Driving techniques....

Sp00n · 5 May 2006 at 14:31

Fair enough, the cars 12 years old so its to be expected, gears change fine other than that though

Noxis · 5 May 2006 at 14:34

Which is best to slow your car down? Selecting a lower gear or just using breaks? (In situations where this is possible of course, i dont mean never using your breaks or something

)

merlin · 5 May 2006 at 14:38

Noxis said:
Which is best to slow your car down?

Both at the same time is best.

Brakes only is more economical, engine braking costs fuel.

Freefaller · 5 May 2006 at 14:39

Heel and toeing is really easy on the mx5 - the pedals are just in the right position. I hardly do it though as there's hardly any need to driving in London.

Good thread.

monkeyspank · 5 May 2006 at 14:40

Brake pads are cheaper than clutches. I try to use my brakes mostly.

Hot tip:
When driving along texting your mates, glance up occasionally to avoid crashing.

I learnt to heel-toe brake when I was about 20. I didn't know what I was doing but I had to rev the engine on my crappy old polo to keep the engine running whilst coming up to roundabouts etc. I found out what heel-toe braking was about 5 years afterwards

bramski · 5 May 2006 at 14:44

Here's a good site with a visual for the Heel-toe technique.

http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving_heeltoe.shtml

merlin · 5 May 2006 at 14:45

bramski said:
Here's a good site with a visual for the Heel-toe technique.

http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving_heeltoe.shtml

Excellent - pics help.

monkeyspank · 5 May 2006 at 14:50

you can see it in action on this clip
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1796683639818272062&q=mr2

merlin · 5 May 2006 at 14:55

Of course all these techniques are for the track. Just thought I'd mention that.

Fast corner entry for cars that understeer

If your car has a tendancy to understeer (understeer is not a dirty word btw) on corner entry - there is a technique that will improve front end bite.

Brake late as you approach the corner. Leave it sufficiently late so you are still braking at the point of the initial turn-in.

Make the initial turn in with the brakes still on, turn the car and make sure it settles down. Don't let off the brakes untill the car feels steady otherwise you'll be pointing backwards.

Braking on entry loads up the front wheels, giving you more traction.

So you've killed off any potential understeer, and you've saved time by braking later.

Noxis · 5 May 2006 at 14:57

merlin said:
Of course all these techniques are for the track. Just thought I'd mention that.

Fast corner entry for cars that understeer

If your car has a tendancy to understeer (understeer is not a dirty word btw) on corner entry - there is a technique that will improve front end bite.

Brake late as you approach the corner. Leave it sufficiently late so you are still braking at the point of the initial turn-in.

Make the initial turn in with the brakes still on, turn the car and make sure it settles down. Don't let off the brakes untill the car feels steady otherwise you'll be pointing backwards.

Braking on entry loads up the front wheels, giving you more traction.

So you've killed off any potential understeer, and you've saved time by braking later.

You might want to explain exactly what understeer and oversteer are first

merlin · 5 May 2006 at 14:58

Noxis said:
You might want to explain exactly what understeer and oversteer are first

www.google.co.uk

Kingy · 5 May 2006 at 15:10

Noxis said:
You might want to explain exactly what understeer and oversteer are first

"Understeer is when the front of the car pulls away and you crash into a tree and die. Oversteer is when the back of the car breaks away and you crash into a tree and die. Oversteer is better, because you don't see that tree that kills you"

^^ Or words to that effect. Legendary tbh.

Sp00n · 5 May 2006 at 15:19

merlin said:
Both at the same time is best.

Brakes only is more economical, engine braking costs fuel.

I believe this is not neccesarily true, i seem to recall clarkson saying that in modern cars, they use no fuel at all if you let the engine do the braking or something along those lines.

Noxis · 5 May 2006 at 15:24

merlin said:
www.google.co.uk

To be fair that devalues and makes this entire thread redundant

merlin · 5 May 2006 at 15:28

Understeer. The road turns, but your car wants to go straight on.

Oversteer. The road turns, but your car wants to turn round.

There you go. Now quit your whinging.

agw_01 · 5 May 2006 at 15:53

Sp00n said:
I believe this is not neccesarily true, i seem to recall clarkson saying that in modern cars, they use no fuel at all if you let the engine do the braking or something along those lines.

That's true.

On Rover MEMs, the ECU cuts all fuel if the throttle is closed and the engine is over 2000rpm.

Alibaba99 · 5 May 2006 at 16:18

Sagalout said:
Also known as double declutching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_declutch

Used to have to do that all the time on my MG Midget as the syncromesh was knackered lol.

Heel and toeing and double declutching are completely different. With double declutching you bring the clutch up when the gear lever is in the neutral position and then blip the throttle, press the clutch down again and select the gear. Heal and toeing is as described and allows braking whilst blipping the throttle. It is possible to heal and toe and double declutch at the same time.

A couple of things with heal and toeing, the car ideally needs a firm brake pedal to give the foot something to pivot off (Renaults with massively over servoed brakes are tricky) and the engine should resond promptly to having the throttle blipped.

Pho · 5 May 2006 at 16:24

I've never been able to properly do heal & toe in my car. When braking heavilly the pedal goes quite far back- so it's hard to move your right heel to the right and up to press the accelerator. Anyone else find this?

merlin said:
Most people will have that problem. I nearly put myself through the windscreen first time I tried it. Yes, your left leg is used to the clutch.

I had this problem too, didn't realise I was so heavy footed

(my clutch is as heavy as a leg press

)

Jonny69 · 5 May 2006 at 16:31

Oversteer is when your passengers crap their pants, understeer is when the driver craps his pants

Alibaba99 · 6 May 2006 at 09:12

Heel and toeing does depend on the car. Some cars have brake pedals which move to far to allow the foot to reach the accelerator, others have pedal spacing which is too wide. A friends car had a harder accelerator than brake pedal and trying to heal and toe resulted in the brake being blipped not the throttle.

Driving techniques....

Man of Honour