ScoobyChris

A friend of mine posted this rather excellent article on cornering on another forum so I thought I'd share it here.

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Most people aim to arrive at somewhere near the start of the bend, (or more precisely, somewhere after the start of the bend), at a speed that they think is comfortable for negotiating the bend.

At this speed, you have no headroom to accelerate, because you are already going as fast as you'd ever want to be going through that bend. When you do this, the best you can do is slightly accelerate to maintain your chosen speed, giving a small amount of additional stability.

Another approach is to (a) aim to have slowed down well before the start of the bend, and (b) aim to have slowed to a speed that is slower than you need to negotiate the bend. When you do this, you have some speed in hand, so when you accelerate, you can actually be increasing your speed as you go round the bend.

Because you start from a speed that is slower than the fastest you would feel comfortable with, you can increase speed through the bend and still be going round the bend no faster than you feel comfortable with.

When you start watching the limit point, the first and best use is to make sure you don't go into a bend too quickly. If you watch the limit point move, the point at which it begins to move away from you is often somewhere near the start of the bend. If you have already slowed enough, you can begin to chase it.

If you do chase the limit point like this, you start making better use of the suspension of the car, and it feels like you are in a rear wheel drive car even when the car is a front wheel drive.

However there are a couple of risks for the unwary or inexperienced. First is that you speed up too much too early, and either drift wide or come off! Second is that the exit speed is likely to be much higher than you are used to, and you end up carrying too much speed into the next hazard.

I suggest that if you are going to try doing this, you start by being very cautious. Better yet is to get a demonstration and perhaps a little coaching from someone who is already comfortable driving like this.

The reason why doing this is interesting is that you can start to feel the differences in how the front tyres are behaving on the road.

Normally most people carry too much speed into bends, and use the front tyres to scrub off a bit of speed.

If you are using a reasonable amount of positive acceleration through a bend, you can feel the differences at the front tyres. They feel as if you are cornering on rails, and there is a distinct lack of that sideways friction feeling.

So the sequence approaching a bend suddenly gets a lot more involved.

* First you need to slow down to a speed slower than is necessary to go round the bend.

* Second you should have completed the braking some way before the start of the bend.

* Third you get back on the accelerator, not just ticking the throttle, but actually increasing your speed. This settles the car.

* Fourth you begin to turn the wheel.

* Fifth you continue to accelerate as you continue to turn the wheel.

One other thing you need to know is where to turn the wheel. As you look up the road at the bend ahead, note where the point at which the bend starts. This is the point at which you need to be starting to turn the wheel.

Since almost everyone starts to steer after the bend has started, it is easy to see why changing to driving like this is so hard, and why it feels so unnatural.

The main point to consider is whether you are reactive or proactive when cornering. Do you wait until the bend forces you to steer? Or do you steer in preparation for the bend?

The second point to remember is that it takes the tyres a finite amount of time to respond to your steering inputs. I've heard mention of somewhere between one quarter and one half of a second depending on tyre construction and size.

This means if there is a point on the road at which you want the car to start turning, you must have started to steer at least a quarter of a second before that point.

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Holding up the traffic in a little Italian..........

KenONeill

People don't start steering until after the start of the corner!?

andypandypoos

due to the width of the road/lane, you don't always have to begin turning at/before the corner?

good read, makes me want to read & learn more

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Note: This statement was most likely made with a usual dry sense of humor. It was in no way made to offend anyone who may be easily offended. If you find yourself offended by such a statement, you needed more hugs as a child, or more beatings. Whichever you didn't get enough of, you need more of. Probably beatings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bohdi This was never about the money, this was about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit. We stand for something. We are here to show those guys that are inching their way on the freeways in their metal coffins that the human sprit is still alive

como estan, puta?

Leeboy

There is a very good example of this on a lane I drive home from work on most days of the week. The road narrows and kinks around the side of a house, and has a kerb to catch the unexpected out especially if there is a sizeable vehicle approaching in the opposite direction. The road itself has a 40mph limit.

Most cars you follow through the kink do not change direction until well after the bend has started and consequently they tend to end up encrouching on the opposite carriageway. Driving the corner automatically leads you up the path of thinking I'm going to rub the kerb so it is easy to see why drivers tend to deliberately hold off on turning in. However commit to the corner (in terms of when you add steering input, not talking about speed or acceleration here) and force yourself turn in early (i.e. that ½ second early or so) and you exit nicely in the centre of your carriageway so you don't need to brake or react suddenly if you find a larger oncoming vehicle.

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Lee

Want to be carbon-neutral while driving? Hold your breath!