Hi all,

I've been tracking my car for about a year now. I decided that I should start recording myself and see how I'm improving, or regressing. So I thought that I should set a reference lap time and will use this time to gauge how I'm progressing for the rest of 2025. Anyways, here's a short introduction of myself and a few laps, thank you!

Open to feedback and pointers!


2/5/2025 UPDATED:
Uploaded another video

 

Nice way to monitor changes in performance.

A performance/track driving school under the tutelage of a skilled instructor will provide the correct techniques. Been to one? "Practicing" self taught (kinder words than "made up" ) skills may not be optimal. Repetition may be the key to learning but not if you're practicing inefficient (kinder than "wrong") techniques.

-- Chuck

 

So, in usual Chuck fashion, the feedback is completely useless. hahaha

Some useful feedback and tips.

I'm a SoCal guy, so I haven't driven Thunderhill, though it is on my list of tracks one of these days. That said, i've seen plenty of Thunderhill footage from guys who also drive Buttonwillow, my number 2 home track (Chuckwalla being my preferred #1).

Feedback:

• The Good
  • You seem to have the fundamentals down
  • Your shifting is good
  • You're hitting the apexes consistently
  • You're tracking out and using the full track with maybe a 5-10% error margin, not full on tracking out on top of rumble strips
  • Your inputs and movement are smooth
  • You aren't constantly sawing back and forth at the wheel
• The open questions
  • How comfortable are you with the car getting loose and the rear stepping out?
  • It looks like you could push a little bit more, be more aggressive, and explore the limits of grip
  • I didn't see any instances of correction/counter steering - not that you should be full on drifting and counter correcting on every single turn. This indicates that you might be holding back to ensure that you don't exceed the grip limits.
  • To start finding the time, you'll need to push right up to the limits static friction of grip, and slightly beyond, which means you need to be comfortable and have the muscle memory to catch a slide "before" it happens
    • Pretty much every PB fast lap video you watch, including of pros driving record Nurburgring laps has the driver counter steering quite a bit through the lap. The car itself isn't full drift sliding, but they're putting in what is essentially a pre-emptive counter input to keep the car "straight".
• General input
  • More seat time to just get comfortable. You have the fundamentals and basics down.
  • Agree with your approach to turn the lap timer away - focus on just driving and being comfortable. Look at your data after the track day.
  • Aim for consistency where you're able to string laps within +/-1 second of each other
    • This is when you can start looking at your data recorder
    • Once you're consistent, you can start looking at the lap timer after turn to see if you gained lost time based on what you did. Which is where you can experiment with braking points, turn-in inputs, and on throttle inputs
  • Phone laptimers are decent, not sure if it's recording where you're on/off throttle/brake
    • You want to be able to see your "ideal" lap time where you're getting on throttle as soon as possible and braking as late as possible while still hitting your apexes and maximizing your end of straight V-Max
  • If you have a driving simulator, sit in it and drive drive drive
    • It was actually, where i personally got comfortable with sliding and catching a loose end
    • I had an injury that kept me away from the track, in that time I put around 150-200hrs on a driving simulator
    • I found myself back at a rainy track day and decided I could hammer through it. Completely shocked myself being comfortable driving in wet conditions catching all sorts of slides that would have previously put me 4-off. Ended up being one of the fastest cars in the rain. Sessions 1 & 2 had me running mid pack in my run group, and sessions 3 & 4 in the rain had me running 1-2.

Don't be so hard and critical of yourself. Number one goal should be safety - caution yourself when you're feeling tired. The trophy for us amateurs is driving our cars home. Number 2 goal is have fun and make sure you're enjoying yourself. Track time is expensive, you should be having fun spending all of that money (fees, maintenance, consumables, repairs, fuels, etc. etc.).
Good luck. This coming from a slow guy that took the better part of 9 years to finally Sub-2 at Buttonwillow.

 

No track experience here, but I guess some of what I know from autocrossing can translate over:

• As Bullwings noted: smooth shifting, steering, hitting apexes. Your downshifts tend to be a little under revved by 500 rpm or so.
• Your braking is methodical, in a straight line, before turn-in. This is safe but you can experiment with trail braking. With staggered tires and front biased springs, this car is relatively tame.
• Hard to tell, but I feel that you can brake harder and, therefore, later.
• You ease into the brake, which is good, but releasing is usually abrupt. Gradually let off the brake as you wind the steering wheel, that will keep some weight on the front tire.
• Unless you're in time attack mode, you could move the shifter more slowly on upshifts and time the clutch release to match the flywheel, save some wear and tear. Sure it's fun to shift hard and fast but unnecessary at this point. There's more time to be gained elsewhere.
• If you're not comfortable with sliding and catching the rear, go to autocross and full send it.

 

There are proven methods to do most everything and the more complex tasks like competitive driving benefit immensely from expert instruction vs just stumbling around the track inventing your own technique. You may eventually "discover" what works but "practicing" skills you don't have is an oxymoron. An expert instructor (call it a coach if that makes you feel better) in the passenger seat providing guidance and feedback is most helpful.

