Book recommendation

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Hi folks, I know many of you have track experience and some of you are probably quite accomplished drivers but I came across a book that was thoroughly enjoyable to read, very easy to understand and covered some technical and common-sense issues that I wish most other people on the road around us understood. It's called Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques by Ross Bentley, ISBN: 9780760305188. It's only about 150 pages but serves as a reminder of what our cars are actually "doing" as we accelerate, brake, turn etc, and what we can do to be better behind the wheel. After reading the book I drove to Dallas with my wife who is typically quite critical of my driving, I thought about the techniques for smooth braking and acceleration steering input and traction limits during the 400 miles there and back-in a passing comment my wife mentioned how smooth and enjoyable the trip was and that she felt very comfortable in the passenger seat. It was not a comment on my good driving, more like not commenting on my poor driving, so I offer that to the group.

 

[Gary Knox]

Yes Peter, a good book. I read it early in my 'track driving' days.

Your comments about the trip to the big D with your wife reminded me of a 'driving technique' article I read back in the early '60's from one of the top Formula 1 drivers of that era. He stated that he drives as if there is an egg on the dashboard, and his management of the vehicle is to keep the egg from moving! I also remember one of my best track driving instructors who advised: 'All three tools you have for managing the car (throttle, brake, and steering wheel) should be considered and used as rheostats, NOT switches'.

I probably still have the book - if anyone is interested, I'll see if I can find it. Drop me a PM (but I won't be able to start looking for it until 5/1, as we are leaving tomorrow for a trip).

Cheers,

 

[adawil2002]

Thanks for recommendation. Smooth is also feels faster.:wink:

 

[afeustel]

As we say in our business "slower is faster...but work with a purpose"...I think that captures the same mantra

 

[MyFemurHurts]

Thanks for recommendation. Smooth is also feels faster.:wink:

When I want to make someone think I'm driving fast, I usually go slow and sideways and I throw the car around a bunch. When I actually want to go fast I'm super smooth. Being smooth isn't exciting for the passengers.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

In my case, the last thing I want in my car is an "excited" passenger/wife; it usually starts an argument and ends up with a very boring week for dad:neutral:

And explaining that I'm nowhere near the traction limit doesn't seem to help.

 

[afeustel]

Sometimes I feel like life is near the traction limit...so that is a good thing, right?

 

[JFENG]

As we say in our business "slower is faster...but work with a purpose"...I think that captures the same mantra

But ... if you read carefully, Ross says the fastest is when you're constantly going beyond the limit because there's no such thing as holding it perfectly at 10/10ths all the time. If you watch in-car camera footage of great drivers making fastest laps and winning races, they're not driving as smoothly as if they were at 9/10ths. They are constantly testing the limit (which is a dynamic thing). Watch the hands and all the quick little recoveries they have to make to catch the car because they've just gone over the limit a hair.

That said, yes of course a novice who over-drives his/her car will be un-smooth and slow.

John (novice)

 

[bimbill]

We're lucky to have Ross living in our area up here in the Northwest and over the years I've gotten to know him as a friend as well as a mentor. He has a series of Speed Secrets books available and also does seminars for marque clubs and race groups. He did a "boot camp" for the Pro3 drivers (a regional race series based on E30 325s) where he gave us specific tasks during each track session. One of them was "drive crazy" which he said was to abandon the traditional line that we all knew and try something we wouldn't teach or recommend just to see what the result was. Very enlightening.

 

[Ohmess]

Agree that is a great book; reminds me I really need to get on the track again.

 

[JFENG]

There's a great YouTube video of a Skippy instructor doing some really fast laps (formula dodge car), and it's great to see him go over the limit and bring it back as he goes from last to first place. What was most notable in the video is how busy his hands are. It is anything but smooth. You can see the same thing in videos of the fastest VRG drivers.