LOL... thats a good one....
that gti is fast! Mr schumacher and mr hamilton must have learnt from Mr Chris GTI
Bump:
Thanks, an MME racer cannot be compared to a street car, I was with Sabert sparing with a Subaru STI RA on Turn 5 & 6. We were on a MME Corrola AE101 with a stock engine and very old second hand slicks and we have no problem closing up on my friends hard driving RA.
100% a novice like me is scared of braking on the front and back straights. But again after a few lessons from Sabert, I am braking now at about 150 meters mark which can still easily be brought forward to 100 meter. I am using a 6 pot endless brake system.
But one time I was braking at 100 meter mark, I hit the brakes and the pedal went down to the floor, I had run out of brake pads, I should have checked but I just changed my pads 2 months ago so I never thought that I would run out pads after just 2 months.
Now you can imagine how "Kan Chiong" it is at the 100 meter mark and your brake pedal goes to the floor!
actually... i'm an avid disbeliever in late braking...
alot of people say that late braking improves lap times... which is true to a very certain extent..
most people would have heard about late braking from F1 or other formula style races, this is because the braking effort to vehicle weight ratio is far greater than that of a saloon car..
WARNING: brain power required!!
think for a moment... the level of grip that your car has at any given time is determined by the contact patch of your tyres... that is.. the entire weight of your car resting on 4 patches the size of your palm...
for a simplified arguments sake.. we'll assume that we're on the main straight at sepang entering turn 1...because the car is on the straight, there are no lateral forces acting on the tyre.. which means that your tyre has 100% of its lateral grip available to you.. if you brake very early.. you might use 20% of the tyres grip to decelerate to corner entry speed... which means that you have 80% of grip available to corner..
now in contrast.. if you go in too hot.. and brake very very late... you might use 80% of that grip to decelerate.. which means you have 20% of 'cornering power' available.. thats fine if your car weighs 600kg and you have 300kg in downforce acting on your car... you can still make the corner...
but in most likely cases.. you would turn the steering and your car goes towards the kitty litter.. you curse and hope that you don;t get stuck...
i find that its very difficult for a driver to NOT brake late.... but instead trail brake into that corner.. the idea is to balance the amount of cornering force that you have available and the amount of time you take to make it down the straight...
our world is governed by physics.. (remember in high school)
F = ma
force = the force generated and acting on your tyres
mass = mass of your car
acceleration (in this case deceleration) = you're always accelerating in a corner because of the change in direction since acceleration is a vector ie it has a direction and a force..
so if you have tyres that can take 1.2 G in deceleration (1.2 x 1000 = 1200).. and your car is 1000kg.. and you decelerate at 1.3m/s squared... you;d overload the tyres and lock the brakes..
(again.. this is a simplified version with no weight transfer, downforce, tire wall and spring deformation taken into consideration)
i reckon i;ve given enough tips for today.. class is adjourned....
LOL