Blitz

iTrader: (11)

I recently had to do Traffic Safety School and actually got into a discussion with the teacher about this. He told the class that if the car starts sliding, you should immediately lift off the throttle and turn into the slide. I argued lifting off the throttle too quickly could unsettle the car even more. He disagreed, as did some people in the class.

RallyDSM

iTrader: (21)

And therein lies the difference between "Driver's Ed" and "Real Life".

Seriously though, in their defense, weight transfer is considered an "advanced" technique and in most cases, if you are driving well within the speed limit, the car shouldn't be so out of sorts to require these kinds of maneuvers.

However, his logic is fundamentally incorrect and most likely he know this, but the curriculum prohibits him from teaching or endorsing these kinds of handling techniques. At least it does where I teach publicly.

At the end of the day, you shouldn't be doing these kinds of things on the street anyway... but in an emergency, knowledge is power.

Scott

RallyDSM

iTrader: (21)

we've been talking about Vegas.... We'd like to perhaps put on a school this winter down your way. Can you help me get it put together? Get the local SCCA guys involved, put together some students, that sort of thing?

We'd love to come down, we just need to make sure we have our bases covered.

Let me know,

Scott

AllydNYC

Nice writeup Scott!

big block ix

iTrader: (1)

My old roomate who's 6ft 8' drove my evo one day.. His giant foot got stuck on the gas in first while making a right turn from a stop sign - needless to say we had the worst tank slap ever !!
The Z06 right next to us almost had an evo crash into his passenger door

RallyDSM

iTrader: (21)

LOL... That's pretty funny.

One time I was driving to a Rally Event in the 'ol EVO with BALD *** tires on the rear end of the car. I mean baby butt bald. Excessive toe will do that for ya

Anyway, went onto the freeway on ramp at a massive 35 mph and guess what happened?

Yeppers, the back end started comin' on around. 2:30 in the afternoon and there was a fair amount of traffic too. This kind of slide being completely familiar to me, but somewhat of a surprise at the time, I simply leaned into the throttle and drove out my driver's side window pretty much the entire loop of the on ramp.

About midway through the slide, I thought about what might be going on behind (more to the right) of me... and glanced out the passenger side window for a moment. There, behind me, was a gigantic pair of eyeballs with white knuckled fists attached to the steering wheel of a Ford Minivan. OMG... this guy thought we all were gonna die!!! I had to laugh out loud.

Anyway, as the on ramp straightened out onto the freeway, so did I and I was gone. No drama, no tank slapper, no real excitement to speak of... except maybe the story the minivan driver might be telling to this day.

LOL!

Scott

Raptord

iTrader: (10)

That would have made a great video Scott

LookThatsMe

iTrader: (40)

hey op what i would recommend is going to a track event. It gets expensive or could get really expensive. I was at NJMP (new jersey motorsports park) this weekend. Since you'll be considered to be a novice a instructor rides with you. On saturday I was kind of being easy since it was my first time on the track and it was pouring rain (puddles of water). On sunday it was dry . Let me tell you i had a hell of a time. Never thought i would be able to drive like that in a SAFE place turned out i was the fastest person on the track in my group, and got to go on the track myself for 2 sessions of 30 min each. Instructors watching the way i drive on the track with no one there telling me how to drive. On the end of the day i got moved up a level, had an amazing time, and can't wait to go back. Before i went to the track all i wanted is to get around 400whp to have a fast car, when i got off the track i was happy my car was stock because i don't know how to drive the car perfect yet and would just have problems on the track. Until i know that the car is too slow for me at the track it staying stock. Of course besides tires, brakes, suspension, and cooling. GET TO THE TRACK AND ENJOY

Tahoe55

RallyDSM is correct on all counts. I laughed when he mentioned the Scandinavian Flick manuver. Topgear went to Finland to find out why they have so many Rally champions when the population is so small. They have lowcost racing events with a fixed price on the cars so everyone from 12 year olds to 80 year olds can drive. They all out drove Jeremy Clarkson!

Don't expect to read RallyDSM's thorough summary of driving once and have the knowledge. This isn't the Matrix where you can plug in and download technique, though I think that would be fun once in a while. The trick is to convert his words of wisdom from his experience into your experience which takes practice. Since practicing on the street is dangerous, the best place to learn is at a track or closed course where there are no surprises like pedestrians, oncoming traffic, or patrol cars.

check out http://www.motorsportreg.com for a list of track events near you. This site will let you select only the events that are close (or not) to you. Cost is from $150 to 300 depending on the event. Several events are sponsored by car clubs like BMW, Porsche, Audi, etc. You may have to join their club in some cases but usually you can join and participate with your EVO. I drove with the Ferrari club and that was priceless. Check out my garage for some pics!

The driver education classes feature instructors who have experience at the track you are learning at. There might be a classroom session prior to track time to discuss safety, how the weight transfer works, how to maximize traction, and have fun learning more about driving.

In the NW I go to Portland International Raceway. It's a small track compared to others around the country with two medium legth straights and a chicane. I started with a novice class and was paired with an instructor who races a 1900lb Rabbit with a 1.7l engine. He is competitive because he knows how to make his car navigate the track as fast as possible.

The main thing I learned was the imporantance of moderation. You need to feel the situation and make subtle changes as the tires provide you feedback. You won't be the fastest driver out there, so don't rush the learning opportunity. As you build speed, you will get more opportunities to put what you are learning into practice. After you master single corners, you start to look at multiple corners and put together a driving approach that lowers your lap times.

When I started, I was hard on the brake, hard into the corners, then hard on the gas at exit. Not smooth at all. After some coaching, I was able to settle into the laps, modulating the gas, controling the weight balance which lead to building confidence, and resulted in feeling some sense of accomplishment.

After learning the racing line, braking before turn in, and modulating power, I was able to drive the track smoother and with surprisingly more control. When it started raining, I was able to take full advantage of the EVO's AWD and modulate the handling at the edge of traction to keep the car in control. You have to feel this, it is difficult to describe.

Learning to drive at the track will be the single best gift you can give yourself. After you have basic skills, you can branch out to all kinds of events like autoX or Rally like our own RallyDSM.

The EVO is an excellent value/performance vehicle. We all like to modfiy our cars. When we modify the driver, the car really repays the investment. The best part of my lesson was when my instructor told me "I had fun riding with you!"

Thanks to RallyDSM and Matt@Works for the informative posts in this forum.

Don't forget to upgrade the brakes and fluid to handle high heat from track days.

DEVO330

iTrader: (1)

wow, so much great advice guys
personally,
i wish i could have all the money back from the mods I've made to my Evo
and spend more of it on track time

k20toEVO

iTrader: (17)

Spokane is not to far from Vancouver