rccartips

iTrader: (3)

I think we said the same thing. Referring to item 1 + 4 in combination.

"It is about driving with ill handling + perfect handling. Increasing your driving adaptability (as most times, especially foreign tracks, you don't have time to have a perfect car). There you have to drive the wheels off an ill handling car."


Practise methodology I've learned not by myself, but shared to me kindly by a former Kyosho World Cup champion and other international racers. I do race internationally as amateur/privateer (we have our day jobs).

Please let me add to share the objective:

1. Practising with a very difficult to drive, oversteering car.
Important for international race, where you will often have to drive a car that is not perfect (because of lack of track time). Understeer though easy to drive, will most times be slower.

3. Practising with car intentionally set to track to left or right, not straight.
In races when we crash sometimes car is misaligned. This will help us finish the race while still going at a good pace.

4. Run on track for 3 laps, note laptimes. Change 1 thing on the car, run 3 laps, note laptimes. Keep doing for 8 hours per day.
This is to learn your specific car as quick as possible. What a single change does. Later of course we gravitate to longer runs and see the long term effect. This database of knowledge will help when racing on unfamilar international tracks.

5. Practise braking skills.
I see a lot of people racing and spend a lot of time practising, but do not learn how to brake. Often rely on "drag brake". Then when beat by a person who knows how to brake.. "he must be talented..."

6. Practise mental aspect of driving (mental toughness).
Studies have shown F1 drivers do not have faster reflexes than regular people. Difference is ability to anticipate earlier and winning attitude.

Anyways just sharing my thoughts. Might not work for everyone, no one solution fits all. Just food for thought for those looking for a lot of opinions on how to go faster (even without talent).

InspGadgt

Oh I agree with this part of it...practice is key and making small adjustments in setup at a time is important in fine tuning the setup. But learning on a car with ill handling vs a car that handles decently is where I don't agree. I see much bigger and faster improvements in a new driver's driving when they have a car that handles within the boundaries of their ability.

rccartips

iTrader: (3)

I agree 100%. The ill handling car practise are for intermediate/advanced drivers who want to push their driving to higher levels.

frozenpod

iTrader: (1)

Not sure I agree with that. Even if you go to a different track you car will still handle.

The setup might not be optimal for the best lap time but if the car worked on one track it should still drive in a predictable and stable mannor at the next.

I do like the suggestion of removing the wheel springs on the remote.

As to F1 drivers I also have to disagree. When MS was at his best his response times were much faster than a normal person and faster than other F1 drivers.

Besides driving a real car is different from a RC car, RC car you react to what you see and it is almost impossible to hear, in a real car you can also hear and feel you can take a car to the edge of grip and hold it there.

Whilst this is easy in a real car I have never been able to do this in a RC maybe the best of the best can but I certainly cant.

Mr RCTech

iTrader: (2)

I would'nt say boost timing is dead yet!

We run both. Stock- blinky and Modified - boost timing.

In blinky running bigger rotors and turning up the end-bell timing (less efficient) just burns
up motors and your not as fast as using boost timing.
HobbyWing speedos are the fastest for blinking mode.

As for boost timing I just like going fast!

rccartips

iTrader: (3)

I respectfully disagree due to my own personal experience. Two years ago my 9 year old girl first drove an r/c . She had no talent. First few races always in last place, sometimes 10 laps down.

Now she is 11. In 2 years she practised more than I did in my first 20 years in the hobby. Her last major event:

Modified TC (Finals time)

Porsha.............17laps...5:11.184....17.867(fas test lap)
Marc Rheinard..19laps....5:16.017...15.835(fastest lap)

To put in perspective, that is only 0.2sec difference per corner. And her mental attitude was the desire to join the Modified class (where all world tc champions were present) and try to win (though of course very unlikely).

That 0.2 sec I would attribute to:
1. Coming late to the race, straight from airport. Zero practise, just straight to qualifying.
2. Being amateur, not practising everyday.
3. Lack of power. She ran a 13.5 boosted in Modified class on a power track. Reason: mod car was not handling consistently. But was faster with 17.2 fast lap. But overall her 13.5 boosted car was faster than her mod car on that day. So we decided to run the boosted car in the Mod finals.

So two points:
1. No need for separate (13.5, 10.5) boosted class when you can run mod. The laptimes are so close already. Difference between A main and H Main (90 drivers) was only 0.2sec per corner.
2. Talent is overrated.

That's why I don't believe you need to have talent to succeed in r/c car racing. Probably more important is to be friendly... and be friendly with the best...

JamesL_71

iTrader: (13)

I remember reading a similar article regarding Schumacher...

frozenpod

iTrader: (1)

rccartips, as per my previous post. Talent or perhaps skill is a better word is nothing without practice. But all the practice in the world wont do you any good if you have no skill.

Clearly your daughter has a good level of skill and there is no doubt the practice has helped.