’t been given enough time to generate the side forces, so they “give up” and slide. Be more gentle with your turn-in.
Turning the steering wheel too abruptly causing entry oversteer: The sudden change in direction results in the rear being “whipped” to the side, and that momentum continues, resulting in the oversteer. Be more gentle with your turn-in.
Getting on the throttle too early results in being late to full throttle: You apply the throttle early (because you’ve been told over and over again that exit speed it critical) — so early that the car has not rotated enough around the corner that you have to breathe the throttle (to avoid driving off the track) before you can fully commit to full throttle. Getting to full throttle is what often matters most, not when you start giving it a partial throttle. Hesitate very briefly, to the point where you can go all the way to full throttle in one application.
I’ve found that in most cases, once a driver understands the cause and effect of each of these scenarios — the why behind them — they become more aware and begin to sense what leads to what. And that’s the key to addressing each of these issues.
Nobody said it would be easy. But why?
Ross Bentley
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Ross Bentley has spent a lifetime helping drivers go faster. He’s the author of the Speed Secrets books (the best-selling racing series ever), is one of the most sought-after driver coaches in the world, and runs SpeedSecrets.com, the largest collection of driver development resources anywhere. Want more articles like this? Subscribe at RossBentley.Substack.com.
