Originally Posted by
Larry Brown
This is sooo true. Also see Nick's post about other factors...very good advice.
My son Jeff was TQ at the 'birds with the CO27 geared at 1.85 rollout, so you are right on, Trips. And check out Jeff's setup on the Corally SP12x thread...it may not be your driving but car setup limiting corner speed. Tires are 75% of proper handling, but the right setup, the other 25%, is crucial to eeking out the last 2 or 3 tenths a lap.
Right now I'm 99.9% sure it's my driving... not that I like to admit that to myself, but the guy to beat at my home track is a guy who I've been racing with since the early '90's. He can take my car and run laps right on the same pace as his own car. I'm running the same tires as him, and we run the same setup. I can still build a friction and slop-free car that works, everyone who drives one of my cars LOVES it, but I took a couple of years off racing and flew helis instead... since I came back i've been driving very timidly. Probably because every time one of my big helis hit something it was like $1200 or so to get it flying again... Kinda made me impact-shy if you know what I mean... I've been driving more to avoid crashing than for fast laps... waiting til I was past the board before turning in, that sort of thing. Kept the car pretty safe, but hell on lap times. Not being in the groove because it was so close to the boards... Also throw in the fact that I've been getting to the track maybe once every month and a half or so, and it just wasn't coming back...
I did get out the last three weeks in a row, and made a concious effort to drive more aggressively. This past weekend I was a full second a lap faster on the same layout as three weeks ago with no changes to the car... Just driving better. I was a half second a lap faster than two weeks ago with a 19 turn on the same layout. Two laps better on my best run than two weeks ago in 19 turn... With a stock motor. Just from getting out every week and concentrating on driving better. Making an effort to see where I was losing time and fixing it.
Of course, to prove that I'm no smarter than anyone else in the hobby, I went and bought a dyno today. Go figure...