best way to improve you driving?

[Steve.T]

All relevant points in this thread but I think we've forgotten one.
How many of us has seen a top driver lose their cool on the rostrum?

[sosidge]

Originally Posted by Steve.T

All relevant points in this thread but I think we've forgotten one.
How many of us has seen a top driver lose their cool on the rostrum?

I have seen it quite often... does it improve your driving?

[Mad-Wolfie]

here's my 2p worth.

start simple. i know the temptation is to go for it & go as fast as humanly possible, but small acorns.

start with a slow motor (or turn the end points down if you can on the forward throttle control) & learn to control the car, when you get confident bit a more powerful motor (or turn the speed up on the transmitter by adjusting the throttle end-point) keep a close eye on how the car differs, a faster motor will mean you have to slow down further away from where you want to stop the car & the car will turn corners differently so things like understeer & oversteer will become more obvious.

don't worry about racing lines (hitting apex's on corners to slingshot the car for maximum speed), stick to the centre of the track that way if you in to a corner too soon or too late you will see what mistake you have made depending which side of the track you are closest to, plus if you try to do the racing line, but turn in to early by mistake you will hit the barrier, if you go in to deep, you will hit the barrier, so sticking to the middle with give you some run-off so you are not playing pinball. try to be smooth on the controls & don't try to take corners when on power, with time you will learn the technique of going into corners wide then coming into the corners tighter to gain speed on the turns which will be faster than trying to drive the car around corners with the throttle control pressed hard against the stop.

Practice technique on a simple track, using bricks or cans on some flat ground to mark out a basic track.. start with 1 brick & try to circle the brick & get a feel for how the car responds, then progress to using 2 bricks to make an oval & run in an oval again around the bricks learning how the car reacts.. the trick is to start slow & try to get faster the more confident you get & to get as close as you can, sounds easy but it isn't as easy as it sounds.. then you can progress to doing slaloms & the like. you could also put 3 bricks down randomly on the ground & practice driving to each brick in turn using forward & reverse to basically park in front of each brick before reversing away & driving to the next one (you could also try it by reversing up to the bricks instead) to give you confidence in hand-eye co-ordination.

1 thing i will say, if you are practising, try to stay rooted to 1 spot, don't be tempted to walk around following the car.. i know a few people who had toy RC cars & then had a dabble in racing but soon came a cropper because they were used to running round in open space & walking generally where a car went, however in a race situation you have to stand in 1 spot & guide the car in a tight area & when the car comes towards you remembering that when you steer left the car will actually go to the right & vice versa which is generally where they came unstuck.

[mattr]

Get on the track while its empty, i nipped down on friday and got an hours almost uninterrupted driving, no one overtaking/crashing/talking. Come on in leaps and bounds. Can now "do" every feature on the track without coming unstuck. Had to do my own marshalling....... but thats a small price to pay!


Also worked out a few of the tweaks i need to do on both cars to get them working better. (weight/suspension etc)

[migsy]

I found to get good laps always run a motor a little slower than to fast for you, that way you can gradually start pushing the car as you get better. once you get passed that, slam what motor you want in there..confidence is the key!!!