HOW DO I IMPROVE AS A DRIVER ???

[stegger]

After getting my ass kicked on more than one occasion at the schui indoor series it got me thinking how do i improve ? Is it just the amount of racing or in between racers do you do excersises to sharpen up your driving ?

[Mike Hudson]

expierience on different tracks and surfaces helped advance my driving alot i don't do anything inbetween racing

[Rich D]

I get my arse kicked at Worksop too Stegger but its easy to forget that you are racing against some of the best drivers not just in the UK, but in the world at that series.

My best advice for newer drivers is a slow car is a fast car. If you drive smooth and dont crash then the results will look after themselves. Sometimes its easier said than done when the addrenaline is pumping. Try to drive at a speed that you are comfortable with rather than pushing and crashing. At club level, i use the strategy to good effect

HTH

[Agt26]

Do Drive better at the start of the race or nearer the end?

As i find it easier in Qualifiying rounds to build up over 2-3 laps so you can see what he track conditions are like and how the cars handling. Finals are a different matter though

[Matt Alcock]

my main clas is rally cross, but i do some electric as practice to keep me racing alot.

raced alot of elec over the winter but race 3-4 times a week

[Kecky]

A lot of the time i find my first qualification round is my best.
I think i must take it easier on the first go then try to hard trying to go faster in my next rounds

[MikePimlott]

You've got to remember worksop is tight and "racing" can be tricky, especially if in a dodgy heat. Same for any indoors racing BUT race over the winter to keep your thumbs "in" and watch your summer results improve

[rowanp25]

i like to watch cars in practice then pick one that looks quicker than me usually n try n tail it for as long as possible by the last few heats your usually going quicker n picking up on the faster cars mistakes

[James]

Personally i think if people are still on the start(ish) of the learning curve then the aim should be to complete 5 minute runs without crashing. Then as the saying goes practice, practice, practice, practice, practice..

I think harder tracks are better for your driving as the only way to improve is to do something you're not as good at.. Worksop being a great example. Watching other top drivers is always a good one too but can be tricky to emulate :s !
Broadly speaking being good at tenth off-road will make you pretty good at most other classes..

Just my thoughts

[mw02veg]

it aint all about having a car in a quick in a straight line. u want to have usable power that u can guide the car round without making mistakes over 5 mins. over time the speed will come and as james said plenty of practice

[Chrislong]

Practice makes perfect, but to achieve perfect you have got to know what the aim is.... so, what I do is watch the racing and see what people do on parts of the track and copy it - not all of it though, only what your skills will allow. So start with staying on the racing line, then carrying corner speed, understanding about weight transfer and how this effects the car when accelerating and decelerating - then as confidence improves you'll be able to start going for it over the jumps and technical sections. Over time you'll develop your own techniques as copying someone who is quick won't always be quickest for you.

All the same principles apply to full size. I was helping a lad a while ago who was stamping on the brakes and nailing the power, he had a 300bhp Nissan as his full size car, so I said to him to imagine driving his Nissan like this, he got the idea. To achieve this, you may want to reduce your throttle curve and reduce your maximum brakes. But find your own preferrences, what suits me may not suit you

So much happens per lap that you have to make a million decions per second. So don't go hell for leather as the car will just crash before you can react while you are consciously thinking about it, take it easy. With practice, the basic decisions come naturally and then you'll start being able to put gradually faster motors in.

Chris

[pugboy]

As an up and coming, or returning driver myself I'd agree with the above, don't go for too much too fast is my view, I agree try to keep mistakes to a minimum apart from things beyond your control obviously. See if you can do a race without being marshalled and taking it easy over obstacles. You'll notice that although many of the drivers around you will be doing faster laps you will still beat them over 5 mins. Find some benchmark drivers around your level and look to improve relative to them.

Once you've got round cleanly look at the lap times and you'll see that you might be 5 seconds a lap off the best at the meeting, but then as others say, take each section of the track and try to do it slightly quicker and in time you'll learn the limits of the car and you'll find that gap starting to reduce.

[Matt Alcock]

average lap is what you need to concetrate on, keep it as close to your fastest lap as possible

[mole2k]

Originally Posted by Matt Alcock

average lap is what you need to concetrate on, keep it as close to your fastest lap as possible

I cant agree more with that statement. There is no point being able to lap as quick as the top guys if the next few laps you end up on your roof a few times. I always aim to have my average laptime with 1 sec of my quickest laptime, it doesnt always work out like that but when I'm going well it's usually between 0.5~1sec.

I would always suggest going for an easy to drive car with quite a slow motor and aim to drive the full 5 min. without crashing and needing marshalled. After that try to do it without making any mistakes at all. If you can do that then no matter what motor is in your car you wont be to far off the front end pace. Then you just slowly go for quicker motors trying to maintain the same standard of driving. Going quick in a straight line is pretty useless if you then miss the apex of the corner at the end of the straight by a meter.

[bondy]

Does it look like I excercise ??? well actually yes ! VRC is a great training tool . It ups the concentration factor a great deal ! This helps in those long 20-30 min nitro finals. and any driving or computer game where you can use a joypad set correctly will sharpen up the reflexes. and when VRC Offroad comes out that will be better !

My only problem when doing 1/10th is getting into the rythm on the first few laps !

[Chrislong]

I found when I played the Xbox360 loads (Forza2, PGR2, Testdrive, etc etc) I loast the ability to judge the proportions on my tranny for RC car racing.

VRC may conquor this if you calibrate your tranny to control it

[DCM]

I think, that sometimes, you reach a level, and it is so hard to move on from there, and the harder you try, the harder it seems to achieve. I find, my best racing is when I am most enjoying the track/car, and when I get into the frame of mind of... 'I should be in X place' it all goes Pete Tong.

Also, actually trying to deliberately think about what you are doing slows you down too, just relax, clear your mind and drive instinctively.

[MChandler]

Originally Posted by Rich D

I get my arse kicked at Worksop too Stegger but its easy to forget that you are racing against some of the best drivers not just in the UK, but in the world at that series.

My best advice for newer drivers is a slow car is a fast car. If you drive smooth and dont crash then the results will look after themselves. Sometimes its easier said than done when the addrenaline is pumping. Try to drive at a speed that you are comfortable with rather than pushing and crashing. At club level, i use the strategy to good effect

HTH

Well rich you said this to me at local touring car club and the improvements were rapid.!

[Chrislong]

Some people are hindered by difficult to drive cars. There was a lad at Worksop who's Cat SX had a really bad throttle profile, it was like a switch, full throttle or nothing - so driving it well was impossible. He asked me for some help which I don't mind atall, so not knowing what settings are on it, step1 was reset the ESC to transmitter (which also restores the factory settings) and this completely cured his issues and he went on to do really well that day.

So if you are not sure if something is right or not, come ask someone who uses same equipment. Or don't be afraid of following the instructions and going back to basics.

Also, some cars are only good once built/setup properly. So don't be afraid of asking rather than struggling.

With this alone, you'll be half way to doing better. It'll just be down to your thumbs!

[bald eagle]

Originally Posted by stegger

After getting my ass kicked on more than one occasion at the schui indoor series it got me thinking how do i improve ? Is it just the amount of racing or in between racers do you do excersises to sharpen up your driving ?

Steve, you need to race more often mate, instead of going weeks between racing club nights or off road meetings, you need to race most weeks. You have a large knowledge base steve, you know alot of stuff about alot of cars etc, set ups, parts, hell you even know part numbers off by heart!!!... get out there and race, thats where you learn to use your thumbs fella.