What do you do at practice?
10-06-2010, 01:56 AM
#1
What do you do at practice?
Hello,
I would like to hear what other people do at their practice sessions.
I personaly have a friend to take my lap times and refuel me once or twice. I sometimes look at camber and ride height as well. Furthermore I sometimes walk the track to look at where there are wholes bumps and other landscape obstacles.
I have thought of taking note on paper of the lap times of each practice day and the number of mistakes that need marshaling per lap. I have also thought of recording some of my practice session on video and then watching it to understand some mistakes I make and show it to other drivers as well (youtube where the pros can help out).
Thanks in advance.
I would like to hear what other people do at their practice sessions.
I personaly have a friend to take my lap times and refuel me once or twice. I sometimes look at camber and ride height as well. Furthermore I sometimes walk the track to look at where there are wholes bumps and other landscape obstacles.
I have thought of taking note on paper of the lap times of each practice day and the number of mistakes that need marshaling per lap. I have also thought of recording some of my practice session on video and then watching it to understand some mistakes I make and show it to other drivers as well (youtube where the pros can help out).
Thanks in advance.
10-06-2010, 06:14 AM
#2
Well practice is more or less checkin your lines trying diffrent stuff and seeing whats faster. Also its a window to tune for track, try set ups and one big thing is tires. What tires work best and which ones will let you do what ur line is. If you have tires that dont support hugging the pipes in turns then you will just traction roll and will totaly ruin ur line. Also its just finding consistance, having fun and most of all getting more driving time. Like you said you have a friend thats also very good help allowing you to not leave that stand so basically i would just tell the friend what you want done as far as tune goes etc and you just drive.
Sorry im sure the grammer isnt good. lol I just woke up and in California im use to heat not freeze lol.
Sorry im sure the grammer isnt good. lol I just woke up and in California im use to heat not freeze lol.
10-06-2010, 06:17 AM
#3
i treat practice like a race. i go as fast as i can without having to be marshalled. i do like to have a friend to help refuel or video. but i marshall myself it helped me be more consistant, the less i get off the stand the better. one thing i do like to do is practice with people on the track, helps keep the practice as close to race a as possible.
i do take notes when i change anything from my setup. i say always practice with friends or when you people are at the track, so that your can always challanging yourself as well who else is on the track. this what i do.
i do take notes when i change anything from my setup. i say always practice with friends or when you people are at the track, so that your can always challanging yourself as well who else is on the track. this what i do.
10-06-2010, 07:02 AM
#4
10-06-2010, 07:30 AM
#5
012345678910
Last edited by token; 10-06-2010 at 07:44 AM.
10-07-2010, 03:48 PM
#7
Tech Regular
practice
Hi,
You’re really thorough mate.
Personally (and I'm pretty new at it) I just try to get a feel for the car. For example, consciously slowing myself down and driving with control instead of driving like a bat out of hell all the time. I also try to learn how an engine should sound (one of the more difficult things to learn). One thing that I've found really helped was to go to different tracks. I personally found that has improved my general knowledge of our hobby and my control of the car.
I like your ideas on recording lap times. You probably need a bit of a hand from someone to record your times and it may be a little difficult to organize folks to help out with that one (consistently) but if you can organize it then I'm sure it would help out. YouTube is an awesome idea and I think it would really take off. I know there's a bunch of stuff on YouTube for all facets of the hobby (some great others not so) but I personally can't recall seeing anything about peoples practice sessions in the way you have described. These videos might get a good following which in turn may result in some feedback on the common mistakes we all make?
My view of 1/8th racing is that it is made up of two disciplines. One is learning setup and the other is driving\racing. All the top guys seem to do both very well. So, the way I see it, you need to practice both disciplines if you want to really improve. I also think that (when your new like me) you should learn how to drive a bit, learn how the car\engine feels under different conditions or locations and then, once you know how your car feels you can start to tune the setup. The reason I say this is that when you play with your setup you’ll be able to feel what the changes have done to your car.
This is not to say that I have completely stayed away from playing with my setup, I have, but I guess the little light bulb didn’t go on until I’d screwed with my setup on a few (many :-) occasions and couldn’t really feel the difference. Actually my little light bulb was an accident. I went a little radical with a couple of setups (using other setups from the web) and noticed a pretty big difference which kind of got me thinking.
Anyway, that’s my two cents worth. Hope to see some videos from you up on YouTube.
You’re really thorough mate.
Personally (and I'm pretty new at it) I just try to get a feel for the car. For example, consciously slowing myself down and driving with control instead of driving like a bat out of hell all the time. I also try to learn how an engine should sound (one of the more difficult things to learn). One thing that I've found really helped was to go to different tracks. I personally found that has improved my general knowledge of our hobby and my control of the car.