It's no insult to take a competitive driving course. Practice the skills you were taught vs skills you made up.

-- Chuck

 

Chuck. Give it a rest. There's plenty of forums where you can give your feedback, but this forum, you're like an expert swimmer that's watched it on tv but never jumped in a pool.

 

Lol give Chuck a break; he wasn't trying to be the expert swimmer. He made a good point about getting instructions and saving a ton of time figuring stuff out yourself.

Also, an in-car person can feel the car better than any of us can with a video, and tell you exactly where to improve. Sit with different instructors, especially those with RWD. Just as with doctors, some guys know and/or teach better than others, so try them all.

 

There are tons of very useful outlets for information on the internet. Luckily, this is a passionate hobby for a lot of people, and they are willing to share information for free. There are a lot of on-track instructors that aren't very good. Lots of people on here are probably instructors for various track organizations. You also don't usually get them to review your footage afterwards and debrief. There is a lot of value in asking here, as long as you have some ability to parse out what is and is not good information. Bullwings is on a pretty good path here. OP is asking genuine questions and trying to figure out how to improve. There are plenty of people on here that have experience with improving as a driver and are on various points of that journey. I have improved more by reviewing my own footage than I have with an instructor in my passenger seat. I also probably have 100x the time reviewing my own footage than I do with an instructor.

Lol, let people discuss. You don't need an "expert" to tell you everything. "Experts" are also just people. If you were out fishing and the guy next to you reeled in 5 fish and you caught nothing, would you take advice from him or ask for his credentials?

 

Wow! First off, I want to thank all of you guys and will try to address each of your suggestions and tips! By the way, they're all great and so, thank you first and foremost.

I took no offense and knew exactly what you're talking about. I've played tennis all of my life and from a competitive perspective, I agree 100% with what you said. Thank you!

• The open questions
  • How comfortable are you with the car getting loose and the rear stepping out?
    • I am not, which is why I set the car up with "safety" understeer bias. As of now, I'm on the mindset of "avoid the correction instead of having to catch it on moment's notice"
  • It looks like you could push a little bit more, be more aggressive, and explore the limits of grip
    • I "think" I could have? But the only clean session I got was the last session of the day, I didn't feel comfortable pushing when I was already low on energy. However, generally speaking, as you can see, I'm more of a conversative driver for the time being.
    • I have done another weekend and I got a faster time, will post soon.
  • I didn't see any instances of correction/counter steering - not that you should be full on drifting and counter correcting on every single turn. This indicates that you might be holding back to ensure that you don't exceed the grip limits.
    • "Ensure I don't exceed the grip limits" is my dominating thought throughout the laps. Also, I don't think I have a good "feel" of where the limit is to be quite honest.
  • To start finding the time, you'll need to push right up to the limits static friction of grip, and slightly beyond, which means you need to be comfortable and have the muscle memory to catch a slide "before" it happens
    • I will attempt that once I deal with the dominating emotion as I track, the fear... hahaha

• As Bullwings noted: smooth shifting, steering, hitting apexes. Your downshifts tend to be a little under revved by 500 rpm or so.
  • I think in most instances, you're right because I can "feel" the car being upset. Thanks for confirming it with me, I'll have to work on it.
• Your braking is methodical, in a straight line, before turn-in. This is safe but you can experiment with trail braking. With staggered tires and front biased springs, this car is relatively tame.
  • Yes, I'd love to get more comfortable with trail braking!
• Hard to tell, but I feel that you can brake harder and, therefore, later.
  • I'm currently exploring that right now. More often than not, when I try to brake "later", I miss the apex.
• You ease into the brake, which is good, but releasing is usually abrupt. Gradually let off the brake as you wind the steering wheel, that will keep some weight on the front tire.
  • Thanks for point this out! Precisely what I need to work on!
• Unless you're in time attack mode, you could move the shifter more slowly on upshifts and time the clutch release to match the flywheel, save some wear and tear. Sure it's fun to shift hard and fast but unnecessary at this point. There's more time to be gained elsewhere.
  • Interesting! Noted, I'll do whatever I can to make my shifts smoother.
• If you're not comfortable with sliding and catching the rear, go to autocross and full send it.
  • I've done skid pad days with my group of track friends, it helped a lot. I need to do more.

I've gone to another track day and will edit/post the video soon.

Spoiler: I went faster

 

You seem to have miles of run off at that track. While I know it is uncomfortable, learn how to control oversteer. You need to be able to react quickly - almost second nature. Someday, you will be out there on cold tires, or hit a spot of oil, or lose control because you lifted in the corner. I'm a conservative driver. But you'll end up like me - in the wall.


When that spin happened, I had had a lot of laps at Lime Rock. While I blame the spin on cold tires and a change in camber, I probably lifted. Regardless, I should have saved it! I was just too slow.

Like it or not, you will lose the car at the most inopportune time. So you need to train yourself to react. It needs to be second nature.

See 3:30 here.


This seems to be a very good primer.



Ultimately, to truly advance, you need to learn this skill.