RE: Skid Cars

["Peter Stuhr" <peterstuhr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A couple of my thoughts with relation to skid cars...

Mike wrote:

"The quicker a driver senses that traction is changing, the smaller the 
corrections usually are.  This is the kind of thing you just can't learn 
from a book, video, or video game."

I would disagree a little bit here. Reading and understanding a book 
such as the Skip Barber School's "Going Faster", watching road races on 
TV/video (visualization), and practicing on a simulator such as Gran 
Turismo on a Playstation (yeah, that's right folks. It's a simulator. 
It's tough getting over the fact you need a Playstation to use it, but 
once you do it'll be worth it - tell the manager at Toys-R-Us it's for 
your kid!). With that said, actual practice with a skid car is another 
key ingredient towards practicing car control.

"Other ways to get more seat time include going to go-kart tracks
(especially "slick tracks"), autocross, and skidpad sessions." 

Yep. Seat time.

"I also know if I'm in trouble much sooner and can make the proper 
arrangements for driving off. One of the keys to being safe at the track 
is to KNOW where the limits are and the only way to know that is to go 
over the limits from time to time."

I don't fully agree here. Neither do the instructors with Skip Barber. 
Yeah, everyone should know what it feels like to spin a car. Once. Maybe 
twice (Kinda' like getting hit in the face after your first fight. After 
you get over the shock of being hit, you realize you're still standing 
and continue on - okay bad example, but you know what I mean.). After 
those first couple of spins there really isn't any benefit from 
continuing to do so. What any good instructor should be telling you (or 
a book, video, race on TV, simulator, etc.) is what causes a spin or an 
"off" on the track. Did you early apex, lift off the throttle, tap the 
brakes, miss your turn-in, etc. You should know the symptoms of a spin 
to be able to prevent it. Instead, most drivers schools I've been to 
take a novice out on the track and within a couple of laps are taking 
the student to speeds and limitations they've never experienced before. 
How about slowly taking the novice students through the track with 
"lead/follow" sessions? How about on the next run, they have the student 
early apex on purpose (slowly) and show them how they run out of track? 
How about the next run they work on throttle steering and let the 
student experience the feel of the suspension working the car around the 
turns without moving the steering wheel? How about the next run they 
work on how to correct for an early apex? Etc., etc., etc.

You get my point. Most BMW and PCA driving schools I've been to have 
nothing more than discussions and white board sessions that add value, 
but guess what? 99% of that is going to go out the window when the 
instructor takes the student out on the track at speed. There never 
seems to be any game plan with the instruction. You just go out on the 
track and the instructor barks out commands while you just struggle to 
keep your car on the track (Bruce Roegiers in the Peachtree Chapter is a 
notable exception - best damn instructor I've ever seen.)

The BMW CCA Tarheel Chapter is on the right track with taking novices 
through a braking execise (experience ABS and braking limitation) and a 
slalom course (hear the tires squeal and the body roll). But, they never 
let the students practice some of the items mentioned above.

Peter Stuhr
Tarheel Chapter
'95 White M3

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