I like your ideas on recording lap times. You probably need a bit of a hand from someone to record your times and it may be a little difficult to organize folks to help out with that one (consistently) but if you can organize it then I'm sure it would help out. YouTube is an awesome idea and I think it would really take off. I know there's a bunch of stuff on YouTube for all facets of the hobby (some great others not so) but I personally can't recall seeing anything about peoples practice sessions in the way you have described. These videos might get a good following which in turn may result in some feedback on the common mistakes we all make?
My view of 1/8th racing is that it is made up of two disciplines. One is learning setup and the other is driving\racing. All the top guys seem to do both very well. So, the way I see it, you need to practice both disciplines if you want to really improve. I also think that (when your new like me) you should learn how to drive a bit, learn how the car\engine feels under different conditions or locations and then, once you know how your car feels you can start to tune the setup. The reason I say this is that when you play with your setup you’ll be able to feel what the changes have done to your car.
This is not to say that I have completely stayed away from playing with my setup, I have, but I guess the little light bulb didn’t go on until I’d screwed with my setup on a few (many :-) occasions and couldn’t really feel the difference. Actually my little light bulb was an accident. I went a little radical with a couple of setups (using other setups from the web) and noticed a pretty big difference which kind of got me thinking.
Anyway, that’s my two cents worth. Hope to see some videos from you up on YouTube.
10-07-2010, 03:50 PM
#8
Tech Regular
practice
Oh, before I bugger off, a few things that I try do (sorry if this is painfully obvious) to try to help me stay in the hobby for a long time and not get the total shits with it ;-)
• Be courteous to others on the track. Last thing you want to do is stuff your and someone else’s car due to stupidity.
• Get your engine run in by someone who knows what they are talking about unless you a)really know what you’re doing or b)have shit loads of money and patience.
• Run my motor a “little” on the rich side (top and bottom :-) and I use after run oil.
• Pull my car to its major pieces (front\rear end, radio tray etc..) after every run (I only run once or occasionally twice) to check for damage, stuffed bearings etc etc...
• Change my oils all round when I feel the car needs it and I have time. Has been about once every six weeks so far.
• Talk to people, ask questions. Don’t reinvent the wheel. The guys in my area have been massively helpful.
• If your cars not well looked after and built well you’ll struggle for the rest.
• Help out when you get the chance and, most importantly, try to have fun.
Now that really is my two cents worth.
Good luck
• Be courteous to others on the track. Last thing you want to do is stuff your and someone else’s car due to stupidity.
• Get your engine run in by someone who knows what they are talking about unless you a)really know what you’re doing or b)have shit loads of money and patience.
• Run my motor a “little” on the rich side (top and bottom :-) and I use after run oil.
• Pull my car to its major pieces (front\rear end, radio tray etc..) after every run (I only run once or occasionally twice) to check for damage, stuffed bearings etc etc...
• Change my oils all round when I feel the car needs it and I have time. Has been about once every six weeks so far.
• Talk to people, ask questions. Don’t reinvent the wheel. The guys in my area have been massively helpful.
• If your cars not well looked after and built well you’ll struggle for the rest.
• Help out when you get the chance and, most importantly, try to have fun.
Now that really is my two cents worth.
Good luck
10-07-2010, 04:42 PM
#10
10-07-2010, 10:17 PM
#11
Problem: it takes me alot of time and patience to change diff oils and a bit less time to change shock oils.
Question: when seeting the car to my driving style do I start off by deciding which diff oils to have? Now I have 7000 5000 3000 front to rear but I cant say I like it or not since I havent tried anything else yet.
10-07-2010, 10:23 PM
#12
I have one problem and one question conserning oils.
Problem: it takes me alot of time and patience to change diff oils and a bit less time to change shock oils.
Question: when seeting the car to my driving style do I start off by deciding which diff oils to have? Now I have 7000 5000 3000 front to rear but I cant say I like it or not since I havent tried anything else yet.
Problem: it takes me alot of time and patience to change diff oils and a bit less time to change shock oils.
Question: when seeting the car to my driving style do I start off by deciding which diff oils to have? Now I have 7000 5000 3000 front to rear but I cant say I like it or not since I havent tried anything else yet.
10-07-2010, 10:38 PM
#13
10-07-2010, 11:02 PM
#14
I have one problem and one question conserning oils.
Problem: it takes me alot of time and patience to change diff oils and a bit less time to change shock oils.
Question: when seeting the car to my driving style do I start off by deciding which diff oils to have? Now I have 7000 5000 3000 front to rear but I cant say I like it or not since I havent tried anything else yet.
Problem: it takes me alot of time and patience to change diff oils and a bit less time to change shock oils.
Question: when seeting the car to my driving style do I start off by deciding which diff oils to have? Now I have 7000 5000 3000 front to rear but I cant say I like it or not since I havent tried anything else yet.
10-08-2010, 01:13 AM
#15
What I like to do when its possible is to grab 1 or 2 people with similar driving skills and go to the track. Then you can practice passing or trying to keep your lines its a lot more of a practice session if there are more cars doing the same thing. I find running by yourself on the track does somethings for your abilitys, but its a whole new ball game with traffic.