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My lack of talent - ie. Spin


Sam Mcgoo

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WIll, you need to stop the car in as short a distance as possible. You said yourself to let go of the steering, so does it matter if you have none when you're not holding the wheel anyway?

 

You're 100% wrong on this. If you have lost control of the vehicle, and being in a spin is the very definition of that, then you need to stop the car ASAP. Hitting the brakes hard is the exact way to achieve this.

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WIll, you need to stop the car in as short a distance as possible. You said yourself to let go of the steering, so does it matter if you have none when you're not holding the wheel anyway?

 

You're 100% wrong on this. If you have lost control of the vehicle, and being in a spin is the very definition of that, then you need to stop the car ASAP. Hitting the brakes hard is the exact way to achieve this.

 

Your all wrong, as JC says, if you lose control POWAAAAA!!!!

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Watch how drifters get the car back in a straight line or even JC.. :surrender:

 

They let go the steering wheel.. :scare:

 

Quite, but thats takes years of practice ......... although if that had been me in that situation it would have been foot in, hands off, crowd go wild as I head up the straight in 3rd on the lockstops, obviously :lol:

 

If youre spinning the best thing you can do is get the clutch in, this will straighten the car up, and then you can get on the brakes, cars stop a lot quicker in straight lines. I remember spinning at Mallory on Gerards once, got the clutch in real quick and then pi**ed myself as I continued on the same arc but backwards, watching the guy who had just been right on my ass sideways shitting himself :lol:

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+1 with Ekona and dowcra.

Looking at the video it's was just driver error - power too early and the initial correction was correct but over compensated hence why the car straighten back and went the opposite way so quickly and resulted in the full spin. At that point it would have been almost impossible to catch.

 

I have had a massive under steer off at that corner into the in-field on a drying track. I had been taking that corner with increasing speed as the track was drying and grip was comming to me and then on this lap I was too greedy and carried too much speed so under steered out of shape and began to rotate in a 180 broad side drift. I just just minimally corrected the skid with both feet down and ploughed straight into the grass infield with nothing to hit. I did this because I realised any over correction would get me towards that put wall like the ginger zed or M3.

We can analyse all we want but it's not as easy as it sounds and only comes with more practice and experience, I have been lucky loads of times and constantly learning from this.

You are a big man in my eyes sharing your experience on video. There is no shame here only winingðŸ‘.

Any track tuition is beneficial and I never pass an opportunity to get more experienced drivers to show me a thing or 2.

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nice work!

that would be me! and more- having no talent whatsoever.

I wouldn't mind getting myself out there for a shot of a few laps after seeing that.

Bedford is probably one of the best tracks for cars too I'm thinking. Silverstone too big, Donington too hard, Lydden too short, Rockingham has walls, Cadwell too narrow to name a few.

Car limits day sounds like the way to start, any others out there available sooner? On a suitable track for a novice, somewhere where they put cones out on the apexes for novices and maybe even an instructor in the passenger seat, if an event like that exists? Half day would be enough.

I'd be ok with the rest, having done enough bike track days so fine with tracks themselves, going full power as much as possible as well as being on track with 30+ others.

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Car limits day sounds like the way to start, any others out there available sooner?

 

It seems to be the highest rated one to go for but there are some others of course, I'll find out some details.

Perhaps a few of us could do something, I'd be aiming for April/May.

 

Colin over at CAT is highly regarded:

http://www.catdrivertraining.co.uk/

 

Don Palmer:

http://www.donpalmer.co.uk/car-control.html

 

And I'm good friends with Mike Wilds, so I might be able to arrange something with him.

Edited by RobPhoboS
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If anyone is interested, and assuming schedules work out for me, then I'm happy to spend a day with someone in the car on track helping them out. No charge, just cover the cost for a 2nd driver on your car (purely so I can take you out at some stage to point out specifics so you can concentrate on what I'm saying, I have no need to be thrashing your car on track!) and buy me a burger for lunch and that'll do me. If it's a day when I'm there in my car as well then no need for extra costs as all, as I'll just go out with you when my car's cooling down. :)

 

I did this the other weekend for a fellow Zed driver on here and it was very productive, they showed massive improvement from the start of the day and were putting some serious laps in by the end. It was their first time on track as well, which was even more impressive! I think we both had equal amounts of fun from that day, I really enjoyed instructing as much as driving.

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Are you a racing / instructor driver then dan?

