DRIVER DEVELOPMENT: Car Control

HOW TO PRACTICE CAR CONTROL

Now that we understand the need for having good, or an over-developed car control, how do we practice?  That is a very tough question to answer.

To improve car control, it takes seat time driving past the limit to get comfortable transitioning from below to beyond the limit, and staying beyond the limit.  Drifting cars can be a ton of fun once the light bulb goes off in your head and you figure out how to control a car in oversteer and build the comfort level to do it.  I won’t say mastered because there is a ton of intricacies needed to be able to be really good at drifting or rallying, just like there are a lot of intricacies between driving a car on a track with a good driving line, and driving a car fast.  The issue here is how to get this seat time.

There are some great rally schools out there like the Team O’Neil Rally School in NH, and many racing schools offer Car Control Clinics.  These schools can be very educational and worth the investment, however some schools only have half-day to one-day car control classes and even 3-4 days at a rally school is hardly enough time to perfect car control, so the problem still becomes where and how to get the seat time to work on it.

I hate to say it but I don’t have a real good answer for you.  Some people, and many in Japan, practice on public roads and in the twisty mountain “Touge” roads.  I do not and will not advise this to put innocent people, animals, trees, and your own life and car at risk.  Autocrosses tend to be safe environments but the courses are usually too narrow and often quirky to really practice a whole lot and usually AutoX days do not have a ton of actual driving time, plus people get mad when you hit cones and you could be kicked out for driving beyond your abilities.  There are some amateur drift events which are decent places to practice but are not widespread or common and are often filled with beater cars that you might not be comfortable being around.

HPDE events are not really very good either.  During my own development (and sometimes even to this day), I have probably received more black flags for drifting in HPDE events than checkered flags.  Well not really.  Maybe.  I’ve received black flags not for crashing or being dangerous, or even being around another car for that matter, but just for practicing driving beyond the limit.  In their defense, the event organizers don’t know if the person sliding around is disciplined at practicing their craft or a complete wank that is being a hazard to themselves and others.  Sliding around also does not set a great example for others who might try and imitate the sideways antics.  Without the proper awareness, attitude, and skills, this could prove to be detrimental for themselves and the event organizers.

The reason why HPDE events are typically not good environments to practice car control in is because they are often set up to give people a safe environment to get off the streets and gain seat time driving their cars fast, where they won’t risk hurting others or crash their car.  They are designed to maintain order and minimize risk without people getting out of control, running amok, and being dangerous.  However, they are great ways to get solid seat time but the structure breeds the HPDE “Club Racing Mentality” and conservative processes that are not necessarily geared to teach or give an environment to really push the limit.

This structure creates under developed car control drivers who are often at a lower driving level, take longer to progress, and are often taught to brake in a straight line and turn-in to corners while on the throttle.  Safe, and slow.  The instruction also follows this structure and often isn’t the best place to take the ‘next step’ in driver development, which is great for professional one-on-one coaches like myself whose clients want to learn higher levels of driving that is beyond many ‘instructors’ at HPDE events who trade free seat time for their instructing.  Some good drivers have come out of this background but they also start in the under developed phase.

ADVICE:

Since I don’t have a good answer for you, I will leave it at this.  With control and discipline, practicing car control can be very safe.  Every track has at least 1 slow, wide corner with no walls around.  Practice your car control there so if you spin, you won’t hit anything.  Also do not practice around other cars. If you don’t have good situational awareness of, you probably shouldn’t be practicing it anyway. Start with small yaw angles and work up to bigger yaw angles, trail braking, and entry rotation. 

After mastering a low speed corner, pick a safe medium speed corner with no walls and practice there.   Since a good driver is always aware of his surroundings, it’s important to analyze both the track and runoff conditions prior to driving.  IE:  if there is mud from a previous rain in a corner that is notorious for causing cars to roll over.  It’s important to pick your corners accordingly.

Be prepared and understand that you will eventually drop a tire, go off, or spin, and even get a black flag or talking to, just know this going in and adjust your practicing accordingly.  Keep in mind, some events have a ‘3-strike’ rule, so if you spin once, you might want to tone it back a little and take smaller bites without risking your entire day.

While many can be helpful, you’ll always find arrogant ‘instructors’ out there, bullys of the playground who will slap the wrist of anyone who makes a mistake.  Again, this could just be born out of the structure of the event to preserve themselves from issues or lawsuits, or it could stem from someone’s own personal vendetta, either way I believe that making mistakes shouldn’t have the consequences, arrogance, and punishment by instructors that I often see at some HPDE events.  I believe that instructors should instead be offering constructive, supportive criticism and positive, beneficial remarks for the driver.  Unless the person truly is a hazard, has a bad arrogant attitude of their own, and is out of hand and a true danger to themselves and others.

There will always be the guy (or two) who has no consideration for others and believes that chucking half their car off the track at turn-in, apex, and track out is the fast way around the track.  This almost never is the fast way around the track and all it does is throw dirt all over the track and ruins the day for everyone.  So it is a double-edged sword and I’ll have sympathy for the event organizer as well.  Either way, be ready for a dismissive and belittling ‘talk’ as part of the journey and don’t let them scare you into under driving your car, but also don’t go back out there and spin again on the first lap.

Also, please don’t mention this article in your defense, and if you’re an event organizer reading this, consider having a ‘car control’ session where you send cars out one at a time for an pit-out, pit-in configuration for your clients to practice car control.  Oh, and if it’s raining, that’s by far the best days to practice.  Don’t stay at home.