Speed Secrets: Fast, Fast, and New
Learning a new-to-you car in a big hurry.
Last September, I drove a Miata in a Champcar race at Mid-Ohio, starting the race without having had a single lap in the car before the drop of the green flag. I wrote about the experience, and how I worked at getting up to speed quickly in a new-to-me car in this post (Finding the Limit at Mid-Ohio).
Today, I’m going to outline the process which I hope you’ll be able to stick to the inside of your windshield for the next time you want to learn a new car quickly. Well, maybe not stick it on your windshield, but you get the point.
In the perfect world, you’re learning the car without having to learn the track at the same time. In racing, there are three main areas to learn:
The car
The track
The traffic (racecraft)
If you’re not in wheel-to-wheel racing, you can mostly remove that last point.
Learning the track and the car at the same time is more than doubly challenging. So, if you’re able, do everything you can to learn as much about the track before you begin focusing on the car. Fortunately, between video, simulator, written material, and coaching, you can prepare yourself for the track pretty well before ever getting behind the wheel. The more preparation and learning, the better. Eliminate as much of the “where does the track go next” feeling before focusing on driving the car.
(Download a copy of my How to Learn a Track… Fast eBook for free here).
Okay, now it’s time to focus on learning the car, specifically in five areas.
1 Braking: The first thing you should do is begin to learn about your car’s deceleration capabilities—how much braking grip it has, and how quickly you can slow down. At the same time, you’re learning what the pedal feel is like. As an example, when I drove the Miata at Mid-Ohio, I choose to test the brakes into the Keyhole/Turn 2, and Turn 4 at the end of the back straight. These are the two longest brake zones at Mid-Ohio, with one of them being a little uphill, and the other downhill.
Having driven many, many different cars at Mid-Ohio, from Indy cars to rental cars (SUVs and family sedans… but don’t tell the rental car companies!), I knew that the BoB (Begin of Braking) for either of these corners would not be dramatically different. Why? Because their top speeds were dramatically different! An Indy car may arrive at a brake zone 80 MPH faster than a Miata, but where you begin braking in either car is not hugely different.
Still, the first time you head into a braking zone in an unfamiliar car, begin braking a little sooner than you think it’s capable of. But brake hard. If the car has ABS, use it. Stand on the brake pedal, and learn how quickly the car decelerates (check your mirror first!). If you don’t have ABS, apply enough pressure so that you’ll get a feel for how quickly you can slow down. At the same time, you’ll begin feeling for the threshold, just before you get any lockup. You may even experience some lockup, so learn to modulate the pedal to manage it.
With each lap, push your BoB a touch further into the corner until you sense that you’ve gone too far. From then on, you’re fine-tuning, and you should have the begin of braking part of learning the car at least halfway there.