 

Hes quick, but more importantly he knows what hes doing and why hes doing it. Ive done a bit of tuition myself, once youve got the lines sorted it it tends to just be shouting "brake later!" "turn in later!" and "POWER!" quite a lot :lol:

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I have a race licence, yes. Other than that I'm just an enthusiastic amateur happy to pass on a bit of knowledge and have some fun with it :)

 

Just don't ask him to do Spanish mountain passes :stir:

 

But seriously, good of you to offer. :thumbs:

 

The two track days I've done there's been really experienced guys there in their race prepped toys and when I get spanked by one of them in a Clio I learnt a lot just by following them round for a lap!!! Once I get an inexpensive track toy sorted I'd jump an opportunity like this.

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I have a race licence, yes. Other than that I'm just an enthusiastic amateur happy to pass on a bit of knowledge and have some fun with it :)

 

Which one you got Ards, Arks or Bars :thumbs:

 

Was the test pretty easy? My mate keeps offering an occasionally navigator seat in the rally series he does, but never got round to doing the test.

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ARDS, did it at Bedford in the sheddiest VX220 I've ever had the misfortune of driving! :lol: The gearbox really was shot, it was like stirring a bucket of bricks.

 

It wasn't difficult at all, just driving at 8/10ths round the track a few times. The worst part was knowing a spin was an instant fail, as was getting any flag question wrong in the exam. Never have I studied standard motorsport flags so hard in my entire life...

 

 

Do it fella, I reckon that would be a very rewarding prize to have waiting at the end :)

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Do it fella, I reckon that would be a very rewarding prize to have waiting at the end :)

 

It would only be the occasional seat when his regular navigator cant make it, maybe once or twice a year at best.

 

Not sure i can quite get to grips with having my head buried in notes whilst he is flat out, been out a couple of times with him at the Rally Day at Combe, whilst i have every faith in him, its quite disturbing :)

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ARDS, did it at Bedford in the sheddiest VX220 I've ever had the misfortune of driving! :lol: The gearbox really was shot, it was like stirring a bucket of bricks.

 

It wasn't difficult at all, just driving at 8/10ths round the track a few times. The worst part was knowing a spin was an instant fail, as was getting any flag question wrong in the exam. Never have I studied standard motorsport flags so hard in my entire life...

 

 

Do it fella, I reckon that would be a very rewarding prize to have waiting at the end :)

 

So your got your novice Race License, that's the first step, well done.

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Well this got interesting didn't it :lol: I only put the video up for a bit of a laugh.

 

I consider myself a pretty good driver (don't we all though), better than average anyway, and have had 20 years of fast RWD cars and no incidents in those 20 years other than one crash when I was 17. But am no means an expert, trained or experienced track driver. I have probably only done a dozen airfield/track-days in that time. We all think we're much better drivers than we actually are and I was just showing how easy, unexpectedly and quick it can happen.

It did take me by surprise but I know how it happened. I put the power on too early, on a painted surface and once it went I over-corrected it causing the spin.

 

What is interesting is everyone's differing opinions on what you should do in these situations. It would be nice if there was a right or wrong answer but I suspect it's much more complicated than that.

 

The offer of instruction from Dan is very nice and I might well take you up on it when I next go to Snetterton if you are free. :thumbs:

 

I think any driver training can only be a good thing.

 

 

nice work!

that would be me! and more- having no talent whatsoever.

I wouldn't mind getting myself out there for a shot of a few laps after seeing that.

Bedford is probably one of the best tracks for cars too I'm thinking. Silverstone too big, Donington too hard, Lydden too short, Rockingham has walls, Cadwell too narrow to name a few.

Car limits day sounds like the way to start, any others out there available sooner? On a suitable track for a novice, somewhere where they put cones out on the apexes for novices and maybe even an instructor in the passenger seat, if an event like that exists? Half day would be enough.

I'd be ok with the rest, having done enough bike track days so fine with tracks themselves, going full power as much as possible as well as being on track with 30+ others.

 

Bedford was indeed a good track and would be good for starters with the large run-offs. But the GT circuit has a lot of corners to remember and the different layouts being just coned off can get a bit confusing to start with.

I think I prefer Snetterton 300. It's still 3 miles long but its very clear where your going and has ample run off areas. Its not as fast as Bedford and had a couple of tighter 2nd gear turns but still a good mix of fast,slow,long and short corners with two long straights.

Most of the companies that do days there, MSV and Javelin have the cones out to tell you where to turn in and where the apex is. They also have instructors on site you can have come round with you for a small fee.

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Biggest issue with Bedford is that it's so flat, which makes learning it and picking out braking points awkward at best. Personally I find the more challenging tracks easier to learn, and I was up to speed much faster at somewhere like Spa than I was at Bedford.

 

Plenty of run off is always good though, we all make mistakes on occasion :thumbs:

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