Originally Posted by ray_munday

Thats great to hear!!

As for more advice - try to understand the concept of a 'tyre friction circle' and practice with that in mind.

The tyre friction circle describes the way in which a tyre operates. A tyre has a certain level of grip which it can provide for acceleration, braking, cornering, or a combination of cornering / brake or cornering /accn. This level of grip is approximately the same in all directions, hence it looks like a circle when you draw a graph (cornering grip on the x axis, accn/braking grip on the y axis). Basically, a tyre will provide maximum forward grip with no cornering, and maximum cornering grip with no accn/braking - when you have combined cornering/brake/accn then there will be less pure cornering grip and less pure forward grip but the total is about the same.

How can you use this? Try to consider the tyre throughout the whole brake / cornering / acceleration phase and blend your throttle and steering accordingly. Here are the 5 main phases of cornering:

1) Braking - try to brake in a straight line for maximum stopping power. If you try to steer with full brakes, you will usually find you understeer (4wd) or oversteer (2wd).

2) Braking/turn-in - at the point where you are turning in, progressively release the brakes as you start to steer. This way, you are staying on the edge of the friction circle but using a combination of fwd/cornering grip, progressing from full braking to full cornering. When you get it right, this feels awesome - but to be honest it is the hardest part of driving at the limit!

3) Cornering - in the middle of the corner, you should be at the cornering limit of the tyres. At this stage, you shouldnt be aggressive with the throttle - maximum cornering grip will come when you are steady on the throttle, not accelerating or braking. Hit full power at this stage and you will find the car pushes wide (4wd) or spins out (2wd).

4) Corner exit - as the corner straightens up, progressively wind off steering lock and at the same time start to apply power. Your tyres are moving from full cornering grip to full accelerating grip during this stage.

5) Straight line acceleration - once the car has completely exited the corner, you should be on the limit of the tyres in pure forwards acceleration. General rule of thumb is NEVER APPLY FULL POWER UNTIL THE WHEELS ARE STRAIGHT! This can take some patience as the natural tendency is to get on the throttle early as possible. This looks fast as the car moves around a lot, but you are actually taking away grip if you hit the throttle too early as the tyres may still be providing full cornering grip.

When practicing in your head, try to move your steering and throttle in unison during phases 2 and 4. You often hear about full-size race drivers 'blending' the throttle and steering - this is what they are talking about.

I recommend going down to the track by yourself one day (or even finding a low grip area of carpark / dirt to practice on) and try these techniques. Compare the difference between being aggressive (full brakes /throttle and steering at the same time) and blending the two. You will find when you get it right that you are actually able to brake later in the corner, keep more control, have less tyre wear and get faster lap times.

Another tip - the faster you go, the less steering lock you need. How many of you drive at full lock with an rc car during all corners? Do you do this in your full size car? It is a bad habit. Get someone to video you driving around and you will probably find you are using a lot of lock. Try to concentrate on using full lock at low speed, half lock at mid speed and quarter lock at high speed.

Let me know how you guys go with this. Probably enough for now!

L8r

Ray